Season Ticket Renewal Blunder (Tailgating)

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Is there a way to get in contact with the Gopher Fan Committee thing that was created? Does that still exist? Do they do anything?


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jonnyganas said:
Gotcha, thanks for clearing that up.

The U needs to realize that SO many people are deterred when donation levels are required. It is literally a barrier to entry for most Gopher fans. If they turned the model on its head and leaned hard into a top priority of filling the stadium for all the home games (lowering ticket prices, donation requirements, etc.) they would likely earn more in the long run. Building lifelong relationships with fans and alumni likely would lead to donations in the future. Instead, you now have generations of fans that are left cold by attempts to get more money out of the people who have been the most loyal.

They should just charge event parking ($20? $25?) first-come/first-serve and allow tailgating. People who actually tailgate will show up early on gamedays to help create a festive atmosphere on gameday (an earlier post mentioned folks who merely park minutes before kickoff and walk in).
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Woah first come first serve?

Traffic is bad enough, can you imagine all the folks turned away driving from lot to lot?

It would be gridlock.
 

gall0249 said:
Is there a way to get in contact with the Gopher Fan Committee thing that was created? Does that still exist? Do they do anything?


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I don't think those folks really make financial decisions and they just eat food samples together and roll on.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Woah first come first serve?

Traffic is bad enough, can you imagine all the folks turned away driving from lot to lot?

It would be gridlock.
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not really, you would know the tailgates lots are full if your not getting there 1:30 before game time and the traffic that early is manageable.
 

LakerFan said:
not really, you would know the tailgates lots are full if your not getting there 1:30 before game time and the traffic that early is manageable.
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People are not smart... they'd be there.
 


A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Woah first come first serve?

Traffic is bad enough, can you imagine all the folks turned away driving from lot to lot?

It would be gridlock.
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Ha! Imagine that, TCF Bank being packed instead of a ghost town? Then we'd get to tackle problems like campus traffic.
 

jonnyganas said:
Ha! Imagine that, TCF Bank being packed instead of a ghost town? Then we'd get to tackle problems like campus traffic.
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I'm thinking about the traffic.

It is bad enough getting in and out as it is now... imagine all the folks without a parking pass not getting in, but driving around.
 

gopher ceaser said:
In years past my family had one person pay for all our “seat donations” (after signing a release form since we all had our own gopher ticket holder account) so that sum of donation dollars could go toward out parking donation of $1,000. This is no longer an option (or loophole as they called it) resulting in much more money being spent to tailgate on campus. We value the tailgate experience just as much or more as the game and it is the key reason why we kept our season tickets in years past.

I know that there are many others in our lot that are very dissatisfied with this decision as you can buy tickets, including parking passes at such a discount over re-newing through your season tickets. Seems very counterproductive to creating the atmosphere they desire inside and outside the stadium on game day.
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The associate donor was taken away. Because of that, the account holder of tickets must have a $1000.00 donation to qualify for a spot if one is available. Nothing really changed for you to get a spot. One of you pay the grand and your in.
 

State Fair lot is looking better and better every day.
 




gopherjay said:
The associate donor was taken away. Because of that, the account holder of tickets must have a $1000.00 donation to qualify for a spot if one is available. Nothing really changed for you to get a spot. One of you pay the grand and your in.
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For a group that shares a spot, it changes who has to be the account holder. In our case, our group of 3-4 people each had their tickets on their own accounts (getting their own Gopher Score and associated benefits for the tickets they were paying for) and we were able to pool our donations in a way that allowed us to get a shared tailgate spot. It was a nice gesture for groups of friends who have tickets together and want to tailgate it. It was a perk and was taken away. It is not a good time for Gopher sports to be taking away perks...I think that's all we're saying.
 

gopherjay said:
The associate donor was taken away. Because of that, the account holder of tickets must have a $1000.00 donation to qualify for a spot if one is available. Nothing really changed for you to get a spot. One of you pay the grand and your in.
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Missing the point. Just like all the rest who make the decisions about ticketing.

