STrib: Ski-U-Meh: U ticket sales sag

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If these anecdotes re: tour guides and welcome week leaders are true, those people should be fired immediately. Those stories, if true, make me unbelievably angry as a fan, alumnus, and employee of the U. Any negative attitude toward the U by an employee, especially to a current or prospective student, is worthy of immediate termination in my book.
 

dpodoll68 said:
If these anecdotes re: tour guides and welcome week leaders are true, those people should be fired immediately. Those stories, if true, make me unbelievably angry as a fan, alumnus, and employee of the U. Any negative attitude toward the U by an employee, especially to a current or prospective student, is worthy of immediate termination in my book.
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Amen. And I have had zero to do with the university outside of just happening to be a fan of their sports teams.
 

dpodoll68 said:
If these anecdotes re: tour guides and welcome week leaders are true, those people should be fired immediately. Those stories, if true, make me unbelievably angry as a fan, alumnus, and employee of the U. Any negative attitude toward the U by an employee, especially to a current or prospective student, is worthy of immediate termination in my book.
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Yup. Praise in public, chide in private.
 

dpodoll68 said:
If these anecdotes re: tour guides and welcome week leaders are true, those people should be fired immediately. Those stories, if true, make me unbelievably angry as a fan, alumnus, and employee of the U. Any negative attitude toward the U by an employee, especially to a current or prospective student, is worthy of immediate termination in my book.
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I think these tour guides should be at least reprimanded. It is just wrong.
 

It's a pride thing, to me. Most of the tour guides that I knew when at the U were more about "tour guide/ambassador" on their resume & list of achievements over their pride in attending the University of Minnesota.

I have no problem with padding a resume, but get some common sense, get a clue & the general apathy this state has sucks. Our state has been beaten down & it needs to change.
 


Fun is one aspect of attendance, I think the U should work with student groups improve the atmosphere. Perhaps student groups could have parties with prizes for the best parties?

Another is faith that the team will do something in the forseeable future. The average home attendance in 1985, Lou Holtz's second season was 60,985. The Gophers only won 4 games the previous season, but the fans had faith that the Gophers were on their way up. After Holtz left, the enthusiasm waned. Attendance decreased each season, down about 5,000 in 1986, down 2,500 more in 1987, etc. Bu 1991, Gutekunst's last season, average home attendance was a little over 36,000.

I believe that the Gophers have the potential to get numbers like they did in 1985. The fans just need reason to believe.
 

I've always thought that a ROTC section would be pretty sweet to see. Show off the best ROTC in the country.
 

Jayeyem said:
This has already been touched on but the key for mass student fun/participation is a viable central location to let the good times roll.

During my stint (2004-2008) at the U we would pick up a few kegs, throw out a facebook event advertising our location, and split the $40 (appx.) cost of the tailgate spot.

The lots around the Liquor Depot (and subsequently Matty B's after it's demolition) were constantlyfilled with collegefolk milling around having a good time because of the ease of setting up shop for a party.

Your average student isn't ambitious enough to scrounge up a Lot 37/Ski U Mah tailgating pass on the secondary market to tailgate near TCF, so they have to stick to house parties, which while still a good time, don't create the same vibe as a tailgate lot filled with hundreds of keg-tapping college students (the aforementioned scene made me a huge gopher football fan circa Aug 2004)
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Honestly, there is really nothing preventing students from showing up with a bunch of beer and squatting on one of the many open spots in the tailgate lots.
 




I think a big problem is the U has attempted to enhance the game day atmosphere for everyone, especially students. But all of those attempts have been pretty weak in terms of effort.

Example being last year. The U closed down Oak St. Well that's great. But if you are going to close down Oak, close it down in Stadium Village next to the bars. Anchor it with a beer garden in front of McNamera. Allow vendors to pour freely and sell food outside.

Spin it this way: Students don't necessarily have the ability to tailgate. Neither do people parking in the garages. So the U should tailgate for them. Oak should be flooded with people surrounded by maroon and gold banners. Heck set up a beer garden in front of Northrop. The point is if you are going to try to "enhance" the gameday experience. Go all in.

I think you do that and you will start changing the culture. Students actually will want to roll out of bed and party at 9AM, rain or shine.
 

FireDaveLee said:
Retweet from Chris Long: @michaelgaio: couldn't agree more. Took sis on official U tour last wk. Even tour guide mentioned how bad fb team is... Bad attitude.

