STrib: Gophers men's basketball on pace for lowest attendance in five decades; average tickets scanned is 3,313

I didn't say "no" issue. But of the people who say they'd come to games but they don't feel safe, I would say 90% of the people saying that never came to games before anyway.
“Notice the Vikings have no issue.”

Looks like you did say that to me. Maybe I am reading that wrong. Point is there are some issues but I also think there are bigger reasons for the poor attendance (cost of tickets, play of team).
 

Prices tend to push season tickets. Lower too much and you will start losing your season ticket base.

Unfortunately families are so engaged in youth sports and activities, it’s rare they can find time to squeeze in weeknight and Saturday morning games. When you have an open night are the Gophers top of the list?
 

“Notice the Vikings have no issue.”

Looks like you did say that to me. Maybe I am reading that wrong. Point is there are some issues but I also think there are bigger reasons for the poor attendance (cost of tickets, play of team).
I'm not saying no one who goes needs to take precautions or that nothing can happen. I'm saying the # of people actually staying home out of fear is very small. But I see it raised in the top 3 or 4 reasons every time attendance issues are discussed for the Twins or Gophers. I don't believe it is.
 


Low attendance cause us old farts are taking advantage of the B1G 10 network on our TVs rather than park at the Maroon lot and skate into the arena. Plus...lower cost on refreshments. 😁
 


I don't think it's any one reason.

It's a combination of factors:
cost of tickets and 'seat donations'
perceived poor non-conference schedules
game times and dates changing (not like old days with more predictable scheduling)
the team's performance is certainly a factor
perceived issues with parking and getting to games on campus
fans staying at home to watch games on big-screen TV's

and this is a trend that has been developing over the last 8 years. it didn't start yesterday.

from the Strib article;

The last time the Gophers' average attendance topped 12,000 for a season was 2014-15. The next year, the Gophers went 8-22 under then-coach Richard Pitino, and their attendance hasn't recovered.

With fans allowed back last season, and Johnson in his first year as head coach, the Gophers created buzz with a 10-1 start, including 5-0 at home. Their average announced attendance for the season increased to 10,267 even though they unraveled and finished last in the Big Ten.
Attendance is down everywhere, and it's for the reasons you give. The numbers being down isn't that surprising, actually. The question, however, is how we're doing with respect to our peers and how we're doing when you adjust for our situation. What I mean by that is that the Gophers have a huge built-in advantage: they play in a metro area north of 2.5 million people. Much is made of the local competition for the ticket-buying dollar, and it's no lie, but there's another side to that coin, which is...2.5 million people! That's a lot of potential fans, alums and non alums.
 

Attendance is down everywhere, and it's for the reasons you give. The numbers being down isn't that surprising, actually. The question, however, is how we're doing with respect to our peers and how we're doing when you adjust for our situation. What I mean by that is that the Gophers have a huge built-in advantage: they play in a metro area north of 2.5 million people. Much is made of the local competition for the ticket-buying dollar, and it's no lie, but there's another side to that coin, which is...2.5 million people! That's a lot of potential fans, alums and non alums.
This team is so painful right now you could make every ticket 5 dollars and you still wouldn’t sell out

This team isn’t worth 3 hours of most people’s time.
 

Lindsay Whalen at least sold tickets early on in her coaching career. Would have to look at attendance to see if it’s remained up.

Lots of factors into decreasing attendance but the biggest one is the product on the floor. I got rid of my season tickets for a couple reasons. I attended the last home game of 2019-2020. I haven’t been in The Barn for a men’s game since. Will try to get to one this year as I think my son would tolerate it.
I really think one thing going on is that so few people even remember how fun it is to have a competitive team in a packed arena. That's why most of the low-patience, high-expectation people on this board are the older ones like me who know how things can be and don't buy the notion that such success is impossible or that it's so hard to win here that we should accept the lower division of the league as our new permanent home. And make no mistake: fan/booster expectations and pressure have a lot to do with the urgency with which athletic departments operate.
 





