Teague: We are going to dig deep this offseason to improve crowd situation

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"2 words Ferris Wheel
Two more words: Naked cheerleaders.
Two more words: Females only.
Another 2: mud wrestling"

To bring this full circle: Anna Faris?
 


1. Beer everywhere
2. Cheaper face value. Face value tickets to watch New Mexico State should NOT be full price. And it shouldn't be a 1 week desperation discount to get them in the seat either. Stop being greedy.
3. Somehow make the police go away for the day.

That's a start.
 

FanSinceTheFifties said:
Teague should seek the advice of programs that market successfully despite recent records of losing in this market. Maybe the Vikings, Twins, Wild, and Wolves would provide tips on how to fill seats.
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I don't know of what you speak. The Vikings still have a hard time avoiding blackout, and always have but for a few years here and there. Twins season tickets are way off for next year. The Wild stopped selling out. The Wolves have never really drawn, and have long listed "tickets distributed" as their attendance, even when they were winning. Minnesotans are generally fair-weather fans.

It's called winning. Winning will help. Winning helps build a culture that gets you through a lean year or two in college sports. Gopher hockey is like that. Even though the last few lean years, the students kept showing up.
 

I always get frustrated when I read these "small crowd" threads or "where are the students" threads. I should know better. I usually avoid them as best I can but in the end give up, read, and post. Here I go again.

"Just win" is mostly incorrect. We are talking about this subject more than ever and the team is 6-4. So, "Just win" now appears to be morphing into "Just win... against the right teams." Well, if the Gophers were go spring a surprise on Saturday and beat Nebraska to return home with a chance to go 8-4 on a Sunny unusually warm 50 degree game day and 2:30 kick off the following week, I bet the student section would still suck. The problem is so much deeper than "just win" that I get really tired of reading it. The problem is deeper than that. I had season tickets at the dome too and the student section crowds were bigger there, with similar team records despite the fact most had to take a shuttle bus and stand in line twice to get to and from a game.

The way I see it, getting better crowds (especially in the student section) is going to take one of two things:

1. a "lightning in a bottle" type season. A type of season like Northwestern had when they beat Notre Dame and Barnett's squad went to the rose bowl. That would be huge for one year for sure but maybe two at tops. This city/town has shown it loves to rally around a local winning underdog, like the Twins of '87 or the Gopher final four run that can no longer be mentioned.
2. "reverse attrition" A series of better than .500 seasons combined with a more fun atmosphere for the students. TAILGATE OPTIONS for everyone that don't include fat cat upcharges. Plow something over, add a driveway, and put a guy with an orange flag at the end of that driveway and a second guy to charge $20 within view of the stadium and everything will improve very quickly. Not to mention all the things people like Rail Barron and Gopher Lady have been saying all along.

If I read "just win" one more time I think my head will spin off my shoulders and explode. "Just win" has been code for "go 12-0, every year" and that isn't fair.
 

Ole said:
Without highjacking the thread into a party v no party thread, I'll just say this:
as long as the administration continues to marginalize students and young fans by catering to a watered down "NFL" gameday atmosphere there will be problems.
The lack of a "college feel" on campus is striking, absolutely striking. And shameful.

Roads/open spaces need to be shut down and opened up for the kids to gather before games. The oak street facepainting booth doesn't count and is a slap in the face of students and fans who crave a real college gameday.

A much more inclusive tailgating atmosphere would also help, paying several grand for a spot is going to outprice the majority of young fans/alumni. These are the engines for atmosphere that can parlayfun times into an expanded fanbase.
You are catering to older fans, many of whom show up late, leave early and add nothing to a gameday atmosphere.

If from the beginning TCF Bank was not going to be a "tailgate-centric" experience, then you need to lean/push/slap the bejesus out of the minneapolis city council to open things up for the bars and businesses around stadium village and dinkytown to operate as they wish and create a much more rich bar/pregame scene. At the same time you need to ensure that students can gather and celebrate in the light of day outside on lawns/frat row/other places without fear of harassment or prosecution for alchohol/noise issues.

