Gopher Season Ticket Costs Going Way UP?

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You do this when all your seats are filled, not when you are operating thousands under capacity.
 

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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But then again until this increase you were donating zero..
 

Supadupafly... I have seen you mention at least once and I think twice in two different threads that it appears the same people keep commenting on this. Yet I seem to see your name over posts on the subject more than anyone else. Ironic, doncha think? We get it. You are all on board and excited for these price increases.

I'm not sure if you work for the marketing firm that suggested this or if you are Norwood Teague... Just understand that regardless of everything else, these amounts are pushing Gopher tickets out of budget for many... For a product that has historically consistently struggled to sell out.
 

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.
Click to expand...

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.
 

I'm torn on the subject. The increase is dramatic, and I can empathize with season ticket holders that are angry (I'm not a season ticket holder). One the other hand, this is the modern day reality of all sports, college and professional. I wrote an op-ed letter to the Star Tribune about 7 years ago stating that people of Minnesota want a good Gopher football program, they just don't wan't to have to burdened by supporting it physically or financially.

Gopher fans wanted an on-campus stadium, a good football coach/team, and an AD that knows what it takes to win, is willing to take action and not settle for mediocrity. The dome is gone, Brewster is gone, Maturi is gone.

I know the prices are tough to digest, but I (and I think Teague) believe that this is our shot, and there is no such thing as a free lunch.
 


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.
Click to expand...

+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.
 

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.
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Except this money is not going to facilities. My understanding it is to pay for scholarships for all sports.
 

I agree that we need to increase the cash flow to support high-level athletics. I hope there are enough people willing to pay that amount.

My worry is that there will not be, especially given we already can't sell out our stadium, and we will see the effects of lowered fan support at the games. God help us if the team regresses next season.
 

This could have been predicted when the NCAA gave the Power 5 Conferences permission to set their own rules on payments to athletes to cover full cost of attendance.

While most can argue that the inflation of the donation levels are too steep, some increase was going to be necessary due to the payouts to athletes.
 



balds said:
I'm torn on the subject. The increase is dramatic, and I can empathize with season ticket holders that are angry (I'm not a season ticket holder). One the other hand, this is the modern day reality of all sports, college and professional. I wrote an op-ed letter to the Star Tribune about 7 years ago stating that people of Minnesota want a good Gopher football program, they just don't wan't to have to burdened by supporting it physically or financially.

Gopher fans wanted an on-campus stadium, a good football coach/team, and an AD that knows what it takes to win, is willing to take action and not settle for mediocrity. The dome is gone, Brewster is gone, Maturi is gone.

I know the prices are tough to digest, but I (and I think Teague) believe that this is our shot, and there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Click to expand...

There is a "free lunch" for everybody out there who wants to watch the team and demand it get better but aren't putting up their own money to get it done. There may be good reasons for not doing their fair share, maybe they can't, but listening to some of them tell those of us who are and have been spending money that we "just don't get it. It's not that big a deal", is irritating but also a little entertaining too. Watching comedians bomb does have it's perverse please.

Brewster's gone, Maturi's gone but the freeloaders are still here. many of then telling us to keep spending more and more money so they can get stuff free.
 

Ski U Mah Gopher said:
This could have been predicted when the NCAA gave the Power 5 Conferences permission to set their own rules on payments to athletes to cover full cost of attendance.

While most can argue that the inflation of the donation levels are too steep, some increase was going to be necessary due to the payouts to athletes.
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+1

If people thought that the power 5 schools were simply going to increase their costs with the paying of athletes without increasing their revenue, they're foolish.
 

balds said:
(I'm not a season ticket holder). I wrote an op-ed letter to the Star Tribune about 7 years ago stating that people of Minnesota want a good Gopher football program, they just don't wan't to have to burdened by supporting it physically or financially.

Gopher fans wanted an on-campus stadium, a good football coach/team, and an AD that knows what it takes to win, is willing to take action and not settle for mediocrity. The dome is gone, Brewster is gone, Maturi is gone.

