Football-friendly ticket policy angers some U students

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We do not want this to turn into a political conversation as we want to keep that on the OT Board. Please keep the Gov Dayton comments associated to this specific topic. All other comments beyond that will be deleted. Thank you.
 

Question - if anyone knows --

Let's say a student buys the Football-Hockey bundle, and wants to sell the FB tix. I thought you had to show student ID to get into a FB game with a Student ticket. So, how can you sell the tickets - unless it was to your identical twin?
 

Sounds to me like a bunch of sour grapes from people who probably could have purchased bundled tickets if they wanted to, but chose not to, underestimated the number of students that purchase tickets to multiple sports, lost out because of this underestimation, and are now crying about the rules of the game after the fact...

I agree for the future; save about 20% of hockey & basketball tickets as single sport purchases (at a higher price), cap the bundle #'s, and that will shut the cry babies up. The U really shouldn't have to do anything, but if the whiners & Dayton want the U to sell hockey tickets to the students at a higher price, by all means!
 

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Sweet! Now our next mission is to eliminate the individual games we don't want to pay for. Why should we have to pay for a ticket to watch Eastern Illinois? I demand change.
 

not much of a backbone from the u on this one. we caved pretty quickly.
 

As a current student here that is a 3-sport ticket holder here is my problem with the hockey whiners. From what I've experienced many of the UofM hockey fans don't give a crap about any of the other sports at the U, which is upsetting to me. They are the ones who instead of supporting basketball and football will actually openly make fun of them for not "winning championships" (not in a tongue in cheek kind of way like we some of us do when football loses). A large portion of the hockey only season ticket holders also happen to just be girls jersey chasing and supporting "their guys."

I sound jaded but honestly I don't care that much, I love Gopher hockey. Of course the hockey only fans have a right to only enjoy hockey, but "their" season tickets were sold out to other UofM students who decided to support more than just one sport at the U. That last sentence is worth repeating because it is the end all of this argument. These hockey tickets were legitimately sold out to other students, it really isn't unfair, it's the way life works.

I know a lot of the guys in MSA so I haven't heard the name of this idiot who wrote up the resolution but he has to be the most entitled sounding jackwagon on the student board and needs to get a grip on how life works.
 



Next year we'll get a true idea of how many football student tickets are sold.
 

17thAveHallofFame said:
"their" season tickets were sold out to other UofM students who decided to support more than just one sport at the U.
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By supported you mean monetarily, right? Or do we have ticket scan numbers for the first few games relative to tickets sold?
 

bonin21 said:
Next year we'll get a true idea of how many football student tickets are sold.
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Hey Brian Bonin: Aren't you missing the celebration party over on Gopher Puck Live? Just messing with you. :p
 

supadupafly said:
Hey Brian Bonin: Aren't you missing the celebration party over on Gopher Puck Live? Just messing with you. :p
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I support Gopher football and watch every game, but the brand hasn't been the most exciting. If this was in place when I was in school, I'd buy the bundle and at least some (non-conf, maybe a few B1G) of the football tickets would probably go into the recycling if I'm honest.
 



Maximus said:
Sweet! Now our next mission is to eliminate the individual games we don't want to pay for. Why should we have to pay for a ticket to watch Eastern Illinois? I demand change.
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LOL. This made me laugh pretty hard in my office!
 

17thAveHallofFame said:
As a current student here that is a 3-sport ticket holder here is my problem with the hockey whiners. From what I've experienced many of the UofM hockey fans don't give a crap about any of the other sports at the U, which is upsetting to me. They are the ones who instead of supporting basketball and football will actually openly make fun of them for not "winning championships" (not in a tongue in cheek kind of way like we some of us do when football loses). A large portion of the hockey only season ticket holders also happen to just be girls jersey chasing and supporting "their guys."

I sound jaded but honestly I don't care that much, I love Gopher hockey. Of course the hockey only fans have a right to only enjoy hockey, but "their" season tickets were sold out to other UofM students who decided to support more than just one sport at the U. That last sentence is worth repeating because it is the end all of this argument. These hockey tickets were legitimately sold out to other students, it really isn't unfair, it's the way life works.

I know a lot of the guys in MSA so I haven't heard the name of this idiot who wrote up the resolution but he has to be the most entitled sounding jackwagon on the student board and needs to get a grip on how life works.
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The name of the whining turd in question is: Kyle Kroll. He is from Pillager, MN, 23 yrs old, and is a grad student at the U of M law school. He is a student senator as well. How self-serving and convenient for him. smh....

From a news report yesterday:

"Student senator Kyle Kroll has drafted a resolution passed today by the Student Senate that asks the administration to quit bundling the tickets."

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/10/02/athletic-tickets-university-of-minnesota
 

17thAveHallofFame said:
As a current student here that is a 3-sport ticket holder here is my problem with the hockey whiners. From what I've experienced many of the UofM hockey fans don't give a crap about any of the other sports at the U, which is upsetting to me. They are the ones who instead of supporting basketball and football will actually openly make fun of them for not "winning championships" (not in a tongue in cheek kind of way like we some of us do when football loses). A large portion of the hockey only season ticket holders also happen to just be girls jersey chasing and supporting "their guys."

I sound jaded but honestly I don't care that much, I love Gopher hockey. Of course the hockey only fans have a right to only enjoy hockey, but "their" season tickets were sold out to other UofM students who decided to support more than just one sport at the U. That last sentence is worth repeating because it is the end all of this argument. These hockey tickets were legitimately sold out to other students, it really isn't unfair, it's the way life works.

