GopherHole Exclusive: UH-OH!!! Survey Shows Gophers Season Tickets Could Drop by 25%

[tjgopher]

with deals like that, why would anyone buy season tickets?

It depends on if you want the "good" seats. If you do want good seats and want to go to every game, then you'll need to buy season tickets. If you don't care if you get "good" seats, then there's a definite benefit to not buying season tickets. You can pick and choose which games you want to go to, take advantage of some "bad" seat deals, and not pay for bogus games. But, you likely won't get good seats consistently.

 

[Gold Vision]

It depends on if you want the "good" seats. If you do want good seats and want to go to every game, then you'll need to buy season tickets. If you don't care if you get "good" seats, then there's a definite benefit to not buying season tickets. You can pick and choose which games you want to go to, take advantage of some "bad" seat deals, and not pay for bogus games. But, you likely won't get good seats consistently.

This is very true. I brought my 10 year old nephew to a non-conference game last year thinking there would be plenty of scalpers offering tickets. I ended up having to buy upper deck highest row behind the hoop for full price from the ticket office.

He couldn't stop talking about how he had never sat in the nose bleeds before. He thought it was pretty cool.

I was not as impressed. Usually I can get about tenth row upper deck behind a basket. Not bad seats.

 

[bga1]

Pretty much agree with that. A lot of people are very emotional about this issue right now, and understandably so. However, I think a lot of those saying they won't renew -- when the time comes & push comes to shove -- they'll go online when it's their turn select their new seats. Some might even be surprised that they'll have the opportunity for better seats.

My philosophy has always been, even if the Gophers stink or are coming off a bad season, it'll always be Big Ten basketball. I'll never cease to enjoy watching other B1G schools come to Williams to play the Gophers.

Here's the good news-

After this year - a lot higher percentage of their season ticket base will be premium. That has to put a lot more pressure on the athletic department to bring in better non-conference competition. You can't control winning every season, but you can schedule better slates than they have been. Once a substantial portion of the Barn seats are worth between $40-$50 per game, the games with Podunk U are not going to go over very well.

 

[sec105]

So it is true, season tickets figures will change. However, I doubt it will change attendence too much. The atmosphere will not get worse, its already poor. It can only get better and maybe by moving a couple of piles of dust from their seats that rarely get loud and replacing them with someone who can actually project volume for the orifice on their face is a good thing?

I disagree. It can get much worse.

Especially if those premium seats are purchased by corporations which will likely be the case. As has been noted those corporate owned seats are then given to clients who have little if any interest in the Gophers. They arrive late and leave early, don't stand for the rouser because they don't know what the rouser is, ask which team is the Gophers, who's the Gopher coach (all questions I have been asked over the years by my corporate ticket neighbors) etc.

So yes, it can indeed get worse.

 

[BarnBurner]

I spoke to someone involved in developing the premium seating program when they first announced it. He shared a few pieces of interesting information:

1) They typically expect to lose about 5% of the season ticket holders in any given year. Those are most often newer ticket holders who lose interest, get frustrated with the inability to improve location, etc. They anticipated that the number would be higher for 2011-12 as some people who were absolutely not going to participate in the premium seating plan might figure it made sense to cut the cord right away rather than paying for a “lame duck” year. (I don’t know what the renewal rate for this year turned out to be.) They expected the non-renewal rate for 2012-13 to be around 10%. Based on that, I am sure that they would be disappointed if the non-renewal rate actually turned out to be anywhere close to 20%, but I doubt they would be totally surprised, either.

2) Part of the motivation for the change to this type of program was to create a more equitable donation system and to change the overall pricing model. There just isn’t an easy way to accomplish that. Right now, relatively few seats require donations, but those donation levels are much higher than the new system. The current system has folks donating >$1,000 per year per seat next to people who have never made a donation. They appreciate the loyalty of the longtime ticket holders, but in an environment where they need to increase revenue and where the primary thing they have to offer in exchange for that revenue is seat location, they are prepared to lose longtime season ticket holders who don’t make donations in exchange for increasing (significantly, they hope) the number of people making donations at some level. The survey doesn’t address how long people have had tickets or whether the respondents currently make donations, but that would be important information to know and would be of much more significance to the University than strictly the non-renewal rate alone. I suspect that the non-renewal rate among current donors will be much lower. I would expect that they will approach those who have donated at a higher level under the old system to continue their donations at that level and/or add seats.

3) They view any losses in current ticket holders as an opportunity to add new, higher revenue ones. If they truly end the re-seating process with lots of unsold premium seats, they will have those seats to market to new (or former) customers and will do so with seat locations far better than they have had to offer in the past. How much interest will there be in that? I have no clue, but I am sure that there are customers for chair back seats between the base lines who would pay an extra $400/per seat who would have no interest in sitting on a bench in the upper level, even at the reduced price. It would be much easier to find those folks in a better economy, but they are still out there in some number.

All about the $$ and not about loyalty to the program.

Not surprising, however not the way to treat loyal ticket holders imo.

 

[Gold Vision]

Look at Wisconsin's crowd tonight, these non-conference games just don't draw well.

 

[Rouser]

I'm looking forward to seeing how this all plays out. Keeping an open mind. I'm in the camp that figures if a lot of people drop their season tickets, my chances improve to get better seats (the $100 or $250). Those of you in the 36th percentile or higher with Gopher Points, feel free to drop your season tickets next spring. ... need my seat rank percentile to bump up as much as possible!