The prices for tickets don't matter, it's the overall experience that is going to draw fans in. The U cannot compete with the pro franchises head to head, they need to find a niche market and exploit the H out of it, that niche is a true college football gameday atmosphere, something this town doesn't have anywhere and the vikings/twins/wolves/wild cannot replicate if done properly.
/Rant

Again, I don't want to argue about party v no party, just pointing out the very obvious problem for students/younger fans.
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+1. Ole, you summed up my thoughts as well!
 




Schnauzer said:
I always get frustrated when I read these "small crowd" threads or "where are the students" threads. I should know better. I usually avoid them as best I can but in the end give up, read, and post. Here I go again.

"Just win" is mostly incorrect. We are talking about this subject more than ever and the team is 6-4. So, "Just win" now appears to be morphing into "Just win... against the right teams." Well, if the Gophers were go spring a surprise on Saturday and beat Nebraska to return home with a chance to go 8-4 on a Sunny unusually warm 50 degree game day and 2:30 kick off the following week, I bet the student section would still suck. The problem is so much deeper than "just win" that I get really tired of reading it. The problem is deeper than that. I had season tickets at the dome too and the student section crowds were bigger there, with similar team records despite the fact most had to take a shuttle bus and stand in line twice to get to and from a game.

The way I see it, getting better crowds (especially in the student section) is going to take one of two things:

1. a "lightning in a bottle" type season. A type of season like Northwestern had when they beat Notre Dame and Barnett's squad went to the rose bowl. That would be huge for one year for sure but maybe two at tops. This city/town has shown it loves to rally around a local winning underdog, like the Twins of '87 or the Gopher final four run that can no longer be mentioned.
2. "reverse attrition" A series of better than .500 seasons combined with a more fun atmosphere for the students. TAILGATE OPTIONS for everyone that don't include fat cat upcharges. Plow something over, add a driveway, and put a guy with an orange flag at the end of that driveway and a second guy to charge $20 within view of the stadium and everything will improve very quickly. Not to mention all the things people like Rail Barron and Gopher Lady have been saying all along.

If I read "just win" one more time I think my head will spin off my shoulders and explode. "Just win" has been code for "go 12-0, every year" and that isn't fair.
Click to expand...
So it's not "just win", but both of your solutions involve winning more games. Oook.
 

Schnauzer said:
I always get frustrated when I read these "small crowd" threads or "where are the students" threads. I should know better. I usually avoid them as best I can but in the end give up, read, and post. Here I go again.

"Just win" is mostly incorrect. We are talking about this subject more than ever and the team is 6-4. So, "Just win" now appears to be morphing into "Just win... against the right teams." Well, if the Gophers were go spring a surprise on Saturday and beat Nebraska to return home with a chance to go 8-4 on a Sunny unusually warm 50 degree game day and 2:30 kick off the following week, I bet the student section would still suck. The problem is so much deeper than "just win" that I get really tired of reading it. The problem is deeper than that. I had season tickets at the dome too and the student section crowds were bigger there, with similar team records despite the fact most had to take a shuttle bus and stand in line twice to get to and from a game.

The way I see it, getting better crowds (especially in the student section) is going to take one of two things:

1. a "lightning in a bottle" type season. A type of season like Northwestern had when they beat Notre Dame and Barnett's squad went to the rose bowl. That would be huge for one year for sure but maybe two at tops. This city/town has shown it loves to rally around a local winning underdog, like the Twins of '87 or the Gopher final four run that can no longer be mentioned.
2. "reverse attrition" A series of better than .500 seasons combined with a more fun atmosphere for the students. TAILGATE OPTIONS for everyone that don't include fat cat upcharges. Plow something over, add a driveway, and put a guy with an orange flag at the end of that driveway and a second guy to charge $20 within view of the stadium and everything will improve very quickly. Not to mention all the things people like Rail Barron and Gopher Lady have been saying all along.

If I read "just win" one more time I think my head will spin off my shoulders and explode. "Just win" has been code for "go 12-0, every year" and that isn't fair.
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The bold part. Well said, Schnauzer. Also, couldn't agree more with what you are saying.
 




Schnauzer said:
I always get frustrated when I read these "small crowd" threads or "where are the students" threads. I should know better. I usually avoid them as best I can but in the end give up, read, and post. Here I go again.

"Just win" is mostly incorrect. We are talking about this subject more than ever and the team is 6-4. So, "Just win" now appears to be morphing into "Just win... against the right teams." Well, if the Gophers were go spring a surprise on Saturday and beat Nebraska to return home with a chance to go 8-4 on a Sunny unusually warm 50 degree game day and 2:30 kick off the following week, I bet the student section would still suck. The problem is so much deeper than "just win" that I get really tired of reading it. The problem is deeper than that. I had season tickets at the dome too and the student section crowds were bigger there, with similar team records despite the fact most had to take a shuttle bus and stand in line twice to get to and from a game.

The way I see it, getting better crowds (especially in the student section) is going to take one of two things:

1. a "lightning in a bottle" type season. A type of season like Northwestern had when they beat Notre Dame and Barnett's squad went to the rose bowl. That would be huge for one year for sure but maybe two at tops. This city/town has shown it loves to rally around a local winning underdog, like the Twins of '87 or the Gopher final four run that can no longer be mentioned.
2. "reverse attrition" A series of better than .500 seasons combined with a more fun atmosphere for the students. TAILGATE OPTIONS for everyone that don't include fat cat upcharges. Plow something over, add a driveway, and put a guy with an orange flag at the end of that driveway and a second guy to charge $20 within view of the stadium and everything will improve very quickly. Not to mention all the things people like Rail Barron and Gopher Lady have been saying all along.

If I read "just win" one more time I think my head will spin off my shoulders and explode. "Just win" has been code for "go 12-0, every year" and that isn't fair.
Click to expand...

Agree with you're solutions. It's going to take one of those to "fill it up" with Gopher fans. Looking at recent history we should probably be happier that we're getting as many 45,000 plus games as we are rather than be pissed-off about it.

As far as the "just win..against the right teams" the U has no one to blame but themselves for that going. They went out of their way to devalue their Non-Conference Season. They let everybody know that they needed all 4 games against teams that the Gophers would be heavily favored to beat. They didn't want a Cal or UNC in the bunch. They need those 4 "cupcakes" games now and well into the future. Mason use to say the same thing, but now we can even put a dollar amount on it. Throw in Glen needing a blocked FG to beat NDSU and the number of times Brewster and Kill LOST or squeaked to a victory against those teams. Then add the the mediocre to lousy Big Ten Seasons and you have the recipe for why so many people have no interest in attending those games.

That strategy combined with those losses and "squeakers" led to a whole lot of games where there were less then 30,000 people filling those seats. It led to less and less people buying Season Tickets because they could always scalp or get a deal for seats to those games if they needed to and by paying a few more bucks they could always see a Big Ten game if they wanted to. Take out the last year at the Dome when people were jockeying to get tickets to TCF. Then throw-out the first year at TCF when the public just wanted to be in a new stadium. It also looks like there were 3 or 4 thousand Students who, once they found out they couldn't scalp those seats for a tidy profit, didn't come back either.

Getting them drunk or happy before the game will only have one effect. They will be drunk or happy OUTSIDE TCF, without any guarantee they will end-up INSIDE the stadium.

At least Sid's paragraph's explains the invitation to call Teague's Office to set-up a time to discussion the UNC situation. Looks like it would be a much larger discussion indeed.
 

Filling the stadium isn't a fans concern. just buy yer tickets and go if you can is about the most you can do.
 

wait!what? said:
Filling the stadium isn't a fans concern. just buy yer tickets and go if you can is about the most you can do.
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Winning the game isn't, either, yet we talk about it here all the time anyway.

I post here to have good discussion, see other people's views, vent frustrations, learn more about the game of football and what's happening in recruiting, and ALSO hopefully so that some bright person at the U of M Athl. Dept will read some posts and get some ideas.
 

Winning isn't a cure-all. They've been talking about this in regard to the NFL, but it's got to trickle down to college football too. With high-def., bigger (and cheaper) TVs and better camera work/angles, the NFL is concerned about more and more people staying home to watch games.
 

