The student section will be empty for Iowa.

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I get what the U is doing. One thing I might have done differently though on that facebook ad would be to not include the per game season ticket price and just gone with the individual game price on the remaining games vs. the cost of the season ticket. The problem they are going to have is after this next game if they run the same ad style the Penn State game will now show as being more expensive $21. Doesn't change the point they are making just looks weird.

As for pushing students to buy season tickets I think that is a very good idea. As usual though the marketing strategy leaves something to be desired.
 

This is a classic economics problem. The U has to price student season tickets so that they are not so much that students won't buy them, while keeping them high enough that the students will feel they need to attend all the games to make it worth it. If season tickets were $30, many students would say, "Hey, Badger and Iowa game for $15 each" and then probably skip every other game.

I think that many people here vastly overestimate the average student's interest in Gopher Football right now. If you asked 100 students to list their top 5 fun things to do at the U, "Football Games" would not make the list of many of them. We do not have a Student Football Tradition right now. We don't win at a high level, and we don't make the student section environment very exciting. Winning 3 B1G titles back to back to back would help a lot, but in the shorter term there are other options.

My solution would be this:

1) All non-conference games are free (unless it's a very attractive opponent) Get kids in the door for what most consider low value games. Hopefully you'll attract first-timers or students on the fence and wow them into coming back for more. Show up with a U card and maroon or gold on and walk right in. Letting freshmen into the first game free is great, but we could go further to get students hooked.

2) Season Ticket Priority Seating Why not let season ticket holders in earlier, or give them exclusive access to the lower level? Better fans deserve better seats. Buy your season tickets before the first game and you're guaranteed a seat in the lower level (first 15 rows, even?) of all the non-conference games and/or get a special super-fan t-shirt. Perks are a great way to "add-value" without really increasing cost for the U.

3) Make it as entertaining as possible What happened to all the free stuff they used to throw to the students in the metrodome? They should be shooting out free t-shirts, Kill autographed footballs, Subway subs, stocking caps, candy bars (watch out, herky...) at every commercial break. Whatever amount you think is adequate, double it. Just because an ad is playing on the jumbotron for the "adults" doesn't mean you can't be firing a t-shirt bazooka into the upper deck. We're doing a better job of keeping the students engaged with the music, but lets not give them any opportunity to get bored. This sort of thing is not that expensive, and people love things more when they "impressively" snatch them out of the air. Hand out free stuff before the game until 10 mins before kick-off, to entice people to show up early. Make their experience memorable, even if the game on the field wasn't.

4) Price it right We've already taken the non-conference games out of the equation, so this should be much easier. Take this year for example, you have two grade-A games (WI, and IA), one very good game (NE) and one decent game (PSU). I'd say the single game tickets to the Badger game are $25 apiece to most students, $20 for Iowa, $15 for NE and $10 for PSU, so $70 total. Take $15 off for season ticket holders, and we're at $55 for 4 B1G games, 2 big rivals, and a free t-shirt. Buying tickets for just WI and IA is only $10 less than season tickets, that seems about right to me. Make football games affordable, but let them be valuable to students.

In the end, maybe these are stupid ideas, but having graduated from the U fairly recently, I think that this approach would strike a better cord with the student body.
 

FarmGopher said:
This is a classic economics problem. The U has to price student season tickets so that they are not so much that students won't buy them, while keeping them high enough that the students will feel they need to attend all the games to make it worth it. If season tickets were $30, many students would say, "Hey, Badger and Iowa game for $15 each" and then probably skip every other game.

I think that many people here vastly overestimate the average student's interest in Gopher Football right now. If you asked 100 students to list their top 5 fun things to do at the U, "Football Games" would not make the list of many of them. We do not have a Student Football Tradition right now. We don't win at a high level, and we don't make the student section environment very exciting. Winning 3 B1G titles back to back to back would help a lot, but in the shorter term there are other options.