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The Gophers run the business side of things like they're Alabama or Ohio State. If the team had a history of recent success and a ton of fans, people would be willing to put up with this stuff. When the fan base is smaller, weather is an issue, and there are so many professional sports teams and non-sports entertainment options in town, they can't afford to push away fans for money. People are starting to realize it doesn't make sense to buy season tickets when they are overpriced and the stadium only fills up against a few opponents. They need to prioritize the gameday atmosphere over money to get to the point where people are willing to spend more to be a part of that atmosphere.
 



jonnyganas said:
The U needs to realize that SO many people are deterred when donation levels are required. It is literally a barrier to entry for most Gopher fans. If they turned the model on its head and leaned hard into a top priority of filling the stadium for all the home games (lowering ticket prices, donation requirements, etc.) they would likely earn more in the long run.
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Donation levels aren't required. There are thousands of seats that don't have a donation component.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I don't think those folks really make financial decisions and they just eat food samples together and roll on.
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And just say, "yep, great idea". It seems that is all the fan advisory board is. It's a nice concept but I'm unsure if they have ever affected any real, noticeable change.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I always wanted to check that out.
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I've gone there a few times. The only drawback is you're nowhere near the stadium so you kind of lose that atmosphere. Still, the tailgating and the people there are fun. That's where it seems a lot of the visiting team's fans tailgate too, so you get to share a ride over to the stadium with them. (Just to note, Iowa fans are the worst...and, as I recall it's been noted on GH before, Nebraska fans are the best.)
I stick around for a little while but then grab a few High Lifes and then jump on the shuttle over to TCF. I get the game day vibe before I head over to the Ski-U-Mah lot and mooch some food off some friends who usually have a nice spread before I head in.
The line for the bus going back after games moves at a decent pace...depends on the crowd that day, of course. I've yet to see the line waiting for a bus...there are usually at least 2 there at one time.
 

e.bigelow said:
And just say, "yep, great idea". It seems that is all the fan advisory board is. It's a nice concept but I'm unsure if they have ever affected any real, noticeable change.
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Yeah it seems like a sort of "friends and family" type insider get together thing that was a nice idea.... just not sure it means anything.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Donation levels aren't required. There are thousands of seats that don't have a donation component.
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Indeed, and they're not selling those out so I don't think the donations are the big issue.
 

FredCoxRocks said:
I've gone there a few times. The only drawback is you're nowhere near the stadium so you kind of lose that atmosphere. Still, the tailgating and the people there are fun. That's where it seems a lot of the visiting team's fans tailgate too, so you get to share a ride over to the stadium with them. (Just to note, Iowa fans are the worst...and, as I recall it's been noted on GH before, Nebraska fans are the best.)
I stick around for a little while but then grab a few High Lifes and then jump on the shuttle over to TCF. I get the game day vibe before I head over to the Ski-U-Mah lot and mooch some food off some friends who usually have a nice spread before I head in.
The line for the bus going back after games moves at a decent pace...depends on the crowd that day, of course. I've yet to see the line waiting for a bus...there are usually at least 2 there at one time.
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Yeah I kinda wondered about being a bit disconnected. Still it is nice for there to be another option.
 

I am always surprised by the people that have no interest in tailgating and show up 15 minutes before kickoff and then try to navigate through the lots to find an open spot. Save hundreds and take the train.

Open it up like Iowa. It's not like they need to re-invent the wheel. Lots of schools they could look at to model it after.
 

DougMN said:
I am always surprised by the people that have no interest in tailgating and show up 15 minutes before kickoff and then try to navigate through the lots to find an open spot. Save hundreds and take the train.

Open it up like Iowa. It's not like they need to re-invent the wheel. Lots of schools they could look at to model it after.
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Depends on the situation but I buy parking close buy because it is just faster than the train every time.

When I arrive, really depends on my schedule / who I'm bringing. 15 minutes before kickoff is crazy. At least 45 minutes, but some days way before that.

Then again I see tailgaters who don't bother to filter into the stadium until about kickoff time too so that seems kinda crazy ;)
 

year of the gopher said:
We ran into this issue this year as well. We have had a group of 7-9 seats together since before the stadium opened with each of 3-4 people having 2-3 seats in their name. Every year since the stadium opened, we have followed an official process Gopher Sports offered called the Associate Donor form. This was not a "loophole" as some have called it. It involved filling out an official U of M athletics form and having one ticket holder pay everyone's donations. This allowed that ticket holder to qualify for a tailgate spot based on the total donation amount paid. It worked really well for us and allowed each ticket holder to accumulate his/her own Gopher score. This year they took the option away. We had to consolidate all the tickets onto my account in order to get the donation total to pay for parking (this involved having everyone fill out another form to initiate those transfers). It is absolutely ridiculous that Gopher sports thinks it's in a position to remove perks to the customer experience. This was in addition to a couple other hurdles this year with renewing. I repeatedly asked my ticket rep if, in fact, they were actually trying to sell more season tickets or make the stadium more empty.
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Just curiuos, what was the reply to your question?
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Yeah it seems like a sort of "friends and family" type insider get together thing that was a nice idea.... just not sure it means anything.
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Makes for a good picture for some gophersports.com page that tries to give the impression that regular fans have input and are making a difference.
 

