I work in marketing for a large company in town, and every time an outside "marketing firm" has been brought in by the company for some study, the end result is almost always failure, because the outside firm doesn't have the insight to the product and the processes that those of us inside do.
I think this is a clear example of that.
A marketing firm is going to say "your peers are Michigan and OSU and Nebraska etc., and based on the higher income level here than say, Omaha or Columbus, you should be able to charge X dollars more.
This is beyond foolish. Whoever came up with this plan didn't take into account several things.
1. Gopher football is way down the list of entertainment interests in this market. The Vikings, Twins and Wild are all higher up. Maybe the Wolves (but maybe not), not to mention the myriad of other options to spend money in a major metro area that don't exist in Lincoln or Iowa City. This is simply not a hot ticket item by any means.
2. People in this state are frugal/cheap, and aren't going to be willing to pay a ton more for a historically mediocre product. It will be very interesting to see what happens when the new Vikings stadium opens. I know a lot of people who have had tickets since the 1960's who are dropping them because of PSL's, and that's a one time fee - not an annual fee. The Gophers are a few steps below in interest. Vikings tickets for last weeks games could be had for very cheap on Stubhub and they're supposedly the most popular team in town (though not very good this year.)
3. One of the biggest stories in college football early this season was declining attendance, even at traditional powerhouses like Michigan (okay, they were awful), but even at places like Alabama, who may have a shot at another title this year. If this really blows up in their faces, we could be looking at crowds like they have at Miami and Pitt. Seriously.
We had tickets when I was a kid (think terrible Guety/Wacker teams) and once my two year old turns 5 or 6, my plan was to get us season tickets so he would grow up a fan like I did. He knows the Gophers when they're on, and loves his Goldy Gopher hoodie, but realistically, I'm probably not going to be able to justify those prices in three years.