I know the prices are tough to digest, but I (and I think Teague) believe that this is our shot, and there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Click to expand...

this is hilarious! so in other words, you don't support the football program financially, yet you wrote a letter to the strib saying that the fan base doesn't know how to support the program financially, and yet you now think this needed to be done, as there is no free lunch.

so to boil this down further, you want people to stop complaining, support the program financially so you can have a free lunch?
 

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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No shat, except for the people not paying anything of course.
 



Schnauzer said:
Supadupafly... I have seen you mention at least once and I think twice in two different threads that it appears the same people keep commenting on this. Yet I seem to see your name over posts on the subject more than anyone else. Ironic, doncha think? We get it. You are all on board and excited for these price increases.

I'm not sure if you work for the marketing firm that suggested this or if you are Norwood Teague... Just understand that regardless of everything else, these amounts are pushing Gopher tickets out of budget for many... For a product that has historically consistently struggled to sell out.
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Nope and nope. Seriously with the Norwood Teague or marketing firm stuff? Come on dude.

And didn't say I was excited about it. I am not naive and I do get that some are going to have disappointment and consternation about it. I do. My comment was essentially that it seems anyone who doesn't agree in lock step with oak street and MNGoldenGophers1 overly negative reaction toward this seems to be brushed aside rather harshly and immediately as idiots who don't get it or are just some kind of lackeys for the U.
 

I can just imagine the poor intern at the Orange Bowl that has to try and figure out why some dude in Minnesota is contacting her to complain about season ticket prices...
 

GopherHomer said:
I can just imagine the poor intern at the Orange Bowl that has to try and figure out why some dude in Minnesota is contacting her to complain about season ticket prices...
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Orange Bowl? For the Gophers? My god you really don't have a clue do you! :cool:
 

Gopher07 said:
I agree that we need to increase the cash flow to support high-level athletics. I hope there are enough people willing to pay that amount.

My worry is that there will not be, especially given we already can't sell out our stadium, and we will see the effects of lowered fan support at the games. God help us if the team regresses next season.
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This.

The program is at a potential tipping point towards excellence, but it's not there yet.
I would have bet that we'd finally sell out the stadium next season, and fill it for the majority of conference games. People will support a winner, new fans and fair weather fans would have probably bought up the remaining empty seats, the students might even show up in bigger numbers now that the seniors have been through several good seasons.
The problem is that we haven't "hooked" any of those fans yet.
The gameday and tailgating atmosphere is still awful in comparison to other places, it just is.
The program has won big games and was 6-1 at home which is awesome, but where would the OSU game's attendance been had we lost to Iowa? Just one more L and the whole season probably crashes down and we see 25,000 against OSU instead of the 40,000 that probably made it on a cold and snowy day.
This whole thing is too fragile at this point to ramp up anything, including ticket prices.

Honestly, the team better win 10 games and the west next season or 2016 will be an empty stadium and the athletics dept will be deep in the red.
This is such a terrible calculated risk considering how very possible another 6-8 win season is, and how with a few injuries missing a bowl is still a very big possibility.

I hope their right about this and they KNOW they're sitting on a few big future seasons or the fans simply will downsize their investment by buying less seats, donating less other money, or staying home altogether.
 

Gopher07 said:
My worry is that there will not be, especially given we already can't sell out our stadium, and we will see the effects of lowered fan support at the games. God help us if the team regresses next season.
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Aren't the typically empty sections staying the at same price, though? Perhaps the price increases will push some of current season ticket holders to those types of seats, and open up the more desirable seats to others who might like to go, but aren't willing to sit in the nosebleeds.
 


