Shama: If there was a negative about U's win over Fresno State, it was the attendance

[Tlsbhansen]

I like the new hot chick they kept showing, they should let her talk every TV timeout.

I may be in the minority, but I think the they have playing "look at me" during breaks is ridiculous. Would rather see some highlights of other games on the big screen than her.

 

[dlw4gophers]

The U has $25 tickets on sale this week. Price is not the issue. I have 4 tickets in zone 4 with a tailgate spot in lot 37. I look at it as seven fun filled days of entertainment.

 

[PMWinSTP]

they get about 51 million a year from BTN they got about 31 million in 2015 they are fine for revenue. lowering the ticket cost will be fine.

You can get in the door for $25, actually a lot less if you buy some pizzas. You could for the last two games as well. The biggest open sections are where the cheapest seats are located. Win and people will come.

 

[Tucker32]

I know there is a risk to lowering ticket prices but to wait for this team to "win games" I don't think is the answer either.

At what number of wins does it become enough to sell the place out?
Nine wins on an easier schedule wasn't enough, so do we need 10 or 11?
At that point, as a fan you are basically asking for a guaranteed win in order for you to buy tickets.

Nebraska hasn't done that in many years and they sell out. Of course the difference is they don't have anything else to do.
But the other difference is, they sell out at whatever price, so there is a bit of a pent up demand to go.

With Gopher football there has never been a pent up demand because day of you know you can go and find tickets so no need to buy early.

They were selling the place out the year after going to the Capital One Bowl. It will happen again if they win. Last year was a whole different animal, even after 9 wins, with the coaching change and the coach, right or wrong, lowering expectations. People didn’t get excited going into the year, and the season did nothing to overcome that - the games were pretty awful for the most part last year.

Too many fans don’t count wins unless the are against WI and Michigan, such as many did here in talking down 9 wins. A win is a win, and as much as I wish people would be happy with that, the Gophs need to beat one “name” school, whether they are having a good year or not, for the casual fan to get on board.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Gophers_4life]

One aspect that I don't think has been touched upon: stadium size.

We have around 50k seats available, and that number rarely is filled up. But what if the stadium had been built just as nice/same quality, but only had 35-40k seats? Say, the upper deck wasn't there on the other side of the field from the suites/club/press box. We'd then be selling out every game. Would we have the same complaints then, even though it's the same number of tickets sold??

Or you could go the other way ... what if we'd built the stadium to hold 70k, and we were selling 50k tickets per game. Would we still be complaining about a lack of sellouts?

 

[Iceland12]

One aspect that I don't think has been touched upon: stadium size.

We have around 50k seats available, and that number rarely is filled up. But what if the stadium had been built just as nice/same quality, but only had 35-40k seats? Say, the upper deck wasn't there on the other side of the field from the suites/club/press box. We'd then be selling out every game. Would we have the same complaints then, even though it's the same number of tickets sold??

Or you could go the other way ... what if we'd built the stadium to hold 70k, and we were selling 50k tickets per game. Would we still be complaining about a lack of sellouts?

That was actually the plan when the built TCF. The Dome had 63 to 64,000 seats from 1988 forward. The Gophers consistently sold about 50k+ for Big Ten games and had to "paper the house" for the Non-Conference games. Much like what they did when they took Williams Arena down from around 17,000+ down to 14,000+, they wanted to "fill the place" and make people buy Season Tickets in order to be guaranteed to get seats for Big Ten games.

No longer would they have to nearly give tickets away to fill those extra 14 to 25,000 seats for every game that didn't feature Iowa or Wisconsin. No longer would there be 20 to 25,000 f*ing Hawkeye and Badger fans in the building negating any home field advantage.

They wanted to raise ticket prices, keep opposing fans out, gain revenue and let supply and demand work in their favor.

It worked for raising revenue and keeping the number of Iowa and Wisconsin fans down. On the later, we found out that those "rabid fans" were mostly interested in getting tickets at bargain prices.

The plan, unfortunately, failed miserably in letting supply and demand work to the U's benefit.

 

[Gophers_4life]

That was actually the plan when the built TCF. The Dome had 63 to 64,000 seats from 1988 forward. The Gophers consistently sold about 50k+ for Big Ten games and had to "paper the house" for the Non-Conference games. Much like what they did when they took Williams Arena down from around 17,000+ down to 14,000+, they wanted to "fill the place" and make people buy Season Tickets in order to be guaranteed to get seats for Big Ten games.

No longer would they have to nearly give tickets away to fill those extra 14 to 25,000 seats for every game that didn't feature Iowa or Wisconsin. No longer would there be 20 to 25,000 f*ing Hawkeye and Badger fans in the building negating any home field advantage.

They wanted to raise ticket prices, keep opposing fans out, gain revenue and let supply and demand work in their favor.

It worked for raising revenue and keeping the number of Iowa and Wisconsin fans down. On the later, we found out that those "rabid fans" were mostly interested in getting tickets at bargain prices.

The plan, unfortunately, failed miserably in letting supply and demand work to the U's benefit.

Thanks, that is interesting history.

Not quite apples to apples, because the pricing structure has obviously changed now from what it was at the Dome. Which I'm sure you get.

My hypothetical was, if we took the exact same pricing structure now, and simply "lopped off" 10-15k seats ... which I think might be something like taking away the upper deck on the rest of the stadium bowl beyond the main box. That would be interesting to see how it changed the supply/demand equilibrium and "urgency" for ticket buyers.

 

[Word]

I may be in the minority, but I think the "bimbette" they have playing "look at me" during breaks is ridiculous. Would rather see some highlights of other games on the big screen than her.

Really don't know why you'd call her a bimbette. She's a U of M alum and apparently trying to work her way up as a sports reporter. https://twitter.com/alliekrings
I guess if you want to see highlights I understand that, but that's not her fault. She does a good job with what they've asked her to do.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Really don't know why you'd call her a bimbette. She's a U of M alum and apparently trying to work her way up as a sports reporter. https://twitter.com/alliekrings
I guess if you want to see highlights I understand that, but that's not her fault. She does a good job with what they've asked her to do.

Yeah I think she does a good job too.

 

[Tlsbhansen]

Really don't know why you'd call her a bimbette. She's a U of M alum and apparently trying to work her way up as a sports reporter. https://twitter.com/alliekrings
I guess if you want to see highlights I understand that, but that's not her fault. She does a good job with what they've asked her to do.

I guess I wasn't targeting her specifically...just that "eye candy hostess" role that is totally unnecessary at a football game.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

I guess I wasn't targeting her specifically...just that "eye candy hostess" role that is totally unnecessary at a football game.

She's doing more than what you describe..... so is the weather person who shows up....

 

[Hates Monikers]

Correct. I don't know how many times we have to beat this dead horse. Let's say that the average attendance is 80% of capacity (it's higher, but just for the sake of demonstration). If you cut ticket prices 20% across the board, is your attendance going to go up 20% and have full capacity (at least in sales) for every game? I very much doubt it. The U would be stupid to cut prices because they're virtually guaranteed to lose revenue if they do so.

And as Iceland has acutely stated - how many of you pissing and moaning about this in thread after thread are actually going to any games, let alone season ticket holders? It's often trite to say, but this is an actual case where you can easily do something to help fix a "problem".

I've always acknowledged that there's no question the U makes more money with this strategy or else they wouldn't do it. My criticism is that they're more interested in making incremental increases to the budget this year than building a fan base over a generation. That will always be more difficult without a competitive team, but if you get more families into the stadium today, many will still be attending in 10 or 20 years.

We had season tickets for basketball for 23 years and brought my two daughters to a lot of games. (Dumped them in large part due to scholarship seating.) We've had football tickets for 10 years. Saturday my daughter, who just graduated from college (not the U) came with us along with her boyfriend, and she's using the pizza deal for tickets to the Northwestern game. That's a few extra tickets from 23-year-olds because one enjoyed spending time in Stadium Village as a kid.

It's worth noting that my younger daughter, a junior at the U, would like to go to games and had season tickets her first two years as a student. But none of her friends at the U go. That's a problem. They tend to go as freshmen and even sophomores, but they stop leaving the frat parties as the get older.

