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Hopefully they sell all of the remaining tickets at the Fair!!
 

Art Vandelay said:
+1

I've probably been to about 100 Gopher BB and FB games over the past 20-25 years and I have never paid a dime for tickets. Always know someone with freebies. Last year, someone in my office had 6 for the Wisconsin game at TCF and nobody used them. They are probably still sitting in our receptionists drawer. Have an uncle who owns his own small business and his B-ball tickets go unused 1/2 the games. Not sure why he wastes the money but I don't mind the free tickets in the lower level on occassion. I get 2-3 texts before every home FB game asking if I want a free ticket(s).
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Art, how often have you recommended to your office and uncle to donate the tickets to Tix for Tots, which provides tickets to underprivileged youth in Minnesota.

Go Gophers!!
 

It doesn't bother me in the least. The money you spend on season tickets helps support the program. Sure I could get tickets much cheaper off of StubHub or buying them off the street but I'd rather chip in the extra and help out the athletic department. Heck, they could give away the unsold tickets for free and I'd still get season tickets.
 

Iceland12 said:
If THAT makes you mad here's an article with a whole bunch of discount and giveaway ideas!

http://www.startribune.com/local/yourvoices/166589686.html

:)
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You're so funny. Tell me, where in that article, did I ever state to discount things to non-season ticket holders to get a sale for one ticket? Yeah. I didn't think so. Unlike you, I actually may be thinking long term instead of one game. You simply don't "get it" but good joke! Keep on ripping on people that try to be part of the solution, rather than the problem, kudos to you!!!! :)

husker70 said:
Gopher Lady, maybe you should show them an Ally Bank commerical. Especially the one about new customers getting an ice cream cone because they are new, while established customers get nothing.
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Exactly...only give a benefit to those who are new customers...why appreciate the people who have been loyal to you for years?

NateDawgUM said:
I'm less concerned with the season ticket appreciation aspect than the fact that this is a LAZY campaign and EMBARRASSING to our University and football program.

Well hey, you don't want to see our team or our beautiful stadium, but throw in a hot dog and a Coke and you're there! This basically equates to the fact that a hot dog and Coke are seen as valuable commodities in relationship to our football team.
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And it's reactive vs. proactive. I've seen more stuff for this and pick your packs than I ever did for season tickets. Why don't we actually have a marketing plan, and make an effort to sell tickets at full price more than 1 week before our season begins? That's crazy talk.

GopherVotary said:
I like it, but like Stan said, better prices (and better seats, probably) can be found on the street.
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Exactly. Last year, I ended up giving away free tickets to each and every game because there were so many extras...yes, even WI and NE. Not a single game, could you not get a free ticket, or a very cheap ticket via scalpers.

GopherGod said:
I agree with GL on this. Year after year the season ticket holders pay over market value for tickets only to see the university ignore them and offer deals to those who haven't contributed or supported the athletic department as they have. At some point you have to ask yourself, why should I pay more for a ticket when I get get better tickets for less on the street and still attend all the games, when I am not appreciated by the school. Do I need a free hot dog and coke, no. I should however be offered it first before someone who is not a season ticket holder.
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Yes, you should. You should be offered everything as a season ticket holder first. Bring a friend, or how about this...get the coke and hot dog if you bring a friend? ;) Quite honestly, I could get get the entire season and probably pay $75 or $50 for it instead of the $275 from being a season ticket holder. Once again, this is short sighted thinking, let's sell a few tix for these games, instead of the let's make an experience and sell season tickets for years. Some people get it, most don't. Most on this thread don't - that's okay, I'm sure they'll enjoy a 1/3 empty stadium. For me, that's not acceptable.
 


Is it really the discounted ticket or is it the free hot dog that has you so steamed?

:cool02::cool02:
 

GopherLady said:
Ok, this is the one thing that infuriates me more than anything:

25 bucks gets you a @GopherFootball ticket, hot dog & Coke!
https://www.mygophersports.com/Online/mealdeal

I know it's an effort to sell tickets, but you need to APPRECIATE your season ticket holders paying full price for tickets. There is absolutely no incentive for season ticket holders to renew, when they know they can wait and get a discounted ticket, plus a coke and hot dog.

