Reusse: Steep prices keeping fans away from Gophers' big three

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I'm an out of towner who also has to consider airline fares and hotel costs. Its not like driving in from Eden Prairie or White Bear Lake, for example. Then there was the the change in income tax law making the extra fees non deductible. For me, the total cost became prohibitive.
 

Arnold Babar said:
I used to attend one game per year with a group of 15-20 friends. We kept the beer and food venders busy the entire game and always had a great time.
This year, we looked at the price for individual tickets to the Iowa game and decided it would be just as fun to watch the game from a local bar. We all spent a fraction of the money and still had a great time.
This is not a good trend for the athletic department.
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If you are watching the full game, at a bar, with beer, & drinks throughout and simple food, and coming out ahead, you are not doing it right in the bar !

It's not the ticket price, it is the stupid "donation".
 

Pompous Elitist said:
That makes a lot of sense and we all have great memories attending games which helps to keep that connection. I’m in the camp of lower prices and try fill the stadium to help the experience. Maybe there really aren’t enough fans to fill it even if people were enticed with gift cards or cash - maybe a winning team is the only antidote. Next year could be the inflection point.
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This is the key for me. Our group of seven have kept our season tickets during rising prices, but an empty stadium is getting boring. It's simply more fun with a full, loud stadium, not to mention more people tailgating and at Stub and Herb's beforehand. We had just as much fun watching the Wisconsin game together on TV at far less cost.

The U has run the numbers. They're making more money at the current prices, and that's what is important to them. It won't change.

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On a macro level, the BIGTEN and other conferences, have done the calculation and chosen TV revenue over butts in seats. With proper camera work and production, the empty seats won't appear on screen.
Locally, that means our quaint, pretty little stadium will never need to be bigger.
 

$$$$$$$$$$$

Arnold Babar said:
I used to attend one game per year with a group of 15-20 friends. We kept the beer and food venders busy the entire game and always had a great time.
This year, we looked at the price for individual tickets to the Iowa game and decided it would be just as fun to watch the game from a local bar. We all spent a fraction of the money and still had a great time.
This is not a good trend for the athletic department.
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My guess is you had a FRACTION of the fun also. Nothing beats college game day with tailgating and a football game. Just my $.02. I will continue to attend the games
 


go4rob said:
I hate to say it, but he is spot on regarding our ticket prices. I went to the Northwestern ticket website (not Stub Hub or anything similar) prior to their final home game of the season against Illinois, and the ticket range was shocking: $3.00 for the cheap seats and $28 for the most expensive ones. And this is in Chicago folks. We had friends that wanted to buy 4 tickets to this year's Iowa game and the tickets were $85/each. Needless to say, they didn't go. Somebody in the Athletic Dept. needs to get a better understanding of the principle of supply and demand. Lower the dang prices and fill the seats - *duh*
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I paid about $2000 for 4 seats. This works out to around $70 per seat per game. I easily could get the same seats or better on the street for far less. When the U tried to sell FB tickets for less than what season tickets + scholarship fee are, some "elite" ST holders got their undies in a bundle. I buy season tickets to support the U and for the ease of the gameday experience it affords. I personally don't care if the U deeply discounted tickets to get butts in the seats. It would add to the gameday festivities and hopefully increase the fan base. I also have WBB STs the 1st home game with a huge house was great. SKI-U-MAH &RTB!!!
 

Whytetale said:
I paid about $2000 for 4 seats. This works out to around $70 per seat per game. I easily could get the same seats or better on the street for far less. When the U tried to sell FB tickets for less than what season tickets + scholarship fee are, some "elite" ST holders got their undies in a bundle. I buy season tickets to support the U and for the ease of the gameday experience it affords. I personally don't care if the U deeply discounted tickets to get butts in the seats. It would add to the gameday festivities and hopefully increase the fan base. I also have WBB STs the 1st home game with a huge house was great. SKI-U-MAH &RTB!!!
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I truly want to agree...it is much more fun when the stadium is full. But I had a hard time with “Buy 3 pizzas and get a ticket”.
 

dlw4gophers said:
My guess is you had a FRACTION of the fun also. Nothing beats college game day with tailgating and a football game. Just my $.02. I will continue to attend the games
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I agree. There is no substitute for being their in person.

People can’t afford or don’t want to pay $70-$80 for ONE game a year, seriously? Put away $7 a month for a year and you can buy a ticket. You’re just cheap. What else do you “waste” that money on?

Season tickets in the non donation sections are still a bargain. If people really wanted to be at the games there’s a way to get it done. Every thing I hear in these post are pathetic excuses.
 

dlw4gophers said:
My guess is you had a FRACTION of the fun also. Nothing beats college game day with tailgating and a football game. Just my $.02. I will continue to attend the games
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Agree with you, but i just attend less games now due to cost considerations. This past year I was able to attend more games with the red baron deal, which was a stea and the sole impetus for me getting to two extra games.

If you could get in at like 10-15$ at the cheap seats coupled with some meaningful games (read wins) I think we start to refill the stadium.
 









