What can the U learn form the Twins "flash ticket sale"?

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The Gopher ticket office would study this idea for three years before putting themselves out there like this. Kudos to the Twins for making something happen that benefitted the fans. Log on and purchase. Simple. I don't view making people run out to a store to buy pizzas, scan or send in a receipt, and then download tickets as a great promotion.
 

BleedGopher said:
While the additional $160,000 revenue from the ticket sales is not much, <b>the additional money spent on concessions and engaging 32,000 more fans in a short period of time could have a big impact. </b>I realize it's a lot easier to do this for a sport that has so many home games compared to the 6-7 the Gophers have a year, it does show that offering tickets at a very low price point can have a dramatic impact.
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LakerFan said:
<b>The other adder for the Twins that goes beyond ticket and concession revenue </b>is that you have 32000 fans who will see that going to a Twins game with a packed house can actually be fun and maybe worth the price of regular admission someday.
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What is this? I received quite a lecture from a meteorologist that these things don’t matter in this debate.
Simple math:
Ticket Price * Attendance, dummy.


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LakerFan said:
The other adder for the Twins that goes beyond ticket and concession revenue is that you have 32000 fans who will see that going to a Twins game with a packed house can actually be fun and maybe worth the price of regular admission someday. Yes they timed it to go along with the team being hot, that isn't a bad time to generate interest in your club. I'd be fine with the gophers waiting until they start 4-0 and then blasting a deal like this to pack the stadium for the balance of the season.
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As a marketing person...this is true. It's early in the season and the hope will be that these 32,000 folks buy a bunch of tickets the rest of the year. The Gophs could do this during the non-conference schedule and get folks excited for the rest of the season.
 

CoMn said:
As a marketing person...this is true. It's early in the season and the hope will be that these 32,000 folks buy a bunch of tickets the rest of the year. The Gophs could do this during the non-conference schedule and get folks excited for the rest of the season.
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Conference schedule though only has so much draw even... we've seen dramatic difference in demand for different B1G teams.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Conference schedule though only has so much draw even... we've seen dramatic difference in demand for different B1G teams.
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The Twins could have said the same thing about May games not being as big of a draw (colder weather, school still in session, still early/not everyone a true believer yet), but they chose to go for it anyway.
 


CoMn said:
As a marketing person...this is true. It's early in the season and the hope will be that these 32,000 folks buy a bunch of tickets the rest of the year. The Gophs could do this during the non-conference schedule and get folks excited for the rest of the season.
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I like this idea. In general, NC games are nice weather and games we win. Get the place packed, improve the pregame, and folks will have a blast with their cheap tickets - maybe enough fun to come back.


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GophersInIowa said:
I'm guessing they didn't have a lot of free tickets available for the Red Barron deal last year. It says here all four games are sold out for the deal but I don't remember there being a big crowd at any of those games.

https://gophersports.com/sb_output.aspx?form=1024
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I am pretty sure you are correct, because I did it for one game...then waited a bit (had to decide how much frozen pizza I really wanted to eat) and tried doing it for another one and the deal was already sold out. I think it was a fairly limited supply.
 

Word said:
The Twins could have said the same thing about May games not being as big of a draw (colder weather, school still in session, still early/not everyone a true believer yet), but they chose to go for it anyway.
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I'm talking about what CoMn said....

Also it's nice outside...
 



I could see this being a good idea for vs Illinois (though this is homecoming, which does okay ticket sale wise) and vs Maryland. Basically a week or two before look at the ticket sale total, estimate how many fans will actually show up, then make a decision.

Could be particularly potent for the Maryland game if we are undefeated at that point, since its not a premiere opponent, but winning the game would mean going into the Penn State game undefeated.

They won't do it though, sadly.
 

Taji34 said:
I could see this being a good idea for vs Illinois (though this is homecoming, which does okay ticket sale wise) and vs Maryland. Basically a week or two before look at the ticket sale total, estimate how many fans will actually show up, then make a decision.

Could be particularly potent for the Maryland game if we are undefeated at that point, since its not a premiere opponent, but winning the game would mean going into the Penn State game undefeated.

They won't do it though, sadly.
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Week of flash sale or "Goldy's Deal" or something like things makes a lot of sense.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I'm talking about what CoMn said....

Also it's nice outside...
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Twins games in May generally don't have as high of attendance as the summer months for the reasons I stated. Evening games in May can be chilly and that traditionally keeps numbers down along with school still being in session. Not to mention after last year's disastrous season there are lot of people that still aren't buying in on this year's team.

You were saying that non-con games aren't that attractive, correct? And implying that it wouldn't work to get people to go to those games as a "hook" due to those games not being attractive. Or am I misunderstanding you?

I'm saying that May games for the Twins are very similar to non-con games for the Gophers. They are the less desirable games. So go ahead and get as many people as you can to those games and "hook" them on the experience (not to mention paying for concessions, etc.) and get them to buy tickets for future games.
 

I think the more apt comparison for Gopher football would be if the Gophers offered cheap tickets for the non-conference games - $5 or $10 for unsold upper-deck tickets. to be fair, the Twins were not offering the best seats in the house for $5. the first offer was for outfield seats. the second offer was for standing-room only tickets - no seat to sit in - just walk around and watch the game.

The equivalent seats for a Gopher football game would be the upper-deck corners. Those seats are highly likely to be empty, so why not at least try to get a few more people to show up for the game. Shoot, they might have fun and buy tickets for another game. And, they might spend some money on concessions.
 



short ornery norwegian said:
I think the more apt comparison for Gopher football would be if the Gophers offered cheap tickets for the non-conference games - $5 or $10 for unsold upper-deck tickets. to be fair, the Twins were not offering the best seats in the house for $5. the first offer was for outfield seats. the second offer was for standing-room only tickets - no seat to sit in - just walk around and watch the game.