If they want to offered discounted seats, offer them to season ticket holders (or at least make an effort to 1st). Send out a message that they can bring a guest for 1/2 price, or something like that. Still same idea trying to sell extra seats, but not devaluing their tickets.
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If THAT infuriates you...then never ask your seat mate what they paid for their airline ticket.
 

GopherLady said:
You're so funny. Tell me, where in that article, did I ever state to discount things to non-season ticket holders to get a sale for one ticket? Yeah. I didn't think so. Unlike you, I actually may be thinking long term instead of one game. You simply don't "get it" but good joke! Keep on ripping on people that try to be part of the solution, rather than the problem, kudos to you!!!! :)
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GopherLady said:
No you didn't. You talked about discounting LOTS of tickets to maybe get some more. Giving away food, two for one guest passes, etc. You expected people on the board rip the U for the "Hot DOG" promo. Have them say "Good for you Gopher Lady, I'm upset about this too!" Usually one would expect Holers to rally around any "That damn U sucks!" but they didn't bite on this one. They aren't upset about the program and they didn't rip it despite your cherry-picking responses.

They've done the "tickets and a hot dog" thing before and probably some things you proposed too. They did cheap promotions many, many times AT THE DOME. The big difference? Over there they had to, on a consistent basis, sell 30,00 PLUS single game tickets for every Non-Conference game. Maybe 12-15,000 tickets for a Big Ten game, Wisconsin and Iowa games aside. Now it looks like they have a real problem with two Non-Conference games. They may also have a problem selling 4 or 5 thousand Student Tickets. Your solutions involve heavily discounted tickets to hopefully sell more.

Here's my least favorite:

t's a short time hit to get more people interested and have less of a financial burden on them. 2000 tickets at $91 is $182,000. 8000 tickets at $40 is $320,000

That's a 51% discount to begin with then you compound it by using 2,000 for this year's number of student tickets. It looks like it should end-up closer to last year's number. Use just 5,000 tickets and it becomes $455,000 which is a decrease of $135,000. Your's is a very deceiving number and you knew that, but you needed it to make things look worse than they are over at TCF. That's what you being doing for awhile now.

They've got a big bill to pay over for TCF and they need to pay it. Plus they've got a problem selling tickets; the biggest of which seems to be setting aside 10,000 seats for students. That number that might be to bigger by half. The good thing is that overall they've got the majority of the stadium sold. Which is good for them, good for the people that go to games, bad for Iowa and Wisconsin fans and good for paying off the bills.

It's NOT very good for people who want to go back to the Metrodome days of papering the house to fill thousands of seats.

It's not marketing. It's not making everything cheaper. It's not begging people who's allegiance is to other schools or other states. It's about winning.

All this because of a pretty funny one-liner? Here's comes another. You stated:

Keep on ripping on people that try to be part of the solution, rather than the problem

That's not me, that's you. You revealed your personal vendetta against Maturi when you blasted him in one of your Trib blogs. Revealing that was the right thing to do and I praised you for doing it. Now you've spent the last week or so blasting those over at the U who are trying to solve the problems there. Those problems include filling up TCF without lessening the money needed to pay for it.

You claimed a one liner on Gopher Hole was "ripping" on people trying to solve the problem. You wrote a whole COLUMN ripping them in the region's major newspaper based on a very dubious premise.

Who's the real problem there?
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Iceland~
Maybe her point wasn't clear to you, but GL wasn't suggesting that the student tickets be discounted now after some were already sold. She was suggesting lowering the price point for all students across the board in the future. While I'm not at all bothered by this promo (which has a value of like $6 a seat for 2 things I never buy at TCF) her point about offering single game ticket buyers perks not offered to STH is not contradicted by her suggestion that all student STH cost less.
 

Ok, I have a confession to make. I go to most home games, but do not have season tickets. I go with a group with a core of 6 guys that have 4 tickets each. They usually have extra's that we sell cheap as we are walking in. When there are no extra tickets, I can usually scalp some pretty cheap to get in the door.

For me, and I'm sure I can speak for them, we would be more concerned about packing the place, not what everyone else pays for tickets.

Yes, I may be cheap, but giving the U enough money with kid's tuition thank you very much.
 

GoAUpher said:
Iceland~
Maybe her point wasn't clear to you, but GL wasn't suggesting that the student tickets be discounted now after some were already sold. She was suggesting lowering the price point for all students across the board in the future. While I'm not at all bothered by this promo (which has a value of like $6 a seat for 2 things I never buy at TCF) her point about offering single game ticket buyers perks not offered to STH is not contradicted by her suggestion that all student STH cost less.
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Yeah I got that. Didn't see it as a contradiction. The point I was making was that her Student ticket proposal was WAY worse.
 

After reading comments for the past decade from most season ticket holders that they can't "give their tickets" away, why in the world would the U burden their loyal season ticket base with yet more tickets to try to get rid of??

I say that only somewhat tongue in cheek. I mean most season ticket holders complain they can't find many people to take tickets from them. Now, they complain that they weren't offered a chance to get more tickets to try to "bring a friend." If they can't give their tickets away, how are they gonna find a friend to come along for half price? Doesn't make sense to me.

The U is trying to get new blood into the stadium. This might be one way. I don't think it is short-sighted at all. In fact, if they sell another thousand tickets to people by luring them in with free pop and dogs, then so be it. Maybe if they like the experience, then a handful of them will become season ticket holders next year.
 



So for $6 dollars more I get priority in where I want to sit over someone holding out for a hotdog and a coke, and in addition I can sit in the same place all year around people who also sit in the same place all year?

GL, you deserve a U MAD BRO? meme.
 

FWIW, I bought good seats (a group of 4) for New Hampshire off StubHub for $14. Just looked and could get $25 "coke" seats in section 203 row 5. My guess is that will be a very sparse crowd for that game. Any bodies welcomed.

That said if they know if it is going to be empty why not ALSO give season tickets holders the option of buying deeply discounted tickets (say 2 for $20). More people means more fun and possibly more revenue.
 

Winnipegopher said:
FWIW, I bought good seats (a group of 4) for New Hampshire off StubHub for $14. Just looked and could get $25 "coke" seats in section 203 row 5. My guess is that will be a very sparse crowd for that game. Any bodies welcomed.

That said if they know if it is going to be empty why not ALSO give season tickets holders the option of buying deeply discounted tickets (say 2 for $20). More people means more fun and possibly more revenue.
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How long ago did you buy them? You can't get 4 seats together for that price anymore.
 


monk10 said:
So for $6 dollars more I get priority in where I want to sit over someone holding out for a hotdog and a coke, and in addition I can sit in the same place all year around people who also sit in the same place all year?
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This is one of the many reasons I don't care about this promo.
 

tjgopher said:
After reading comments for the past decade from most season ticket holders that they can't "give their tickets" away, why in the world would the U burden their loyal season ticket base with yet more tickets to try to get rid of??

I say that only somewhat tongue in cheek. I mean most season ticket holders complain they can't find many people to take tickets from them. Now, they complain that they weren't offered a chance to get more tickets to try to "bring a friend." If they can't give their tickets away, how are they gonna find a friend to come along for half price? Doesn't make sense to me.

The U is trying to get new blood into the stadium. This might be one way. I don't think it is short-sighted at all. In fact, if they sell another thousand tickets to people by luring them in with free pop and dogs, then so be it. Maybe if they like the experience, then a handful of them will become season ticket holders next year.
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I think your overall point is right on. But I'd still agree with GL that if you're going to offer an additional perk to non STH (no matter how small) you have no reason not to offer it to the STH first. Just put the word out 2 weeks early. It costs you nothing and it makes sure to quash any complaints.
 

I guess if they packaged it as 2 for $50 or 4 for $100, I don't have a problem with trying to attract a family or a couple or what have you.
 

