Shama: 5,503 public season tickets have been sold, a 20% drop from 2019-2020 last time fans could attend

[Shawn Bradley Guy]

I personally like the Ben Johnson hire. And I think we’ll see positive dividends sooner than expected.

Shama is a poor man’s Sid Hartman. His two preferred candidates are of course Dutcher and Musselman (old Minnesota connections).

Put aside pandemic, and realize the last two years in Pitino’s regime the Gophers were not tourney worthy. Also, comparing football program to basketball program that was already treading water at best; AND then have the audacity to blame this lack of interest on the hiring of Ben Johnson - GTFOH

 

[goldengophers]

I personally like the Ben Johnson hire. And I think we’ll see positive dividends sooner than expected.

Shama is a poor man’s Sid Hartman. His two preferred candidates are of course Dutcher and Musselman (old Minnesota connections).

Put aside pandemic, and realize the last two years in Pitino’s regime the Gophers were not tourney worthy. Also, comparing football program to basketball program that was already treading water at best; AND then have the audacity to blame this lack of interest on the hiring of Ben Johnson - GTFOH

Pitino can be terrible and Ben Johnson a decidedly unexciting and inexperienced hire.

 

[Spaulding!No!]

Some of you have never been 1 of 2 things. 1. Recruited 2. Sat in the room as your kid is recruited. The soft sell = failure. You go after the kid you have hosted for a few days. Hard.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Exactly my point. Some fans seem to put great value on where your from and or what your name is. Saunders has done nothing to suggest that he would even get the consideration that Ben got.

Well, Saunders has gotten a higher consideration that Ben got, he coached in the NBA because of non-basketball reasons.

But I agree with you, neither of them had the resume for their respective jobs (it wasn't even close). Ryan Saunders was an unmitigated disaster that everyone saw coming from a mile away. We'll see what happens with Ben, I'm cautiously optimistic.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Pitino can be terrible and Ben Johnson a decidedly unexciting and inexperienced hire.

Yep, the firing and the hire are two separate events.

 

[Spaulding!No!]

Diffident Ben. Stretch and grow and answer the door for the trick or treaters.

 

[builtbadgers]

Well, Saunders has gotten a higher consideration that Ben got, he coached in the NBA because of non-basketball reasons.

But I agree with you, neither of them had the resume for their respective jobs (it wasn't even close). Ryan Saunders was an unmitigated disaster that everyone saw coming from a mile away. We'll see what happens with Ben, I'm cautiously optimistic.

Meant higher consideration for a college job. Saunders is not next.

 

[USAF]

Keeping Pitino at least two years too long continues to pay dividends.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Meant higher consideration for a college job. Saunders is not next.

No one thinks Saunders is next. I'd prefer for the U to hire coaches with adequate resumes.

Yep, I guess Ben Johnson was considered for the job at the U and therefore has more consideration. That's sort of the same tired argument that Ben has a resume of a Big Ten coach because he is a Big Ten coach. Meh. Ben has as much consideration (probably actually LESS consideration) for a college job as Ryan Saunders has consideration for a much more difficult job to get - - the NBA. I get that you aren't impressed with Ryan Saunders' resume, you shouldn't be. Ben's is worse.

 

[WoodburyTim]

Seriously - do people buy season tickets based on the head coach?

Maybe - I say maybe - hiring Dutcher or Musselman might have prompted a few more fans to buy tickets based on goodwill generated by positive memories of their fathers.

hey, Dutcher and Muss are good coaches. hard-core hoops fans know who they are. But for the average fan, it's all about media buzz and whether the team is winning.

There is no way that several thousand more people were going to buy season tickets based strictly on the name of the head coach.

we're talking about MN fans here. bandwagon jumping, cheap MN fans.

People don't decide to buy tickets based on their perception of the teams chances? I guess I didn't think someone taking that position was even possible. Interesting.

 

[WoodburyTim]

Decided not to renew my tickets this year. It wasn’t really one thing, but more a combination of many factors that have been discussed here. I would usually go to about 75% of the games with my dad, my wife, or one of 3-4 different friends. Either sell or give away the other 25%. My friends all have young families so they have their obligations at home, and also aren’t very excited about this years team. Dad has had some health issues so is not real comfortable going to games in an indoor arena where mask-wearing is lax. Wife has never really cared much about basketball, and we’ll hopefully be adding to our own family soon. And personally I’m not real excited about this year’s team plus it is just way more convenient and less expensive to watch the games at home. I’ll probably buy tickets for a couple games. Not real worried about being able to re-up on my season tickets at some point in the future if circumstances and excitement around the program change.

