Shama: Gophers Football Season Ticket Sales Down Slightly from 2024; third consecutive year of decline in public season tickets

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Some guy said:
Honestly this is a meaningless number because they don’t price them to sell out they price them to maximize profit.
They literally don’t want the stadium sold out or they would miss revenue on the big money games.
They’re content having 44k against northwestern state to charge more for other games
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Other schools can and do charge season ticket holders more for big revenue games. If the U could sell out the stadium with season tickets, they would in a heartbeat.
 

Ope3 said:
It's not the Gophers making bank either.

That $13 gets split up by the vendor (contracted), distributor, labor, taxes etc. A relative small percentage goes into the Gophers coffers when all is said and done. $2 each might be pushing it.
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Depending on the vending contracts, the facility typically gets between 15-20% of the gross sales. Although I have no idea if the U can get more favorable contracts. $2 for the U on a $13 dollar beer is probably pretty close.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
This might be my last year. Too many people find cheaper ways into games. I can leave my house and be in my seat in less than an hour.

Would rather go to a few different sporting events each year.

Economy is much worse than some think. Unemployment report was not good today.
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The first part of this is spot on. The secondary market makes it a lot easier to get into the games a person wants to attend and come out ahead financially. I had season tickets before the fee increase but even then found it difficult to even give away some game tickets.
 

Ope3 said:
Right off the bat over there's an over 10% haircut for state/city/county sales & liquor taxes.

I am not sure it's Coyle that's negotiating. Back in the day it was part of the University's overall contracts for food/beverage providers.
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Is it a haircut or passed on to the consumer or both? Sales tax is collected by the vendor but paid by the consumer. The vendor can lower prices but I've seen no evidence at sporting events that that is the case.
 

  • Easier than ever to go online & get tickets on secondary market. Good tickets at good prices for the lower games.
  • Not the greatest home slate; Nebraska & Wisconsin the only big name games. Us fans enjoy all Big Ten games, but Michigan State really has never moved the needle here, football wise. I respect Rutgers, but they aren't one that's going to draw. And Purdue is Purdue; sometimes good, sometimes bad, but not a draw.
  • I do think college football in particular is at an interesting point in terms of cost vs. benefit to attending games. Cost to attend going up, games on TV are getting better, and it truly takes up ones day to attend a game.
 


WAGopher said:
IIRC, Teague implemented a plan 3 price increases, and the third one is what lost the most season ticket holders. And didn’t the third one happen under the interim AD Beth Goetz after Teague was fired?

Also, some time during that period the Gophers converted something like 4 sections to scholarship seating, which made hundreds of seats even more expensive. Kind of a double whammy for affected season ticket holders.
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Incorrect. Refer to my chart on the first page. There were 3 price increases planned and the first 2 were implemented, costing about 5k season ticket holders each. The admin thankfully did not follow through on the 3rd once because they knew it would have killed the program.
 

swede2 said:
The first part of this is spot on. The secondary market makes it a lot easier to get into the games a person wants to attend and come out ahead financially. I had season tickets before the fee increase but even then found it difficult to even give away some game tickets.
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If the goal is to minimize your financial outlay than buying on the secondary market makes the most sense. I like the idea of parking in the same spot and knowing (or at least recognizing) those who sit around me. And I feel joy when I am able to expand gopher nation by giving away my tix when I can’t attend. Ski u mah!
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
Incorrect. Refer to my chart on the first page. There were 3 price increases planned and the first 2 were implemented, costing about 5k season ticket holders each. The admin thankfully did not follow through on the 3rd once because they knew it would have killed the program.
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Thank you for the clarification as I wasn’t sure about the third increase, and obviously I didn’t carefully read your chart! Using your chart it looks like each price increase lost about 5,000 season tickets. Down 16% the first year and 18% the second.
 

Maybe I'm not looking in the right place, but when was the last time you saw any kind of significant advertising for Gopher Football? I remember back in the 80's and 90's there were commercials on TV in the late summer for the upcoming season. Some of them were pretty good, too.


There seems to be very little effort to actually sell more season tickets. So either they are fine with the current number or they are not good at marketing.
 



bonin21 said:
People are feeling the pain in their wallets everywhere and for us: super high taxation state, with billions of our taxes being stolen by a small subset of people, high income people leaving the state leaving others to foot the bill more and more every year with crazy increases in property taxes, energy bills, etc.

New teams coming in to the conference making hope of a Big Ten title almost non-existent.

Just a tough battle to win.
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Rather than push back directly on any of this, I'll just say that if we maybe made corporations pair their fair share of taxes, regular people might actually be able to afford a decent life again. The data is out there, its easy to see who holds the wealth in this country.
 

highwayman said:
25% increase is a canard on your part. $60/7 is less than $10 a game. $60 is $5 a month. "the economy and personal finances outside of the upper class" comment has nothing to do with $5 a month.
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$5 a month for tickets, plus $5 extra a month for food, electricity, gas, insurance, etc. Vikings season tickets also went up about 6% from what I can see online and based on both team's success last year, if you decide you only want to keep one most people are probably keeping the Vikings tickets.
 

