Get Your Gopher Football Mini-Packs!‏

[Iceland12]

Schools have until the week before the game to sell the seats. I suppose these schools might have already returned their allotments, but I doubt it.

Did the TV shots of the Upper Deck "Student Section" which showed a vast expanse of empty seats, also include some of their adjacent Visitors sections? If so filling those with Gopher fans and scattering those Visitors around TCF may be a good idea.

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Has anyone thought of the possibility that these packages are available because Penn State, Northwestern, NIU, and South Dakota could not sell out their allotted visiting tickets? These tickets were not supposed to go to Gopher Fans anyway, but since those schools couldn't get rid of them, they are now being sold as a package.

Like Baseball mini-packs it gives the consumer the chance to buy tickets for multiple games without forking over the cash for season tickets. Great idea in this economy where people are a little more concerned about spending wisely.

The thought crossed my mind because if there aren't enough season ticket holders to sell out then what about USC, Ohio State and Iowa games? Where are the extra tickets for those?

But I don't think tickets from schools are returned until about 1-2 weeks before the game and they are usually put on-sale the week prior so this would be too early to say those teams didn't sell their allotment.

 

[Gopherdrummer]

The thought crossed my mind because if there aren't enough season ticket holders to sell out then what about USC, Ohio State and Iowa games? Where are the extra tickets for those?

But I don't think tickets from schools are returned until about 1-2 weeks before the game and they are usually put on-sale the week prior so this would be too early to say those teams didn't sell their allotment.

True, but then the U shouldn't be selling those tickets now. It's possible that other athletic departments have already sent them back or realized they aren't going to sell them. Who knows really?

 

[RodentRampage]

I was looking at StubHub to see what Gophers ticket prices were going for. Tickets for SD were $22, USC were $100, Northern Illinois $17, Northwestern $24, Penn State and Ohio State $75, and Iowa $88.

Pretty cheap. Then I saw the price for the Minnesota @ Illinois game: $3.98. I thought is the game that undesirable, that the price is that low? Then I looked at the prices for all the Illinois games: $3 for each game, except for the game against Ohio State, which you can get for a whopping $35. You can buy season tickets for $89.

So, it looks like our tickets are MUCH more in demand, to put things into perspective.

Western Illinois at Purdue: $4 Toledo at Purdue: $1.50.

 

[GoAUpher]

Did the TV shots of the Upper Deck "Student Section" which showed a vast expanse of empty seats, also include some of their adjacent Visitors sections? If so filling those with Gopher fans and scattering those Visitors around TCF may be a good idea.

There was a section of regular season ticket holders between the closed end visitor seats and the student section. So my gut tells me that the wide open sections you're referring to were all students.

 

[GopherVotary]

The Gold and the Maroon Packs become available to the general public August 9th. Those same seats must also be available for the USC, OSU, and Iowa games. I wonder when they put those out for sale, and if current season ticketholders will also be given the first opportunity to buy?

 

[MHDGopherfan]

OK, this is annoying me...I have to call the ticket office. I have 3 season tickets, but they are all in tandem, not side by side. So I requested an upgrade for 1 more ticket, and to get side by side tix if possible, preferably in the same section (101) but if not, at least 2 side by side anywhere else! Nothing. Now I get that in the email - what the heck?!

So no, they did not honor everyone's upgrade request, at least not mine. I realize I'm at the bottom of the totem pole for upgrades, but apparently they've reached the bottom and gone beyond! I'll call Monday and let you guys know what they tell me.

 

[MHDGopherfan]

OK, so I called the ticket office. Apparently I "slipped through the cracks" of upgrading. I had 3 seats, 1 of them kind of a single. They let me drop that seat, and then let me get 2 other ones side/side in section 105. Weird. So apparently sold out is only a relative term.

Anyway, I'm happy now. I have 2 seats in 101 and 2 seats in 105. YES!

 

[howeda7]

First of all, good for the ticket office and marketing to try to sell this out. Secondly, I'm not going to sugar coat this - this is absolutely pathetic. One year into a new stadium, a small stadium at that, and we can't sell it out? For all of you making excuses that 10K is too big for the student section, remember...we sold that many student tickets at the Dome! Granted, there were guest passes, but the entire section was a sea of gold.

I know there are a million excuses - we need a better product on the field, there are too many student tickets, it's hard to get up for 11am games...but there's no way to spin this, it's sad.

Don't you know if the Vikings would just move away all of the problems would be solved?

Seriously, obviously winning covers a lot of ills. That said, without knowing a lot of details, I think the U has a severe marketing problem here. I simply cannot believe that the Twins can sell 3 million plus tickets to Target Field and the Gophers cannot sell 15% that many to TCF, even with the current state of the team. Almost no one that I know in out-state MN who was not already a season-ticket holder has gone to a game in the new stadium yet. The perception among the averge MN sports fan is that the games worth going to are indeed all sold-out and unlike Target Field they are not motivated to pursue tickets through any other means.

While it's sad that a full sell-out isn't still automatic, they need to get back to doing some marketing to the single-game market if it comes to that. If this is just the step before they do so, I guess that's fine. As for the student section, it's truly sad that one of the largest schools in the country can't fill 10,000 seats, but I don't know what the answer is. There are certainly better ways to get the students who have tickets to show up, but you can't force them to take them in the first place.