StarTrib: How plunging ticket sales have changed Gophers sports

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

http://www.startribune.com/how-plunging-ticket-sales-have-changed-gophers-sports/491766811/

To combat declines, Coyle changed the way the U sells tickets. He brought in Dillon, whose career had been spent in Major League Baseball, and refashioned the department on a pro-sports model. “Outbound sales” — proactively seeking new customers — used to be outsourced but is now handled by a five-person in-house team. They target corporations and groups, strong avenues for growth, and now play host to bachelor and birthday parties, high school bands, first responders and health care workers.

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The U knows more than ever about what customers want. It has created a fan advisory board, and it frequently seeks feedback via surveys and data mining. The ultimate aim, Wierzbicki said, is to retain season-ticket holders while bringing in new fans, particularly families and young people. Despite the trends, he and Dillon see untapped opportunities.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

Of course, not a single word in the story about the hike in "donation" levels a few years ago. To read the story, you get the impression that people just stopped buying tickets for no reason.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Of course, not a single word in the story about the hike in "donation" levels a few years ago. To read the story, you get the impression that people just stopped buying tickets for no reason.

The article is pretty bad. It hits bullet points but doesn't talk about anything they've done in terms of .... a result, or any curiosity on the part of the reporter. The line "The U knows more than ever about what customers want." really felt like a press release almost ....

 

[hungan1]

They have to start winning more home games to bring fan enthusiasm up first of all. Then Beat Wisconsin. Beat Wisconsin. Beat Wisconsin!

 

[MNfootballfan]

They have to start winning more home games to bring fan enthusiasm up first of all. Then Beat Wisconsin. Beat Wisconsin. Beat Wisconsin!

This and find their niche in a competitive sports market.

I believe they had it when they were starting to win and I heard from a few people who said Gopher football tickets were a great deal. Well, they upped the prices now the U competes directly with the professional teams for fan support and money.

The U has to know what the problem is. Only problem it is a lot easier to keep fans than to try to bring fans back.

 

[Great Plains Gopher]

Lower prices and win some games. That my seats would cost $145 each for Fresno State is ridiculous. A dad wanting good seats and bringing two kids would be out $450, not counting hot dogs, cokes, parking. For one game! Drop season tickets to what they were before the mandated "donations." Then some families would come back, even to see a team that hasn't won a title since 1967.

 

[go4rob]

Lower prices and win some games. That my seats would cost $145 each for Fresno State is ridiculous. A dad wanting good seats and bringing two kids would be out $450, not counting hot dogs, cokes, parking. For one game! Drop season tickets to what they were before the mandated "donations." Then some families would come back, even to see a team that hasn't won a title since 1967.

I agree completely. It's called "supply and demand". They should roll back the ticket prices to where they were prior to when the increases began. Many people dropped because of that. We are just hanging in there by a thread on a retiree's fixed income. I "get" the fact they still have to have "donation levels" to get better seats, every school is doing that, but get the prices back to where they were. The stair-step price increases were ill-conceived, not generally accepted by the fan base, and generally did more harm than good for the athletic department.

 

[Gophers_4life]

No level of marketing analysis, statistics, and modeling can hand-waive away that winning is the basic foundation of sporting event ticket sales.

As far as the comment about raising donation levels, was it done to bring Minn back in-line with the Big Ten average? Then I can understand ...

 

[Gopher07]

It has been a perfect storm of crap for Gophers ticket sales.

1) Poor (ish) performance. Football, hockey and, with the exception of two years ago, men's basketball have failed to live up to expectations more often than not over the past few seasons.

2) Price increases. Poorly executed and priced a lot of people out.

3) More competition for dollars. Like it or not, the emergence of Minnesota United in the sports landscape of the Twin Cities has likely put unexpected pressure on the Gophers for fans' dollars. The Loons are pulling 22, 23 thousand per game for 17 home games a year, and you can get into the stadium for about $20/game or less. I know many families that have chosen that for their live entertainment budget because it's more affordable and a better experience.

