Shama: Big Dip in U Football Season Tickets; off about 19% from last year

[BleedGopher]

per Shama:

As of yesterday the Gophers had sold 22,706 football season tickets, according to an email from an athletic department spokesman. Those are season tickets that don’t include student sales and the figure represents a major decline in season sales from last year’s final total.

The spokesman also reported that nonstudent season tickets last year totaled 27,885. With less than three weeks to the start of the Gophers season, the athletic department is off about 19 percent from last year’s final sales.

The last few years the public season ticket total is believed to be in the 27,000 to 30,000 range. If the Gophers didn’t sell any more tickets in 2016 they would be down 5,179 tickets from last year at TCF Bank Stadium (with a capacity of over 51,000). The department will expect to boost its total of 22,706 but time is growing tight.

A drop-off of 15 to 20 percent is a significant loss in ticket revenue. The decline has the attention of athletic department leaders who have reportedly cancelled a 2017 price increase. They may have done so not only because of push back from ticket buying customers but also because of media reports earlier this year the Big Ten Conference has negotiated a rich TV deal for its schools. The Gophers’ future TV revenue share reportedly will be over $44 million annually and that would make it easier to hold steady with ticket prices.

http://shamasportsheadliners.com/

Go Gophers!!

 

[LesBolstad]

It will take years and possibly decades to recover a fan base that was disgusted with the price gouging scheme. Thanks Norwood & Co.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

With the lousy home schedule we have this year, I fear we are in for some sparse crowds.

 

[nsmike]

Win 10 games and the recovery in the season ticket base will be immediate. I'm thinking more of a 9+1 scenario, than a 10 win regular season, win 8 games or less and it'll take a couple of years.

 

[station19]

It's more than just winning games.

Learn what 'the market will bear' and fill the stadium. A full stadium is a better product and projects higher interest.

 

[Schnauzer]

Back when this three year price explosion was announced, I recall a few people on GH being quite emphatic about how it was a solid idea and how short sighted the "complainers" we're to be criticizing the plan.

It may indeed take a long time to recover from this. A lot of people left this year with their projected donation levels going up dramatically again next year. I hope they get some of those people back, and if they do the ticket office should work with them to get as close to their old seats as what can be arranged.

 

[Urbandale]

It will take years and possibly decades to recover a fan base that was disgusted with the price gouging scheme. Thanks Norwood & Co.

Decades seems a little hyperbolic. If the Gophers go 9-3 this year I think there will be a significant uptick in season ticket sales.

 

[Iceland12]

Back when this three year price explosion was announced, I recall a few people on GH being quite emphatic about how it was a solid idea and how short sighted the "complainers" we're to be criticizing the plan.

It may indeed take a long time to recover from this. A lot of people left this year with their projected donation levels going up dramatically again next year. I hope they get some of those people back, and if they do the ticket office should work with them to get as close to their old seats as what can be arranged.

Many of who weren't season ticket holders in the first place. Certainly not a surprise.

 

[Killjoy]

It will take years and possibly decades for me to recover from that disgusting price gouging scheme. Thanks Norwood & Co.

FIFY

For most people though, start winning and they will have a short memory. A more interesting question is, assuming they are building a strong and well marketed and winning program, how much a deterrent will the present scholarship donation have on future season ticket purchases? I personally believe if they win, the demand will be there.

 

[Iceland12]

There's another factor in play here, that has been mentioned elsewhere. The "speculated" numbers of Season Tickets purchased by corporations generally is somewhere between 60% and 70%. That could mean that a lot of the non-renewal tickets are corporations that looked at the absurd prices demanded by the Vikings (included parking passes). They then talked to clients and employees and decided to keep/add Vikings tickets and dump the Gophers. Going forward, that's will be a major factor. Just look at the trouble they had selling the "2nd tier" premium seats at TCF last year, with a great Home Schedule too.

And that was before the Vikes stadium opened.

 

[PMWinSTP]

There's another factor in play here, that has been mentioned elsewhere. The "speculated" numbers of Season Tickets purchased by corporations generally is somewhere between 60% and 70%. That could mean that a lot of the non-renewal tickets are corporations that looked at the absurd prices demanded by the Vikings (included parking passes). They then talked to clients and employees and decided to keep/add Vikings tickets and dump the Gophers. Going forward, that's will be a major factor. Just look at the trouble they had selling the "2nd tier" premium seats at TCF last year, with a great Home Schedule too.

And that was before the Vikes stadium opened.

That is a complete SWAG number. Again...apples and oranges. The commitment for seats in the new Vikes stadium was done a couple years ago. To say it is impacting Gophs to any significant extent is just not the case. Gophs season last year, the jump in donation amount, and the so-so line-up of home games is about 90% of the drop.

 

[Iceland12]

That is a complete SWAG number. Again...apples and oranges. The commitment for seats in the new Vikes stadium was done a couple years ago. To say it is impacting Gophs to any significant extent is just not the case. Gophs season last year, the jump in donation amount, and the so-so line-up of home games is about 90% of the drop.

You apparently think this couldn't have been planned in advance? Because the Gopher Season Tickets are purchased on a yearly basis. hey, as usual you keep classing things up around here.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=SWAG

 

[mplsbadger]

There's another factor in play here, that has been mentioned elsewhere. The "speculated" numbers of Season Tickets purchased by corporations generally is somewhere between 60% and 70%. That could mean that a lot of the non-renewal tickets are corporations that looked at the absurd prices demanded by the Vikings (included parking passes). They then talked to clients and employees and decided to keep/add Vikings tickets and dump the Gophers. Going forward, that's will be a major factor. Just look at the trouble they had selling the "2nd tier" premium seats at TCF last year, with a great Home Schedule too. And that was before the Vikes stadium opened.

I've never heard the 60-70% number before. I work for a F500 company in town and I think we've had ten Vikes tickets for every one Gopher ticket, but we do have a suite. The Gopher tickets still didn't sell in the top zone before the price increases.

It raises another question for me. I wonder if the percentage of season tickets held by non grads is higher in Minneapolis than it is, for example, in Madison (because it's in a major city)? If so, are these people more likely to be turned off by a donation (even though it's really just price)? In economic terms, is demand for Gopher Football more elastic than for Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, others? This is wild speculation and not backed up by any facts other than anecdotal experience. My group was mostly non-grads (1 UW, 1 Fordham, 2 UMD, 2 UofM), and GH seems to be full of rabid Gopher fans that are non-grads.

 

[MGGopher]

Questions:

1) I believe the ticket office predicted that renewals would be down, but the revenue would be up due to the increased donations. They probably didn't predict a 20% dip, buy has anyone run the numbers? How big of a hit are we talking? Panic time?

2) Wasn't athletics working with a consulting company / ticket pusher around these increases? Wonder if they'll be held accountable in any way, or if they simply run around selling magic beans to ADs everywhere...

3) Seriously, wtf were they thinking?!

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

 

[ruppertflywheel]

We dropped ours for a couple of reasons. The move to Ely and the donation program. We also have a group of friends drop their tickets. Donations should never be mandatory. You'll be able to buy tickets on stub hub for any of the games with maybe the exception being Iowa for the price of a happy meal.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

I'm a little more optimistic than most. Last year saw more demand than I expected for tickets. Rack up the Ws and they'll be fine.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Donations should never be mandatory.

You'd rather they call it just the ticket price and charge you just the same?

The donations if they're not there are just going to be something else... that you cant use on your taxes.

 

[dpodoll68]

Donations should never be mandatory.

And these aren't.

You'll be able to buy tickets on stub hub for any of the games with maybe the exception being Iowa for the price of a happy meal.

Where did people get the idea that buying season tickets is a great way to save money?

 

[zman]

That is a complete SWAG number.......Gophs season last year, the jump in donation amount, and the so-so line-up of home games is about 90% of the drop.

SWAG much?

 

[Iceland12]

I've never heard the 60-70% number before. I work for a F500 company in town and I think we've had ten Vikes tickets for every one Gopher ticket, but we do have a suite. The Gopher tickets still didn't sell in the top zone before the price increases.

It raises another question for me. I wonder if the percentage of season tickets held by non grads is higher in Minneapolis than it is, for example, in Madison (because it's in a major city)? If so, are these people more likely to be turned off by a donation (even though it's really just price)? In economic terms, is demand for Gopher Football more elastic than for Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, others? This is wild speculation and not backed up by any facts other than anecdotal experience. My group was mostly non-grads (1 UW, 1 Fordham, 2 UMD, 2 UofM), and GH seems to be full of rabid Gopher fans that are non-grads.

That's a good question. While the competition for the dollar is strong for BCS schools in major metro areas, there are also many schools in "one horse towns" that don't draw well. Your theory might tie it together. Teams who have been traditionally bad that are in a major metros, have to sell tickets to non-alumin because the alumni gave-up on them already. One horse town teams have an even bigger problem. Once the grads and locals give-up on them they have a much smaller pool of people to entice. Both sets of teams need to win to "fill it up", but at least the Metro teams have more people to sell their wares too. Doing that is still tough because, again, there are a lot of other places to spend that money.

That means the buyers without a direct connection are buying tickets for the entertainment value of them. They don't see the value, they spend their entertainment dollars elsewhere. The additional donation cost would drive that value down. Could explain why in the last of the Memorial Stadium years and most of the Dome years the U had to offer a whole lot of very cheap tickets to get crowds in there. Often that never got 50,000 plus in either of them.

Just a theory though.

 

[MNGoldenGophers1]

Decades seems a little hyperbolic. If the Gophers go 9-3 this year I think there will be a significant uptick in season ticket sales.

Absolutely. We just need be more patient. It hasn't even been a half-century since we had our ménage à trois with purdon't and hoosierdaddy.

 

[PMWinSTP]

You apparently think this couldn't have been planned in advance? Because the Gopher Season Tickets are purchased on a yearly basis. hey, as usual you keep classing things up around here.

SWAG

The most used word in the whole ****ing universe. ****** bags use it, your kids use it, your mail man uses it, and your ****ing dog uses it. If you got swag, you generally wear those ****ty hats side way, and your ass hanging out like a ****ing goof cause your pants are half way down your white ass legs. To break down the word, it means (Secretly We Are Gay). It is also a word that means to represent yourself/ the way you represent yourself, baggy clothes, ****ty hats, small penis and basically a way to say your afraid to come out of the closet.

Wow...you seem like an angry person. Serious Wise Ass Guess, DipS**t.

 

[Iceland12]

Wow...you seem like an angry person. Serious Wise Ass Guess,

DipS**t.

You think THIS an example of an "angry person"?

'You apparently think this couldn't have been planned in advance? Because the Gopher Season Tickets are purchased on a yearly basis. hey, as usual you keep classing things up around here.'

Because the other was a definition of SWAG from the Urban Dictionary. So yes, "DipS**t" is a fair moniker for you.

 

[PMWinSTP]

You think THIS an example of an "angry person"?

'You apparently think this couldn't have been planned in advance? Because the Gopher Season Tickets are purchased on a yearly basis. hey, as usual you keep classing things up around here.'

Because the other was a definition of SWAG from the Urban Dictionary. So yes, "DipS**t" is a fair moniker for you.

Yep. Just further confirmation, thanks.

 

[Urbandale]

You think THIS an example of an "angry person"?

'You apparently think this couldn't have been planned in advance? Because the Gopher Season Tickets are purchased on a yearly basis. hey, as usual you keep classing things up around here.'

Because the other was a definition of SWAG from the Urban Dictionary. So yes, "DipS**t" is a fair moniker for you.

Tis the season to be jolly! Fa-la-la-la-la...la-la...la...la!

 

[Schnauzer]

I fear that ill-fated donation grab scheme will set back season ticket numbers for a LONG time. As others have said, this market doesn't have a built in waiting list of big numbers of people that want to join the season ticket family. Stopping the plan for next year certainly helps but anyone that was sitting on the fence and made the recent increases their basis for dropping their seats, will likely not be coming back. A season like Iowa had last year might keep individual home games with a full stadium late in the season but overall the uphill climb to fill our stadium week in and week out got tougher thanks to that 3 year plan. We will never know but it would be interesting to time travel and see where season ticket levels would now be if that plan had never been hatched. It seemed like the season ticket base had settled into a predictable level despite the success of the team and this plan cut into it a way losing seasons could not.

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

It is mind-boggling how bad the University screwed up the return to campus and opening of TCF Bank Stadium. It's such a beautiful venue and one of the few opportunities that the average joe would have to tailgate. Plus it's the open option to watch big-time football outdoors in the Twin Cities.

Some huge blunders include:
1. Lack of implementing a waiting list in 2009 when the stadium was sold out. You had potential customers being rebuffed without anyone collecting their contact information or asking for a cash deposit to be on the waiting list.
2. Little encouragement of building a tailgate/gameday culture around campus. This is what separates you from the professional sports teams in town...USE IT!
3. Terrible timing on implementing donation price increases.

 

[Maximus]

3. Terrible timing on implementing donation price increases.

Timing was perfect. Size of the increase in years 2 and 3 turned out to not be perfect.

 

[LakerFan]

Where did people get the idea that buying season tickets is a great way to save money?

There are a lot more consumers in the world than there are football season ticket holders. Consumers have a built in expectation that buying in bulk and in advance garners a discount. That doesn't hold true for season tickets for some high demand sports, but there are season tickets that are cheaper than buying all games individually so it's not unreasonable to have that expectation.

Building in a donation allows the University to up charge season ticket holders then sell single season tickets at the regular price. Maintains the illusion that they don't flat out sell the tickets cheaper for single games, because the ticket price is the same. It's a tolerable system as long as there is at least the reasonable expectation that if I wait until single game tickets go on sale, I might not be able to purchase the seats I want or comparable. It becomes intolerable when people can by better seats after waiting for single games to go on sale for less than their season tickets.

With sales down 5000 tickets from last year, I think we found the tipping point between tolerable and intolerable.

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Timing was perfect. Size of the increase in years 2 and 3 turned out to not be perfect.

Fair point. I will modify my position. The timing was fine but the size of the increase when they were still having trouble selling out TCF Bank stadium was terrible.

The disappointing 2015 season only compounded the situation. One could argue that is out of Teague's hands but numerous people posted on how it was a HUGE gamble if the results from 2015 didn't prove out.