Same reason I dropped hockey season tickets (plus the Big Ten not being anywhere near as intense as the WCHA): It's just cheaper and easier to buy single game tickets to the games you really want to go to, and in the case of Mariucci every seat is a good one. Season tickets only make sense if they are just about the only way to get to big games and if your seats are just too good to give up.
 

swede2 said:
Other schools can and do charge season ticket holders more for big revenue games. If the U could sell out the stadium with season tickets, they would in a heartbeat.
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They could sell it out pretty easily if they wanted to: they choose not to

If they lowered season tickets to the point where people bought season tickets to get the big games, the games like NW state would require a few hundred 10 dollar seats sold compared to a few thousand. Could easily be done, they are using a profit max model not a sell 50k tickets model
 



Mr. 131 said:
Rather than push back directly on any of this, I'll just say that if we maybe made corporations pair their fair share of taxes, regular people might actually be able to afford a decent life again. The data is out there, its easy to see who holds the wealth in this country.
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What amount is a fair share?
 

Some guy said:
They could sell it out pretty easily if they wanted to: they choose not to

If they lowered season tickets to the point where people bought season tickets to get the big games, the games like NW state would require a few hundred 10 dollar seats sold compared to a few thousand. Could easily be done, they are using a profit max model not a sell 50k tickets model
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Sellouts are about more than ticket revenue, and more than concessions revenue. Sellouts mean more engaged fans who have an active rooting interest in the team, who wear team apparel and think of the U of M as their school, even if they didn't attend. It means families planning their day around something that really matters to them. It means youngsters of today becoming hardcore Minnesota boosters in the future.

Having a full stadium today is an investment in the future of the program. Milking the fan base for every penny you can squeeze out of it right now - "screw the future" - is the act of an administration that has no vision beyond what it can put in its pockets.
 

everybody knows my name said:
Having a full stadium today is an investment in the future of the program. Milking the fan base for every penny you can squeeze out of it right now - "screw the future" - is the act of an administration that has no vision beyond what it can put in its pockets.
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Because they know and don't care that they won't be around for that future.
 

For six or seven of the years that PJ has been in charge an argument could be made watching our games is like watching paint dry. It was better in 19 and it was better last year, but you’re not gonna capture a casual fan by having them come to a game and having us run 50 times off tackle.
 

Gopherchase said:
For six or seven of the years that PJ has been in charge an argument could be made watching our games is like watching paint dry. It was better in 19 and it was better last year, but you’re not gonna capture a casual fan by having them come to a game and having us run 50 times off tackle.
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People will watch and cheer for a winner.
 

everybody knows my name said:
People will watch and cheer for a winner.
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Unless there is a miraculous Big Ten championship appearance at some point, I think you're always going to have a hard time. People would rather pay a crap ton for Vikings tickets cuz they at least have a chance to make the conference championship which I would sort of call the equivalent level of excitement.
 



Some guy said:
They could sell it out pretty easily if they wanted to: they choose not to

If they lowered season tickets to the point where people bought season tickets to get the big games, the games like NW state would require a few hundred 10 dollar seats sold compared to a few thousand. Could easily be done, they are using a profit max model not a sell 50k tickets model
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I think you're correct - although I wouldn't bet on it - that they could sell out the stadium if all season tickets were $10 per game. But the U didn't implement fee increases to drive down the number of season ticket holders and as noted above, it didn't implement the final fee increase when it realized the chilling effect it was having on season ticket numbers. It simply misjudged the market demand. I think the math probably gets a bit sketchy to think that 15,000 additional season tickets at actual market value somehow would equal less revenue than purposefully trying to soak skunk and husker fans and make up the difference on two games. I read something a while back that generally speaking, CFB programs aim for 70% season ticket sales. We're obviously not close to selling out the place with season tickets or hitting an industry target and unless the athletic department is more savvy than we all give it credit for, I doubt its outsmarting the industry.
 

everybody knows my name said:
People will watch and cheer for a winner.
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Yep, and our bowl games at the end of each year, but for one, certainly haven’t provided any momentum into the following year. All that said, I do think PJ has evolved as a coach and we have a shot this year to be something special. We will find out a lot more starting in about 27 hours.
 

swede2 said:
Is it a haircut or passed on to the consumer or both? Sales tax is collected by the vendor but paid by the consumer. The vendor can lower prices but I've seen no evidence at sporting events that that is the case.
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Now that it's cashless and for the most part my +1 guests usually treat me to a couple of beers for the tickets, I can't definitively say.

I was under the presumption that the $12 Beer price post I responded to, the +10% sales & liquor taxes were built in as it's been since I have started going to sporting events. However, I think the Twins haven't started tacking it on to listed concession prices.

I'll pay closer attention the next time I purchase suds at the stadium, hopefully that's for Farm Aid.
 

Gopherchase said:
Yep, and our bowl games at the end of each year, but for one, certainly haven’t provided any momentum into the following year. All that said, I do think PJ has evolved as a coach and we have a shot this year to be something special. We will find out a lot more starting in about 27 hours.
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Let me amend - people will support a real winner. I don't think more appearances in the banjo bowl, the oil change bowl, and the mayonnaise bowl will do it. But if the Gophers are a contender - no reason they can't be - that'll draw fans.
 

HopHead said:
Maybe I'm not looking in the right place, but when was the last time you saw any kind of significant advertising for Gopher Football? I remember back in the 80's and 90's there were commercials on TV in the late summer for the upcoming season. Some of them were pretty good, too.


There seems to be very little effort to actually sell more season tickets. So either they are fine with the current number or they are not good at marketing.
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I have seen several ads for Gopher ticket sales recently on TV, Radio, podcasts and pushed to my phone web surfing and on IG.
 

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