 

[West Fargo Gopher Fan]

Hey at least we are outdrawing the Twins. They would take 38K in a heartbeat.

 

[patrick08]

If you are well off enough to own a cabin, then you can afford tickets and some pocket change for a couple beers and a hot dog.

Not necessarily. Some cabins and property have been in families for years and are paid for and passed down. Also if you have a dollar and spend .75 on a cheeseburger, that doesn't mean you can afford the .50 fries.

I don't own a cabin, but I know many people do and want to get away. If that means they have to miss the Miami (OH), I think they feel just fine about that.

 

[Tlsbhansen]

She's doing more than what you describe..... so is the weather person who shows up....

Not from my perspective, but I guess that's a difference of opinions. Highlights of other games would be much more valuable.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Hey at least we are outdrawing the Twins. They would take 38K in a heartbeat.

Can we trade them a few fans for their food options?

 

[patrick08]

Gary Clark Jr. was playing over at Surly Brewing Saturday night. Guessing some of them headed over there?

You are correct. I know some who went that would have otherwise gone to the game. If there is a concert that comes to town that you want to see, giving up a non-conference game is an ok trade off.

 

[dpodoll68]

You are correct. I know some who went that would have otherwise gone to the game. If there is a concert that comes to town that you want to see, giving up a non-conference game is an ok trade off.

Literally never heard of the guy, but he must be legit if he's playing Madison Square Garden with Eric Clapton.

 

[hello-world]

Literally never heard of the guy, but he must be legit if he's playing Madison Square Garden with Eric Clapton.

Clapton collaborates with everyone so he might be a nobody, but I bet he's really f*ing good at guitar

 

[Golden Elephant]

I know there is a risk to lowering ticket prices but to wait for this team to "win games" I don't think is the answer either.

At what number of wins does it become enough to sell the place out?
Nine wins on an easier schedule wasn't enough, so do we need 10 or 11?
At that point, as a fan you are basically asking for a guaranteed win in order for you to buy tickets.

Nebraska hasn't done that in many years and they sell out. Of course the difference is they don't have anything else to do.
But the other difference is, they sell out at whatever price, so there is a bit of a pent up demand to go.

With Gopher football there has never been a pent up demand because day of you know you can go and find tickets so no need to buy early.

Nebraska doesn't sell out at any price. Their ticket prices and donation levels stayed pretty steady from ~2014 thru 2017, and they have renewed interest because of the new coach this year, but - between 2012 & 2013 they slashed required donations on tickets:
https://www.cornnation.com/2013/8/6...eason-ticket-minimum-donation-levels-collapse
Nebraska has resisted the trend, but even they are not immune to this trend, and they need to win to sell tickets, too.


So that said, we're all looking for a solution to this problem, and yours truly is here to give it to you: A GRAND APOLOGY FROM COYLE & KALER AND A WELL-PUBLICIZED SLASHING OF REQUIRED DONATION LEVELS. This would be akin to what Domino's Pizza did years back when they admitted their pizza was bad* and then unveiled a new recipe and asked people to try it. Basically, Coyle & Kaler would come out and do a big TV ad buy and billboards and newspapers and web ads, and they'd basically say in these ads: "Hey, we, and our predecessors, screwed up. We jacked up ticket prices way too much and we haven't improved the on-field product at all. We're slashing required donations, please give us a try. Let's sell out TCF and create a great atmosphere again."

Then, they should follow it up with personal phone calls to all the season ticket holders who cancelled the past few years to try to get them back. Our neighbors across the street gave up their 4 chairback seats when Slick Woody Teague announced their donations would be going from $0 to $500/ticket ($2K total) in 3 years. You could put all the required donations at what they were supposed to be after 1 year of the 3 year increases (basically half what they are now) and I bet you'd probably come out not too far behind on the revenue. Long term, in a few years you could slowly raise it and each seat could be back to what it is now over 10 years or so, hopefully with all of them sold.