I've now had a night to sleep on this issue and have read this thread in its entirety. My reaction is that the U really dropped the ball on the PR side of this ticket increase. As a parent I don't immediately tell my young kids to stop the fun activity we are currently doing, brush your teeth and go to bed in the next five minutes or you're in trouble. I always let the kids know, "hey, 5 minutes before we get ready for bed." The common sense approach is to give people fair warning that the ticket donation requirements will be expanded throughout the stadium and amortize that money over a longer period of time through a combo of ticket price increases and seat donations, ahem, scholarship donation fees. A softer approach of gentle price increases would have been well understood by an educated fanbase but bludgeoning said fanbase unexpectedly with the new pricing structure won't fly. As Kill has professed you build a program brick by brick. Same thing goes for building a fanbase - from an undergraduate student to new grad to long time season ticket holder. This new pricing will prevent a whole new generation of young football fans from buying season tickets.

I thank alltimeswinfan for his post showcasing how much other Big 10 programs require for donations as similar seating levels. What the U (or its consultants) overlook is that we still have much more in common with the Purdue fanbase than we do with Nebraska's. I'd be fine with new donation pricing IF we were routinely selling out TCF Bank Stadium, the tailgate lots were full 3 hours prior to the game and there was a waiting list for season tickets. But that is hardly the case with Minnesota. At the OSU game I look over at section 239 where the seat donation were at a minimum this past year and there were more empty seats than occupied ones. What will it be next year for for TCU? Good weather and great opponent? Maybe less than that. The athletic department laid down their poker hand way too early in the game and I'm afraid the fanbase will call their bluff.

I'm on board for next year with my current seats and increased donation fees. I'll find a way even with our plan for an additional season ticket. We'll prioritize and find a way. Probably at the expense though of attending a road game or future bowl game unfortunately. Trust me though, I'll cringe when I walk past scalpers on the corner of Oak and University selling tickets for $20 when I paid 5 times that for my ticket.
 

My family (four seats) is done after 15 years due to this announcement. Prior to actually purchasing season tickets, I went to 3-4 games a year, so Gopher Football is a lifelong devotion for me. The cost structure for which they're asking is asinine. If you were selling out your allotment of season tickets every season and had some pent up demand, that's one thing. It's quite another when you can't sell out your season tickets and you can't even sell out the stadium.

The people who have seats right now are your die-hard base and have stuck with the program through many years of atrocious football. No matter what you do, you cannot lose these people because the public has already shown they're not going to make large financial commitments, otherwise we'd be full already.
 

Now that my bleacher seats are in a donation section I have a few suggestions:

-The U needs to legitimately turn Saturdays into a damn good party. Follow Madisons and Lincolns model. No more police-state on fun.
-Some of the cheerleaders, band members, and Goldy need to make an appearance to the St. Paul lot, there are now a hell of a lot of high paying season ticket holders over there and we want to feel included.
-The program had better be all in on facilities and other necessary luxuries. A keeping up with the Joneses' attitude, now that the season ticket holders have to keep up with other power schools.
-We have to have one helluva great team on the field year in and year out.

I could see a fair return on investment if these criteria are met.
 

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.
Click to expand...

I'd take MSU level success with MSU level prices.
 

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 think you are mistaking Minnesotans for consumers overall. Whenever prices are increased on anything a consumer will switch to a comparable good that they perceive to be more affordable. This hurts more because Alums have such a close connection with their alma mater. Big business tries to drive organic growth in revenue. Big business usually fails when they increase prices to increase revenue. Target does not raise prices when they open a new store. Google doesn't charge a fee per search so they can crank out self driving cars.

I understand fielding a competitive athletic department. I understand that prices need to be increased eventually. I believe the U could have implemented this policy over a more gradual timeline instead of asking a lot of fans over the next three years. Sporting events should be fabulous events for everyone. They can serve as an escape from a lot of the challenges being faced in life. As more and more fans are left on the outside looking in, the whole experience and purpose suffers.

It just doesn't add up when you couldn't even sell out TCF once this year. Build the brand with winning teams, full stadiums, and a party on Saturdays. Build the brand, and the donors will want to play.
 