The phrase "changing the culture" may get overused, but it couldn't be more true for Gopher football....
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Just sad that the person who gets interviewed for the tour guide job makes it through when they lack passion for their own school and teams that represent it. I applied to be a tour guide and I love this university and all our teams, but of course, I don't even get the call back. Such is life.
 

Gopherdrummer said:
I think a big problem is the U has attempted to enhance the game day atmosphere for everyone, especially students. But all of those attempts have been pretty weak in terms of effort.

Example being last year. The U closed down Oak St. Well that's great. But if you are going to close down Oak, close it down in Stadium Village next to the bars. Anchor it with a beer garden in front of McNamera. Allow vendors to pour freely and sell food outside.

Spin it this way: Students don't necessarily have the ability to tailgate. Neither do people parking in the garages. So the U should tailgate for them. Oak should be flooded with people surrounded by maroon and gold banners. Heck set up a beer garden in front of Northrop. The point is if you are going to try to "enhance" the gameday experience. Go all in.

I think you do that and you will start changing the culture. Students actually will want to roll out of bed and party at 9AM, rain or shine.
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This makes too much sense. SAVE US NORWOOD TEAGUE!

Anyone have Teague on Twitter? Someone should link up this thread.
 

dpodoll68 said:
If these anecdotes re: tour guides and welcome week leaders are true, those people should be fired immediately. Those stories, if true, make me unbelievably angry as a fan, alumnus, and employee of the U. Any negative attitude toward the U by an employee, especially to a current or prospective student, is worthy of immediate termination in my book.
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Agreed. There is no reason for this.
 



popeyoung5 said:
So 15% of the student population showing up is an embarrassment but less then 1% of the metro population showing up for the remaining 45,000 seats is acceptable?
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Yes, and you are a moron if you don't understand the reasons why.
 

GopherInPittsburgh said:
Just sad that the person who gets interviewed for the tour guide job makes it through when they lack passion for their own school and teams that represent it. I applied to be a tour guide and I love this university and all our teams, but of course, I don't even get the call back. Such is life.
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At the U, the people who run housing, like the people who hire tour guides and the people who run orientation/new student week etc, are not the sort of people who like football or school spirit in general.
 

I was a welcome week leader last year and will be again this year. Last year I told my freshmen that while the team won't be competing for a big ten title, I still highly recomended buying tickets because it's great way to spend a saturday, it's a great social tool, and a way of showing gopher pride. I may bring up this issue with other welcome week leaders because upperclassmen sh!tting on the football team to incoming freshmen is not cool.
 

BOOM! said:
I was a welcome week leader last year and will be again this year. Last year I told my freshmen that while the team won't be competing for a big ten title, I still highly recomended buying tickets because it's great way to spend a saturday, it's a great social tool, and as a way of showing gopher pride. I may bring up this issue with other welcome week leaders because upperclassmen sh!tting on the football team to incoming freshmen is not cool.
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Thanks for doing this. I had the same experience last year and it swayed the kids that were on the fence with buying tickets into not buying them. Upperclassmen mean a lot to the freshmen, especially when they want to fit in.
 

The insane number of morning games times that have been announced just further reinforces this.
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I really did think 11:00 game times were a significant reason for poor student attendance. But last year we had very few 11:00 starts and still they did not come.

I think at Wisconsin et al they come because they know it is going to be an awesome party! It is The Place To Be! Maybe our students are just to dim to figure out how to crate a great party atmosphere. They want it to be handed to them. Every lame party is usually lame because the people at the party are lame. Don't blame the football team for a poor atmosphere...blame the students. It is their section after all. They just do not appear to be clever enough to figure out how to make it a great time.

At a major University with 50,000 plus students you would think there would be enough of them that know how to make their own fun at a Big Ten Football Game.

Students actually will want to roll out of bed and party at 9AM, rain or shine.
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I disagree.. True, students do want to roll out of bed and party but maybe not at 9:00 A.M.
 

