Shama: Football ticket renewal increases, overall ticket sales are down yr over yr

Donate To GopherHole
60's Guy said:
If he couldn't fill seats in 30,000 seat stadium at WMU, where there are far less choices for time and money, why will he make it happen here? However, I understand it is even less likely to happen without PJ climbing on his soapbox non stop. My problem with PJ so far is that he says lots of things in both directions (whoa is me, fixing culture & academics, sacrificing to come etc) that aren't true or at the very least have a sliver of truth all the way to needing to expand the stadium and the reality is after his hiring we have less season tickets sold.
Click to expand...
Kalamazoo is smaller than Duluth. Not shocking their sales would be lower.

Sent from my RS988 using Tapatalk
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I liked TC, but I'm not sure fans were super pumped after last year, nor was TC any kind of a draw.
Click to expand...

You want to know how excited people should be about 2017? Take a look back at 2015.

Though the donation increase took the edge out of that excitement, fans were excited going into the 2015 season. It showed at the gate too. They were coming off an 8 win season in 2014, even though the Gophers lost 3 out of their last 4 games. They did have a VERY attractive Home Schedule. They had #2 TCU (54,154 in TCF), Nebraska (54,062), #15 Michigan (50,789) and #21 Wisconsin (52,850) coming to town.

Because of the way they hooked NE and WI that year, here were the attendance numbers for the other home games:

Kent State - 9/19- 52,823
Ohio - 9/26 - 53,987
Illinois - 11/22 - 47,976

They've taken out the 3,000 temporary seats. The official capacity is back to 50,805. We can wait and see if hiring a new coach will make this year's attendance figures anywhere near the gate-busting capacities of 2017.

Gotta hope that winning a big chunk of games early this season, and looking good doing it, will lead to big crowds against Illinois and Michigan State. The last two games against NE and WI will have big crowds either way. Just hope that a big majority of them will be cheering for the Maroon and Gold.

7-8 wins seems reasonable this year. An 8-10 win season, with a few trophies coming home, would/should mean great attendance next year too. Looking at the 2018 schedule, it's one that could lead to a lot of victories. However it's not one to guarantee 50,000 people in the house without a big year in 2017.

The career of Mr.Claeys at the U effectively ended when he signed that lousy "I DARE you to sign it" contract in November of '15. One with a buyout that was equal to about 1/3 of a season's salary. His firing only became official when he was given a choice to denounce his players or suck-up to the guys who were gonna fire him anyway. Either way he was gone and had been probably all year long.

Good luck to him in the future. Good luck to Fleck and his players in the coming season and for many seasons to come.
 

Ski U Master said:
Comparing anything before a coach even steps foot on the field is meaningless, coaching hires aren't made for year 1 results. All things being equal, Fleck will sell more tickets than Claeys would have because he's a better person to market.
Click to expand...

Oh, so I guess they must not have had time to market him yet.
 

When Holtz came to the Gophers, he had won 93 games in his last 11 seasons as a college head coach, with top-20 ratings in 9 of 11 seasons. He also had been an NFL coach for 1 season.

he had a much higher national profile than Fleck. Holtz was also older, more experienced, and had his act down. With Fleck, you're selling potential. With Holtz, the U was selling a much more proven commodity with a national image.

So, it's not fair to expect Fleck to have the same immediate impact on ticket sales.

And, we are not talking about marketing to die-hard Gopher fans. They already have their tickets. To boost the fan base, Fleck needs to win over the casual fans, or never-Gopher-fans crowd. A crowd that has spent the last 40 years hearing and reading Twin Cities media doing the annual "Gophers Suck" routine. And, he has to win over that crowd with ticket prices (and seat donations) that a LOT of people believe are too high for the entertainment value provided by Gopher FB.

For there to be a real "Fleck affect" on ticket sales, the Gophers not only have to win, they have to win big, and win by playing entertaining FB. Oh - and win Trophy games. No challenge at all- should be easy...............

Seriously - Fleck could turn out to be a great coach - but that may, or may not, translate to increased ticket sales. We're talking about Minnesota fans here, folks.
 