I know a lot of the guys in MSA so I haven't heard the name of this idiot who wrote up the resolution but he has to be the most entitled sounding jackwagon on the student board and needs to get a grip on how life works.
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The bold statement couldn't be more spot on!
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Question - if anyone knows --

Let's say a student buys the Football-Hockey bundle, and wants to sell the FB tix. I thought you had to show student ID to get into a FB game with a Student ticket. So, how can you sell the tickets - unless it was to your identical twin?
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You need to show a student ID, but it doesn't need to the student that bought the tickets.
 

bonin21 said:
I support Gopher football and watch every game, but the brand hasn't been the most exciting. If this was in place when I was in school, I'd buy the bundle and the football tickets would probably go into the recycling if I'm honest.
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Seriously, I think you are missing something super exciting over at Gopher Puck Live. Get over there, then report back and let us know how the celebration of the hockey cultists is going. Want updates at the top and bottom of the hour the rest of the day. ;)
 

bonin21 said:
By supported you mean monetarily, right? Or do we have ticket scan numbers for the first few games relative to tickets sold?
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Assuming you're talking about football so I'll try to explain why some students don't attend all the games. Right now our football culture at the U is on the up and up, but it's going to take some years and bowl wins before we ever see the student section filling up every game. People who buy season tickets to football but don't go to all the games do so because they will probably attend a few home games and it makes more sense from a cost perspective to buy them all. Last year student tickets for the Badger game were going for $60+ on the the student ticket facebook group. When the entire season cost $99 it makes complete sense.

I get what you're saying though. Students have other conflicts on weekends, and many people at the U who are in-state (usually the bigger sports fans just because they've been supporting them for more years) go home every few weeks to spend a day at home, visit family etc. All these small conflicts add up to people not going to some of the smaller games. Personally I would never go home on a gameday weekend, and many of my friends would say the same. It sucks not all students feel this way, but until football establishes itself for a few years this change in student attendance will never happen.

EDIT: It's worth saying that if you want to start a debate about tickets scanned don't think hockey isn't in there too. I remember several matches last year where the student section in Mariucci was more than half empty. In fact the "Icebox" fans who sat in the first two rows wouldn't even show up so the Gopher staff would have to recruit random students like my buddies and I from the crowd to fill in for them.
 

That was a nice explanation, but the figure I'm curious about is average percentage of fans actually attending football games via a bundle purchase vs. only football tickets. The behavior of the two groups may be very different. Just a curiosity thing.
 

Maximus said:
Sweet! Now our next mission is to eliminate the individual games we don't want to pay for. Why should we have to pay for a ticket to watch Eastern Illinois? I demand change.
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BRAVO!
 

Go4 said:
not much of a backbone from the u on this one. we caved pretty quickly.
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I don't think it's caving as much as choosing it's battles. There are a million different promotions The U can employ to increase football attendance. Given the apparent rise in the team's performance, that hopefully isn't as hard a sell in the future. Michigan had huge student protests this week partly to due student ticket prices. Little to gain and a lot to lose if The U fought this. Probably not worth the effort.
 

Its hard to say for certain though. I'd say the people with the 3-sport bundle are the fans that will try to go to every game if possible. These guys are the most dedicated and they want to get their moneys worth.
 

BleedGopher said:
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Go Gophers!!
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Actually don't think that caving on this one is a bad thing when you read the release. One thing I would do if I were in the U's shoes would be to designate X number of hockey tickets as being part of a multi-sport package, that way you would still guarantee the students that want to support both programs have the opportunity to by tickets at a discounted price while those that just want hockey have to pay a higher single sport price.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Actually don't think that caving on this one is a bad thing when you read the release. One thing I would do if I were in the U's shoes would be to designate X number of hockey tickets as being part of a multi-sport package, that way you would still guarantee the students that want to support both programs have the opportunity to by tickets at a discounted price while those that just want hockey have to pay a higher single sport price.
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Agreed, I'm really hoping this is what they do. Would be nice to keep the price down for the big supporters.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Actually don't think that caving on this one is a bad thing when you read the release. One thing I would do if I were in the U's shoes would be to designate X number of hockey tickets as being part of a multi-sport package, that way you would still guarantee the students that want to support both programs have the opportunity to by tickets at a discounted price while those that just want hockey have to pay a higher single sport price.
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Build the user profile to remember a purchase of football tickets and apply discount at checkout. This could also be used to reward loyalty year over year.
 

It's pretty simple now. You put a bundle together with a solid discount (and perhaps release a segment of them early and give them priority seating) and you charge full price for buying them solo.

Give long time buyers/older students access to the bundle and single tix options earlier than the others so that their loyalty is rewarded in guaranteed tix and better seats so people stay bought in.
 

upnorthkid said:
It's pretty simple now. You put a bundle together with a solid discount (and perhaps release a segment of them early and give them priority seating) and you charge full price for buying them solo.

Give long time buyers/older students access to the bundle and single tix options earlier than the others so that their loyalty is rewarded in guaranteed tix and better seats so people stay bought in.
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This is unnecessary. Use dynamic pricing based on user profile. The long time buyers/older students will know to get into the site right away. We haven't had sell out in minutes issues in any sport since TCF opened. I remember the site crashing but I don't even know if they sold out.
 

Sudsy Gopher said:
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This is pretty short sighted. A lot of students are probably going to buy tickets to multiple games. So packaging them together and offering a discount speeds up the process for students. And they SOLD OUT. The U didn't make more money on the deal because students are actually going to football games and overall sales are better this year for football.

The U is already playing better football, and students saw an opportunity to get a discount to see an improving football team and a Nation Championship contending hockey team. The student in the original post is kicking himself that he didn't pay for the tickets earlier. The U provided plenty of warning that they were selling out.

Can they come up with different combinations of bundles next year? Sure? But the U is allowed to sell their tickets how they see fit. Especially in this case because students got the same number of tickets for cheaper.
 

Did our governor really call ticket bundling "appalling?"


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