BOOM! said:
I was a welcome week leader last year and will be again this year. Last year I told my freshmen that while the team won't be competing for a big ten title, I still highly recomended buying tickets because it's great way to spend a saturday, it's a great social tool, and as a way of showing gopher pride. I may bring up this issue with other welcome week leaders because upperclassmen sh!tting on the football team to incoming freshmen is not cool.
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Yes, you should definitely talk about it. We talk about CF at graduate school orientation and a few of us who went to the U won't make negative comments about the Gopher football. Actually, it was so much fun to hear outsider opinions about the U. I met with a person who went to SIU, we talked about Kill for awhile and it was fun. He was definitely very respected at SIU.
And I don't know where these orientation leaders/ tour guides got Debby the downer virus.
 

I think the University should offer a class: Intro to Gopher Football. Lessons to be covered: Gopher Football history, basics of cheering, hating Wisconsin/Iowas and how to party.
 

FireDaveLee said:
Retweet from Chris Long: @michaelgaio: couldn't agree more. Took sis on official U tour last wk. Even tour guide mentioned how bad fb team is... Bad attitude.

The phrase "changing the culture" may get overused, but it couldn't be more true for Gopher football....
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This is a bunch of crap!!
 

These students are the ones that the university will be expecting to donate in 20 years to fund improvements. If they won't come as students now and graduate with a positive experience, not very likely to donate in the future to athletics.
 

Goldmember said:
Anyone who closely follows the program has known, for quite a while, that 2012 would be the "hit rock bottom" year when it comes to attendance. The insane number of morning games times that have been announced just further reinforces this.
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I agree, perfect storm of 3-9 record, 11am games, 1 draw game (MICH) and no rivals. It is understandable that they are having issues selling tickets. Add in that the Vikings just got a new stadium and you can get tickets to assure your spot in the stadium. Add to the fact that there are no blackouts of Gopher games.

I wish they played all night games, so I could go.
 

Slightly off topic, but can we end the idea that we're this behemoth institution compared to most of the rest of the Big Ten? We have a ton more graduate students. But your average PhD candidate isn't drinking Natty Light and going to the Gopher game on Saturday. Here's a look at Big Ten undergrad populations (per wikipedia so take it for what it's worth.)


42,916 Ohio State
38,594 Penn State
36,675 Michigan St
32,543 Indiana
31,935 Illinois
30,836 Purdue
30,610 Minnesota
28,897 Wisconsin
27,407 Michigan
20,574 Iowa
19,345 Nebraska
8,425 Northwestern
 

Tee09 said:
At the U, the people who run housing, like the people who hire tour guides and the people who run orientation/new student week etc, are not the sort of people who like football or school spirit in general.
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OK, I am one of those(apparently awful) people who regularly read other team's sports boards, but I have to comment on this as is it JUST WRONG! How did the tour guides and Welcome Week people get their jobs? When I started at UW in 1971 (yikes!), the Badgers weren't exactly a football powerhouse, but it was known that Camp Randall was THE place to be on football Saturdays. The dorm floors organized kids to get tickets together, so you knew someone who would be there (distribution is different now and the U would have to do something different for kids who commute), and it helped bond kids to the team, the school, and each other.

I know Minnesota has an uphill struggle with this (e.g. your local press coverage doesn't help. Why do all journalists think they have to be Woodward & Bernstein?), but it seems like MAYBE you might have an administration that understands that athletics can enhance the university. Good luck.
 

TAW said:
OK, I am one of those(apparently awful) people who regularly read other team's sports boards, but I have to comment on this as is it JUST WRONG! How did the tour guides and Welcome Week people get their jobs? When I started at UW in 1971 (yikes!), the Badgers weren't exactly a football powerhouse, but it was known that Camp Randall was THE place to be on football Saturdays. The dorm floors organized kids to get tickets together, so you knew someone who would be there (distribution is different now and the U would have to do something different for kids who commute), and it helped bond kids to the team, the school, and each other.

I know Minnesota has an uphill struggle with this (e.g. your local press coverage doesn't help. Why do all journalists think they have to be Woodward & Bernstein?), but it seems like MAYBE you might have an administration that understands that athletics can enhance the university. Good luck.
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It's the most frustrating thing for people who come to the U from other places and know what the atmosphere should be like. I'm from Wisconsin and grew up going to lots of U of Illinois games with my grandparents. My wife is from Manhattan, KS and went to K-State games every week. It literally pisses us off. The attitude I got from most MN students and people who work for the University is a combination of apathy and embarrassment. It's almost like it's expected that "cool" people badmouth the program rather than suffer the embarrassment of supporting a losing team. Being a "homer" (actually just a fan) is frowned upon. Basically, we have a bad bandwagon jumper problem. I've never understood it.