The equivalent seats for a Gopher football game would be the upper-deck corners. Those seats are highly likely to be empty, so why not at least try to get a few more people to show up for the game. Shoot, they might have fun and buy tickets for another game. And, they might spend some money on concessions.
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Agreed (similar to what I said in the post above yours).
 

Word said:
Twins games in May generally don't have as high of attendance as the summer months for the reasons I stated. Evening games in May can be chilly and that traditionally keeps numbers down along with school still being in session. Not to mention after last year's disastrous season there are lot of people that still aren't buying in on this year's team.

You were saying that non-con games aren't that attractive, correct? And implying that it wouldn't work to get people to go to those games as a "hook" due to those games not being attractive. Or am I misunderstanding you?

I'm saying that May games for the Twins are very similar to non-con games for the Gophers. They are the less desirable games. So go ahead and get as many people as you can to those games and "hook" them on the experience (not to mention paying for concessions, etc.) and get them to buy tickets for future games.
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They don't typically have as nice of weather, but they do now, so it's probably not a big concern.

I really don't think the Twins vs Gophers comparison makes sense here.

I don't have a problem with flash sales, but I think the lay of the land is quite different.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I think the more apt comparison for Gopher football would be if the Gophers offered cheap tickets for the non-conference games - $5 or $10 for unsold upper-deck tickets. to be fair, the Twins were not offering the best seats in the house for $5. the first offer was for outfield seats. the second offer was for standing-room only tickets - no seat to sit in - just walk around and watch the game.

The equivalent seats for a Gopher football game would be the upper-deck corners. Those seats are highly likely to be empty, so why not at least try to get a few more people to show up for the game. Shoot, they might have fun and buy tickets for another game. And, they might spend some money on concessions.
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And they might buy gophers gear to wear if they haven't been to a game in a while.
 


In order to fill every seat for an entire home schedule, the Twins have to sell nearly 3,200,000 tickets. To do the same thing for Gopher football, the team needs to sell 355,635 tickets.
They're operating with very different numbers here, but the goal should be the same. Put as many people in those seats as possible. If you have to take a loss up front to make more money later, so be it.
 

LakerFan said:
The other adder for the Twins that goes beyond ticket and concession revenue is that you have 32000 fans who will see that going to a Twins game with a packed house can actually be fun and maybe worth the price of regular admission someday. Yes they timed it to go along with the team being hot, that isn't a bad time to generate interest in your club. I'd be fine with the gophers waiting until they start 4-0 and then blasting a deal like this to pack the stadium for the balance of the season.
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On average, it is about 2,650 per game. Went to a game last week and there were maybe 3,500 there total. Weather was not great, but there was nobody at the game and they had a bunch of concession stands either closed or only partially open. Hat's off to the Twins for trying something, though. Going Sunday so I'll see what impact better weather, best record in MLB, and the flash sale has on attendance.
 

No reason at all to have over 10,000 empty seats ever again. Lower the prices and build a strong fan base. The guy with kids cant pay the big money any more.
 

Just had a wacky thought. Gopher FB should get a bunch of cardboard cutouts of 'fans' in maroon and gold, and stick them in the unsold seats. at least it would look better on TV.

you could have a few of them in standing pose, so the sitting cardboard fans could complain about people standing all the time.

Seriously - or at least semi-seriously - if it's 15 minutes before kickoff and there are a lot of empty seats in the stadium, let students in for free and let them sit anywhere they want in the stadium, just to have actual living beings in the stands.
 


A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
They don't typically have as nice of weather, but they do now, so it's probably not a big concern.

I really don't think the Twins vs Gophers comparison makes sense here.

I don't have a problem with flash sales, but I think the lay of the land is quite different.
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Yes and on your second paragraph the Gophers would have to blow out their first six opponents to have a similar feel to how the Twins started the year. It’s such a short season and usually Gopher football has had a bad loss around game five that takes the air out for the casual fan and local media talkers.
 

Different dynamics going on in May with the Twins than Gopher Football.
 


Spoofin said:
What is this? I received quite a lecture from a meteorologist that these things don’t matter in this debate.
Simple math:
Ticket Price * Attendance, dummy.


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Just don’t point out the flaws in his logic. Then he changes his argument.

Actually, it’s kind of fun to wind him up. I’m almost at the point where I can predict where he’ll strike from next....

Of course if PJ Fleck said the sky was chartreuse and anyone dared to say it was really blue he’d die on his sword defending the FACT that the sky really is green.


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A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
They don't typically have as nice of weather, but they do now, so it's probably not a big concern.

I really don't think the Twins vs Gophers comparison makes sense here.

I don't have a problem with flash sales, but I think the lay of the land is quite different.
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Very different, but it doesn’t mean you couldn’t have success at it a may not work the same way, but try something vs. mumble people are renewing and leave it at that.


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WorkingMyTailOff said:
Yes multiple cool factors including truly $5, hottest team since 1987, warmer weather, and they are not just winning but dominating.
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I’m going to bet the ‘91 team might take issue with this statement, but you’re on the right track.

Kind of like a team that won 11 of their last twelve games last year (or whatever it was) and are getting a lot of buzz now.....

Maybe give fans a reason to try it before they buy it in the first weeks of the season?


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caliGopher said:
Just don’t point out the flaws in his logic. Then he changes his argument.

Actually, it’s kind of fun to wind him up. I’m almost at the point where I can predict where he’ll strike from next....

Of course if PJ Fleck said the sky was chartreuse and anyone dared to say it was really blue he’d die on his sword defending the FACT that the sky really is green.


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The sky does turn green from time to time
 

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