+1

I do think this is an emotional topic and agree with SS that actual results will be far different from what someone says while walking out of or into a boring non conference game during the dead of winter. That said, I'm sure there will be declines. At this point the train has left the station. I am staying in, period. Right now my seats suck and I've had them for about 8 years. I look forward to improving while others bow out.

 

[2nd Degree Gopher]

All about the $$ and not about loyalty to the program.

Not surprising, however not the way to treat loyal ticket holders imo.

I agree that it is first and foremost about the money, that’s the stated reason for the change. I guess you can argue that they don’t need to increase revenue and should continue along exactly as they have in the past, but once you accept the premise that they need to increase the revenue, what alternatives would you prefer? How does any model work that includes letting the vast majority of the best seats remain in the hands of people who aren't going to pay anything more?

 

[From the Barn]

You could just as easily argue that the ticket holders who are jumping ship over $5 per game are also putting money above loyalty.

 

[go 31]

More enthusiastic fans!

I'm not surprised that 18% say they will not renew (some will). Also, understand that 21% are undecided (most will renew). But, I'm especially encouraged that only 9% will select the $400 donation...that way I can move up and get more people behind me to get off they butts and really cheer! This is a win-win. More money more the program and a louder Barn!

 

[row19gopher]

When push comes to shove, I would be shocked if 25% don't renew. (Even if it will help my selection process.) I thought the football selection process went very smoothly, and I actually spent more $ than I anticipated because I saw what seats were available for not much more donation. There's only one place to see D1 basketball in the winter - Williams Arena. Most of our fans are pretty loyal and realize expenses are going up for many things. I think most ticket holders (or their families or their friends who have used the tickets) will realize this isn't that far out of line vs other sports tickets and renew.

 

[Rosemountian]

"This survey is for entertainment purposes only and is not meant to be scientific"


You can take about as much from this survey as a startribune.com online survey.





Interesting to ask about though.

 

[GopherJake]

Over the past couple weeks, I had some Q & A with the ticket office, in which some of ya'll may have interest.......

Q: Next spring, when it is our turn to renew, are we given an exact date & time for when we can choose our seats?

A: You will be given an exact date and time next spring when you will be able to select your seats in Williams Arena. There will be 2 season ticket holders eligible to select every five minutes

Q: Will there be a detailed seating chart available that shows exact seat numbers for every section and whether or not it is a chairback?

A: There will be an online tool that will allow you to view the seats, sections and view in Williams Arena. That application will be available to use after the first of the year.

Q: So if we renew our tickets for 2012-2013 (i.e., next year, the first year Gopher Points will be in effect) and if we, for example, choose seats where the mandatory donation level is $100 per seat for our two seats, how does it work the following year(s) if we choose to move to a different level of donation (or none)?

A: Behind everyone that renews at same level; based on Points vs. anyone else moving/new.

Q: What will be done with seats in premium (donation-required) seating locations if they are not sold as season tickets? Are they then sold to the general public as single game seats with no donation required?

A: We anticipate that all premium seats in Williams Arena will be sold either to current or new season ticket holders.

Q: How many seats are at each premium seating level?

A: In Williams Arena, there are:

4,133 "white section" seats with no donation;
1,223 "blue section" seats with $100 donation;
2,094 "green section" seats with $250 donation;
2,642 "red section" seats with $400 donation.

Q: The numbers you listed add up to only 10092. Where are the other 4500+ seats? (14625 is the "sellout" number)

A: Other seats are student sections, obstructed seats, house holds for recruits, visiting teams, etc.

 

[Gopher Warrior]

Anyone know how much in preferred seat donations the U pulled in for the 2011-12 season? I had done an estimate with made up facts a few months ago that I think got me to the new donation setup resulting in around a net 15% increase in ticket revenues with a full house (face value of tickets + required donations).

 

[Gold Vision]

Any update on this? What type of renewal rate did they have this year?

 

[BleedGopher]

According to Shama today, which is great news:

It appears gloomy forecasts about Gophers hockey and basketball season ticket renewals will not be correct. Next fall will be the first where most season ticket holders are paying a donation fee in addition to the regular cost of tickets, but renewals in hockey are impressive this spring and basketball looks promising too.

The hockey season ticket drive (now over) resulted in an 89 percent renewal, only one percent less than last year. The inventory for seats requiring a $300 donation sold out while 95 percent of the $200 category was purchased. Six hundred seats in the $100 donation category weren’t purchased and 150 remained in the non-donation group.

At the one-third renewal phase for basketball, the top donation category — $400 per ticket — was the most popular. The season ticket renewal for basketball was thought to be a major challenge for Gophers marketers since coach Tubby Smith’s team finished at 6-12 in the Big Ten and his five-year conference record is 38-52, but Minnesota rallied late in the postseason to play for the NIT title and has a promising group of players returning this fall. The Gophers hockey team is coming off a season when Minnesota lost to Boston College in the semifinals of the Frozen Four.

The Gophers football season ticket renewal campaign is also complete, ending with 89 percent renewal. The athletic department is working with the Atlanta-based Aspire Group to sell football tickets this summer with 12-full time sales reps expected to begin work on June 11.

Nearly all 25 sports programs at Minnesota compiled cumulative GPA’s of 3.0 or better by their athletes during spring semester. Solid academic performances in football and basketball include the news that no high profile players are expected to have eligibility issues.

http://shamasportsheadliners.com/

Go Gophers!!

 

[Gold Vision]

I'll be curious to see what the final basketball numbers are, I think the process has gone great so far injecting a lot of new revenue into the AD.

89% in hockey is kind of surprising though after a Frozen Four run. Just 5-6 years ago there was a waiting list that was supposedly decades long.