And step 2 is they should actually improve the game day experience. Ban back-to-back TV breaks around kickoffs** - Saturday was the first time I've seen that outside the NFL - and update the video experience. As many others have noted - it's ridiculous to not replay "controversial" plays and there's no excuse at a B1G school for all the lack of routine plays, especially early in the game Saturday.

It'd be a risky strategy, and I'm sure they'd never do it. They'd rather slowly bleed ticket sales and hope for wins to come back rather than take a risky and bold strategy, but that's what they should do. Not only because it might work, but because it'd be the right thing to do.

* Please save me the wisecracks from you pizza snobs about how you think that Domino's pizza is still bad.
** Yes, yes, I know that they don't really control TV, but they could push back on BTN and actually try to make it better instead of kissing their rings.

 

[die hard gopher]

The U has $25 tickets on sale this week. Price is not the issue. I have 4 tickets in zone 4 with a tailgate spot in lot 37. I look at it as seven fun filled days of entertainment.

I'd argue it is.

For the Iowa game the cheapest seats are $80 plus the 10% single game per ticket fee so more like $88 for the very cheapest seats. I know for a fact tickets for the Stanford @ Notre Dame game start at $65 and those are two top 15 teams in the country this year with one being one of the most storied programs in the country. I understand ND is a bigger Stadium, there are about 17 more total rows from field to the top of the stadium than at TCF, but should we really be pricing our cheapest tickets $23 more for a non top 25 team than what ND is charging for Stanford who was a top 15 team team coming into the year? And yes, I know the Iowa game is also homecoming and one of our biggest rivals and all but still.

I agree the Miami and NMSU games were fair price but with the other games, I feel the price starts to exceed their value. Well not for me but for the casual fan. A lot of people I've talked to were looking to buy tickets for that game but when they saw the prices they said hell no.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

I'd argue it is.

For the Iowa game the cheapest seats are $80 plus the 10% single game per ticket fee so more like $88 for the very cheapest seats. I know for a fact tickets for the Stanford @ Notre Dame game start at $65 and those are two top 15 teams in the country this year with one being one of the most storied programs in the country. I understand ND is a bigger Stadium, there are about 17 more total rows from field to the top of the stadium than at TCF, but should we really be pricing our cheapest tickets $23 more for a non top 25 team than what ND is charging for Stanford who was a top 15 team team coming into the year? And yes, I know the Iowa game is also homecoming and one of our biggest rivals and all but still.

I agree the Miami and NMSU games were fair price but with the other games, I feel the price starts to exceed their value. Well not for me but for the casual fan. A lot of people I've talked to were looking to buy tickets for that game but when they saw the prices they said hell no.

Iowa is one of our better attending games so I'm not sure why you chose that game....

Stanford at ND right now the lowest on the secondary market is 107....

 

[short ornery norwegian]

I have maintained for years that the "true" Gopher football fan base is about 35,000 fans.

Those are the fans who will show up (actually attend the game) for every game, no matter what. Any attendance beyond that is due to bandwagon jumpers, casual fans, and the % of corporate tickets that are actually used, as opposed to sitting in Larry's desk at work because he forgot about them, or nobody wanted the tickets.
Plus, sales to visiting fans - which really only matters for WI, IA and Neb.

In past years, when there have been spikes in attendance, it was due to Holtz generating interest among the non die-hard fans; or the team generating some buzz and getting good press for winning games. But, every spike in attendance has been followed by a downturn. (Holtz leaves - 4th qtr vs Michigan, etc)

The fact is that a big chunk of the potential fan base was not alive the last time the Gophers were truly relevant in the college FB world, or even just the B1G.

Over two generations of fans have grown up with the constant drumbeat by the local media and fans of "The Gophers Suck." One big game - even one big season - will not turn that around. To really move the needle, the Gophers will have to put 3 or 4 really good seasons back-to-back. By really good, I'm talking 9 wins or more, and being a factor in the B1G standings.

 

[PMWinSTP]

Gary Clark Jr. was playing over at Surly Brewing Saturday night. Guessing some of them headed over there?

Saw him at the Palace. Phenomenal.

 

[PMWinSTP]

Thanks, that is interesting history.

Not quite apples to apples, because the pricing structure has obviously changed now from what it was at the Dome. Which I'm sure you get.