Would be curious if the ticket office has done any research on the reasons behind the drop in season ticket numbers. Is it the coaching hire? COVID worries in an indoor arena? Just general lack of excitement around the program? Probably all the above to a degree, but I wonder if one of those or something else is a driving factor.

Despite some posters thoughts on this, your last paragraph is exactly why companies reach out to customers who choose not to do business with them anymore. So they can study the answer and improve their experience or product to try and gain them back or engage new customers.

Seems like a pretty basic concept, yet there was a good half a dozen posters who mocked the guy on here that said pretty much nobody reached out and the ones who did, just asked him to reconsider.

 

[Spaulding!No!]

It is as tho the U simply wants St Thomas to own the TC college hoop market.

 

[MRJ]

Interesting. Why Saunders ? He has not even offered a hint of elite. No one has hired him .

The exact same thing could be said of Ben Johnson until Coyle hired him. In fact, Coyle couldn't wait to hire him. So it's not at all far-fetched.

 

[builtbadgers]

The exact same thing could be said of Ben Johnson until Coyle hired him. In fact, Coyle couldn't wait to hire him. So it's not at all far-fetched.

There was one difference when looking at Ben. Plus he has been in the college game a long time and could bring a proven staff. Saunders only had the name, no recruiting ties, no success.

 

[ForecastingAWin]

Some of you have never been 1 of 2 things. 1. Recruited 2. Sat in the room as your kid is recruited. The soft sell = failure. You go after the kid you have hosted for a few days. Hard.

Watch out for Spaulding. His/her entire family are D1 athletes being recruited at the highest level. Mike Krzyzewski actually has his number on speed dial I heard.

 

[UpAndUnder43]

Despite some posters thoughts on this, your last paragraph is exactly why companies reach out to customers who choose not to do business with them anymore. So they can study the answer and improve their experience or product to try and gain them back or engage new customers.

Seems like a pretty basic concept, yet there was a good half a dozen posters who mocked the guy on here that said pretty much nobody reached out and the ones who did, just asked him to reconsider.

This x 1000. I had tickets for 4 years. Didn’t renew. Got an email, responded, never heard back.

I cancelled directv recently. Received 3 calls, multiple emails and a mailed survey. They want to know why. And see if I’ll reconsider.

 

[Johnnyboy18]

This x 1000. I had tickets for 4 years. Didn’t renew. Got an email, responded, never heard back.

I cancelled directv recently. Received 3 calls, multiple emails and a mailed survey. They want to know why. And see if I’ll reconsider.

Yeah I got an email from the ticket office asking if I was interested in football season tickets. I responded and never heard back from them.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

Yeah I got an email from the ticket office asking if I was interested in football season tickets. I responded and never heard back from them.

Our marketing team has been pretty incompetent for a long time. They don't seem to understand basic relationship management. As a personal anecdote, I emailed the athletic department when I was thinking about proposing (spoiler alert: she said yes), and I told them that my then-girlfriend and I had met in the marching band, had been season ticket holders ever since, that Gopher football was a special part of our relationship, and asked if I could do the thing where you propose in front of the crowd on the big screen. There response was simply that I couldn't because all of the timeouts during the next game were already filled. Full stop. I don't even think they said "congrats" or "good luck" (but maybe I'm wrong). I was pretty stunned. I totally understood that they had their gameday routine, and if my plan didn't fit in, but how could somebody whose job it is to sell a product not try to come up with something they could do for me. It would have cost them nothing to say "best wishes, unfortunately your plan won't work, but let me know what your seat number is, we will make sure Goldy swings by to congratulate you and take some pictures with you." But instead there was no effort for them to say "these people have been loyal customers, it's great that our product has a special place in their lives, let's try to figure out what we can do to say 'thank you' and 'congratulations.'"

In contrast, a few months later my buddies took me to a Wild game for the bachelor party. They told the team we were coming, and the Wild sent a marketing rep down to our seats to congratulate me and they gave me a souvenir puck with the date of the game on it to remember the night by. It was a little thing, but something that cost them all of the couple bucks it takes to make those pucks they mark-up in the gift shop. Have never understood why our folks can't figure that stuff out. Maybe if they did, we'd have three more men's sports right now.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Our marketing team has been pretty incompetent for a long time. They don't seem to understand basic relationship management. As a personal anecdote, I emailed the athletic department when I was thinking about proposing (spoiler alert: she said yes), and I told them that my then-girlfriend and I had met in the marching band, had been season ticket holders ever since, that Gopher football was a special part of our relationship, and asked if I could do the thing where you propose in front of the crowd on the big screen. There response was simply that I couldn't because all of the timeouts during the next game were already filled. Full stop. I don't even think they said "congrats" or "good luck" (but maybe I'm wrong). I was pretty stunned. I totally understood that they had their gameday routine, and if my plan didn't fit in, but how could somebody whose job it is to sell a product not try to come up with something they could do for me. It would have cost them nothing to say "best wishes, unfortunately your plan won't work, but let me know what your seat number is, we will make sure Goldy swings by to congratulate you and take some pictures with you." But instead there was no effort for them to say "these people have been loyal customers, it's great that our product has a special place in their lives, let's try to figure out what we can do to say 'thank you' and 'congratulations.'"

