Shooter: New Mexico (9-4 w/ bowl win) is reducing ticket price to increase attendance

Donate To GopherHole
I think you need to factor in a few things.

Cost: At some point the product on the field is not worth paying for and you move on or watch from home or maybe go to one game a season instead.

Tracy Claeys: Wasn't a great season ticket marketing tool in my opinion. PJ i feel will be better at this.

This last one is what I think makes selling tickets at the U difficult, unlike New Mexico the Gophers have so much competition.
Minneapolis sports teams: Teams like the Vikings, Twins, Wild, Timberwolves, Gophers hockey and basketball. So many other teams you can go and get season tickets to especially if they are doing well. I think the Vikings being the biggest one its sometimes hard to justify going to a Gopher game on Saturday and the Vikings game on Sunday.
 

Schnauzer said:
A LOT of season ticket holders dropped their seats last year. Many of these were long time season ticket holders. Good schedules come and go and typically long time season ticket holders stay through it all. Yes, a good schedule can raise ticket sales a bit, especially for visitors when the opponents are Iowa, Wisconsin, etc.

I talked to a LOT of friends, acquaintances, and strangers that had dropped their season tickets prior to last season. 100% of these people said they dropped their tickets due to scholarship seating price increases. Correspondingly, exactly 0% of the people I talked to dropped their season tickets because "the home schedule isn't as good this year." Most had kept their season tickets through years of really bad non-conference Mason schedules.

My survey was far from scientific. I'm sure there are fans that dropped their seats due to the poor draw of the schedule, somewhere. But in general, I feel scholarship seating was the biggest reason for the decline in ticket sales.

The dramatic rise in ticket prices were a HUGE deciding factor, for A LOT of people.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you're probably right. I was incorrect in how I worded it, I think the drop in our average attendance was probably due to our schedule. But you're right, I think season ticket holders that dropped were annoyed with how the ticket prices were handled. I knew people who were annoyed with how the ticket price thing went down.

My point was just that our end of the year numbers would have looked different with a different schedule.
 

ELITEEvan said:
I think you need to factor in a few things.

Cost: At some point the product on the field is not worth paying for and you move on or watch from home or maybe go to one game a season instead.

Tracy Claeys: Wasn't a great season ticket marketing tool in my opinion. PJ i feel will be better at this.

This last one is what I think makes selling tickets at the U difficult, unlike New Mexico the Gophers have so much competition.
Minneapolis sports teams: Teams like the Vikings, Twins, Wild, Timberwolves, Gophers hockey and basketball. So many other teams you can go and get season tickets to especially if they are doing well. I think the Vikings being the biggest one its sometimes hard to justify going to a Gopher game on Saturday and the Vikings game on Sunday.
Click to expand...

Honest question. . .

How long do you think this lasts? I realize that if PJ starts winning 10+ games over the course of the next few years, TCF will be bumping.

However, let's say PJ wins 8 a couple of times, then 7, then 9. . . let's just say that he hovers around that 7-9 plateau for the next 5 years (for the sake of discussion), don't you think PJ's marketability would fall just as flat? I could be wrong, I hope I'm wrong.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Honest question. . .

How long do you think this lasts? I realize that if PJ starts winning 10+ games over the course of the next few years, TCF will be bumping.

However, let's say PJ wins 8 a couple of times, then 7, then 9. . . let's just say that he hovers around that 7-9 plateau for the next 5 years (for the sake of discussion), don't you think PJ's marketability would fall just as flat? I could be wrong, I hope I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

Totally agree! His charm and marketability is only good if he wins and keeps good on winning the Big Ten.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Honest question. . .

How long do you think this lasts? I realize that if PJ starts winning 10+ games over the course of the next few years, TCF will be bumping.

However, let's say PJ wins 8 a couple of times, then 7, then 9. . . let's just say that he hovers around that 7-9 plateau for the next 5 years (for the sake of discussion), don't you think PJ's marketability would fall just as flat? I could be wrong, I hope I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

Isn't that obvious? I don't think anyone expects fans to show up if the team and recruiting isn't progressing over multiple years.
 


There are so many factors and variables when it comes to attendance but first and foremost it's about winning games. Establishing a winning tradition and a culture to get fans excited and make TCF Bank Stadium the place to be on Saturdays.

Get the students excited, get out on campus and give away tickets. Make it a party and something that students will want to get excited about.

They really need to work hard to connect with the alumni base and the former season ticket holders. Getting out in the community. We have seen PJ do a lot of this already in the first 6 weeks and can expect to see a lot more of him out in the community.

You are never going to sell out a Rutgers, Illinois, Northwestern or Purdue type of game, but there is no reason you cannot sell out the Bank with a majority of your own fans for opponents such as Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan State.

If you need to, go back to offering $20 tickets for the non-conference games and less popular conference games. Anything to get people into the stadium at this point. Give more incentive to getting season tickets whether its cutting season ticket prices, raising the percentage mark-up on "premium" single-games. If you need to take a $100-$500 loss on a season ticket package but can increase the season ticket base by 5,000 or 10,000 it might be something to consider. How about offering mini season ticket packages such as 4 games.

Can you imagine how crazy it would be at TCF Bank Stadium if Wisconsin and Minnesota were both 9-2 heading into the final game for the battle of the Axe and a trip to the Big Ten Championship game?

I remember when Gopher fans filled the Metrodome on that Friday night in 2003 in the infamous Michigan game. The Halloweeen Night Michigan State game in 2009 at TCF Bank Stadium was another electric atmosphere.

The fans are out there, you just need to connect with them and win some big games along the way.
 



lmh839 said:
I remember when Gopher fans filled the Metrodome on that Friday night in 2003 in the infamous Michigan game.
Click to expand...

No clue what you are talking about. This game that you mentioned never happened.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 



Johnnyboy18 said:
Isn't that obvious? I don't think anyone expects fans to show up if the team and recruiting isn't progressing over multiple years.
Click to expand...

Obviously not for a lot of people on here. I was asking a poster who specifically said otherwise.

I've heard on here from numerous people how PJ Fleck will be a better salesperson for the program. If attendance hits a plateau if we don't progress beyond 7-9 wins per year, you're agreeing with me. Winning is the only thing that matters and PJ isn't a better salesperson (because the only thing that matters is winning). The only way to sell a program is to win.


On a side note, recruiting can't be progressing if the team isn't progressing. If we aren't winning more games with Fleck, he isn't recruiting better than Claeys/Kill. It's like investing money, regardless of energy or brilliant investment schemes, only one thing matters.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Obviously not for a lot of people on here. I was asking a poster who specifically said otherwise.

I've heard on here from numerous people how PJ Fleck will be a better salesperson for the program. If attendance hits a plateau if we don't progress beyond 7-9 wins per year, you're agreeing with me. Winning is the only thing that matters and PJ isn't a better salesperson (because the only thing that matters is winning). The only way to sell a program is to win.


On a side note, recruiting can't be progressing if the team isn't progressing. If we aren't winning more games with Fleck, he isn't recruiting better than Claeys/Kill. It's like investing money, regardless of energy or brilliant investment schemes, only one thing matters.
Click to expand...

Agree 100%. Winning at a higher level solves attendance and ensures that Fleck is here a long time. It starts this year.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Agree 100%. Winning at a higher level solves attendance and ensures that Fleck is here a long time. It starts this year.
Click to expand...

This year is culture change.
Winning starts next year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Spoofin said:
This year is culture change.
Winning starts next year.


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

Nice...but your expectations are too high. don't you know you need to give him 5 years?
 



You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom