Nadine Babu STrib Blog: Why Don't The Students Like TCF Bank Stadium?

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Gold Vision said:
Something like 80% of freshman live in on campus housing. 40% of the people who live off campus have "walking commutes". The amount of extra on campus housing and near campus apartments since I finished in '03 is crazy.
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+1 and that is still growing. There are two large new apartment buildings in Stadium Village for this Fall (one where the former Campus Pizza was located and one where the former Oak Street Cinema was located). I just saw that more are coming. Opus is building another student apartment building on Washington almost directly across from the hotel (former Radisson now University Hotel or something like that). Once the light rail is done and Washington is closed to only pedestrians and the train in that stretch it will be quite the area. The area around campus is unbelievably different from the time I went to school there in the 90s. No way is it a commuter campus anymore.
 

GopherLady said:
FYI - received this tweet from Glen Perkins:

https://twitter.com/glen_perkins/statuses/236702599762554880



This is beyond ridiculous. Please Norwood...change the culture of Gopher Athletics. How many other donors haven't been treated with the appreciation they deserve?
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I know for a fact that Maturi reneged on a commitment to one of the lead donors to the stadium (and a person that donates large sums every year for several years) when it came time for him to pick a suite location at the stadium. This guy was near the top of the wall at the staium that shows all of the donors. The amount this guy has donated over the years makes what Perkins donated look like peanuts and Maturi still managed to treat him like crap. If Maturi didn't leave this donor would have donated very little money in the coming years (he absolutely loathed him).
 

koppco1 said:
+1 and that is still growing. There are two large new apartment buildings in Stadium Village for this Fall (one where the former Campus Pizza was located and one where the former Oak Street Cinema was located). I just saw that more are coming. Opus is building another student apartment building on Washington almost directly across from the hotel (former Radisson now University Hotel or something like that). Once the light rail is done and Washington is closed to only pedestrians and the train in that stretch it will be quite the area. The area around campus is unbelievably different from the time I went to school there in the 90s. No way is it a commuter campus anymore.
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Wasn't Yudof responsible for that? Or is my memory running amok?
 

station19 said:
Wasn't Yudof responsible for that? Or is my memory running amok?
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McKinley Boston should get the lion's share of the credit. Not that it's ever going to happen, all things considered..
 



Winning helps but it not the only answer.

It all has to do with the atmosphere and building traditions. Look at how many people went to Kicks games an no one even likes soccer! And you don't need all these new parking lots either. Many SEC schools like Auburn allow people to set up their tailgate camps on the open spaces between buildings on the campus by the stadium. As a group of students you can rope off an area starting on Friday morning and have some one guard it until the party begins that night. Many of the students don't even have tickets and just keep parting during the game. I think some of the big boosters can pay to reserve prime spots and set up party trailers. A lot of the parking is in a big parking ramp by the stadium.
 

Parski1 said:
Win - Win - Win.....Winning cures all if this!
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Winning is #1, but like most things it's only part of the big picture.

I don't think Indiana sells 12,000 season tickets to students because of winning, winning.

Time to look at the big picture my friend.(don't you just hate that term:)).
 

Students, casual fans and everyone else will show up when you win. That's the bottom line. I hate to agree with Sid, but he is correct on this.
 

CP Gopher said:
Students, casual fans and everyone else will show up when you win. That's the bottom line. I hate to agree with Sid, but he is correct on this.
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The obvious but it can be done without huge success on the field.

The UM is not that far off from filling TCF even though we haven't won big and often in years. I believe that its possible by making a gameday experience that will make people want to come back again and again. Wrigley Field is a good example as the Cubs have been horrible for years. Yet fans continue to fill that old dump.
 



Is there a major University in this country that is run more poorly than the U of M? Penn St. may have harbored a pedophile but they were fiscally repsonsible and money grew on trees in State College.

It seems like it's one head shaking fiasco after another with the folks running this clown college.
 

Art Vandelay said:
Is there a major University in this country that is run more poorly than the U of M? Penn St. may have harbored a pedophile but they were fiscally repsonsible and money grew on trees in State College.

It seems like it's one head shaking fiasco after another with the folks running this clown college.
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Does that mean this site is a fiasco because we harbor Art Vandelay? Just asking.
 


Maximus said:
Arent basketball student tickets leveraged to sell football tickets at Indiana?
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I believe so. Every place has to find their own unique way.....not just sit around and wait for winning.
 



Maximus said:
Arent basketball student tickets leveraged to sell football tickets at Indiana?
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I thought I read that if you bought football you got priority for basketball, but I can't find anything on their site to corroborate.
 

The article mentions young alumni tickets. While they don't sell the student section to young alumni, there is a young alumni section and discounted tickets for your first 3 years after you graduate. Not only were the tickets cheaper, it bundled an alumni association membership, and you could purchase a companion seat. Finally, gopher points are earned.
http://www.gophersports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/082410aab.html

I took advantage of this program the past two years it has been offered and thought it was really great. You were given free stuff like t-shirts, they hosted a pig roast before the Iowa game in 2010 that Maturi and Goldy showed up to in Williams Arena Club room. (last year was a voucher program at BWW, but still free food!)