As other's have said, it's more than "just winning". You need some marquee wins. NO ONE is going to get excited anymore about a 4-0 non-conf if we are still playing crap teams. Beat the "big" names in conference and schedule + win some "big" names in non-conf.
 

Schnauzer said:
I had season tickets at the dome too and the student section crowds were bigger there, with similar team records despite the fact most had to take a shuttle bus and stand in line twice to get to and from a game.
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I will disagree with this. The SS at the dome grew as Mase won consistently, and peaked during the 03/04-ish seasons. After that it declined steadily.

And it does make a difference who the wins come against. Kids know it's a big deal to win the axe. They want to be a part of things like that.

It also matters who they lose to. This team has had some embarrassing moments lately: losing to N Dak St last year, the majority of the 2010 season (losing to both South Dakota and N Illinois will kill fan interest in a hurry), barely beating S Dakota St, the entire 07 season... those things resonate.
 

highwayman said:
I don't know of what you speak. The Vikings still have a hard time avoiding blackout, and always have but for a few years here and there. Twins season tickets are way off for next year. The Wild stopped selling out. The Wolves have never really drawn, and have long listed "tickets distributed" as their attendance, even when they were winning. Minnesotans are generally fair-weather fans.

It's called winning. Winning will help. Winning helps build a culture that gets you through a lean year or two in college sports. Gopher hockey is like that. Even though the last few lean years, the students kept showing up.
Click to expand...

I was going to write this same response to the "Vikings, Twins, Wolves and Wild all do fine" comment. They all struggle at least a little when things are going poorly, especially the Twins and Wolves. This is a town that follows the leaders.

However, while winning is the ultimate answer, it can't be the only one. This is, after all, Gopher football. In my wildest dreams, I don't see us sustaining a 20-year run like Wisconsin has done. I'll be happy to be wrong. Winning has to be part of the equation, but the experience before and after the game have to be there to keep people around in the down years -- or if a conference championship never comes. The Wild is the best example of a pro team that has kept it going despite little recent success. They play in a sports bar.

Maybe the athletic department has to consider this question: For the next two years, what would be easier to do: promise and promote wins or fun? People have to be willing to buy tickets even if we lose.
 

I'm just glad he's looking at it like a true marketer and will seek first to hear the voice of the customer. I don't know if the results will be better but at least the approach will be professional.
 

Price. Price. Price.

Identifying the true issue isn't complicated, finding a viable answer is. As with almost any (popular) sport these days, for a lot of folks it is simply a matter of economics. Between seats and concessions, why spend $250-$300 to take four people to a game when you can buy a feast's worth of food and drinks for $75 at the store, watch around a bigscreen and not have to deal with traffic, parking, lines and field proximity issues. If i could get a seat for $20 and the seats were first come, first serve, i'd be lined up and partying the night before and go to every single game, ever. People can scoff at this all they want, (especially those who can afford season tickets) but it's the truth and i know there are numerous others who share the same opinion. I don't have the solution to how to feasibly incorporate something like general admission tickets or workarounds to ticket gouging for good seats in the modern era of StubHubs and Ticket Kings and whatnot, but since we're merely at the stage of trying to identify the actual problem, that is probably 90% of it.

Additionally, as has been brought up numerous times regarding both TCF and the Barn, with the pricepoints where they are, a great deal of the people (if not a majority of them) who can afford the good seats, or season tickets in general, are exactly those people who have very little to offer to the overall atmosphere itself. I hate to be in any way ageist, as i am in the latter half of my 30's, myself, but who wants to pay good money to sit amongst a group of old people who are constantly yelling at you to sit down and/or discourages you from outwardly vocalizing your support?

Less corporate, more everyman. If you are genuinely concerned about gameday experience and not solely the capture of revenue, this cannot be overlooked. Unfortunately, i suspect that it will, as is the nature of big business. We're not going to find any legitimate solutions and long as we push to place blame any and everywhere else.
 

Minnesota tickets are CHEAP.

It's not the price, it's the atmosphere and the product.
 

highwayman said:
I don't know of what you speak. The Vikings still have a hard time avoiding blackout, and always have but for a few years here and there. Twins season tickets are way off for next year. The Wild stopped selling out. The Wolves have never really drawn, and have long listed "tickets distributed" as their attendance, even when they were winning. Minnesotans are generally fair-weather fans.