@GopherBlood666 the attendance per ESPN box score was 10, 948 = 75% full. Yea or nay, based on your attendance?
It was a better crowd yesterday, but definitely nay. The good thing is the crowd was engaged, and that was because the team gave them a reason to be engaged (by playing better).
 

from the " get off my lawn" section....I don't think the game day experience people at the U ever look around at the crowd to see who their customer is. Pre-game and half-time music so loud that the people that have had season tickets for 25 years and want to chat with their seat neighbors who they have known for 25 years and they can't hear. The guy to my left yesterday sat with his hands over his ears for 10 minutes of pre-game. He doesn't like to converse mubh anyway and he is a die-hard and he will probably be back, but at some point the U should read the room. Yesterday the player alumni probably wanted to chat with their buddies they haven't seen since last years event-- and I am guessing they had to go to the concourse or hopefully, they got into the Williams room or somewhere.

on another note- i was trying to figure out why other D1 games I go to in town are so much fun to go to and #1 was the effort level from the players but it also dawned on me after thinking about it-- I don't get product pushed on me at every break in the action and don't have changing, scrolling message boards everywhere during the action. The game is about the game, not about how many sponsors you can squeeze for some $$
 




on another note- i was trying to figure out why other D1 games I go to in town are so much fun to go to and #1 was the effort level from the players but it also dawned on me after thinking about it-- I don't get product pushed on me at every break in the action and don't have changing, scrolling message boards everywhere during the action. The game is about the game, not about how many sponsors you can squeeze for some $$
Well said.
 


The "I don't feel safe" thing is 90% people who never came to begin with IMO. Notice the Vikings have no issue. It's bad basketball for way too long with a current team that has little hope to win.

That is a good point about the Vikings not having any issues. I was thinking about that too.

And yet it's also true -- I know people who have said so -- that they avoid coming in when possible.

-----

Different debate item. I want to point out that:

I want to point out that the article said "announced attendance averages 8,551, and their actual number of tickets scanned averages just 3,313.

That tells me that the core season ticket holders still own and control the best seats. They just aren't coming to the games.

The team stinks right now.

Think of those older people in their sweaters who control the best seats. They are not risking a 10% chance of a Covid exposure to see a bad team get beat, yet they continue to own those seats.

The core 8,500 has not been run off. Yes, that number is down but not "fan base run off."

And it is true that a lot of people just aren't coming to Minneapolis unless they have to. Go walk around downtown. It's a partial ghost town.

Crime in Minneapolis is better this year than last, and yet it's also still higher than average.

Last year car jackings were repeated in the news. Murders in the news. Buildings on fire during the riots. People know what's going on.

All that and Covid ARE factors too. Things are not back to normal yet.

Anyway, the 3,313 numbers is the attendance number. The sales number is still over 8,500.


Freshman Joshua Ola-Joseph got 32 minutes and freshman Pharrel Payne got 20 minutes in the Nebraska game. Freshman Jaden Henley played 12 minutes. Freshman Braden Carrington got 9 minutes in the Nebraska game. Carrington is Mr. Minnesota basketball and will be a great player.

We are playing for the future. Does Johnson have a plan? You decide. I say Yes.

Johnson got the elite top-5 NBA pick someday Dennis Evans coming to the Gophers.


Minnesota has never been a great recruiting team. That is the reality of being a fan.

Go Gophers!

1673192492782.png
 

Too bad we can't get the posters on this site to visit the homes of all the people wo have stopped attending and tell them their reasons are invalid.

When you think about it the lack of attendance is really just one big misunderstanding.
 

Minnesota has never been a good recruiting university. Being a fan of Minnesota is being a fan of that reality.

1673201059852.png

Duke basketball fans wouldn't understand.

Minnesota is not Duke. It's not possible to be Duke.

The Gophers will always go through cycles of being at the bottom -- because they are not a recruiting university -- and then rising up because Minnesota is forced to be crafty at somehow figuring it out.

Actual attendance is down, true, among the sweater crowd controlling most of the good tickets. But the core is still holding their season tickets. The team is going to bottom out like that when the team is bad.

And now Ben Johnson has outperformed with the future he is building.

Freshman Joshua Ola-Joseph got 32 minutes and freshman Pharrel Payne got 20 minutes in the Nebraska game. Freshman Jaden Henley played 12 minutes. Freshman Braeden Carrington got 9 minutes in the Nebraska game.

Carrington is Mr. Minnesota Basketball 2022 and will be a great player.

Johnson got the elite Dennis Evans coming to the Gophers -- the best prospect since 2004 and the best outstate prospect since 1995. Evans has been described as an eventual top-5 NBA pick.

