MN Daily: Stadium sees empty seats in 2nd year

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I hope that I am misreading but this seems like blame being laid on students for lack of sell-outs. Due to the fact that the atmosphere of winning does not exist, the atmosphere of necessity to purchase student tickets does not exist. I assume if the team was competitive (like in the Iowa game) the student section would sell out. I assume that this would then create the atmosphere of necessity to purchase student tickets.

I would be interested to know what the capacity of other big ten student sections might be. I caught a Big Ten Traditions show on the BTN last night and it mentioned the Orange Crush and the Izzone. Wrong sport, but it was interesting to see the capacity comparison.

I guess I have a question also. Please don't read this as criticism of TCF Bank Stadium, it is still the best college stadium I have been in, which includes Camp Randall, Spartan Stadium, Michigan Stadium, Kinnick Stadium, Ohio Stadium, Neyland Stadium, and some others. I have not seen at any other college stadium a student section divided in to an upper and lower deck. Does this create negativity among students?
 

The biggest challenge with the new stadium is to create a culture where students enjoy game day at TCF. This isn't going to happen overnight.

The U is going to sell only slightly more than 5,000 tickets to students next year. It doesn't matter who the coach is. I hope they are prepared for that reality. It would be a shame if they get blind-sided by this.
 

Goldmember said:
The biggest challenge with the new stadium is to create a culture where students enjoy game day at TCF. This isn't going to happen overnight.

The U is going to sell only slightly more than 5,000 tickets to students next year. It doesn't matter who the coach is. I hope they are prepared for that reality. It would be a shame if they get blind-sided by this.
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Agree strongly to the bold. I'd note that the same is true for regular season ticket holders. Lets not forget that the season ticket base at the Dome was approx 29K. We added 8K with the new stadium. I don't think the Gophers got that popular overnight. The stadium had everything to do with it. The U needs to work hard to continue to improve the gameday atmosphere on campus so that being around the game becomes an event in and of itself.
 

Law_Abiding_Gopher said:
I would be interested to know what the capacity of other big ten student sections might be. I caught a Big Ten Traditions show on the BTN last night and it mentioned the Orange Crush and the Izzone. Wrong sport, but it was interesting to see the capacity comparison.

I have not seen at any other college stadium a student section divided in to an upper and lower deck. Does this create negativity among students?
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We have one of the smaller student sections in the conference based on size but we're about at the median (I believe) in terms of % of total seats allotted to students. I don't have exact numbers for you, but I recall that being the answer I got during the tour of TCF I got back when it was still under construction.

I think we may be slightly unique in the configuration of "upper" and "lower" halves of the student section, but I'd point out that the last row in the upper deck is very similar to the last row of student sections in other stadiums. The difference is that most other stadiums don't have a 32 row "lower" deck and 32 row "upper" deck. They just have a 60+ row lower level. Think Camp Randall, Michigan Stadium, The Horseshoe, Happy Valley, etc.
 


Give the fans a reason to go and they will fill up that beautiful stadium.

Obviously they did on Saturday!
 

Winning cures everything. I don't care what school.. They go 2-9, 3-8 or 1-11 (which everyone and their sister thought we were going to do), you are going to have empty seats. Especially during hunting opener and holiday weekends.

Winning develops a culture, which develops the atmosphere. Then our kids will fill'er up.
 

Formo said:
Winning cures everything. I don't care what school.. They go 2-9, 3-8 or 1-11 (which everyone and their sister thought we were going to do), you are going to have empty seats. Especially during hunting opener and holiday weekends.

Winning develops a culture, which develops the atmosphere. Then our kids will fill'er up.
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Winning is HUGE. But you can develop a culture in the absence of winning. I'm not saying you can pack the stadium. But you can still make gameday on campus something that people want to be a part of regardless of whether the team is winning. By doing so, you set yourself up to survive any lean years more successfully. Winning just makes the whole process easier.
 

Goldmember said:
The biggest challenge with the new stadium is to create a culture where students enjoy game day at TCF. This isn't going to happen overnight.

The U is going to sell only slightly more than 5,000 tickets to students next year. It doesn't matter who the coach is. I hope they are prepared for that reality. It would be a shame if they get blind-sided by this.
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Afternoon and evening games with alcohol would attract more students. What college kid wants to get up and go to a football game in the morning.
 




My god what a bunch of spoiled babies. I would have killed to go to a game on campus, outside, ina beautiful stadium when I went to school. Instead we had to catch a bus to the Metrodump and sit in that horrible excuse of a football stadium. I love how one of the guys in the article says he didn't think it was worth it to but season tickets as he didn't go to all of the games. How much do their tickets cost? Something like $80 isn't it? Beer and pizza over a couple of weeks costs more than that. The U should limit student season tickets to 7000 and sell the rest to full paying season ticket holders or they need to find a way to encourage attendance by the students who buy the tickets (i.e. don't buy them and then not go).
 

Formo said:
Winning cures everything. I don't care what school.. They go 2-9, 3-8 or 1-11 (which everyone and their sister thought we were going to do), you are going to have empty seats. Especially during hunting opener and holiday weekends.

Winning develops a culture, which develops the atmosphere. Then our kids will fill'er up.
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Exactly.

In five years when the shine rubs off of Target Field, the Twins will be in the same situation where they need to win to fill up the stadium. Everyone acts like they don't remember the empty days of the Metrodome when Matt Walbeck and not Joe Mauer roamed the area behind home plate.

The Target Center was a packed house during the first year of KG/Spre/Cassell, too. Minnesota sports fans are fickle that way.
 

GoAUpher said:
Winning is HUGE. But you can develop a culture in the absence of winning. I'm not saying you can pack the stadium. But you can still make gameday on campus something that people want to be a part of regardless of whether the team is winning. By doing so, you set yourself up to survive any lean years more successfully. Winning just makes the whole process easier.
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I've been saying thee exact same thing for two years now but people don't want to hear it.

I agree with you, I just wish there were more of us.
 



stevedave23 said:
I've been saying thee exact same thing for two years now but people don't want to hear it.

I agree with you, I just wish there were more of us.
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I think its because its a hard thing to do. Especially at the U. A large metro campus has some roadblocks that a college town school doesn't.
 

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