In contrast, a few months later my buddies took me to a Wild game for the bachelor party. They told the team we were coming, and the Wild sent a marketing rep down to our seats to congratulate me and they gave me a souvenir puck with the date of the game on it to remember the night by. It was a little thing, but something that cost them all of the couple bucks it takes to make those pucks they mark-up in the gift shop. Have never understood why our folks can't figure that stuff out. Maybe if they did, we'd have three more men's sports right now.

That sounds about right.

It's because the U's marketing department is handed money and no one will lose a job if they don't drive results.

 

[bga1]

Our marketing team has been pretty incompetent for a long time. They don't seem to understand basic relationship management. As a personal anecdote, I emailed the athletic department when I was thinking about proposing (spoiler alert: she said yes), and I told them that my then-girlfriend and I had met in the marching band, had been season ticket holders ever since, that Gopher football was a special part of our relationship, and asked if I could do the thing where you propose in front of the crowd on the big screen. There response was simply that I couldn't because all of the timeouts during the next game were already filled. Full stop. I don't even think they said "congrats" or "good luck" (but maybe I'm wrong). I was pretty stunned. I totally understood that they had their gameday routine, and if my plan didn't fit in, but how could somebody whose job it is to sell a product not try to come up with something they could do for me. It would have cost them nothing to say "best wishes, unfortunately your plan won't work, but let me know what your seat number is, we will make sure Goldy swings by to congratulate you and take some pictures with you." But instead there was no effort for them to say "these people have been loyal customers, it's great that our product has a special place in their lives, let's try to figure out what we can do to say 'thank you' and 'congratulations.'"

In contrast, a few months later my buddies took me to a Wild game for the bachelor party. They told the team we were coming, and the Wild sent a marketing rep down to our seats to congratulate me and they gave me a souvenir puck with the date of the game on it to remember the night by. It was a little thing, but something that cost them all of the couple bucks it takes to make those pucks they mark-up in the gift shop. Have never understood why our folks can't figure that stuff out. Maybe if they did, we'd have three more men's sports right now.

Great story! (Congrats!) That indeed sums up the U's marketing department. Come up with a bunch of dumb templated perks that no one cares about and then treat the season ticket holders like they are red headed step children in every other way. Example: give football season ticket holders free tickets because the stands are empty and then give long time BASKETBALL season ticket holders nothing to compensate them for the crap product we are putting on the floor.

 

[Spaulding!No!]

I am convinced the dept is run similar to how the Daily was run when I was there. Mostly students managing students.

 

[Gopher Teeth]

Our marketing team has been pretty incompetent for a long time. They don't seem to understand basic relationship management. As a personal anecdote, I emailed the athletic department when I was thinking about proposing (spoiler alert: she said yes), and I told them that my then-girlfriend and I had met in the marching band, had been season ticket holders ever since, that Gopher football was a special part of our relationship, and asked if I could do the thing where you propose in front of the crowd on the big screen. There response was simply that I couldn't because all of the timeouts during the next game were already filled. Full stop. I don't even think they said "congrats" or "good luck" (but maybe I'm wrong). I was pretty stunned. I totally understood that they had their gameday routine, and if my plan didn't fit in, but how could somebody whose job it is to sell a product not try to come up with something they could do for me. It would have cost them nothing to say "best wishes, unfortunately your plan won't work, but let me know what your seat number is, we will make sure Goldy swings by to congratulate you and take some pictures with you." But instead there was no effort for them to say "these people have been loyal customers, it's great that our product has a special place in their lives, let's try to figure out what we can do to say 'thank you' and 'congratulations.'"

In contrast, a few months later my buddies took me to a Wild game for the bachelor party. They told the team we were coming, and the Wild sent a marketing rep down to our seats to congratulate me and they gave me a souvenir puck with the date of the game on it to remember the night by. It was a little thing, but something that cost them all of the couple bucks it takes to make those pucks they mark-up in the gift shop. Have never understood why our folks can't figure that stuff out. Maybe if they did, we'd have three more men's sports right now.

If only the U could send their marketing team to take some marketing courses from a well renown business school or something.