We are playing for the future. Does Johnson have a plan? You decide. I say Yes.


----


Yesterday I bought a ticket to the Maryland-Minnesota game. I do not care if they lose. I want to see effort and a success plan forward.
 

from the " get off my lawn" section....I don't think the game day experience people at the U ever look around at the crowd to see who their customer is. Pre-game and half-time music so loud that the people that have had season tickets for 25 years and want to chat with their seat neighbors who they have known for 25 years and they can't hear. The guy to my left yesterday sat with his hands over his ears for 10 minutes of pre-game. He doesn't like to converse mubh anyway and he is a die-hard and he will probably be back, but at some point the U should read the room. Yesterday the player alumni probably wanted to chat with their buddies they haven't seen since last years event-- and I am guessing they had to go to the concourse or hopefully, they got into the Williams room or somewhere.

on another note- i was trying to figure out why other D1 games I go to in town are so much fun to go to and #1 was the effort level from the players but it also dawned on me after thinking about it-- I don't get product pushed on me at every break in the action and don't have changing, scrolling message boards everywhere during the action. The game is about the game, not about how many sponsors you can squeeze for some $$
I don't know to what extent this has affected attendance, but I was thinking about this at the previous game I attended. The game day experience downright sucks. To your point, if I wanted to attend an ear-bleeding hip-hop concert, I'd do that. There's a place for that. But the only place where I can hear a world-class pep band perform is a major-college game. Why aren't we allowed to experience that?

And don't get me started on the inane, stupid timeout games, promotions, and kiss-cam knockoffs. I swear, every time they do one of those, my IQ goes down a non-zero amount. If there's any question remaining whether Idiocracy was a documentary, just visit Williams Arena.
 

That is a good point about the Vikings not having any issues. I was thinking about that too.

And yet it's also true -- I know people who have said so -- that they avoid coming in when possible.

-----

Different debate item. I want to point out that:

I want to point out that the article said "announced attendance averages 8,551, and their actual number of tickets scanned averages just 3,313.

That tells me that the core season ticket holders still own and control the best seats. They just aren't coming to the games.

The team stinks right now.

Think of those older people in their sweaters who control the best seats. They are not risking a 10% chance of a Covid exposure to see a bad team get beat, yet they continue to own those seats.

The core 8,500 has not been run off. Yes, that number is down but not "fan base run off."

And it is true that a lot of people just aren't coming to Minneapolis unless they have to. Go walk around downtown. It's a partial ghost town.

Crime in Minneapolis is better this year than last, and yet it's also still higher than average.

Last year car jackings were repeated in the news. Murders in the news. Buildings on fire during the riots. People know what's going on.

All that and Covid ARE factors too. Things are not back to normal yet.

Anyway, the 3,313 numbers is the attendance number. The sales number is still over 8,500.


Freshman Joshua Ola-Joseph got 32 minutes and freshman Pharrel Payne got 20 minutes in the Nebraska game. Freshman Jaden Henley played 12 minutes. Freshman Braden Carrington got 9 minutes in the Nebraska game. Carrington is Mr. Minnesota basketball and will be a great player.

We are playing for the future. Does Johnson have a plan? You decide. I say Yes.

Johnson got the elite top-5 NBA pick someday Dennis Evans coming to the Gophers.


Minnesota has never been a great recruiting team. That is the reality of being a fan.

Go Gophers!

View attachment 22999
I know people who say that too. But they're people who rarely went anywhere except the airport or the Mall anyway. That is my point. I think for most it's just a different excuse. Before it was "eh, too crowded /too hard to park" now it's "I don't feel safe, Minneapolis is like a war zone."
 

That is a good point about the Vikings not having any issues. I was thinking about that too.

And yet it's also true -- I know people who have said so -- that they avoid coming in when possible.

-----

Different debate item. I want to point out that:

I want to point out that the article said "announced attendance averages 8,551, and their actual number of tickets scanned averages just 3,313.

That tells me that the core season ticket holders still own and control the best seats. They just aren't coming to the games.

The team stinks right now.

Think of those older people in their sweaters who control the best seats. They are not risking a 10% chance of a Covid exposure to see a bad team get beat, yet they continue to own those seats.

