BleedGopher
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per Shama:
With two home dates remaining, it looks like average Gophers attendance per game could be the lowest since the team began playing at TCF Bank Stadium in 2009.
For five games the average attendance is 45,140. The lowest average for a season at TCF is 46,637 for seven games in 2012.
Last month the athletic department reported a decline of about 19 percent in the sale of nonstudent football season tickets from 2015, and a fall off in student sales too. Obviously single game sales have been slow as well. The Gophers didn’t even sell out their rivalry game with Iowa, announcing an attendance of 49,145.
Not only have their been no sellouts this season in the 50,805 seat stadium, but many of the best seats have been unoccupied for all games—even though customers paid premium prices for them.
The TCF Bank Stadium attendance problem highlights the lack of fan interest regarding the high profile programs of football, basketball and hockey at the University of Minnesota. Those three sports have been trending down in public popularity. They are positioned less favorably when compared to their professional counterparts than at any time in memory—certainly dating back to the start of the millennium when the NHL expansion Minnesota Wild joined the Timberwolves, Twins and Vikings as pro franchises in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
This fall the Vikings, Timberwolves and Wild are far outdistancing the Gophers in ticket buyers and general interest from Minnesota sports fans. The gap between the Vikings and Gophers has been in place for decades but a 5-0 start to the season and the opening of spectacular U.S. Bank Stadium widened the difference between the two products. The perception of the Gophers is that they have both an unproven coach and team that is playing a soft schedule following last year’s disappointing 2-6 Big Ten record.
http://shamasportsheadliners.com/
Go Gophers!!
With two home dates remaining, it looks like average Gophers attendance per game could be the lowest since the team began playing at TCF Bank Stadium in 2009.
For five games the average attendance is 45,140. The lowest average for a season at TCF is 46,637 for seven games in 2012.
Last month the athletic department reported a decline of about 19 percent in the sale of nonstudent football season tickets from 2015, and a fall off in student sales too. Obviously single game sales have been slow as well. The Gophers didn’t even sell out their rivalry game with Iowa, announcing an attendance of 49,145.
Not only have their been no sellouts this season in the 50,805 seat stadium, but many of the best seats have been unoccupied for all games—even though customers paid premium prices for them.
The TCF Bank Stadium attendance problem highlights the lack of fan interest regarding the high profile programs of football, basketball and hockey at the University of Minnesota. Those three sports have been trending down in public popularity. They are positioned less favorably when compared to their professional counterparts than at any time in memory—certainly dating back to the start of the millennium when the NHL expansion Minnesota Wild joined the Timberwolves, Twins and Vikings as pro franchises in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
This fall the Vikings, Timberwolves and Wild are far outdistancing the Gophers in ticket buyers and general interest from Minnesota sports fans. The gap between the Vikings and Gophers has been in place for decades but a 5-0 start to the season and the opening of spectacular U.S. Bank Stadium widened the difference between the two products. The perception of the Gophers is that they have both an unproven coach and team that is playing a soft schedule following last year’s disappointing 2-6 Big Ten record.
http://shamasportsheadliners.com/
Go Gophers!!
I think it all boils down to being much easier to write articles like this about the Gophers than to cast the Vikings in a negative light.
