After 25 years… I’m out

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I feel your pain, folks.

I have two degrees from the U. I’ve had season tickets since my undergrad days, in the mid-80s. I worked for the athletic department during my time there. If there is such a thing as “bleeding maroon and gold,” I do.

For the first time ever, on our way home from the game tonight, my wife and I discussed giving up our season tickets after this year, for many of the same reasons others have brought up in this thread.

We love the whole game-day experience, from eating and drinking near the stadium before the game, to the band, to bringing our grandkids, to the team generally being pretty competitive. We just need to decide whether that’s enough to justify spending the money, time, and emotional energy.

We’re not going to make the final decision tonight, or tomorrow, or even this week. It’s something that we’ll have to put some thought into, at a time when our emotions are more even-keel than they are now.
 



pk2 said:
I feel your pain, folks.

I have two degrees from the U. I’ve had season tickets since my undergrad days, in the mid-80s. I worked for the athletic department during my time there. If there is such a thing as “bleeding maroon and gold,” I do.

For the first time ever, on our way home from the game tonight, my wife and I discussed giving up our season tickets after this year, for many of the same reasons others have brought up in this thread.

We love the whole game-day experience, from eating and drinking near the stadium before the game, to the band, to bringing our grandkids, to the team generally being pretty competitive. We just need to decide whether that’s enough to justify spending the money, time, and emotional energy.

We’re not going to make the final decision tonight, or tomorrow, or even this week. It’s something that we’ll have to put some thought into, at a time when our emotions are more even-keel than they are now.
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This is a sincere post....unlike OP.
 



Nevada was paid $1.2 million to take a loss. We will continue to take our $20 million a year to take our beat downs. It doesn't matter how many people are in the stands. The U still gets its money. The 6 top teams in the new B1G need the lower tier to pad their stats. We need to know our place and stay in our lane. I just don't have to watch or contribute any longer.
 


DelawareGopher said:
I’m not *that* invested but I feel ya.

There’s zero reason to be optimistic. Not about this season, but about this program and Gopher sports in general. The deck of modern college athletics and the dynamics of the U (pro sports town, lots of transplants, mediocre recruiting base, etc) are heavily stacked against us.

I’m not mad, just demoralized and becoming apathetic. It’s a cost-benefit thing now. Do I get more joy or entertainment from Gopher football than I would doing other things on my Saturday? Increasingly no. So why stay invested?
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Well stated. It’s why I gave up my tix this year after 20 years.
 

I like PJ Fleck, but his seat is hot. He gets paid too much for it not to be. He works hard and cares about the kids, but this is a results business.

The Gophers have been a tier II or lower program for all of their modern history. I’m not sure where the surprise is here? A lot of the best athletes in our state play hockey. I saw recently we have 200 D1 hockey players out there right now. If even 5-10% of them could be really good football players, it would make a big difference. I just like football better. Sucks for me! Ha!

Almost none of Iowa’s best athletes are lost to hockey and they have a better recruiting radius than we do being closer to Illinois and the south.

Iowa might be pretty good this year given how well Iowa State is playing. NC just smacked around by JMU so that doesn’t say much for us. Again, just a reality check.

My expectations are not that high, but it still sucks when we lose. It will be fun to see if we improve over the rest of the year. If not, PJ will be gone soon and we’ll bring in another hot shot coach to see if the Gophers can rise up for a short time of glory!

Like many of you, I enjoy the tailgating and stadium atmosphere and time with family and friends. It beats the years when I was at the U and we played in the Metrodome! Again, it helps that my expectations are not that high. Hahahaha!
 





Go Gophers Rah said:
Tens of thousands of dollars spent. Traveling to 9 bowl games. Putting my heart into this. I’m done.
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You have bad timing. The last 25 years is the worst stretch versus Iowa and Wisconsin in Gopher history.
 




My advice, in game bet against the Gophers every chance you get against Power 4 teams. It’s paid well the last season and a half. Damn near a 100% winning percentage.
 


Five Toes said:
Did you stay till the end of the game champ? I did as always and the iowa fans were wonderful.
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The Billds always stay to the end no matter what. We call it The Bitter End Club created during Brewster's tenure as HC.

As noted in another post there were insufferable Hawks around us in the non-season ticket holder seats in the upper middle of 212 and 211. We compensated by being even more vocal than normal in the first half and had a set ribbing us back when things did go well for the yellow-black team during those two quarters.

Tough go in the 2nd half as there just wasn't anything positive to put out spirit wise. To some Hawk's credit several came over as exiting during Hail Minnesota and offered "Beat Wisconsin" with our retort "also you guys plus Nebraska."

The most vocal a-holes left at the 2 minute break and did not engage, which was fine. They came to see Floyd come home and got their wish. This time.
 




Looking on the upside, tickets to Gopher home games are going to be cheap and easy to get...

... I also have a place in Austin TX, decent tickets cost a lot more there than they do here (but the food is a LOT better, as is the football being played by the home team).
 

pk2 said:
I feel your pain, folks.

I have two degrees from the U. I’ve had season tickets since my undergrad days, in the mid-80s. I worked for the athletic department during my time there. If there is such a thing as “bleeding maroon and gold,” I do.

For the first time ever, on our way home from the game tonight, my wife and I discussed giving up our season tickets after this year, for many of the same reasons others have brought up in this thread.

We love the whole game-day experience, from eating and drinking near the stadium before the game, to the band, to bringing our grandkids, to the team generally being pretty competitive. We just need to decide whether that’s enough to justify spending the money, time, and emotional energy.

We’re not going to make the final decision tonight, or tomorrow, or even this week. It’s something that we’ll have to put some thought into, at a time when our emotions are more even-keel than they are now.
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Couldn’t agree more.
 

disco said:
Niche sport that is about as important nationally as college lacrosse.
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It being a regional sport makes it more fun for me. It’s how college football used to be where your team felt “special” instead of just another team for national talking heads to drone on about
 

Still in on the gophers, but the ship sailed for me on college athletics with all the recent changes. It’s fine, I’m just not going to be as invested in such an uneven playing field. At this point to me it feels like it doesn’t even matter who the coach is here, we have a glass ceiling that prevents us from rising.
 

For me, sports are like a pinball machine - "For amusement purposes only." Sure, it's more fun to win, but in the end, it's a few hours of entertainment. No different than watching a movie or a couple of TV shows. If you see a bad movie, do you say "I'm never watching another movie!" Nope. You hope the next one is better.
 

Whytetale said:
Nevada was paid $1.2 million to take a loss. We will continue to take our $20 million a year to take our beat downs. It doesn't matter how many people are in the stands. The U still gets its money. The 6 top teams in the new B1G need the lower tier to pad their stats. We need to know our place and stay in our lane. I just don't have to watch or contribute any longer.
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It’s a lot more than 20 million that the U of M athletic dept. gets for being. B1G streaming sports tv content provider. Streaming content is king.

The B1G is patterned after the NFL as far as revenue sharing goes. in the pro league there have to be losers in order for for ALL 32 owners to be big $$$ winners. All franchise values in the NFL grow exponentially every decade.
The major difference is that the pro league REWARDS the league losers
 

How about the disappearance of the stadium announcer during game time. Chatty during breaks but not much else
 


BilldGopher said:
The Billds always stay to the end no matter what. We call it The Bitter End Club created during Brewster's tenure as HC.

As noted in another post there were insufferable Hawks around us in the non-season ticket holder seats in the upper middle of 212 and 211. We compensated by being even more vocal than normal in the first half and had a set ribbing us back when things did go well for the yellow-black team during those two quarters.

Tough go in the 2nd half as there just wasn't anything positive to put out spirit wise. To some Hawk's credit several came over as exiting during Hail Minnesota and offered "Beat Wisconsin" with our retort "also you guys plus Nebraska."

The most vocal a-holes left at the 2 minute break and did not engage, which was fine. They came to see Floyd come home and got their wish. This time.
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Tough 2nd half which I did not see coming. We were lucky with the Iowa fans around us and could have a little bit of fun. For sure they got the last laugh.
 



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