My solution would be this:

1) All non-conference games are free (unless it's a very attractive opponent) Get kids in the door for what most consider low value games. Hopefully you'll attract first-timers or students on the fence and wow them into coming back for more. Show up with a U card and maroon or gold on and walk right in. Letting freshmen into the first game free is great, but we could go further to get students hooked.

2) Season Ticket Priority Seating Why not let season ticket holders in earlier, or give them exclusive access to the lower level? Better fans deserve better seats. Buy your season tickets before the first game and you're guaranteed a seat in the lower level (first 15 rows, even?) of all the non-conference games and/or get a special super-fan t-shirt. Perks are a great way to "add-value" without really increasing cost for the U.

3) Make it as entertaining as possible What happened to all the free stuff they used to throw to the students in the metrodome? They should be shooting out free t-shirts, Kill autographed footballs, Subway subs, stocking caps, candy bars (watch out, herky...) at every commercial break. Whatever amount you think is adequate, double it. Just because an ad is playing on the jumbotron for the "adults" doesn't mean you can't be firing a t-shirt bazooka into the upper deck. We're doing a better job of keeping the students engaged with the music, but lets not give them any opportunity to get bored. This sort of thing is not that expensive, and people love things more when they "impressively" snatch them out of the air. Hand out free stuff before the game until 10 mins before kick-off, to entice people to show up early. Make their experience memorable, even if the game on the field wasn't.

4) Price it right We've already taken the non-conference games out of the equation, so this should be much easier. Take this year for example, you have two grade-A games (WI, and IA), one very good game (NE) and one decent game (PSU). I'd say the single game tickets to the Badger game are $25 apiece to most students, $20 for Iowa, $15 for NE and $10 for PSU, so $70 total. Take $15 off for season ticket holders, and we're at $55 for 4 B1G games, 2 big rivals, and a free t-shirt. Buying tickets for just WI and IA is only $10 less than season tickets, that seems about right to me. Make football games affordable, but let them be valuable to students.

In the end, maybe these are stupid ideas, but having graduated from the U fairly recently, I think that this approach would strike a better cord with the student body.
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i honestly agree in that students should pay far less than they do right now. the U needs to focus on this more long term. if you hook a student now, its not like they're a student for forever. longitudinally, you have to be thinking for life-long season ticket holders as that is where your money is made, not off minimum revenue made on a small number of students. i'm not saying this to rub anyone the wrong way, but obviously adult (non-student) season ticket holders pay FAR MORE than the students. it is this way because you guys were (mostly) made life-long fans from an early age and want to continue to support your university. otherwise you would go elsewhere with your money if you just didn't give 2 craps about the U. i just feel like the U is going about this wrong. the goal should not be to maximize profit off the students, but to provide them with a product that they (and their future families) will want to attend for years to come. we all know that this is where the real revenue for the U comes from.
 

Why not just make games free for all students?
 


Our student season tickets are cheap. If students want a good deal, they can buy season tickets.

Other Big Ten student season ticket rates:
Purdue $119
Ohio State $252
Michigan $295
Michigan State $175
Iowa $175
Wisco $188
Nebraska $189
Illinois $99
Northwestern: FREE (their tuition is $45,000 before fees/housing!)
Penn State: $218
Indiana: $80 (they charged $30 last year -- but tied in bball priority with football season tix this year)

Buy the damn season tickets, students, and you're getting one of the best deals in the Big Ten. And it gives you an excuse to enjoy more than just the rivalry games.
 

Even the season ticket prices seem a little high to me - for students. Iowa's $10 seems more reasonable, if you want to fill the section.
 

Tickets to rivalry games will likely reach $30 (and even higher) on something like the Gopher Ticket Exchange (Facebook).
 

NateDawgUM said:
Our student season tickets are cheap. If students want a good deal, they can buy season tickets.

