UPDATED (10/13) Gophers cancel home and home with North Carolina; add New Mexico St

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highwayman said:
I'm confused on this one--so you would rather have one less home game to save $35?
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Where the eff did you get this from? I simply said I didn't think increasing the cost of season tickets was wise given our renewal rates.

highwayman said:
Also, what is low? We had 90% renewals, and I'll bet $1 that the new marketing group gets us near sell-outs. They only need to sell around 28,000 tickets to sell out the entire season. That's 1-1/2 Wild or Timberwoof games. And the U tickets are cheaper. I'd see how this all pans out before I declare anything on ticket sales...
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We had 89% renewals (nitpick I know) which means we lost 11% of STH off a number that was already below sellout. We're 10,000 short of sellouts for STH now. I would be very surprised if the marketing group makes up that number with STH already. Single game sales? Maybe, though doing so will require selling more than 28,000 seats. That's 70,000 seats (10K x 7 games).

highwayman said:
I'd see how this all pans out before I declare anything on ticket sales...
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Wonderful. In the meantime, I can only comment today based on what we know now. And that means we're 10,000 below STH sellout and we just lost 11% of our season ticket base.
 

Magic said:
Looks like the lower level between the goal lines are sold out (except singles). Aspire will have a tough time selling out the Upper Deck. Corporations and Ticket Brokers don't usually buy unpopular seats (they already have their donation seats). My guess is Aspire will offer "specials" Buy New Hampshire get Western Michigan free type deals.
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Aspire isn't selling to Corps and brokers. They'll be targeting U alums and others with connections to the University. And if they're worth their money, they should have no trouble pointing out that the "bad" seats at TCF are actually fantastic compared to "bad" seats in any other stadium.
 

MNGoldenGophers1 said:
Apparently you weren't watching the same Brewster coached team as everyone else which is too bad for your wife or she may have been getting some. I see you sit in the row... You should get your eyes checked!
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I didn't realize that coaching had anything to do with scheduling (which is what Formo pushed back on). Little did I know that 2 AD's signing a contract required quality playcalling or good fundamental blocking schemes.
 

discochris said:
Here's the other thing that I don't think anyone has mentioned.
The "BCS" as we know it may likely be going away, and while the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and Pac 12 will remain power conferences, there's some serious question about the future of the ACC, along with the Big East. UNC is an ACC school and for now a BCS school, but in a few years, as the landscape changes, they may not be particularly important at all.
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Sure, but that's not going to change the quality of their teams as opponents or people's perceptions of those leagues overnight (i.e. by when we are scheduled to play UNC).
 

GoAUpher said:
I didn't realize that coaching had anything to do with scheduling (which is what Formo pushed back on). Little did I know that 2 AD's signing a contract required quality playcalling or good fundamental blocking schemes.
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Those who believe we should decline to do something just because Brewster did it should be reminded that Brewster also breathed air.
 


RodentRampage said:
Those who believe we should decline to do something just because Brewster did it should be reminded that Brewster also breathed air.
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Ha ha...And did pro bono speeches to elementary school classes, and attended fundraisers for various causes, and had his players visit kids in the hospital, etc, etc.
 


Magic said:
It was my understanding Aspire's job was to sell tickets period? If there going to target just alums only they have very little chance to sell out this years schedule. I do agree with you that the less popular seats at TCF are still pretty good though

PS: The exception to this is WINNING. If the Gophers started out 8-0, 7-1 you would see a significant rise in attendance. Again were all hopeful that doesn't seem likely
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The U has a large number of alums in the metro (and the state at large), plus connections via STH in FB and other sports that expand beyond people with degrees from the U. They could easily come up with 10,000 seats from that number (though I don't expect them to do so right away). This is especially true since to get to 10K seats sold you're probably only talking approx 5,000 new individual buyers at most (5K buyers x 2 seats). I will admit that I was too "black/white" with my statement, and that corp sales are possible. But based on all the stories written about Aspire, their publicly given plan is to work to connect with potential individual buyers who already have a tie to the U (alums, donors, current ticket holders, etc). See here:
Aspire's sales consultants will answer to an on-site supervisor and work on commission. They'll have access to the university's database of alumni and people who have bought tickets. Each consultant is expected to make 80 to 100 calls a day, talk to about 150 fans a week and build relationships with about 7,500 fans a year.
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And here:
“Our main focus is building the fan base and providing a great fan experience when communicating about future athletic events.”
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You don't "build the fanbase" with corporate sales, because corporations don't make ticket buying decisions based on affinity. They make them on dollars and cents. That's also why companies don't really need to be "sold" on the opportunity to buy seats. They know what their corp seat needs are and will buy what they need when they need them. Also, their buying opportunities tend to be in the premium seat realm. If Aspire is helping to sell those seats too then that's where I could see some contact with companies.
 