Breakin' The Plane said:
If you fired a damn good coach who won 9 games under the premise that the new guy was going to be a ticket-selling juggernaut who's going to infuse excitement into the program and pack the stands, it doesn't look very good for ticket sales to remain basically unchanged.
Click to expand...

If we keep our nose to the grindstone we may very well get our ticket sales up to the unchanged mark.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
They sure did. <b>And Coyle specifically mentioned ticket sales in the press conference as a reason they chose to move on. </b>Maybe it'll get better, but the immediate returns are negligible.
Click to expand...

Reason number 33 MC should have just been honest about why he was making a change. I 100% believe people would have accepted and respected the decision more than after having to listen to that BS of a presser.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

I think it is fair to mention the new season ticket holders that the Vikings acquired with the new stadium. They are still a hotter ticket in a Viking town. Fleck needs to win and win often to start selling out TCF with nothing but Gopher fans. On another note, it speaks volumes about the lack of support by fans that the only Power Five college in the state can't get 50,000 people to support them 6 or 7 times a year. In all honesty, it pisses me off!
 

HoustonTXGopher said:
I think it is fair to mention the new season ticket holders that the Vikings acquired with the new stadium. They are still a hotter ticket in a Viking town. Fleck needs to win and win often to start selling out TCF with nothing but Gopher fans. On another note, it speaks volumes about the lack of support by fans that the only Power Five college in the state can't get 50,000 people to support them 6 or 7 times a year. In all honesty, it pisses me off!
Click to expand...

I refuse to pay for the Vikings PSL's. $10,000 a seat is ridiculous.
 




HoustonTXGopher said:
I think it is fair to mention the new season ticket holders that the Vikings acquired with the new stadium. They are still a hotter ticket in a Viking town. Fleck needs to win and win often to start selling out TCF with nothing but Gopher fans. On another note, it speaks volumes about the lack of support by fans that the only Power Five college in the state can't get 50,000 people to support them 6 or 7 times a year. In all honesty, it pisses me off!
Click to expand...

Agree...it is the most pathetic college fan base in the country when you consider we're the only game in the State regarding college football. The Glass Palace is more about getting hammered
versus watching the Little Darlings'. My son, who is not a Viking fan, went last year when he received some freebees. He said he has never seen so may fans just absolutely blitzed and he wondered how they got home. I don't think the Gophers will ever take over the State as the place to be. The NFL now the National pastime.
 

Word said:
Kalamazoo is smaller than Duluth. Not shocking their sales would be lower.

Sent from my RS988 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

And Kalamazoo is less than 100 miles from Ann Arbor, East Lansing, and South Bend.
 




ruppertflywheel said:
Agree...it is the most pathetic college fan base in the country when you consider we're the only game in the State regarding college football. The Glass Palace is more about getting hammered
versus watching the Little Darlings'. My son, who is not a Viking fan, went last year when he received some freebees. He said he has never seen so may fans just absolutely blitzed and he wondered how they got home. I don't think the Gophers will ever take over the State as the place to be. The NFL now the National pastime.
Click to expand...
Hard to believe you haven't ground that axe down to a stump yet.
 

ruppertflywheel said:
Agree...it is the most pathetic college fan base in the country when you consider we're the only game in the State regarding college football. The Glass Palace is more about getting hammered
versus watching the Little Darlings'. My son, who is not a Viking fan, went last year when he received some freebees. He said he has never seen so may fans just absolutely blitzed and he wondered how they got home. I don't think the Gophers will ever take over the State as the place to be. The NFL now the National pastime.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah?

I like to think that I am a notch or two above pathetic... AND I'm fairly pleased that the beer vending issues have resolved.

So there....:cool:
 

Vandy said:
Oh yeah?

I like to think that I am a notch or two above pathetic... AND I'm fairly pleased that the beer vending issues have resolved.

So there....:cool:
Click to expand...

You are...along with many others. Just not enough.
"Anybody can be a Viking fan dad. It takes someone special to be a Gopher fan" .....My Son
 





dpodoll68 said:
And once again, that statement doesn't make any sense.
Click to expand...

"Anybody can be a Viking fan, dad. It takes someone special to be a Gopher fan" .....Quote from my Son.

Use your imagination. Hopefully this interpretation helps... :D
 

ruppertflywheel said:
I won't explain it to you because you're one of the most bitter and heartless persons on this site. And no explanation would appease you.
Click to expand...

It doesn't make any sense to Dpod because he doesn't want it to make any sense, just wants to be a dick.
 

The average Minnesota sports fan knows little or nothing about college football so it's not too surprising that our season ticket sales haven't skyrocketed. Also, the fan base is a tad divided over the events surrounding the sexual assault accusations and the response by the coaches and admin. I don't even want to wade into that too far, but some people are mad that the U went too far in disciplining the players and firing the coaches and some people feel the exact opposite way. I don't know how Fleck can overcome everything swirling around the program out of the gate not to mention decades of 'failures' on the field and off the field. He's been able to maintain status quo in the short term. Let's wait to decide if he's a failure after a few years.
 

ruppertflywheel said:
I won't explain it to you because you're one of the most bitter and heartless persons on this site. And no explanation would appease you.
Click to expand...

I appreciate your attempts to divert from having to explain yourself, but let's keep it on topic and not make things up about people that we don't know and attack them for no reason. Again, it's a nonsense statement. It's not exactly as though the Vikings are an easy team to follow. They haven't exactly bathed themselves in glory on or off the field over the past few decades. If you had said "Anybody can be a [Yankees, Lakers, Manchester United, Patriots, etc.] fan..." that would at least make some sense. If anything, it's easier to be a Gophers fan because we have a built-in living alumni base of hundreds of thousands of people, and there's a natural affiliation and reason to follow the team.
 

Maverick said:
It doesn't make any sense to Dpod because he doesn't want it to make any sense, just wants to be a dick.
Click to expand...

It doesn't make any sense because there's no reasonable logic to it. I do appreciate you making baseless attacks on me, so thank you for that.
 

dpodoll68 said:
It doesn't make any sense because there's no reasonable logic to it. I do appreciate you making baseless attacks on me, so thank you for that.
Click to expand...

Who gives a flying f*ck if there is any logic to it. It was just a statement by his son. Find some gray area in your life.
 

As a more long-time fan than some on this board, here's how I see it.

The Vikings' best years came at the same time as some of the Gophers' worst years. Starting in '69, the Vikes won 10 games or more in 7 of 8 seasons. They played in 4 Super Bowls. Meanwhile, the Gophers were going downhill after tying for the B1G title in '67 (but didn't get to go to the Rose Bowl). A lot of fans shifted their allegiance to the Vikes during that era.

Later, the Vikes went into a new era of success with Randy Moss, and attracted a whole new, younger (hard-partying) crowd. Meanwhile, the Gophers had a few good years under Mason, but also had some well-publicized 4th qtr meltdowns, and never seemed to put a run of good seasons together.

And - like it or not - the media - when they did cover the Gophers - tended to fall back on the "Gophers Suck" routine.

As a result, you have a nearly 50-year span where the Vikes were generally more successful, and the Gophers were not. Is it any wonder the Vikes have a larger fan base? And, the Vikes benefit from the NFL's relentless marketing - while the Gophers marketing often leaves something to be desired.
 



dpodoll68 said:
I appreciate your attempts to divert from having to explain yourself, but let's keep it on topic and not make things up about people that we don't know and attack them for no reason. Again, it's a nonsense statement. It's not exactly as though the Vikings are an easy team to follow. They haven't exactly bathed themselves in glory on or off the field over the past few decades. If you had said "Anybody can be a [Yankees, Lakers, Manchester United, Patriots, etc.] fan..." that would at least make some sense. If anything, it's easier to be a Gophers fan because we have a built-in living alumni base of hundreds of thousands of people, and there's a natural affiliation and reason to follow the team.
Click to expand...

The statement makes sense, the bar doesn't have to be the Yankees to get the comment.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom