Gopher Season Ticket Costs Going Way UP?

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tato2001 said:
At first thought, I would agree with you. But now that I think again, I think that's precisely what they will do (force STH to keep higher priced seats or essentially be told to walk). As misguided as it may seem, the U apparently thinks there is demand for those seats. As such, they basically feel the current zone 3 and 4 STH's are effectively free-loading cheapskates (as someone else pointed out). Net-net they gain nothing but goodwill (actually, just less BADwill) by letting them downgrade and boot others out. Better PR to let the folks in the corners stay and then simply sell to these mysterious big spenders who are going to suddenly decide to buy tickets AFTER they've gone up.

On a side note, I think folks are right that the U is expecting corporate buyers. I wonder, though, if this phenomena might be nearing it's end. It basically started up full force in the 90's, but I can tell you as a guy in the corporate world, going to a bunch of pseudo-work sporting events with people who aren't my 'real' friends (co-workers) and skipping a night of my actual hobbies/family/friends etc. has lost a lot of it's allure (it was fun the first 50 times, then? Not so much.). I basically go out of my way to avoid these events now, even though the seats are usually good. That's just my anecdote. Any others feel that way?
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Yup. Except I taped out of corporate sporting events well before the 50th game.

Would rather walk up to bar and watch game with regulars who 1) drink 2) know the game 3) are funny and enjoyable to be around and 4) don't care what I say or how much I drink
 

Email response from the season ticket relations office..... also not impressive. What's the "manager" going to tell me? Probably just read me the statement they already published.


We appreciate your comments.

If would like to discuss the Gopher Football Scholarship Seating adjustments, we can set up a time for you to speak with a manager. If you wish to do so, please send us dates and times that you would be available.
 

Replacement Gopher said:
Yup. Except I taped out of corporate sporting events well before the 50th game.

Would rather walk up to bar and watch game with regulars who 1) drink 2) know the game 3) are funny and enjoyable to be around and 4) don't care what I say or how much I drink
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To respond to my own post, I think it's sorta like corporate sporting events are like what corporate golf was for a long time. ...and look what's happened to the Golf business.
 

I sit in section 133. If I read it right, that means I'm paying $300 more next year for my 4 seats. That means I am probably done. I love sitting where we do, and in the same seats around the same people every game. But I can't justify this additional expense anymore. I've had season tickets since the last year in the Dome. But unfortunately this will do us in. I'll attend a couple games a year, when it's convenient. But this was one thing my wife both agreed would be our "family" event. And without the commitment to all 7 home games, we just won't attend nearly as often and if we do I'll buy off the street or someplace like Stubhub for pennies on the dollar.
 


MinnyGopherfan said:
I sit in section 133. If I read it right, that means I'm paying $300 more next year for my 4 seats.
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That's correct ... $300 additional (tax-deductible) next year, then an additional $300 on top of the increased amount in 2016 (+$600 from baseline), and finally an additional $400 on the 2016 amount in 2017 (+$1,000 from baseline).
 

Go Gophers Rah said:
I have 4 tickets in the $0 donation area so this will affect me. I see it as a choice...

Either we're an Indiana level team with an Indiana level of fanbase investment, or

We're a Nebraska level team with a Nebraska level of investment.

I would prefer the latter as I think it is unrealistic/unfair to expect a Nebraska level of a team at an Indiana level of investment.

It seems as if I'm in a very small minority in this line of thinking.
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This money is not going to improve our facilities. So if you want to compare the U of M to Nebraska, 8-4 is not going to cut it. Bo finished 9-3 and was shown the door. I'm not sure where you were going with this post?
 

I really hate to be crass, but the simple fact of the matter is I feel like I just got kicked in the Gopher nuts.

My family has had football season tickets since 1994. My wife and I are proud U alums and hold multiple degrees from the institution. I was a member of the drumline. We have donated precious personl funds to athletics, scholarships, and to our respective schools within the U. We bring our three boys and my parents to games. We tailgate. We cheer loudly and proudly from our (to us) expensive seats right behind the visitors' bench. We are instilling a love for the U in our boys. In many respects, we are exactly the type of ticket holder the U, or any organization, would want on its side.

And how is our loyalty and affinity to the U rewarded? With this move?

I'm naive, but I thought maybe, just maybe, the U would be better than this. That we'd (and yes, I still use the personal pronoun when talking about the U; it means that much to me and my family) somehow resist the temptation to sign loyalty, affinity, and tradition over to the highest bidder.

We'll be walking away from our family tradition in 2016, if not sooner, because we can't justify spending this much discretionary income on football, no matter how much it means to us. The loss of our Saturday morning Gopher football tradition will be one thing, but we'll walk away even more profoundly sad about a University culture that seems to have lost its way.
 