In Reusse's new column:

Kill confirmed again he wants out of the North Carolina series and said, "We always need three [nonconference] home games, and four would be better. With the division we're in, and with Wisconsin as our crossover game, there's no benefit in getting beat up in nonconference games."

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/168687156.html?refer=y

Go Gophers!!
 



Just saw MV re-tweeted a Xavier Brandon tweet that read "It's surreal that I get to play against my alma mater next year in TCF Bank Stadium...Emotions will prolly b all over the place that Saturday"

Brandon is now with New Mexico St. Is this who we are replacing UNC with?
 

Roll Goldy said:
Just saw MV re-tweeted a Xavier Brandon tweet that read "It's surreal that I get to play against my alma mater next year in TCF Bank Stadium...Emotions will prolly b all over the place that Saturday"

Brandon is now with New Mexico St. Is this who we are replacing UNC with?
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That would make sense, since NMSU is being forced to play next season as an independent, and only has four games (UTEP, New Mexico, Texas, UCLA) officially scheduled.
 

I love Jerry Kill, but it's a disgrace to replace the UNC series for some creampuff. At a time when schools everywhere, even Wisconsin, are really beefing up their non-conference schedules we are doing the opposite. Embarrassing. This is one thing Kill is just flat out wrong about.
 

Jike Spingleton said:
That would make sense, since NMSU is being forced to play next season as an independent, and only has four games (UTEP, New Mexico, Texas, UCLA) officially scheduled.
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Yuck. I'm soooooooooooooooooooooooo excited to see NMST play again at TCF!

I completely disagree with Kill on nixing the home and home with UNC. His worst decision to date. UNC isn't close to an automatic loss like playing USC. Devaluing season tickets further with this decision. 1 additional cupcake per year at home doesnt' come close to the value of a BCS program coming to TCF during the non-conference every other year in the eye of the season ticket holder. Again, it doesn't have to be USC or Texas. UNC fits the profile perfectly. Syracuse was great this year. No way the Syracuse game has the same atmosphere if it were Western Michigan instead (which if Kill had his way would be the marque NC game at home very year).

Dumb decision Kill. Dumb decision. You look afraid of taking on a middle-of-the-road BCS program and one could argue that it speaks to where Kill thinks the program will be next year and the following year (his 4th).
 



Don't care for the decision either, but my disagreement is tempered by the fact that, by some reports, UNC wants to kill the series also. They scheduled the games in the first place because of the Brewster connection. Now that he's gone they probably don't see much of an upside in playing them, particularly with playing the first one on the road.
 

Pewterschmidt said:
I'm soooooooooooooooooooooooo excited to see NMST play again at TCF!
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Hopefully, it's still just a rumor. I really want to make the trip to Chapel Hill. But if that's not going to happen, at least get the other orphaned former WAC team - Idaho - just to give us something different.
 

DMB123 said:
I love Jerry Kill, but it's a disgrace to replace the UNC series for some creampuff. At a time when schools everywhere, even Wisconsin, are really beefing up their non-conference schedules we are doing the opposite. Embarrassing. This is one thing Kill is just flat out wrong about.
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Agree. Something that's being overlooked is that this team is likely going to be undefeated next year. The dropoff in strength of schedule from UNC to NMSU could cost this team a spot in the National Championship game.
 

People need to calm down. When you have a young team like ours you can't expect to compete with the likes of the great North Carolina. You want to play creampuffs in the future fine but to back out of this series now is just gutless. And if we are replacing them with New Mexico State....well hey at least we can pat ourselves on the back for blowing out a glorified high school team.
 

Real story.....Jerry wants revenge!

after losing to the Aggies in 2011 home opener. Of course Jerry didn't get to see the game through as we all know. Mark it down, NDSU will be on the schedule for 2014.

Color me disappointed also. UNC would have been the perfect BCS opponent for the 2nd game of the season.
 

This is really disappointing. I had already started looking at hotels in Chapel Hill and Delta would have their early September flights available for 2013 in the next two weeks.

UW is rumored to be scheduling a game with Alabama and we're rumored to have canceled with UNC for New Mexico State?! No thanks.

Go Gophers!!
 

beating up on creampuffs may be a confidence booster for the team, but it is not a good draw for the fan. I want to see where we stand nationally, even if that means getting beaten up. It shows weakness to me. But im just a couch potato os what do I know
 

Jerry Kill is responsible for the health and well being of his players, as well as please the fans with competitive opponents. It is a difficult balance to achieve. If he has a choice, I would say that the health and well being of his team is more important than pleasing the fans. We are investing Millions of $$$ in these kids, and I want to see them play healthy when it comes to B1G games, so we can compete with the best at full strength.

Go Gophers!!!
 

Scheduling Creampuffs accomplishes 2 things.

1. Makes it easier to get to a meaningless bowl game
2. Allows you to have a glorified practice with a live opponent on the field

On the flip side

1. It bores the fans and does not motivate the fan base to fill the stadium (especially if the team is struggling to win conference games)
2. Tells you next to nothing about your team and really does not prepare them for games against real competition.

And to me this all boils down to the fact that we are backing out of a series with NORTH CAROLINA.....not USC, not Notre Dame, not Texas, North friggin Carolina. At the same time we read about Wisconsin signing a deal to play BYU and Ohio State signing on to play Texas our squad is trying to figure out how to get New Mexico State back on the schedule because our coach is worried about getting beat up by teams with a pulse. And we wonder why the national people don't take Gopher football seriously.

Kill is a far better coach overall then Brewster but one thing I respect Brew for was seeking to upgrade the class of opponent we were playing. Mason feasted on creampuffs, and Kill appears to be determined to pad his record with a similar entree.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Tells you next to nothing about your team and really does not prepare them for games against real competition.
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So narrowly losing at USC last year prepared the Gophers to get outscored 144-31 in their first 3 games against real competition?

This year they played a team in Syracuse that would be similar to North Carolina and that prepared them to get drubbed against Iowa?
 

MNVCGUY said:
And we wonder why the national people don't take Gopher football seriously.
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Who wonders this? Why would any "national people" ever take Gopher football seriously? It's not something that is even remotely nationally relevant. I don't think playing or not playing North Carolina is going to come close to changing that.
 

I disagree with most on this board and back Coach Kill's decision to drop NC. I've been attending games since the 70's and it's a mistake to schedule teams that can likely give you an "L" during the non-conference portion of the season. Until the NCAA quits rewarding teams for non-conference W's (or more like punishing teams for non-conference L's), schedule opponents that give you the best chance at post-season play. If we start crushing B1G teams on a regular basis, then we need to upgrade the non-conference schedule. But until that happens, schedule lesser teams while building toward more challenging teams in the future which may take many years.

Go Gophers!
 

Maximus said:
So narrowly losing at USC last year prepared the Gophers to get outscored 144-31 in their first 3 games against real competition?

This year they played a team in Syracuse that would be similar to North Carolina and that prepared them to get drubbed against Iowa?
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You are oversimplifying things but I'll put it to you this way, do you think the team gains more beating Syracuse in a tight game or blowing out the Little Sisters of the Poor that are only there to collect a paycheck and get their ass kicked.

As a fan do you want to spend your hard earned money watching your squad play a competitive game with a team that is close to them in terms of ability or would you feel better plunking down $40 to watch a game that is over at half time because the opponent is a joke?

I have no problem with our non-conf schedule this year, a bunch of winnable games and one against a lower level BCS school. Kill wants to eliminate that opponent to get 4 easy wins. Makes sense for him, his team isn't tested, the fans love him because he starts 4-0, and you only have to win 1/4 of your conference games to earn a bowl trip to a low level bowl game.

Clearly they are going down this route so it doesn't matter what I or anyone else for that matter thinks. Mason did it for years and the team played to mostly empty stadiums up until the start of the Big Ten season. It is what it is, as a fan I am disappointed to see us going this route.
 

Sid confirms it:

"New Mexico State, where former Gophers athletic director McKinley Boston has been the AD since December 2004, will replace North Carolina in a series of home-and-home football games on the Gophers schedule. The first game will be at New Mexico State next year. The Aggies won at TCF Bank Stadium 28-21 last year. The Gophers have also added Kent State and South Dakota State to future schedules, and it's official now that for the next four years they will open the season at home on a Thursday night."

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/174039581.html

Go Gophers!!
 


This sucks. Friends daughter is at UNC and were planning a football/golf outing.
Kill has just set his bar, beating up on smaller schools(hopefully) and squeaking out a couple of B1G wins to get to some crapolla bowl.
Tells the fans, I'm not confident we can compete with real BCS schools. Poor message for an frustrated fan base. I much as I disliked Brew, he
got us some games to be excited about
 

This is why I measure football performance by B1G record and standings. I don't think we should call a season where we go 6-6 after beating NMSU better than a season where we go 5-7 playing against a USC or UNC (I know those schools aren't the same caliber, I am just using them as examples of legitimate big conference programs). My metric every year is going to be what our B1G record is (and as a bonus, whether or not we beat Wisconsin/Iowa/Michigan). As far as I am concerned we were a 2-6 team two years ago, a 2-6 team last year, and hopefully a 6-2 team this year (I predict 3-5).
 

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