Attendance

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UpAndUnder43

UpAndUnder43

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All jokes aside—how has attendance been? Tickets sold do not equal attendance.

I’m planning to return to The Barn for the first time since 3/8/2020 (a 32 point dismantling of the Huskers). I attended every home game that season.

Anyway, I’ll have the almost 4 year old with me. I want to be lower level as I think he’ll be more engaged if he can see better. I love The Barn. As my friend said about the metrodome “it’s a shithole but it’s our shithole”

Want to know what I’m getting into. Targeting the Northwestern afternoon game on Saturday 2/3/24.
 
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UpAndUnder43 said:
All jokes aside—how has attendance been? Tickets sold do not equal attendance.

I’m planning to return to The Barn for the first time since 3/8/2020 (a 32 point dismantling of the Huskers). I attended every home game that season.

Anyway, I’ll have the almost 4 year old with me. I want to be lower level as I think he’ll be more engaged if he can see better. I love The Barn. As my friend said about the metrodome “it’s a shithole but it’s our shithole”

Want to know what I’m getting into. Targeting the Northwestern afternoon game on Saturday 2/3/24.
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Attendance has been bad. I’m not at every game, but my guess is 5,000 is generous on most nights. Opponent has some impact but I think day and time are nearly as crucial. The best attendance I’ve seen is the Maine game on a Friday night over Christmas. Crappy game but at a time normal people can go.

Hitting the Barn on a Saturday afternoon almost assures you of one of the better attended games of the year.
 

I believe I heard someone say on a podcast that Nadine had the true attendance figures for a couple of games (butts in seats - not tickets sold) and that the figure was around 3,500 or so.

here are the listed attendance figures (tickets sold) for some recent games:
Maine 8658
Ball State 7261
IUPUI 6581
Fla Gulf Coast 7317
Nebraska 6899
New Orleans 6797
Ark Pine Bluff 6591

as a guess - and this is a guess only - cut those numbers in half and I think you're close to the actual attendance. if you want to be generous and say actual is 60% of announced, it's still low.
 

I have only missed one home game this year. And, I had season tickets when the Barn was sold out for Big Ten games. Yes, attendance is low, but there were far more than 3-4000 people there for the Neb and Missouri games, and also for the Maine game (there was a family ticket promo).

Winning sells tickets. Nonconf games have tended to be poorly attended even when we have had good teams and popular coaches. My guess is the MD game will be well attended.
 

Buy a cheap seat on Stub Hub. Sit wherever you want. I paid additional ransom this year to improve my seats. It wasn’t necessary … just need to get in the building.
 


Swaggerson said:
Buy a cheap seat on Stub Hub. Sit wherever you want. I paid additional ransom this year to improve my seats. It wasn’t necessary … just need to get in the building.
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Pretty Good advice. 👍
 

There was a lot of talk about this on another thread, but most on this site blamed the product on the court as the only reason for significantly low attendance. My family has had season tickets my entire life so far, so this is my two cents... Even during some of the really bad Monson or Pitino years, attendance was at a minimum double what we're seeing right now (actual butts in the seats, not numbers that are officially announced). People still showed up for bad Gopher teams back then, and I saw it firsthand. There are other factors in addition to the on-court product... 1) People got really comfortable staying at home during COVID and now have to be convinced to go out for something like a Gopher game. "You better be really good like the Wolves, or I'm not going to waste my time" type of attitude. This has happened to a lot of college basketball teams around the nation. Hard to get people away from a TV and a couch now. 2) I've never heard more complaining about the prices of the season tickets than I have these past two years. Most nowadays simply aren't willing to pay it anymore and will buy a single game ticket instead (if we're good). Hey, I get it, everything is more expensive these days. 3) I spoke with a recent grad a couple of months ago, and he said almost everyone he met during his time at the U didn't care at all about going to a basketball game. Sucks to hear that, but seeing our student section these days, it's true.

A 10-3 record should get a casual basketball fan in the seats for a Big Ten game, as they don't follow the Gophers like some of us to understand a bottom-level non-conference schedule. They see wins, only a few losses, and recognizable opponent. That was what happened in the past, but nowadays I'll have to see it to believe it.

Long story short, on February 3rd you'll be able to walk in with your kid 2 minutes before the game without any lines, even if this Gopher team has a good enough record to be on the bubble. I hope this changes over the next couple of years and we get back to a packed Barn, but who knows.
 

I would hope the Michigan victory will get more buts in the Barn. This team has a chance to make the dance! This is the deepest team we have had in many years. Garcia and Christie had bad games last night but they were picked up by their teammates. Multiple guys on this team can score, not one dimensional like the Carr days from the last competitive team we had
 












updated numbers - this is from a Marcus Fuller article in the Strib "Gophers hope 6-game winning streak helps bring fans back to Williams Arena."

The team's announced average home attendance last season was 9,451, the U's lowest since 1970-71. And that total has dropped again. Through 11 home games this season, the Gophers' announced attendance average is just 7,230, on pace to be the lowest since 1968-69.

While the announced attendance totals have been sagging, the actual number of tickets scanned has been much lower. According to data obtained by the Star Tribune, the Gophers' average number of tickets scanned this season is 3,420.

That's comparable to last season at this time, when it was 3,313 through the team's first eight home games before Big Ten play resumed.

When the Gophers defeated Nebraska on Dec. 6, Huskers coach Fred Hoiberg blamed some of his team's 18 turnovers on how loud Williams Arena got. The announced attendance was 6,899. The actual number of tickets scanned was 3,680.
 

Free tickets for Maryland game

 

Holy Man said:
Attendance has been bad. I’m not at every game, but my guess is 5,000 is generous on most nights. Opponent has some impact but I think day and time are nearly as crucial. The best attendance I’ve seen is the Maine game on a Friday night over Christmas. Crappy game but at a time normal people can go.

Hitting the Barn on a Saturday afternoon almost assures you of one of the better attended games of the year.
Click to expand...
Even the suites are basically empty. There is a total of eighteen suites with nine on each side. So far this year only one, maybe two suites on each side have been occupied at games. In the not-so-distant past the suites would be almost all occupied, especially during the conference season. Marketing geniuses at the U are going to have to do something to attract fans back to the arena.
 

jblass said:
Even the suites are basically empty. There is a total of eighteen suites with nine on each side. So far this year only one, maybe two suites on each side have been occupied at games. In the not-so-distant past the suites would be almost all occupied, especially during the conference season. Marketing geniuses at the U are going to have to do something to attract fans back to the arena.
Click to expand...
Take a lesson from the Twins the early aughts by having some fun, marketing the players and their idiosyncrasies, and giving great deals to people who might not typically think about coming. If they offered a bargain suite, I bet I could get fifteen people to fill it in 24 hours just for the one time experience. That’s how you extend the audience.
 

Attendance was horrible before Musselman put in the pregame warmup, and then brought in some players and started to win. Maybe we need a a warmup show (kidding). 🙂
 

Go4POV said:
Attendance was horrible before Musselman put in the pregame warmup, and then brought in some players and started to win. Maybe we need a a warmup show (kidding). 🙂
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Why are you kidding? Muss blow the roof off that place and with todays NIL he might still be here (at least in spirit).
 

HitMeAgainIAmStillMoving said:
Why are you kidding? Muss blow the roof off that place and with todays NIL he might still be here (at least in spirit).
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I think we’re past the era of Harlem Globetrotter-type pre-game show. Just think how much practice time was devoted to perfecting that routine. Attendance was very low before that, though, and it brought in the fans! It was fun! Everyone came early to see it!
 

Swaggerson said:
Buy a cheap seat on Stub Hub. Sit wherever you want. I paid additional ransom this year to improve my seats. It wasn’t necessary … just need to get in the building.
Click to expand...
That is what I have been doing. A couple more wins in the next few games and that will change.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
All jokes aside—how has attendance been? Tickets sold do not equal attendance.

I’m planning to return to The Barn for the first time since 3/8/2020 (a 32 point dismantling of the Huskers). I attended every home game that season.

Anyway, I’ll have the almost 4 year old with me. I want to be lower level as I think he’ll be more engaged if he can see better. I love The Barn. As my friend said about the metrodome “it’s a shithole but it’s our shithole”

Want to know what I’m getting into. Targeting the Northwestern afternoon game on Saturday 2/3/24.
Click to expand...
Let us know how it goes with the little one. I’ve got one the same age and was thinking about taking him to his first game sometime this year.
 

Can Anyone tell me where the bench seats start. Got little kids to take and can’t recall. They can be rough on the crowd around us without chair backs.
 

jblass said:
Even the suites are basically empty. There is a total of eighteen suites with nine on each side. So far this year only one, maybe two suites on each side have been occupied at games. In the not-so-distant past the suites would be almost all occupied, especially during the conference season. Marketing geniuses at the U are going to have to do something to attract fans back to the arena.
Click to expand...

Those “suites” are probably the worst suites at any arena in the U.S. An awful design from Day 1.
 

atsgopher said:
Can Anyone tell me where the bench seats start. Got little kids to take and can’t recall. They can be rough on the crowd around us without chair backs.
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I'm pretty sure bench seats start at row 24. Second deck it changes between 3 and 5.
 



Saw estimates about about 6,500 people at the game yesterday with 8,583 announced. Nadine tweets often about how ridiculous it is that 2,000 people can't just jive their tickets away with how easy it is. Why do people just sit on unused tickets? I agree. I have two football games away to families I knew would likely never go and they had great time.

I just received two free tickets to the MSU basketball game through some connections from someone I don't even know.

It's not hard and it helps spread our passion of Gopher sports.
 

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