SkiUMah said:
I really hate to be crass, but the simple fact of the matter is I feel like I just got kicked in the Gopher nuts.

My family has had football season tickets since 1994. My wife and I are proud U alums and hold multiple degrees from the institution. I was a member of the drumline. We have donated precious personl funds to athletics, scholarships, and to our respective schools within the U. We bring our three boys and my parents to games. We tailgate. We cheer loudly and proudly from our (to us) expensive seats right behind the visitors' bench. We are instilling a love for the U in our boys. In many respects, we are exactly the type of ticket holder the U, or any organization, would want on its side.

And how is our loyalty and affinity to the U rewarded? With this move?

I'm naive, but I thought maybe, just maybe, the U would be better than this. That we'd (and yes, I still use the personal pronoun when talking about the U; it means that much to me and my family) somehow resist the temptation to sign loyalty, affinity, and tradition over to the highest bidder.

We'll be walking away from our family tradition in 2016, if not sooner, because we can't justify spending this much discretionary income on football, no matter how much it means to us. The loss of our Saturday morning Gopher football tradition will be one thing, but we'll walk away even more profoundly sad about a University culture that seems to have lost its way.
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Nice post. My son is really into Gopher football and it is going to be hard to pull the plug.

You might be interested in this article. Clearly, Teague didn't read it or doesn't buy it:

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/roa...um-students-business-tv-ncaa-michigan-tickets
 



Gopher football is a failing restaurant. They were selling tickets via Living Social. Now to try and succeed, they are essentially kicking out every customer who religiously stopped every Sunday after church and turning the joint into a tapas bar.
 

Season tickets in my family since the very early 70's. I have been going to games since I was five. I haven't missed more than one game a year since then. I haven't missed one game at the new stadium. Gopher games were my time with my dad all the way in to my 40's. I know I'm being over emotional about this, but it took a long time to find someone who would take my dad's spot once he passed. I finally got a buddy hooked during the 2nd season in the Bank. Now he is 90% gone according to the text I just got. I thought I talked him down last night, but I was wrong. Pretty bummed right about now. Trying to get him to agree to move to crappier seats, but he isn't very interested in that. Can't say I am happy with Norwood right now.
 


Golden_Sloth said:
+1. Yesterday it was "Norwood, get these facilities done or Kill will leave! Nebraska would find a way". Now there's a price increase and everyone is up in arms about having to pay an extra $150 for their two seats for the season.

You can't have it both ways, people. You either a) pay a lot for a good product, or b) pay a little for a bad product. If you're interested in the latter, support your local high school team, a DII college, etc. Our athletic department has been comparatively underfunded for decades, and the product has suffered. If you don't think the games are worth the cost, don't buy tickets. It's as easy as that. P***ing and moaning and acting like an entitled child isn't going to get you anywhere.
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Please define good product? A record of 8-4, not ranked and going to some s**t bowl game, to me is not a good product. Return on investment, charge me more for your product-fine, but my expectations have changed as well.
 



supadupafly said:
Agree 100% with your analysis and perspective here. Unfortunately, that is the financial mindset of many a stubborn and fickle Minnesotan when it comes to many things, and it is not just sports (pro or college). One is always fighting to change a strangely ingrained mindset of a lot of self-contradiction when it comes the level of financial investment they are willing to put into something and the often over-the-top expected result/return on said investment.

It has often seemed to me that many Minnesotans want to be able to invest the least amount possible on just about everything but then want to have returns/results that far exceed what they should ever expect considering the actual level of investment they are willing to make. And when they don't get that overly optimistic result (considering their relatively low overall investment level) they also strangely feel they have a right to ridicule, mock, complain, and bitch about it working out that way. It is like bizarro world. Have never understood it.
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I could not agree more that Minnesotans are extremely stubborn, and fickle. Oddly enough though, they just bucked what most of the rest of the country did, by re-electing by shocking margins, two tax and spend liberals Dayton and Franken, acts that will certainly increase their "investment" in government spending.
 

GoldenGopher88 said:
Please define good product? A record of 8-4, not ranked and going to some s**t bowl game, to me is not a good product.
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The best bowl game since 1962 likely, the first 5-3 in 11 years, the Jug, the Pig (51-7 lead), back to back wins over Nebraska, 11 all-big ten players, record setting running back, BT tight end of the year, BT punter of the year, BT coach of the year, playing for BT west title, storming the field for 4th time in 5 years, multiple NFL prospects, top 10-15 TCU coming to the bank in primetime....

Yeah, that sucks!
 

Wow. Thanks for passing along the link to that article, MNGoldenGophers1. It's truly a must read for everybody on this board.
 