It's called winning. Winning will help. Winning helps build a culture that gets you through a lean year or two in college sports. Gopher hockey is like that. Even though the last few lean years, the students kept showing up.
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It was a failed attempt at irony, I see.
Here's another try -- isn't it fortunate for Minnesota sports fans that we have so many choices on which to focus our loyalty and spend our money even in this small market? What other market of any size has the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, WNBA, and a major university in which neither football nor basketball is the sport about which fans are most excited? Not to mention all of Minnesota's outdoor attractions. And the State of Hockey pride. Winning helps, of course, but total media and fan attention and spending is finite. The more attractions in the market -- and we have a ton of them -- the harder it is for each to put fannies on their seats.
 

WhoFellDownTheGopherHole? said:
Price. Price. Price.

Identifying the true issue isn't complicated, finding a viable answer is. As with almost any (popular) sport these days, for a lot of folks it is simply a matter of economics. Between seats and concessions, why spend $250-$300 to take four people to a game when you can buy a feast's worth of food and drinks for $75 at the store, watch around a bigscreen and not have to deal with traffic, parking, lines and field proximity issues. If i could get a seat for $20 and the seats were first come, first serve, i'd be lined up and partying the night before and go to every single game, ever. People can scoff at this all they want, (especially those who can afford season tickets) but it's the truth and i know there are numerous others who share the same opinion. I don't have the solution to how to feasibly incorporate something like general admission tickets or workarounds to ticket gouging for good seats in the modern era of StubHubs and Ticket Kings and whatnot, but since we're merely at the stage of trying to identify the actual problem, that is probably 90% of it.

Additionally, as has been brought up numerous times regarding both TCF and the Barn, with the pricepoints where they are, a great deal of the people (if not a majority of them) who can afford the good seats, or season tickets in general, are exactly those people who have very little to offer to the overall atmosphere itself. I hate to be in any way ageist, as i am in the latter half of my 30's, myself, but who wants to pay good money to sit amongst a group of old people who are constantly yelling at you to sit down and/or discourages you from outwardly vocalizing your support?

Less corporate, more everyman. If you are genuinely concerned about gameday experience and not solely the capture of revenue, this cannot be overlooked. Unfortunately, i suspect that it will, as is the nature of big business. We're not going to find any legitimate solutions and long as we push to place blame any and everywhere else.
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Now here Fifties Fan, THERE'S how you write satire! That was the funniest thing that I've read on here in a long, long time. Nice! :clap:
 

TCF=UnitedWeStand said:
My hope with Teague is that he recognizes there is a difference between having TCF full and having TCF full of Gopher fans. Maturi only cared about the former; the emphasis needs to be placed on the latter.
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bingo. great point and very true. i would agree that maturi didn't really concern himself going into the new stadium on strategies to try and make sure the stadium was more pro gopher than simply full of fans one way or the other.
 

supadupafly said:
i would agree that maturi didn't really concern himself going into the new stadium on strategies to try and make sure the stadium was more pro gopher than simply full of fans one way or the other.
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Not true. The U went out of their way to make sure that Students couldn't sell their tickets to whoever they wanted to. That would have meant to all the Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska fans they could find. That's why despite all the B.S. bragging from the Hawkeye and Sconie fans about how they were going to find a way to still get "15-20,000 fans" in TCF they fell WAY short of that.

Now CORNHUSKER fans, that's another story..those guys are just crazy, but it still kept them out of most of the Student Section.
 

Iceland12 said:
Not true. The U went out of their way to make sure that Students couldn't sell their tickets to whoever they wanted to. That would have meant to all the Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska fans they could find. That's why despite all the B.S. bragging from the Hawkeye and Sconie fans about how they were going to find a way to still get "15-20,000 fans" in TCF they fell WAY short of that.

Now CORNHUSKER fans, that's another story..those guys are just crazy, but it still kept them out of most of the Student Section.
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And we scheduled NDSU, SDSU, and USD because?
 



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