You are going to be in the corner of the end-zone, but I thought it was successful way to get me to continue attending the games. Now that I don't qualify anymore, I have better seats on the 20 yard line, but I pay full price, and don't get all that free stuff.
 

t-docious said:
you don't NEED to win to put butts in the seats. Look at Iowa St. They are usually terrible but they have a loyal fan base because tailgating is awesome there. Yes winning would certainly help but our gameday experience is absolutely a snooze fest. kids can't tailgate. frats can't party. Because of that students don't want to leave dinkytown where the booze is. The alcohol sales might give a spike in interest but it certainly wont be enough to fill the seats cause what student of age is going to pay 7 dollars for a beer? Everyone likes to go to a party so turn it into one.
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this, this, a thousand times this. he really said it all right here. all this other talk and the number of convoluted, overly complex ideas some are coming up with are pointless and not the answer in regards to student attendance, student attitudes and their willingness to make time and and effort to attend games.

some of you for personal or moral reasons may not want it to be true. you may not want alcohol and partying and the ability to truly tailgate like the rest of us to be a primary reason why students do what they do and go where they go. but it is what it is. no amount of social engineering by the U of M and policy makers, or hang-wringing by nosy adults, is going to change that fact about students. it is the same at virtually every major campus in the united states. kids want to party and they want to blow off some steam. they want to be where the party is at and people are blowing off steam. frankly most adults do to.

the U would be wise to simply back off to some degree on the amount of ordinances and regulations they have related to alcohol on and around campus. give the kids proper space and proximity to the stadium and the ability to make it a party of their own. then just f-ing back off already and let it grow and evolve into its own thing. its own tradition and experience.
 

highwayman said:
It's not the stadium, it's the U of M culture. Make the students actually welcome, make it a weekend experience, and they will come in droves. Make the experience for 65 year olds (hey--I'm getting close) and they will not. I'm 53 years old, and I still try to recapture my youth each football Saturday. I just fall asleep sooner.
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well said.
 

Ski U Master said:
Things that harm the experience in the stadium and can be fixed without winning (in my opinion):
Constant advertising
Too few interactive fan chants
Band needs to play more music and fewer drum cadences between plays, unless the cheer team/band can organize fan chants or dances for those cadences
Misused video board (related to constant ads)
Absurd frisking at the door, let the kids sneak in a flask. Who cares.
Misuse of tailgating space by selling it as expensive parking rather than affordable tailgating. The common man tailgates, the wealthy old people (typically) do not.
No where for students to congregate AS STUDENTS (no little kids or families) before the game near the stadium.
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ding, ding, ding. imo, this is a major part of the problem.
 

josh087 said:
The tailgating piece is a huge miss, not just on the student's end. When the only places to tailgate within a mile of the stadium are $1,000 or more, its a huge issue.
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no kidding. yes, let's tear up even more tailgating space near the stadium and build redundant research facilities on them that will likely sit half-empty for the next 15 years and can't operate without nearly 90% tax payer subsidies.

still bugs me a little that they tore up so much tailgating space in the last two years. don't get me wrong, i appreciate and think it is cool that they put in some of those new research buildings there. hope some great stuff comes out of them. not saying none of them should be there. but did they have to completely wipe out all of the tailgating space in a couple of those lots?
 

GopherLady said:
You forget what that means to college kids. I know kids that live on $20 a week on groceries, or spend $10 a weekend and buy 2 cups at beer busts. Most of these kids make $7 or $8 an hour. I'm not saying that that's the reason why they aren't selling, but it's a factor when you're bad. All I know is when we dropped the prices of bball tickets, they skyrocketed...and made a lot more money selling a lot more tix.



Exactly. There are so many teams that don't win, but they have so much fun, people are always going. Of course people flock to a winner, but you don't have to win to have a blast.



I almost mentioned face painting and state fair like activities, but I thought it would be petty!
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i don't think we can worry about hurting a few feelings at this point. overly sensitive feelings be damned. get it done.
 

Gopher07 said:
"On campus" counts only as university-owned housing. I'm guessing it's around 60% of undergraduates that live on campus or in the immediate area (Stadium Village, Dinkytown, West Bank/7 Corners). For reference, the B1G schools "on campus" percentages per US News:

Illinois: 50% on campus
Nebraska: 40%
Michigan State: 40%
Purdue: 38%
Michigan: 37%
Penn State: 37%
Indiana: 33%
Iowa: 30%
Ohio State: 25%
Wisconsin: 25%
Minnesota: 21%
Northwestern: n/a
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well, that just makes illinois, purdue and indiana look even worse then. they have much higher % of on-campus student populations and still struggle quite a bit with attendance. i would bet if the U of M had % numbers like that we would have far better attendance numbers than either of those 3 schools.