1967 2.0 said:
Makes for a good picture for some gophersports.com page that tries to give the impression that regular fans have input and are making a difference.
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No doubt it does. I just wonder if it does actually anything. I get the impression (and I might be wrong) that a lot of ticket holders feel a bit disconnected from the program, and maybe more so from the athletics department. The fan advisory board just seems like folks who are close to the department already and everyone else is just on the outside looking in.

Before the new benefits program, I used to get some survey's that were all "here are your benefits rate them" and I'd read through and ... nobody ever told me I was getting those benefits, because I wasn't. Like they just never told me about these benefits that according to my contributions and score I apparently qualified for. Then to top it off they had me rate benefits that I wasn't qualified for ... it was like "Hey here's the stuff YOU DON"T GET!" Just a really tone deaf thing to email out. I filled out the comment section, I assume it went into the trash.

Granted I pay, and so my actions certainly don't encourage change.

There have been recent improvements and efforts by the department but still it will take a while / more for the department not to feel like sort of a distant group of insiders who have some buddies and everyone else is an afterthought.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
No doubt it does. I just wonder if it does actually anything. I get the impression (and I might be wrong) that a lot of ticket holders feel a bit disconnected from the program, and maybe more so from the athletics department. The fan advisory board just seems like folks who are close to the department already and everyone else is just on the outside looking in.

Before the new benefits program, I used to get some survey's that were all "here are your benefits rate them" and I'd read through and ... nobody ever told me I was getting those benefits, because I wasn't. Like they just never told me about these benefits that according to my contributions and score I apparently qualified for. Then to top it off they had me rate benefits that I wasn't qualified for ... it was like "Hey here's the stuff YOU DON"T GET!" Just a really tone deaf thing to email out. I filled out the comment section, I assume it went into the trash.

Granted I pay, and so my actions certainly don't encourage change.

There have been recent improvements and efforts by the department but still it will take a while / more for the department not to feel like sort of a distant group of insiders who have some buddies and everyone else is an afterthought.
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The only way they _might_ listen is if you get the message to the AD. I had luck in the past getting personal responses from Maturi and Teague, but not from Coyle.

But it's still probably worth trying - [email protected]

As a season ticket holder, in theory, you should have some leverage.
 

With the changes in the tax laws, does it still matter? Serious question. For most people, it probably will not.
 

Coyle's incompetence is evident from the atmosphere at the stadium, the tailgate lots, and I'm mariucci. I cant wait to get an AD who knows what he or she is doing.
 



gopher ceaser said:
Are you saying that tailgate parking has a minimum donation attached to it? Yes - Each "parking spot" has a minimum donation and the key is "annual donation amount." For example, the min donation for the Ski-U-Ma lot is $1,000 and if you have already donated that via your seats or other means throughout the year, you are not obligated to pay this (or just pay the difference)

And to get around that one person paid a bunch of seat's donations ... to qualify for a total donation that covered tailgate parking donation? Correct, the person who had the "Tailgate Season Pass" on their invoice had to pay it.

Like for a special tailgate lot? Most around the stadium have this.

I pay for parking, people tailgate all around me, no extra donation there that i've seen: If I understand this right, probably one of two things; 1. The donation you paid on your seat(s) or through other donation may have covered the minimum annual donation. 2. Ticket office is doing a bad job following up collecting this min donation.
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Leadership is much needed to improve fan experience all around. It seems like there is no coordination of efforts from Mark Coyle all the way down to understand and improve fan experience and get them to want to come, to continue to come, and to get the young kids interested. They want fans to fill all the sports venues - put that vision front and center. Mark Coyle and Marketing should be more visible out in the public like PJ Fleck promoting Gopher Sports. Losing tailgaters is certainly is not a way to build a fan base or promote a festive Gopher fan atmosphere.
 

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