Other Big Ten student season ticket rates:
Purdue $119
Ohio State $252
Michigan $295
Michigan State $175
Iowa $175
Wisco $188
Nebraska $189
Illinois $99
Northwestern: FREE (their tuition is $45,000 before fees/housing!)
Penn State: $218
Indiana: $80 (they charged $30 last year -- but tied in bball priority with football season tix this year)

Buy the damn season tickets, students, and you're getting one of the best deals in the Big Ten. And it gives you an excuse to enjoy more than just the rivalry games.
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Exactly. Our student tickets are a bargain. Stop complaining about the prices.
 



josh087 said:
Exactly. Our student tickets are a bargain. Stop complaining about the prices.
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I don't disagree that they are reasonable to me. Fact is, if they were so reasonable the student section would be full with a lottery system for tickets. Set the supply equal to demand even if it means making the tickets free.
 

Coolew01 said:
Set the supply equal to demand even if it means making the tickets free.
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Setting the supply would be limiting student tickets. Lowering the price would hopefully increase demand.

I'm actually all for giving free season tickets to freshmen and then raising prices by 30% or so for upperclassmen to help recoup some of the costs. Get them hooked early and hopefully most of them will come back.

I have no problem selling tickets at a premium to students for big games when they're offered such a great season ticket deal. We have to be pushing them toward the season ticket package...the student section is about having fun and creating atmosphere for every game. Not just the big games.

The combination of a winning-ish team and a solid party atmosphere at the Dome in the early-mid 2000s gave us a solid student section. Focusing on improvement in those two areas will end any argument about our dirt cheap student tickets.
 


NateDawgUM said:
Setting the supply would be limiting student tickets. Lowering the price would hopefully increase demand.

I'm actually all for giving free season tickets to freshmen and then raising prices by 30% or so for upperclassmen to help recoup some of the costs. Get them hooked early and hopefully most of them will come back.

I have no problem selling tickets at a premium to students for big games when they're offered such a great season ticket deal. We have to be pushing them toward the season ticket package...the student section is about having fun and creating atmosphere for every game. Not just the big games.

The combination of a winning-ish team and a solid party atmosphere at the Dome in the early-mid 2000s gave us a solid student section. Focusing on improvement in those two areas will end any argument about our dirt cheap student tickets.
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+1
 



Coolew01 said:
I don't disagree that they are reasonable to me. Fact is, if they were so reasonable the student section would be full with a lottery system for tickets. Set the supply equal to demand even if it means making the tickets free.
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Damn right. If the demand for Student Tickets is between 3,300 and 4,000 they should set aside 4,000 seats for students and hope the Legislature stays out of it. Let them keep cramming into the lower level if they'd like. When the demand goes up set aside more seats for students.

The Gophers appear to have 48-43,000 people coming to all games. 45,000+ for the Big Ten games. That means they've got to sell 7 -12,000 tickets overall and 3-5,000 for the B1G games.

It's not the Dome anymore. There they had 29-40,000 for the Non-Conference and that was with HEAVILY papering the house with $10 tickets, 2-1 offers and Season Tickets upstairs for under $150. The Big Ten games were 45-55,000 people. That meant they had to figure out a way to sell 15 to 30,000 seats for every game that wasn't Iowa or Wisconsin.

Luckily they don't have to do that anymore.
 

What is the current price for students? I'm sure that it has been noted and I could look it up rather easily, but I'm feeling lazy today.

My freshman year, the price was $36 and you got 2 tickets.

My half baked ideas: Lower the price OR keep the current price and let 3 students attempt a 40 yard field goal for a semester of free tuition at half time.
 

FireDaveLee said:
What is the current price for students? I'm sure that it has been noted and I could look it up rather easily, but I'm feeling lazy today.

My freshman year, the price was $36 and you got 2 tickets.

My half baked ideas: Lower the price OR keep the current price and let 3 students attempt a 40 yard field goal for a semester of free tuition at half time.
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$84 and Nate Dawg has a very good post on Page 2 outlining the Student Season Ticket prices of the other Big Ten schools.

Oh, that's not such a "half baked " idea at all.
 

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