MinnyGopherfan said:
I sit in section 133. If I read it right, that means I'm paying $300 more next year for my 4 seats. That means I am probably done. I love sitting where we do, and in the same seats around the same people every game. But I can't justify this additional expense anymore. I've had season tickets since the last year in the Dome. But unfortunately this will do us in. I'll attend a couple games a year, when it's convenient. But this was one thing my wife both agreed would be our "family" event. And without the commitment to all 7 home games, we just won't attend nearly as often and if we do I'll buy off the street or someplace like Stubhub for pennies on the dollar.
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I'm going to ask a question that I am sure I will get chastised for, but I will ask anyways.

Why not at least consider moving to section 233? That section will remain a non-donation zone. I sat there for the Ohio State game. It was nice.
 

5$BitsOfBrokenChair said:
I'm going to ask a question that I am sure I will get chastised for, but I will ask anyways.

Why not at least consider moving to section 233? That section will remain a non-donation zone. I sat there for the Ohio State game. It was nice.
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Get in line.
 

We now know that this pricing model puts Minnesota near the top of the Big Ten in per ticket price by 2017, and some of the schools learned that hard way (Michigan, Iowa) that getting greedy the last few years has caught up to them and there probably cannot be huge increases for those schools in the next three years.

Our peers, being in a large metro area with other options, are UCLA, Pittsburgh, Boston College, Miami, Arizona State, Georgia Tech, and Washington. I have not yet had a chance to review the base ticket prices and donation levels for those schools, but I bet the new Norwood plan far exceeds anything done at those schools.
 

I am in the same boat as ticketed and DarrenTheGreek

DarrenTheGreek said:
Same boat with me. My wife has zero interest in sitting on a bench.
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Nobody has an interest in moving to a bench or corner upper deck. Did they open the place with to low a seating chart and donation levels yes but the demand for Gopher football just hasn't been that high to drive sellouts or near sell outs. After all of the ticket pormotions, and years of discounted tickets that others have gotten first dibs at I guess I'm going to have to move to that list, not exactly by choice but I'm kind of being forced too.
My brother even said what is the AD Teague thinking, this is going to drive many more people out of season tickets, and people to cherrry pick and buy Stub Hub and scalper tickets than remain in or join the seasons ticket base.
I have tried to talk my buddy in to moving to cheaper seats even at the $75, 150, $250 level. We rotate in three kids under 10 all boys trying to help them become Gopher fans. I asked my brother to rejoin the group he was interested until I told them by 2017 the donation levels go up to $500 a seat, he was interested until I dropped that bomb and he said no not for $500 more a seat. He said $500 was about the top of the mark for our seats each per year not 800 to 1,000.
This is the part that Teague doesn't get about college athletics and comparing to the rest of the Big 10, people in this market are splitting ticket dollars, for Gophers, Twins, Wild, Vikings, even some Timberwolves and Lynx along with other Gophers sports like Hockey and basketball. Like other have said the re-seating of Marriucci has completely left a lot of empty seats and killed the atmosphere of Gopher hockey games, of which we may be able to buy 1 to 2 games a year.

That is half a 10 game package for two Twins season tickets or you can get an 11 game package at the club level for the Wild for $990 even if they are mostly week night games, yes people do make these comparisons about ticket purchases.
The Vikings are going to find out too, that the PSL's are going to leave a lot of empty seats even when the new place opens and there will be a lot less season ticket holders. Have we been on the lower side of tickets for the Big 10 yes, but we have paid a tax for many years of middle level Big 10 finishes and losing conference records, and once and a while beating a ranked team or rival in the conference to claim a trophy.
I'm not saying these are my thoughts about pro tickets I do not go to that many of those games because Vikings and Twins have kind of priced me out of the market but at least with the Gophers you felt like you were not stuck at home watching on TV, that will fade away I guess. I wish I could find others to come in but when I mentioned the donation levels to colleagues and co-workers that buy single game tickets they were like yeah right not for that kind of money. This is a tough sell and so far I haven't found any takers to help mitigate the additional costs, so yeah it feels like I'm being kicked out with little notice and without choice. I will get over the frustration level it is just hard right now, after a good year and good feeling about the direction of Gopher footbal. Feeling booted out for a money grub by Teague guess, I will just have to get used to watching more games on TV.
 


Something did need to be done with the seating prices though. The guy sitting in the front of section 113 was paying the same price as the guy a the top of section 230.
 

Tikited and Darren the Greek... Maybe you guys should go to the games together.

Maybe a bunch of single Gopherholers should get a big group?
 