My hypothetical was, if we took the exact same pricing structure now, and simply "lopped off" 10-15k seats ... which I think might be something like taking away the upper deck on the rest of the stadium bowl beyond the main box. That would be interesting to see how it changed the supply/demand equilibrium and "urgency" for ticket buyers.

They sold out with the added Vikings seating. Win and the stadium will be full.

 

[Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0]

Someone get to work on a Laffer Curve chart.

 

[Gophers_4life]

I've always acknowledged that there's no question the U makes more money with this strategy or else they wouldn't do it. My criticism is that they're more interested in making incremental increases to the budget this year than building a fan base over a generation. That will always be more difficult without a competitive team, but if you get more families into the stadium today, many will still be attending in 10 or 20 years.

Season ticket holders's immediate children get in free.

Cuts the cost for a fam of 4 in half, and builds the loyalty in the kids. Maybe?

EDIT: I was proposing this as a hypothetical, not stating it is true today

 

[Go4]

Nebraska doesn't sell out at any price. Their ticket prices and donation levels stayed pretty steady from ~2014 thru 2017, and they have renewed interest because of the new coach this year, but - between 2012 & 2013 they slashed required donations on tickets:
https://www.cornnation.com/2013/8/6...eason-ticket-minimum-donation-levels-collapse
Nebraska has resisted the trend, but even they are not immune to this trend, and they need to win to sell tickets, too.


So that said, we're all looking for a solution to this problem, and yours truly is here to give it to you: A GRAND APOLOGY FROM COYLE & KALER AND A WELL-PUBLICIZED SLASHING OF REQUIRED DONATION LEVELS. This would be akin to what Domino's Pizza did years back when they admitted their pizza was bad* and then unveiled a new recipe and asked people to try it. Basically, Coyle & Kaler would come out and do a big TV ad buy and billboards and newspapers and web ads, and they'd basically say in these ads: "Hey, we, and our predecessors, screwed up. We jacked up ticket prices way too much and we haven't improved the on-field product at all. We're slashing required donations, please give us a try. Let's sell out TCF and create a great atmosphere again."

Then, they should follow it up with personal phone calls to all the season ticket holders who cancelled the past few years to try to get them back. Our neighbors across the street gave up their 4 chairback seats when Slick Woody Teague announced their donations would be going from $0 to $500/ticket ($2K total) in 3 years. You could put all the required donations at what they were supposed to be after 1 year of the 3 year increases (basically half what they are now) and I bet you'd probably come out not too far behind on the revenue. Long term, in a few years you could slowly raise it and each seat could be back to what it is now over 10 years or so, hopefully with all of them sold.

And step 2 is they should actually improve the game day experience. Ban back-to-back TV breaks around kickoffs** - Saturday was the first time I've seen that outside the NFL - and update the video experience. As many others have noted - it's ridiculous to not replay "controversial" plays and there's no excuse at a B1G school for all the lack of routine plays, especially early in the game Saturday.

It'd be a risky strategy, and I'm sure they'd never do it. They'd rather slowly bleed ticket sales and hope for wins to come back rather than take a risky and bold strategy, but that's what they should do. Not only because it might work, but because it'd be the right thing to do.

* Please save me the wisecracks from you pizza snobs about how you think that Domino's pizza is still bad.
** Yes, yes, I know that they don't really control TV, but they could push back on BTN and actually try to make it better instead of kissing their rings.

+04, some good thoughts here.

 

[patrick08]

Season ticket holders's immediate children get in free.

Cuts the cost for a fam of 4 in half, and builds the loyalty in the kids. Maybe?

EDIT: I was proposing this as a hypothetical, not stating it is true today

Too many asterisks required. Verification would be a mess. “Please empty your pockets, open your bags and have birth certificates and ancestry.com results ready”

 

[Gophers_4life]

Too many asterisks required. Verification would be a mess. “Please empty your pockets, open your bags and have birth certificates and ancestry.com results ready”

True.

How about: "each season ticket holder automatically gets a free "buddy" pass for any other person to each game!" ? Oh well, I tried