Nadine Babu STrib Blog: Why Don't The Students Like TCF Bank Stadium?

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Why Don't The Students Like TCF Bank Stadium? Because The U Hasn't Given Them a Reason To: http://www.startribune.com/local/yourvoices/166589686.html

“Build it and they will come” is how the University of Minnesota approached the building of TCF Bank stadium, clearly, the fans and students expect more…and it’s not just about winning more games, it’s about creating a lasting game day experience that fosters school pride, passion for the Gophers, and the creation of lifelong memories. So far after 3 years, our beautiful TCF Bank Stadium has done little of that....
 

That misleading article in the Star Tribune is really doing some damage. This article as well creates the impression that the ticket sales have collapsed from last year, but the sales are 92% of what they were at this time last year. It's possible that student tickets may be less than last year, but it is unlikely to be radically less. There's still three weeks to go, and a good showing against UNLV may help ticket sales. Of course, a loss against UNLV won't help at all.

That being said, I do agree with some of the solutions. I'm not sure if lowering prices is the solution. If it got butts in seats, I'd make the tickets free for students. Bundling would be fine if it results in people going to games.
 

If you hope to foster school pride, passion for the Gophers, and create lifelong memories winning is absolutely mandatory. The Gophers (or any school) need to contend for the conference title at least once in the 4-5 year period each undergrad is on campus. Occasional 5-3 seasons in an "up" year does not create the type of devotion to a team that most hope to create. I don't think cost is an issue at all as the larger issue is getting students to want to invest approximately 5 hours of their Saturday in to the Gopher football product. $13 a game for 3 1/2 hours of entertainment is not much to ask and I would argue that lowering the price might encourage more students to purchase tickets, but those tickets would also be less likely to be used.

Gopher football at TCF is like a restaurant with great decor and terrible food. You can get people to come check it out once, maybe even twice, but once they realize the product (football/food) is terrible it is tough to get them to come back again.
 

you don't NEED to win to put butts in the seats. Look at Iowa St. They are usually terrible but they have a loyal fan base because tailgating is awesome there. Yes winning would certainly help but our gameday experience is absolutely a snooze fest. kids can't tailgate. frats can't party. Because of that students don't want to leave dinkytown where the booze is. The alcohol sales might give a spike in interest but it certainly wont be enough to fill the seats cause what student of age is going to pay 7 dollars for a beer? Everyone likes to go to a party so turn it into one.
 

Maybe the Strib article will wake up the UM brass and send the message that they are behind the times. Thanks in part to Maturi's bungled leadership and reluctance to loosen up and selling out to the highest bidder approach has failed miserably. Face painting and TSA type security at the gate was his mantra. Teague now has this in his lap and we will see if he has the leadership and clout to make positive changes.
 


It's not the stadium, it's the U of M culture. Make the students actually welcome, make it a weekend experience, and they will come in droves. Make the experience for 65 year olds (hey--I'm getting close) and they will not. I'm 53 years old, and I still try to recapture my youth each football Saturday. I just fall asleep sooner.
 

Things that harm the experience in the stadium and can be fixed without winning (in my opinion):
Constant advertising
Too few interactive fan chants
Band needs to play more music and fewer drum cadences between plays, unless the cheer team/band can organize fan chants or dances for those cadences
Misused video board (related to constant ads)
Absurd frisking at the door, let the kids sneak in a flask. Who cares.
Misuse of tailgating space by selling it as expensive parking rather than affordable tailgating. The common man tailgates, the wealthy old people (typically) do not.
No where for students to congregate AS STUDENTS (no little kids or families) before the game near the stadium.
 

EG#9 said:
I don't think cost is an issue at all as the larger issue is getting students to want to invest approximately 5 hours of their Saturday in to the Gopher football product. $13 a game for 3 1/2 hours of entertainment is not much to ask and I would argue that lowering the price might encourage more students to purchase tickets, but those tickets would also be less likely to be used.
.
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You forget what that means to college kids. I know kids that live on $20 a week on groceries, or spend $10 a weekend and buy 2 cups at beer busts. Most of these kids make $7 or $8 an hour. I'm not saying that that's the reason why they aren't selling, but it's a factor when you're bad. All I know is when we dropped the prices of bball tickets, they skyrocketed...and made a lot more money selling a lot more tix.

t-docious said:
you don't NEED to win to put butts in the seats. Look at Iowa St. They are usually terrible but they have a loyal fan base because tailgating is awesome there. Yes winning would certainly help but our gameday experience is absolutely a snooze fest. kids can't tailgate. frats can't party. Because of that students don't want to leave dinkytown where the booze is. The alcohol sales might give a spike in interest but it certainly wont be enough to fill the seats cause what student of age is going to pay 7 dollars for a beer? Everyone likes to go to a party so turn it into one.
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Exactly. There are so many teams that don't win, but they have so much fun, people are always going. Of course people flock to a winner, but you don't have to win to have a blast.

Bayfieldgopher said:
Maybe the Strib article will wake up the UM brass and send the message that they are behind the times. Thanks in part to Maturi's bungled leadership and reluctance to loosen up and selling out to the highest bidder approach has failed miserably. Face painting and TSA type security at the gate was his mantra. Teague now has this in his lap and we will see if he has the leadership and clout to make positive changes.
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I almost mentioned face painting and state fair like activities, but I thought it would be petty!
 

I like it, GL. I like it a lot. Dionysus Teague seems like the type to embrace such an atmosphere, but it seems like the academics and city (especially) would be the roadblocks. I say do it anyways, have proper preparation and ask for forgiveness later.
 



The tailgating piece is a huge miss, not just on the student's end. When the only places to tailgate within a mile of the stadium are $1,000 or more, its a huge issue.
 

The University made its choice when they built the first Big Ten football stadium since the 60s and then decided to surround it with academic buildings that will live as long as TCF Bank Stadium. Imagine the lot next Mariucci all the way past the stadium to the east. Prime real estate gone forever.

The problem is the university not the athletic department ie Maturi. The whole point of shutting down that street in front of Mariucci wasn't to have face painting, it was to have beer. The University pulled the plug just a week or two before the opener.
 

Maximus said:
Prime real estate gone forever.
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Since real estate at the U is so scarce I would bet that the University would argue that placing research and academic buildings there is much more important than parking lots that will be filled for only a handful of football games each year.
 

Maximus said:
The University made its choice when they built the first Big Ten football stadium since the 60s and then decided to surround it with academic buildings that will live as long as TCF Bank Stadium. Imagine the lot next Mariucci all the way past the stadium to the east. Prime real estate gone forever.

The problem is the university not the athletic department ie Maturi. The whole point of shutting down that street in front of Mariucci wasn't to have face painting, it was to have beer. The University pulled the plug just a week or two before the opener.
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It can be done. There is no vast parking/tailgate area around Camp Randall, but every Mom/Pop store parking lot, bank, student house, church, University building, etc. sells parking and tailgates happen all over. It isn't your traditional "Miller Park/Lambeau" tailgating, but it is tailgating nonetheless. Half the fun can be wandering from tailgate to tailgate or knowing where a good tailgate is located. The municipality and university have to tolerate/encourage this atmosphere, however.
 



TAW said:
It can be done. There is no vast parking/tailgate area around Camp Randall, but every Mom/Pop store parking lot, bank, student house, church, University building, etc. sells parking and tailgates happen all over. It isn't your traditional "Miller Park/Lambeau" tailgating, but it is tailgating nonetheless. Half the fun can be wandering from tailgate to tailgate or knowing where a good tailgate is located. The municipality and university have to tolerate/encourage this atmosphere, however.
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City of MPLS doesn't allow tailgates in the privately owned parking lots. That's a huge issue too.
 

The truth is the U doesn't want the student tailgating or partying near the stadium. They like to pretend that underage drinking won't take place if they can't see it. You could easily set up a free tailgate area where you can't park but you can haul your supplies in, but they just aren't interested in hosting the party.
 

The campus is dead, not just the stadium. It is what it is. Commuter school.
 

"Why don't students like TCF" - Disagree....They don't "dislike" the stadium, they dislike the product on the field.
 

FYI - received this tweet from Glen Perkins:

https://twitter.com/glen_perkins/statuses/236702599762554880

@PMac21 @nadinebabu I donated six figures to the athletic dept. Told me I had to donate additional $ to football team for parking spot.
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This is beyond ridiculous. Please Norwood...change the culture of Gopher Athletics. How many other donors haven't been treated with the appreciation they deserve?
 

Great article Nadine, you're one of the best people at covering Gopher Athletics. So Kudos.

As for the article:

I agree with 3 of the 4 reasons that you've listed.

(1) We lose.
- That's not the whole story because as others have pointed out, there are schools who lose all the time who have no trouble selling tickets. However, in our market, when you're already the 6th-ish most popular sports team, you need to win. It isn't like Iowa State, Gopher football is not the only show in town (even for our students). I think we need to win and we need a splash victory to get a ton of energy around the program.

(2) Gameday experience is terrible.
-This is the fault of a ton of different people who don't understand or don't like college football. As other posters have pointed out, the school thought TCF with nothing else, would bring in the fans in hordes, they were wrong. You need the experience. The experience is more important than the stadium itself.

(3) Tailgating.
- This and #2 go hand-in-hand and you hit the nail on the head. Students have nowhere to go! Why would they come down early? Where would they go? That needs to change.

I'm not sure where I stand with price. A school like Iowa State charges $125 for student season tickets and Indiana charges $30 for student season tickets. I wouldn't be against charging the students something like $40 for a couple years and letting the market dictate their prices. We need that student section filled, it's embarrasingly low.
 

Nearly all the proposals involve lowering revenue in return for the hope of selling more tickets in the future. Gameday parking revenue for instance, goes to pay off the debt. The U is responsible for 60% of the debt. Not exactly a "Vikings-like" deal huh? But the a WHOLE bunch of people in this state not only come from other states they went to other colleges. They weren't exactly on board with helping out the U. Some Vikings fans didn't want any state money going to TCF. They wanted the Gophers to be secondary tenants in a new Vikings stadium. You can see all these people when you read the comments section at the Strib or watch Randy Shaver snicker every time he reads a Gopher story.

That's another story but paying-off the debt isn't.

Besides "winning" you know what will probably be the major cause of decline in Student Ticket sales this year? The Home Schedule itself. No Iowa, Wisconsin or Nebraska. That's the elephant in the room around here. Students, like a big chunk of the public, go to the game to see the Opposition, not the Gophers. They're just not everybody's "Home Team".

You know the first year many students bought their tickets to sell them. When that was made difficult they quit buying them. Rather then ask the U to spend more money, money they don't have, HOPING it will bring in more revenue how about officially slashing the number student tickets to reflect the demand. Add them back if the demand comes back.

Or start winning. That will make it easier. Though the Iowa and Sconie students will still be here.

Oh as for making tailgating more fun go for it. It will certainly make the atmosphere better. Hopefully some of them will actually make it into the stadium..
 

Great job Nadine.

I also appreciate the the comments from the students and recent students concerning the 'attitude' towards football and the athletic dept.

It's time for the realization of this attitude and culture(or lack there of) to reach the main stream media.

A top notch academic institution and a top notch football program do not have to be mutually exclusive.
 

akgopher said:
The campus is dead, not just the stadium. It is what it is. Commuter school.
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This isn't 1995 anymore, that's not an excuse. It's not a commuter school.
 



Lots of focus on the shrinking student section, but season tickets sales to the general public have also sagged, so much so that an outside marketing firm had to be brought in. So to some degree, the drop in student ticket sales just reflects the general trend, although the student dropoff has certainly been much steeper.
 

station19 said:
Which begs the question; how many students live on campus at present time?
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Looking for enlightenment huh? :D

According to U.S. News and World report 21% live on campus.

University of Minnesota--Twin Cities has a total undergraduate enrollment of 33,607, with a gender distribution of 47.8 percent male students and 52.2 percent female students. 21.0 percent of the students live in college-owned, -operated, or -affiliated housing and 79.0 percent of students live off campus. University of Minnesota--Twin Cities is part of the NCAA I athletic conference.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/university-of-minnesota-3969
 

station19 said:
Which begs the question; how many students live on campus at present time?
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Something like 80% of freshman live in on campus housing. 40% of the people who live off campus have "walking commutes". The amount of extra on campus housing and near campus apartments since I finished in '03 is crazy.
 

Iceland12 said:
Looking for enlightenment huh? :D

According to U.S. News and World report 21% live on campus.

University of Minnesota--Twin Cities has a total undergraduate enrollment of 33,607, with a gender distribution of 47.8 percent male students and 52.2 percent female students. 21.0 percent of the students live in college-owned, -operated, or -affiliated housing and 79.0 percent of students live off campus. University of Minnesota--Twin Cities is part of the NCAA I athletic conference.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/university-of-minnesota-3969
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To put that into perspective, 25% of UW students live in college owned housing.
 

"On campus" counts only as university-owned housing. I'm guessing it's around 60% of undergraduates that live on campus or in the immediate area (Stadium Village, Dinkytown, West Bank/7 Corners). For reference, the B1G schools "on campus" percentages per US News:

Illinois: 50% on campus
Nebraska: 40%
Michigan State: 40%
Purdue: 38%
Michigan: 37%
Penn State: 37%
Indiana: 33%
Iowa: 30%
Ohio State: 25%
Wisconsin: 25%
Minnesota: 21%
Northwestern: n/a
 

Iceland12 said:
Looking for enlightenment huh? :D

According to U.S. News and World report 21% live on campus.

University of Minnesota--Twin Cities has a total undergraduate enrollment of 33,607, with a gender distribution of 47.8 percent male students and 52.2 percent female students. 21.0 percent of the students live in college-owned, -operated, or -affiliated housing and 79.0 percent of students live off campus. University of Minnesota--Twin Cities is part of the NCAA I athletic conference.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/university-of-minnesota-3969
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Yes and thanks.:)
 

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