The long and the short of it is the U has spent many years undervaluing existing season ticket holders even if the seats were below market, by papering the market with steep discounts, living social and facebook deals and undercharging student seats with to much access. If you look at the other donation levels of stadiums for the rest of the Big10, the U plan is not equitable in spreading out costs or the tier pricing strategy. The current plan is not concise enough in splitting up the costs, and does not offer comparable pricing for luxury seating compared to just basic seating. Right now they consider all chairback seats luxury seating when in reality many are not. Many chairback locations have more diminished views, much of the bench areas offer more room if you can rent a chairback, and obstructions of game views depending on how low you are in the lower bowl, or if you have sections of people going up and down the aisle constantly. The in game experience of hearing the peripherals, views of the scoreboard, in game WI FI, people that like hearing the band, or seeing the cheerleaders and Goldy, or being closer to the ammenitites or students and action, are not the same and equitable and will lead to emptier zones the further you get away from the desireable luxury traits, sunny versus shaded, gate entry and other stuff that leads one to consider buying a season ticket. I was hopng they would have some kind of installment plan to be able to afford the donations every year rather than a lump sum.

It will be intersting to see after 2015 how many people bolt, I would wonder if that was part of the risk analysis they did coming up with scholarship seating and then taking many crappy areas of the stadium and adding donation charges, or a similar charge to what really good premium seats cost to sit in the bank. I am curious if they marketing firm, Aspire that Teague hired did market research in to comparing discretionary income spending and median income for the MPLS STPaul market. The competition for sporting dollars having many professional teams in the market, how far the existing season ticket base travels from, the percentages, I don't think they did that level of research, really painting the potential risk of losses,
they just said others are doing it this way and we need to pay for the athlete stipends and all 750 scholarships. The reason pro teams tier out costs and luxury seating is because they know in game stadium views and viewpoints matter to the customer, the better your access to the game action and ammenities like WI-FI TV's concessions, and the better your viewpoint the more you are willing to pay.
Right now they really undervalue luxury seating, and what the market will bear ,and really over-value, not comparable like seating and viewing areas of the stadium.
Like I said they think if you have a chairback you have luxury seating even if your squeezed in with rows of fat people in your row. The tier system is not equitable and will bear out over time that there are a lot of areas with donations attached at the $500 level between the endzones and the 20 yard line that will not sell, this is the area zones 3 that will now sit mostly empty because they are not luxury seating and do not offer value at $500 extra per seat. I predict that all 5,000 no donation seats will sell out most games and not be available for game day sale. Yes you need to limit your lower costs seating areas, to push more people to the higher costs seats but if people preceive others getting the same value and paying the same for much better views, and access your going to get a lot of drops of seats and cherrypicking of games. The U and marketing firm did not put a lot of research or thought process on what the market will bear or the blowback that would occur. I'm sure they assessed risk but figured it was worth pissing off 5,000 to 10,000 that have stuck with things in favor of Johnny come latelys that will bow out from year to year based on wins and blowing in the wind. They really need to assess what is premium and luxury because right now they just don't have a clue.
 

Q
Maximus said:
The best bowl game since 1962 likely, the first 5-3 in 11 years, the Jug, the Pig (51-7 lead), back to back wins over Nebraska, 11 all-big ten players, record setting running back, BT tight end of the year, BT punter of the year, BT coach of the year, playing for BT west title, storming the field for 4th time in 5 years, multiple NFL prospects, top 10-15 TCU coming to the bank in primetime....

Yeah, that sucks!
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High prices=higher expectations. What was our record? 8-4 improvement-yes. Stellar? far from it. Ask Bo Pelini how a 9-3 season went for him this year? If I'm paying for a BMW, it better not ride like a Yugo.
 

In truth, college football is just a minor league for the pro's (which I won't support). The NFL gets ALL it's players from colleges. Shouldn't the NFL be tapped for some of these cost to provide new facilities, more "snacks", better training for their future stars?
 

This money is not going towards facilities or the football program directly, correct? So those who say this is what needs to happen to get to the next level are wrong because this in no way helps much in that way.

And even if it did, building a fan base is equally important than the dollars. What the top programs in the country have is very large and dedicated fan base. We don't have that yet.
 

GophersInIowa said:
This money is not going towards facilities or the football program directly, correct? So those who say this is what needs to happen to get to the next level are wrong because this in no way helps much in that way.

And even if it did, building a fan base is equally important than the dollars. What the top programs in the country have is very large and dedicated fan base. We don't have that yet.
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That about sums it all up IMHO.
 

If you think these price increases are shocking, just think how much more they would be if the U wasn't raking in 300k per game every time the Vikes step on the field.
 

zman said:
That about sums it all up IMHO.
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Obviously none of us really know what there thinking was. But to me it would have made more sense to announce just one year at a time. Seriously, what happens if we go 6-6 the next two years? I hope it doesn't but it very well could.

Find a way to get through it for another few years until we are hopefully a legit Big Ten contender just about every season.
 

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