We did have people who used the Pizza tickets. My point is, as a season ticket holder, I don’t care if people pay less than I do or get tickets for free I just want people there.
 

Rickman55 said:
We did have people who used the Pizza tickets. My point is, as a season ticket holder, I don’t care if people pay less than I do or get tickets for free I just want people there.
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Same here. I used the pizza promo to get a group of family members to two of the games. They had a good time but like many casual observers will only go if someone offers them a free ticket. If the program wins more I think this will change fast.
 

I have no idea on this...How much for basic tier Vikings tickets...if there is such a thing?

Maybe for some comparison would be seats in the equivalent of the east-west ends of the chairback sections?
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I suspect that, if the Gophers seriously considered a significant drop in ticket prices, there would be some push-back from the other B1G schools. Because if one school does it, there will be pressure on other schools to follow suit. Unless the new U of MN president is a real maverick (which I doubt), I don't see the U going out on a limb like that.
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I’m not buying this. Other B1G schools sell tix way cheaper than the U. Some sell for way more. We just don’t seem to grasp that whole supply/demand thing.


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You’d think the networks had the technology to put virtual fans in the stands to at least make the stadium look like it was packed.
 

Anyone know what our twin schools of Pitt, Washington or ASU charge for tickets?


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If you take the 17000 ticket holders and figure that 13000 of those are also paying licensing fees, you essentially have the same as 30000 season tickets being sold. They are making revenues, albeit plenty of room to add more revenue.

My only complaint about attending in person is the over abundance of in game timeouts. Games just take too long and too much down time in the stadium. I realize this is a network/advertising scheme.

Sell $5 or $10 tickets in the second deck in the corners above the student section and other empty areas at TCF.
 

Rickman55 said:
I agree. There is no substitute for being their in person.

People can’t afford or don’t want to pay $70-$80 for ONE game a year, seriously? Put away $7 a month for a year and you can buy a ticket. You’re just cheap. What else do you “waste” that money on?

Season tickets in the non donation sections are still a bargain. If people really wanted to be at the games there’s a way to get it done. Every thing I hear in these post are pathetic excuses.
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Obviously a lot of people feel the entertainment value isn’t there. People will gladly pay $12 to see the new Marvel flick, others would probably pay $80 if that was the going price. Others won’t see it at any price. (BTW and totally off track we are 1/3 through Black Panther...and it’s pretty horrible so far, considering it’s up for Best Picture..tell me it gets better) Everyone makes these value decisions all day long. The problem for a middling/sleeping program is growing a fervent fan base and filling the stadium helps accomplish that.

Regarding STHs getting upset about cut rate tickets - so what? Take your concert of choice. For a big act front row seats are thousands of dollars. Halfway back $500. Nose bleed $150 and behind the stage probably less. Tickets for some shows get more expensive as they sell out, other times there is a last few day ticket dump. Point is it’s a calculated risk to buy tickets early and don’t cry if someone gets a great deal.
 
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You could get tickets on stubhub for nearly free.

It's not the price.
 


Word said:
It is for season tickets. Those are not free.

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Not sure it matters overall.

Anyone who wants to go can go for cheap.

It's not like folks are sitting around "well I'm not going to go for nearly free.... unless I can buy season tickets".


People already aren't going, it has nothing to do with season tickets.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Not sure it matters overall.

Anyone who wants to go can go for cheap.

It's not like folks are sitting around "well I'm not going to go for nearly free.... unless I can buy season tickets".


People already aren't going, it has nothing to do with season tickets.
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Sure it does. People that commit to buying season tickets attend at a much higher rate.

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Word said:
Sure it does. People that commit to buying season tickets attend at a much higher rate.

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Actually teams have found that selling too high a % of season tickets results in more no shows.

You can even see some of it at some gopher games now where between the 30s you'll see a lot of open seats....
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Obviously a lot of people feel the entertainment value isn’t there...
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Yep.

Have had Season Tickets since 1993. Never cared if they sold special tickets deals to bring extra people in the stadium. Have purchased many of them myself to take more friends to the game.

The point is even with those "Pizza Deals" this year they couldn't even get the damn stadium half-full!

You know the answer why as well as the rest of us do. You had it in the first sentence. It's not the price of the deals, it's the price/value relationship of Season Tickets. It's way to out of whack.

They decided not to lower that Gift "Tax" on tickets for 2019. They are hoping winning the Axe plus the Nebraska and Sconnie Fans coming into TCF will make up for those 30,000 empty seats for the last 3 games at TCF in 2018.

Oh they'll hook the Husker/Badger games into a 2 or 3 game package for Non-Conference or unpopular games. That plus good weather and winning more games than they lose, should pul more butts in the seats next season.

How many extra Season Tickets they sell/lose should be the real question.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Actually teams have found that selling too high a % of season tickets results in more no shows.

You can even see some of it at some gopher games now where between the 30s you'll see a lot of open seats....
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But it also means that there are more people overall in the stands.
 



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