Thanks for wishing us good luck. We're going to need it.
 

NateDawgUM said:
Slightly off topic, but can we end the idea that we're this behemoth institution compared to most of the rest of the Big Ten? We have a ton more graduate students. But your average PhD candidate isn't drinking Natty Light and going to the Gopher game on Saturday. Here's a look at Big Ten undergrad populations (per wikipedia so take it for what it's worth.)


42,916 Ohio State
38,594 Penn State
36,675 Michigan St
32,543 Indiana
31,935 Illinois
30,836 Purdue
30,610 Minnesota
28,897 Wisconsin
27,407 Michigan
20,574 Iowa
19,345 Nebraska
8,425 Northwestern
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For what is worth....the U is #2 in this list...sporcle.com by the authority know as buck44_22. It was from internet so it is true...right? :) I have friends that have gone to other Big Ten schools...and the U is definitely in the top few.

Undergraduate Enrollment School Year Founded
40,212 Ohio State University 1870
38,645 University of Minnesota 1851
36,612 Pennsylvania State University 1855
36,072 Michigan State University 1855
31,290 Purdue University 1869
30,895 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1867
30,394 Indiana University 1820
28,999 University of Wisconsin-Madison 1848
26,083 University of Michigan 1817
20,907 University of Iowa 1847
8,284 Northwestern University 1851
 

gophermartin said:
For what is worth....the U is #2 in this list...sporcle.com by the authority know as buck44_22. It was from internet so it is true...right? :) I have friends that have gone to other Big Ten schools...and the U is definitely in the top few.

Undergraduate Enrollment School Year Founded
40,212 Ohio State University 1870
38,645 University of Minnesota 1851
36,612 Pennsylvania State University 1855
36,072 Michigan State University 1855
31,290 Purdue University 1869
30,895 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1867
30,394 Indiana University 1820
28,999 University of Wisconsin-Madison 1848
26,083 University of Michigan 1817
20,907 University of Iowa 1847
8,284 Northwestern University 1851
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The Wikipedia number for Minnesota undergrad enrollment is correct, per the U: http://www.oir.umn.edu/student/enrollment/term/1119/current/12319, putting the U on par with Purdue (according to Purdue): http://www.purdue.edu/datadigest/Pages/Fast_Facts/FastFacts.html. Without having the time or desire to look up the figures from each school, I'd wager the U is in fact middle-of-the-road when it comes to undergraduate enrollment in the B1G.
 

If these anecdotes re: tour guides and welcome week leaders are true, those people should be fired immediately. Those stories, if true, make me unbelievably angry as a fan, alumnus, and employee of the U. Any negative attitude toward the U by an employee, especially to a current or prospective student, is worthy of immediate termination in my book.
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Like another poster above, I'll also be a welcome week leader this fall and while I'll do my best to put in a positive word for the football team, unfortunately comments like those mentioned are more than common. Even during training for the position, people joked about what a joke the football team was. It was pretty embarrassing.

From my experience though, many people who work at the University (outside the athletic department) couldn't care less about the sports teams. And many openly hate them. I've had two professors straight up say they wished the football team would go away and would slip in snarky remarks about building a new stadium while not funding academics enough. A TA of mine who attended Texas as an undergrad explained how shocked he was at our pathetic gameday atmosphere.

The biggest detriment to gameday atmosphere is the city of Minneapolis, though. Don't even get me started about them.
 

TAW said:
OK, I am one of those(apparently awful) people who regularly read other team's sports boards, but I have to comment on this as is it JUST WRONG! How did the tour guides and Welcome Week people get their jobs? When I started at UW in 1971 (yikes!), the Badgers weren't exactly a football powerhouse, but it was known that Camp Randall was THE place to be on football Saturdays. The dorm floors organized kids to get tickets together, so you knew someone who would be there (distribution is different now and the U would have to do something different for kids who commute), and it helped bond kids to the team, the school, and each other.

I know Minnesota has an uphill struggle with this (e.g. your local press coverage doesn't help. Why do all journalists think they have to be Woodward & Bernstein?), but it seems like MAYBE you might have an administration that understands that athletics can enhance the university. Good luck.
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Your team sucks more than Edward Cullen, a ShopVac, and a Minnesota sized mosquito and I hate everything it stands for. But this post is full of win. Thanks
 

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