4) Rivalry performance or lack of rivalries. Of course the football team needs to do better against Wisconsin, but with the hockey team going to the B1G it feels like the air has been sucked out of Mariucci and that hasn't helped overall interest in Gopher sports in the state.

Winning will cure some of the woes for sure, but there's more at play overall IMO.

Seems as good a place as any to post this, but has anyone seen this promotion from Red Baron? Buy three frozen pizzas and get two free tickets to NMSU, Fresno, Miami or Northwestern (while supplies last). If that isn't an indicator of poor ticket sales I'm not sure what is.

 

[Sparlimb]

Of course, not a single word in the story about the hike in "donation" levels a few years ago. To read the story, you get the impression that people just stopped buying tickets for no reason.

Correct. The downside to a pro sports model is pro sports have priced themselves out of the normal fans and so you have distilled environments with corporation tickets that are half empty.

See Gopher Hockey games for an example.

 

[grumps]

I think they are just too high priced overall.
This market has too many sports option and people are only going to pay a premium amount for a premium experience and Gopher Football isn't that.

Football on TV is far better than any other sport.
MNUFC on the other hand, is a far better game in person than on TV.

I know they'd like to be on par with other Big Ten teams, but other teams don't have a pro football, pro soccer, and pro baseball competing on half of your dates during the peak of late summer / fall.

It's basic marketing / supply demand. If the demand is too low, lower your price.
The first step they need is to lower prices across the board so people feel like they are getting a deal again.
Then you can re-increase the price slowly while people still feel they are getting a deal, or that getting available tickets is difficult to do.

 

[grumps]

I know people say winning cures everything, but this team didn't well out during an 8 win season. Why is it suddenly going to sell out if we win 9 or 10 or 11?

Their simply isn't enough sports $$$ available to pay the full price that they are asking.
It's like real estate. If your house isn't selling, it all comes down to price.
It's the price, stupid.

 

[AO54]

The only thing shocking about the ticket revenue is how small of an impact that has on the budget. Ticket revenue might be down 8 million but the shared revenue from the conference jumped from 36 million to 54 million this year. The total budget is up to 121 million. Now that we've got the practice facilities built and the tv revenue is better than ever, it's time to cut ticket prices and fill the stadiums.

 

[Gophers_4life]

Seems as good a place as any to post this, but has anyone seen this promotion from Red Baron? Buy three frozen pizzas and get two free tickets to NMSU, Fresno, Miami or Northwestern (while supplies last). If that isn't an indicator of poor ticket sales I'm not sure what is.

As I posted in the other thread ... frankly this promo should be valid for every Gopher home game this year except homecoming Iowa.

After the stretch of Iowa, at Ohio St, at Nebraska ... if the season hasn't gone well, I don't see why home attendance for Indiana and Purdue won't need help.

 

[Winnipegopher]

Here are the ticket prices for Fresno State. Hard to see much of a walk-up. There are lots of seats in the higher price range.

Pricing

FB - Outdoor Club $230.00

FB - Zone 1 Stadium $175.00
FB - Zone 2 Stadium $145.00
FB - Zone 3 Stadium $100.00
FB - Zone 4 Stadium $75.00
FB - Zone 4 Bench $70.00
FB - Zone 5 Stadium $65.00
FB - Zone 5 Bench $60.00
FB - Zone 6 Bench $45.00
FB - Zone 7 Bench $35.00

 

[hungan1]

There is a drop in home game attendance in just about every football conference. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...history/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f2f4184f0e43

Will college football price themselves out of live attendance in favor of watching TV at home or at a local drinking establishment?

It is increasingly becoming not affordable for many families.

 

[MNfootballfan]

I think they are just too high priced overall.
This market has too many sports option and people are only going to pay a premium amount for a premium experience and Gopher Football isn't that.