shame on them. ;-)
 

Ski U Master said:
I thought I read that if you bought football you got priority for basketball, but I can't find anything on their site to corroborate.
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Marcus addressed this in his last blog: http://blogs.twincities.com/gophers...udent-season-tickets-sold-close-to-2011-pace/

If you want to buy Indiana basketball tickets, the only way to do so is to buy a football/basketball season ticket package. You can’t purchase Indiana basketball student season tickets without buying football. Students get all seven football home games and 10 basketball home games for $180.
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goldybobblehead said:
The article mentions young alumni tickets. While they don't sell the student section to young alumni, there is a young alumni section and discounted tickets for your first 3 years after you graduate. Not only were the tickets cheaper, it bundled an alumni association membership, and you could purchase a companion seat. Finally, gopher points are earned.
http://www.gophersports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/082410aab.html

I took advantage of this program the past two years it has been offered and thought it was really great. You were given free stuff like t-shirts, they hosted a pig roast before the Iowa game in 2010 that Maturi and Goldy showed up to in Williams Arena Club room. (last year was a voucher program at BWW, but still free food!)

You are going to be in the corner of the end-zone, but I thought it was successful way to get me to continue attending the games. Now that I don't qualify anymore, I have better seats on the 20 yard line, but I pay full price, and don't get all that free stuff.
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IMHO - Paying $199 is still way to much, especially for kids that just graduated, many which can't find full-time jobs. That's why they're clearly not buying these up. Plus, why not put these tickets in the student section, there's certainly room. I know I probably would have stayed in the student section until I needed a walker if I could - you get so used to standing, cheering, and getting into the game...why put the young alumni who are willing to add to that atmosphere anywhere else?
 

GopherLady said:
Marcus addressed this in his last blog: http://blogs.twincities.com/gophers...udent-season-tickets-sold-close-to-2011-pace/





IMHO - Paying $199 is still way to much, especially for kids that just graduated, many which can't find full-time jobs. That's why they're clearly not buying these up. Plus, why not put these tickets in the student section, there's certainly room. I know I probably would have stayed in the student section until I needed a walker if I could - you get so used to standing, cheering, and getting into the game...why put the young alumni who are willing to add to that atmosphere anywhere else?
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It may be that the U is not promoting these packages properly- at the end of last year when the to-be graduates were still around. It is also a great way to get alumni to buy a alumni association membership because I wouldn't have otherwise. Anyone could go sit in the student section if they wanted- there are plenty of seats- I would prefer having an assigned seat where I can get to know the fans around me- and the sections reserved for the young alumni are adjacent to the student section, so you are still enjoying and participating in that atmosphere. - The stadium has many seats needing to be filled- not just in the student section.

Finding a job is another excuse like the cost of student tickets are too high (they are not). As any season ticket holder would say, split between all home games it is a good value for 3 hours of entertainment. There are just so many opportunities to be entertained in the Twin Cities that it boils back down to all the other reasons mentioned that people have limited entertainment dollars and would rather come see a winning product or spend money elsewhere. Recent alumni shouldn't need huge financial incentives to be drawn to TCF bank stadium. As it was, I was happy to get a better deal than regular season ticket holders.
 

You guys got it.

What is the population of the areas where these schools are in? Looks like it is almost inverse of metro area. Lots of people live off campus.

Those number don't mean much.

GM
 

Comparing Minnesota to Iowa State is comical. Ames, Iowa has little to nothing going on outside of the University. It's also important to note that since 1998, Iowa State is 8-6 against Iowa. In that same time span Minnesota is 2-12 against Wisconsin. The standards for acceptable play are always going to be higher in Minneapolis than they are in Ames, Iowa as they should be. It's great to attempt to come up with ideas on how to get people to come to a Gopher game, but the bigger issue is getting them to keep coming and that will only happen by being a competitive Big Ten team that actually wins the conference on occasion.
 


This was one of the better tailgates I have had the chance to attend. It is about 10 acres, about a mile from Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

ole-miss-grove.jpg

The alumni got it rolling and the rest is what I think tailgating should be. Of course the Walk of Champions takes you to the stadium.
I am thinking Northup Mall, smack dab in the middle of campus. Come on Alumni make it happen.
 


Who gives a sht what their record against Iowa is, the ISU students go to all of the games and with the exception of last year, they are typically a bad team. I agree there is less to do in Ames, but compare the game day festivities of Iowa State and Minnesota and our options for students are pathetic. Iowa State turns their grass intramural fields into tailgating lots, most of which are students. I've been to many Iowa State tailgates and those tailgate lots are a f'ing party. Tell me where at the U a student can have the same experience where hundreds or thousands of other students congegrate and go nuts every Saturday before a football game.
 

agreed. I got to tailgate in one of those prime lots for the game against Nebraska last year and the space was awesome, but we could have fit a TON more people in there. If you aren't some business trying to entertain clients or just plain wealth, you can't afford to do that. Get the students a place to tailgate.
 

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