Nebraska charges these high prices because they can, because there is sufficient demand for tickets. You can raise prices when demand exceeds supply, but it doesn't make much sense to raise prices when supply exceeds demand.
 

The way I understand this is next year I will pay an extra $75 per ticket, then $250 per ticket, then $500 per ticket. What does 2018 bring?
 

It's all been said, but the demand just isn't there. The administration has WAY overestimated the devotion of their fan base. I offer myself as an example. Most 'regular' folks probably think I'm a die-hard Gophers fan because I've been a season ticket holder for 11 years now. Well, I'm not. I'm a guy that really likes the Gophers and thinks the games are a fun, reasonably priced activity. But I've got lots of other things I like to do as well, and sorry, but the Gophers are only a priority to a certain point. I'm in section 137 (the folks who get reamed the worst %-wise: more than a double in ticket price by 2015, from $330 to $830), so my two tickets will cost an extra grand. I like to play guitar. I like to go to warm places in the winter. I'm very comfortable saying I'd rather spend that grand on a new guitar every year, or buy two plane tickets somewhere warm every year and STILL be able to watch the Gophers on TV. That's my level of fandom. I think there are lots more like me, and I think we are going to see that in the next 2-3 years in the form of empty seats.
 


Look at the Bright Side

After sleeping on this matter of new ticket prices, I have had some time to let this sink in and after some self-reflection now realize I completely overreacted. I now see that Norwood was trying to do me and all Gopher fans a great service by implementing these modest price increases. I’m using this thread to extol all the good things that will result from these new prices. But before I get us started, I want to offer a sincere apology to fellow Gopher fans and in particular Norwood for my melodramatic and juvenile behavior. With that behind me and a fresh opportunity to be a “glass is half-full” kinda guy, here are some positives I think we can all look forward to:

We’ll all get to park and tailgate in Maroon and Gold lots, with a good chance of being next to your entrance gate.

Everyone gets to be on the tunnel team, even opposing fans.

At least once a season, all season ticket holders get to retrieve the tee after kickoffs. If you’re lucky, you might get to do it twice.

If you listen closely during the game, you might hear what plays they’re calling. You’ll definitely get firsthand accounts of Jerry’s conversations with the referees.

If you bring your kid to the game, they’ll get all 5-minutes of the Lion King jumbo-tron thing assuming you have herculean strength.

Whenever MN gains 10 or more yards, MN fans will get to follow the PA announcer’s “That’s another MN” queue with “it’s costing me about $75 for every first down.”

This will end the what is better, the sunny or shady side debate.

You’ll get your own concession stand and beer vendor to follow you around as you decide on the sunny or shady side.

Getting to/from the restroom during halftime will result in missing no more than a minute or two of the halftime performance.

Cell phone service and texting with others at the stadium won’t be an issue anymore since you’ll be able to talk to anyone no matter where you or they’re sitting.

If you bring a date, you will most likely get on Kiss Cam at least two or three times during the game. (If you do bring a date, I’d suggest you go Dutch, just say’in)

When fans rush the field after big wins, it will only take a few minutes to clear the field after the raucous celebration.

If we win a B1G championship, security should be able to handle the rioter.

Going to bowl games in the kreative khaters Cessna will be a lot of fun or for those of you trying to save a few bucks, their smart car.

No one is likely to notice Lois’ indiscretions or the other Iowa fans walking away with our goalpost(s) anymore. (Speaking of Iowa, I guess Norwood was serious about ending the Who Hates Iowa chant!)

If I missed anything, please feel free to add to this list.

On behalf of all loyal Gopher fans, thank you Norwood!

On Minnesota!
 

I'm not a season ticket holder but if I was I would probably be upset. Season ticket sales will be lower next year. I think this is a gamble. Jerry Kill stays long term and we break ground on new athletic facilities before fall 2015 I think this will work out. If coach Kill leaves it will backfire. Either way loyal season ticket holders have every right to be mad. To me the biggest insult would be if they increase prices and lose Kill anyway.
 

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