About three weeks ago. We are going to Twins games that week-end too and also bought off StubHub. With StubHub, you need to check often and then buy quickly. Good deals go while the same seats sit and sit.

I should note that these are good but not great seats, row 10 upper deck about the 15 yard line.
 


NateDawgUM said:
I've been to all 12 Big Ten stadiums and never seen it anywhere else. Northwestern would at least throw in a filet mignon and a nice Merlot.
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Both Indiana and Purdue have "Family Four Packs" currently on sale for all games. They include discounted tickets and food or a food voucher.

http://www.iuhoosiers.com/tickets/ind-m-footbl-tickets.html

http://www.purduesports.com/promotions/promos-m-footbl.html

So of the 4 teams that struggle with attendance in the B1G, 3 of them offer the same type of deal.
 

Do they still give out that little bag of Lays chips when you buy a Dome Dog?
Does TCF have a version of the Dome Dog?
How long will I have to wait in line to get a $7.00 beer?
 

In a perfect world, every seat in the stadium would be sold out before the 1st game of the season.

This is not a perfect world, and the Gophers do not have a perfect FB program.

Given a choice between empty seats, or offering discounted tickets, I say offer discounted tickets.

When I was in college the Guthrie used to have something called "rush seating." Starting about 20 or 30 minutes before showtime, anyone with a valid college ID could buy any unused seats for a big discount.

I think the Gophs should adopt a similar concept - 20 or 30 minutes before kickoff, make any unsold seats - INCLUDING seats in the student section, available to the general public at a reduced rate. Butts in the seats at any price beat empty seats. There are ways to tweak the idea - make the 'rush seating' available to anyone with a college ID, or to HS students - maybe a discount for HS FB players wearing their team jerseys. Or, if season ticket holders know they will not be attending a certain game, have some mechanism whereby those tickets can be turned in and re-sold to all comers.

At this stage in the program's development, a full stadium will send a message to recruits and anyone watching on TV. a stadium with large sections of empty seats sends a much different message.
 

These are nosebleed tickets for the two least in-demand games of the season. I can't imagine that season ticket holder are really going "D'oh! If I only knew that a could have gotten a hot dog deal to sit in the nosebleed seats for New Hampshire and Western Michigan, I wouldn't have bought season tickets! All I really wanted was tickets to New Hampshire and Western Michigan, who cares about the Syracuse, Northwestern, Purdue, Michigan and Michigan State games?"

Tickets need to be sold, the Gophers need butts in seats. This doesn't take anything away from season ticket holders.
 

Killjoy said:
I hate steamed hot dogs! (And also this ridiculous discussion.)
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At least the discussion disappears in odd-numbered years, when Hawkeye, Badger, and Husker fans buy up the seats.

Unfortunately, the steamed dogs will be around every year.
 

As a season ticket holder this is no skin off my back. There isn't time to employ the many long term marketing suggestions they are hopefully evaluating so in the interem they are doing what they can to get bodies in the stands. Will make my experience more enjoyable and just maybe turn a small % of them into life long fans. I'm more concerned with what the administration is doing to help improve the product on the field so they won't have to worry about spending time with these type of last minute promos.
 

Just got off the blower with the Ticket Office (which was having phone issues-but that is another issue).

I was told that I could pick up single game tickets for 20 dollars at the U booth at the State Fair. I have a few extra people to bring to the NH game and was looking for something cheap.

I didn’t see the need to pay five dollars more for a hot dog and a coke, since I was already going to the State Fair in the first place.
 

Flatfoot said:
Just got off the blower with the Ticket Office (which was having phone issues-but that is another issue).

I was told that I could pick up single game tickets for 20 dollars at the U booth at the State Fair. I have a few extra people to bring to the NH game and was looking for something cheap.

I didn’t see the need to pay five dollars more for a hot dog and a coke, since I was already going to the State Fair in the first place.
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For any State Fair goer, a hot dog and a Coke is a pretty anemic food group.
 

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