BleedGopher
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per Shama:
The Gophers won’t be the only Division I football team hosting a game in Minneapolis this week. The North Dakota State Bison will become the first Division I school ever to play at Target Field on Saturday, two days following the University of Minnesota home opener at TCF Bank Stadium.
Minnesota and the Bison, who have played against each other nine times over the years, won’t be matched up to determine a winner on the scoreboard but it will be interesting to see who comes out on top in attendance. Look for the Gophers, who are the only Division I team based in the state of Minnesota, to announce a larger crowd at their Thursday night game against South Dakota State than Target Field will announce for the NDSU-Butler game. But the Bison may well have more fans actually in attendance than the Gophers do—with a higher percentage of ticket buyers showing up at Target Field than at the Bank.
Expect the U to announce a crowd of more than 40,000 for the game at its 50,805 seat stadium. The Gophers have been in the 22,000 public season tickets range in recent seasons and while the total for 2019 hasn’t been announced it’s likely to be similar. Minnesota marketers, needing to boost interest in the South Dakota State opener, promoted a 24-hour flash sale to the public several days ago resulting in 7,127 $10 tickets being sold. Also, an athletic department official texted on Friday that about 9,000 tickets will be distributed to students for the game. A year ago the announced crowd for the home opener was 41,291. That was the third consecutive year the announced attendance for the opener trended down.
It’s common for announced attendance in college football to be higher than the number of tickets scanned at the game or customers going through the turnstiles. A Wall Street Journal article last August said actual number of attendees at games was typically about 30 percent less than announced. In recent seasons at Minnesota not only are there sections and sections of seats empty, but many of the best seats go unoccupied even though they have been sold.
Per a Star Tribune article last November, the turnstile counts of 15,434 and 15,160 for late season Minnesota home games against Purdue and Northwestern contrasted sharply with the announced attendances of 35,774 and 32,134. What will the numbers look like Thursday night? Well, if the Gophers distribute 45,000 tickets and 30 percent are no-shows, that means about 31,500 customers in the stadium.
The Minnesota Twins are promoting the Target Field game, and club president Dave St. Peter is confident there will be minimal unused tickets next Saturday. He already has experience with the first college football game played in the downtown baseball park, and that, too, was a hot ticket. In 2017 St. Thomas and Saint John’s renewed their rivalry before a Division III record crowd of 37,355.
“That was not a manufactured number,” St. Peter told Sports Headliners. “That was the real number. I think that number would have been higher, if it had not been so hot that day (late September).”
The football capacity at Target Field is about 35,000 but the 2017 game exceeded that figure because obstructed view and standing room only tickets were sold. St. Peter is predicting a turnstile count of 33,000 to 35,000 paid admissions for Saturday’s game. As of late last week the ticket total was about 32,000, with St. Peter saying “any of the good seats are going for significant dollars on the secondary market.”
Bison Nation travels in large numbers to watch its teams that have won seven of the last eight Division I FCS national championships, a remarkable achievement. St. Peter estimates 99 percent of the tickets sold are to NDSU fans, with perhaps 80 percent of customers living outside of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
That means economic impact on the local hospitality industry including for bars and restaurants near the stadium. “I expect downtown Minneapolis is going to be humming both Friday and Saturday evenings with North Dakota State fans,” St. Peter said. “There is no doubt about it.”
http://shamasportsheadliners.com/gophers-bison-in-box-office-matchup/
Go Gophers!!
The Gophers won’t be the only Division I football team hosting a game in Minneapolis this week. The North Dakota State Bison will become the first Division I school ever to play at Target Field on Saturday, two days following the University of Minnesota home opener at TCF Bank Stadium.
Minnesota and the Bison, who have played against each other nine times over the years, won’t be matched up to determine a winner on the scoreboard but it will be interesting to see who comes out on top in attendance. Look for the Gophers, who are the only Division I team based in the state of Minnesota, to announce a larger crowd at their Thursday night game against South Dakota State than Target Field will announce for the NDSU-Butler game. But the Bison may well have more fans actually in attendance than the Gophers do—with a higher percentage of ticket buyers showing up at Target Field than at the Bank.
Expect the U to announce a crowd of more than 40,000 for the game at its 50,805 seat stadium. The Gophers have been in the 22,000 public season tickets range in recent seasons and while the total for 2019 hasn’t been announced it’s likely to be similar. Minnesota marketers, needing to boost interest in the South Dakota State opener, promoted a 24-hour flash sale to the public several days ago resulting in 7,127 $10 tickets being sold. Also, an athletic department official texted on Friday that about 9,000 tickets will be distributed to students for the game. A year ago the announced crowd for the home opener was 41,291. That was the third consecutive year the announced attendance for the opener trended down.
It’s common for announced attendance in college football to be higher than the number of tickets scanned at the game or customers going through the turnstiles. A Wall Street Journal article last August said actual number of attendees at games was typically about 30 percent less than announced. In recent seasons at Minnesota not only are there sections and sections of seats empty, but many of the best seats go unoccupied even though they have been sold.
Per a Star Tribune article last November, the turnstile counts of 15,434 and 15,160 for late season Minnesota home games against Purdue and Northwestern contrasted sharply with the announced attendances of 35,774 and 32,134. What will the numbers look like Thursday night? Well, if the Gophers distribute 45,000 tickets and 30 percent are no-shows, that means about 31,500 customers in the stadium.
The Minnesota Twins are promoting the Target Field game, and club president Dave St. Peter is confident there will be minimal unused tickets next Saturday. He already has experience with the first college football game played in the downtown baseball park, and that, too, was a hot ticket. In 2017 St. Thomas and Saint John’s renewed their rivalry before a Division III record crowd of 37,355.
“That was not a manufactured number,” St. Peter told Sports Headliners. “That was the real number. I think that number would have been higher, if it had not been so hot that day (late September).”
The football capacity at Target Field is about 35,000 but the 2017 game exceeded that figure because obstructed view and standing room only tickets were sold. St. Peter is predicting a turnstile count of 33,000 to 35,000 paid admissions for Saturday’s game. As of late last week the ticket total was about 32,000, with St. Peter saying “any of the good seats are going for significant dollars on the secondary market.”
Bison Nation travels in large numbers to watch its teams that have won seven of the last eight Division I FCS national championships, a remarkable achievement. St. Peter estimates 99 percent of the tickets sold are to NDSU fans, with perhaps 80 percent of customers living outside of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
That means economic impact on the local hospitality industry including for bars and restaurants near the stadium. “I expect downtown Minneapolis is going to be humming both Friday and Saturday evenings with North Dakota State fans,” St. Peter said. “There is no doubt about it.”
http://shamasportsheadliners.com/gophers-bison-in-box-office-matchup/
Go Gophers!!