Football on TV is far better than any other sport.
MNUFC on the other hand, is a far better game in person than on TV.

I know they'd like to be on par with other Big Ten teams, but other teams don't have a pro football, pro soccer, and pro baseball competing on half of your dates during the peak of late summer / fall.

It's basic marketing / supply demand. If the demand is too low, lower your price.
The first step they need is to lower prices across the board so people feel like they are getting a deal again.
Then you can re-increase the price slowly while people still feel they are getting a deal, or that getting available tickets is difficult to do.

Great post! We are not Iowa City, Madison, Ann Arbor, Happy Valley, etc. If the U of M was located in Mankato, Duluth, Rochester, etc it would be a different conversation. Within five miles of the campus it is home to a NBA, WNBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, and Soccer team. I get other Big Ten schools do scholarship donations, but no other school in the Big Ten has what Minneapolis/St. Paul has. Like Jerry Kill, by way of Tony Dungy, said... we have to be uncommon.

 

[1983]

Its all of the above but the way things were handled with the firing of Claeys still bothers people and hurt sales. My demographic, 55+, have felt alienated by the new "culture" as well.

 

[MNfootballfan]

Its all of the above but the way things were handled with the firing of Claeys still bothers people and hurt sales. My demographic, 55+, have felt alienated by the new "culture" as well.

I agree. Honest question, do you think they are even trying to reach your demographic?

 

[hungan1]

I think they are just too high priced overall.
This market has too many sports option and people are only going to pay a premium amount for a premium experience and Gopher Football isn't that.

Football on TV is far better than any other sport.
MNUFC on the other hand, is a far better game in person than on TV.

I know they'd like to be on par with other Big Ten teams, but other teams don't have a pro football, pro soccer, and pro baseball competing on half of your dates during the peak of late summer / fall.

It's basic marketing / supply demand. If the demand is too low, lower your price.
The first step they need is to lower prices across the board so people feel like they are getting a deal again.
Then you can re-increase the price slowly while people still feel they are getting a deal, or that getting available tickets is difficult to do.

Great post.

I think the prices are too high relative to the product value at the moment. I am amazed that the Gophers still attract an average of 44.4K fans per game even when they don't have a winning season in a multi-pro sports market of about 3.6M people in the Twin Cities and about 5.6 million people statewide. Since the 2010 census, the Twin Cities gained more than 250K people which all indications are continuing to grow.

If they win a B1G title, lower the ticket prices to attract new season ticket fans. Use some incentive programs to make it easy to consider season tickets. If they win consistently and the demand far exceeds supply, only then should they consider increasing it gradually.

Loyal long term baby boomer fans are feeling alienated through the actions of Mega Tongue abruptly raising ticket prices and imposing seating donations on season ticket holders to go in line with many other college teams without any credible market research. Those markets don't have multi-pro sports competition for the fan dollars that the Twin Cities market has. People simply have more options to spend their entertainment dollars here in the Twin Cities.

For some loyal fans with season tickets who are on fixed retirement incomes, it just became unafforbale.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Its all of the above but the way things were handled with the firing of Claeys still bothers people and hurt sales. My demographic, 55+, have felt alienated by the new "culture" as well.

Let's see if they win if that matters at all...

 

[Pompous Elitist]

They could certainly drop prices but that may require drops or freezes in other areas. For example salaries, particularly for staff of the anchor non-rev sports, administrative, etc etc. I predict zero movement in that area and cries of poverty. It seems like just yesterday the budget was about $100M.

Find a way to fill up the stadium (and hopefully win) and that creates a positive feedback cycle and return customers.

Purdue had wildly exceeded season ticket sales goals as of spring 2018 vs 2017 on the back of the sxciting Brohmance last year and some price reductions.


https://purdue.rivals.com/news/purdue-seeing-ticket-sales-increase-with-better-product-lower-prices


.

 

[salzie]

-Win
-Improve game day atmosphere

 

[CWCWCW]

So, if get a couple frozen pizzas, I could score tickets to NMSU.
I've had season tickets since 1995. I am in the seats which basically doubled because of my generous donations. My reward again this year from Loyalty Points is a calendar.
I'd say the marketing folks are idiots, but quite honestly, I've been the idiot.


Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[Mulligan]

Its all of the above but the way things were handled with the firing of Claeys still bothers people and hurt sales. My demographic, 55+, have felt alienated by the new "culture" as well.

It may bother people, but I don't think they're honest if that is the reason they say they stopped going. Claeys is a good guy and people liked him but enough for casual fans to feel strongly about it? It's the prices; the uncertainty of game times; and the lack of winning for them. The GH'ers might feel stronger about it, but reasonable ones could see an argument for it, IMO.

By the way, I'm way past 55 and don't feel alienated at all by the new culture. Some of it seems silly and contrived, but he's not trying to get me to buy in. If he reaches the 18-22 age demographic and winning results from it, 55+ will be right there. I've seen so much losing and ineptitude that I'm more than willing to give PJ the benefit of a doubt. If he beats Wisconsin, hell, I'm for having a parade with him riding in a convertible down University Avenue.

 

[Iceland12]

The plan for both Williams Arena and TCF was to lower the number of available tickets to allow them to increase prices for them. They took Williams down from about 17,500 to 14,600 and took the Dome's 64,000 down to 50,800!

Those plans were the opposite of what they did for the Hockey Arena where they added seats to try and take advantage of the NHL leaving town. Problem there was, the NHL came back.

Now if the Gophers were still in the Dome, where they had those 64,000seats at about $300 a Season Ticket, with 14,000 to 25,000 empty seats per game, they could try that approach. They often did. Bought a lot of this those $49 specials myself.

Now at TCF and it's 50,800 seats and with that mandatory donation figured into the Season Ticket price, they are probably getting at least $500 for each Season ticket. Maybe more, because from what I've heard in the past, the seats between the 40's sell the best. Since they are still averaging 44,000 a game that means they only have about 6800 tickets a game to unload. Uh, sell.

They can't lower the price much on 44,000 tickets to try and sell those 6800 without killing their overall revenue. Extra programs and concessions won't make up the difference. There won't be a revenue increase there would surely be a revenue decrease.

Selfishly would love to see it, but it's not gonna happen unless that average attendance plummets.

The plan they had sort of worked. Their overall revenue did increase.

The problem has been with the performance of those teams the demand has disappeared. Making for a lot of very unhappy fans.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

There are lots of ways the U could go.
Make the "donations" true donations - make them optional, and not mandatory.
Restrict the mandatory donations to the very best seats.
Have a two-tier ticket policy. If you make a "donation," then tickets cost X$. If you choose not to make a donation, the tickets cost X+?
reduce the cost of all donations.
reduce the cost of all tickets - with or without donations.

In the end, I suspect the U will sit around with their thumbs up their butts and pray that the Gophers win, and win big.

 

[fmlizard]

It's the price hikes for most people, and that the secondary market struggles to reach the face value for most games. I would have season tickets if I lived in the TC, but I dropped mine when the donation hikes hit. Living in Chicago, I can't make every game, and with the donation hike I can no longer break even on the games I don't go to.

 

[a79krgm]

Did the article mention the poor student attendance? I know that Jerry brought some students back to the games, but it was a struggle. I may be wrong, but doesn't Minnesota have the worst student attendance in the Big Ten?

 

[grumps]

Its all of the above but the way things were handled with the firing of Claeys still bothers people and hurt sales. My demographic, 55+, have felt alienated by the new "culture" as well.

Well, that's fine, but that's not 20k people.
They need a plan to price the tickets right to get the place packed so people feel like getting tickets is a deal and you need to move quickly.

If someone is stopping buying tickets because of a change of coaches, then you probably were charging too much or you're not going to get them back regardless.