The core 8,500 has not been run off. Yes, that number is down but not "fan base run off."

And it is true that a lot of people just aren't coming to Minneapolis unless they have to. Go walk around downtown. It's a partial ghost town.

Crime in Minneapolis is better this year than last, and yet it's also still higher than average.

Last year car jackings were repeated in the news. Murders in the news. Buildings on fire during the riots. People know what's going on.

All that and Covid ARE factors too. Things are not back to normal yet.

Anyway, the 3,313 numbers is the attendance number. The sales number is still over 8,500.


Freshman Joshua Ola-Joseph got 32 minutes and freshman Pharrel Payne got 20 minutes in the Nebraska game. Freshman Jaden Henley played 12 minutes. Freshman Braden Carrington got 9 minutes in the Nebraska game. Carrington is Mr. Minnesota basketball and will be a great player.

We are playing for the future. Does Johnson have a plan? You decide. I say Yes.

Johnson got the elite top-5 NBA pick someday Dennis Evans coming to the Gophers.


Minnesota has never been a great recruiting team. That is the reality of being a fan.

Go Gophers!

View attachment 22999
The demographics of those 8500 is really old. We have done very little to build a new younger fan base since '97. It will take some sustained success to do so. I hope Ben can do it. The window is short.
 

As a society, we've also just gotten less used to going out to do things.

People order dinner from Uber Eats, flirt with strangers on Tinder, watch new release movies on HBO Max, and work from their kitchen table. All of these things can now be done without taking a shower. There is probably a larger discussion here about what this means for our society/humanity, but I'm not surprised fewer people are going to basketball games.

I think more would probably go if we were winning, I just think the path of least resistance for most people is to watch from their couch.
 

The demographics of those 8500 is really old. We have done very little to build a new younger fan base since '97. It will take some sustained success to do so. I hope Ben can do it. The window is short.
All it takes is winning. I know plenty of kids through my own kids that are either Badger or Packer fans. Some have ties to WI, some don’t. There’s little mystery why we keep losing kids to WI basketball and to a lesser extent WI football- winning cures all. The Barn, the parking, the boogey-man that is MPLS all cease to become issues when you win consistently. We haven’t done that my entire lifetime, so yeah, of course there’s only old timers left; they’re the only ones that have seen a consistently good product at some point in their lifetime.
 


This team is so painful right now you could make every ticket 5 dollars and you still wouldn’t sell out

This team isn’t worth 3 hours of most people’s time.
100% this. It’s that simple. They are putting out an extremely awful, uninteresting product. If they don’t care to create compelling entertainment, why should anyone care to spend their time and money watching it?
 
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100% this. It’s that simple. They are putting out an extremely awful, uninteresting product. If they don’t care to create compelling entertainment, why should anyone care to spend their time and money watching it?
Exactly. It's purely a dollars versus product equation. And the numbers speak for themselves.
 

As a society, we've also just gotten less used to going out to do things.

People order dinner from Uber Eats, flirt with strangers on Tinder, watch new release movies on HBO Max, and work from their kitchen table. All of these things can now be done without taking a shower. There is probably a larger discussion here about what this means for our society/humanity, but I'm not surprised fewer people are going to basketball games.

I think more would probably go if we were winning, I just think the path of least resistance for most people is to watch from their couch.
Word. I don't know if this is a long-term trend, but it's definitely a thing. We've become a society of homebodies.

Some of that, though, is things being more difficult and expensive to do. People are going to tend to find the path of least resistance.
 

Lost a good neighbor recently, he packed up and moved out of the cities. Crud.
 

Just wait a bit, for those of us out of state they of course want us to sign up for BTN, then to pay yet even more for garbage games on BTN+, in near future Hockey, Football and Basketball will all be pay per view with only minor sports on BTN. May be we should boycott to send a message, say no to BTN+ before it's too late (well it is too late for this lost "season".
 

Just wait a bit, for those of us out of state they of course want us to sign up for BTN, then to pay yet even more for garbage games on BTN+, in near future Hockey, Football and Basketball will all be pay per view with only minor sports on BTN. May be we should boycott to send a message, say no to BTN+ before it's too late (well it is too late for this lost "season".
That's not going to happen. No TV/Streaming service would carry BTN if they did that. They may make far more off subscriber fees than BTN+ subscriptions.
 




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