What happened to the sellout?

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CP Gopher

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Remember about a month ago when there was a post on here telling everyone to hurry and get tickets, as the Stadium Shootout was "sure to sell out."
Where the hell was everyone.....even watching ASU/BYU it looks like there's about 10,000 people there.
Great game Gophers! Back on the national scene!
 

I was surprised by how empty it looked in there. Hopefully they can work out the kinks of having a basketball game there before the tournament. It looks like a pretty neat set up though. That stadium sure is unique.
 

CP Gopher said:
Remember about a month ago when there was a post on here telling everyone to hurry and get tickets, as the Stadium Shootout was "sure to sell out."
Where the hell was everyone.....even watching ASU/BYU it looks like there's about 10,000 people there.
Great game Gophers! Back on the national scene!
Click to expand...

I posted that, and that was from a direct communication from the U. That was a while ago, but I believe the phrasing was, that the MN allotment was close to selling out, which could have been 100 tickets, who knows? I'm not a big fan of false advertising though, it's like the little boy that cried wolf. How are you to believe anyone, when there is a limited amount of tickets left? I'm not saying the U does that, but I'm just not a fan of it.

The turnout was horrible. I think there are a lot of things they need to do for next year, and the 1st one will be, to make the tickets more reasonably priced. I think they ranged from $15 - 250 or so, with the Gopher ones being around $100. I'd think it'd be better to fill that place up and make the lower level seats closer to $50 or so.
 

Bad Timing, Too

A neutral site game five days before Christmas is pretty poor timing. Most of the western world is pretty busy, and is not going to take time to travel now. If they placed it between Christmas and New Years, they would have a better shot at selling tickets and drawing travelers. Unless you are traveling to the southwest for Christmas, it's not likley many people would go.
 

I heard the stadium is an hour from the hotels and city. Plus first time they have had a basketball game in stadium.
 


An hour from the hotels and the city is a bit of an overstatement. There is a Renaissance Hotel in the parking lot of the stadium and Glendale is 10.7 miles from downtown Phoenix, according to Google maps.

While there is certainly sprawl in Phoenix, it's not that far.
 


My ASU grad friend was telling most ASU fans didn't bother attending this event because they could easily attend a normal home game $20 or so. The economy in Phoenix is also worse than the national average.

I really enjoyed the trip however. The second game was a classic.

Did anyone get a chance to see Mohammed Ali at the game? Another fan told me he was there, so I walked down the towards the Cardinal section, but didn't see him. Maybe he didn't stick around for the second game.
 

Bad timing for BYU fans...

Like I posted in a separate post, this was horrible timing for BYU fans that normally travel really really well for their team. BYU was playing in Las Vegas in the LV Pioneer Bowl against Arizona on the same day.

The choices for BYU fans:

> Drive 5 hours to attend a bowl game for probably $30, to see your team who you felt got snubbed by not making it to a BCS game (I'm not joking, a BYU fan at the Shootout said it).

or

> Drive 10 hours (or pay for a flight) to watch the Cougars play in an early season nonconference basketball game for $90

Pretty easy choice.

I can tell you from when they play UNLV in basketball and football, they travel really really well. Different timing and BYU probably brings 3-4,000 to this event. As it was, it looked like they had about 200.
 



If they want to make this event an annual event they should make it into a tournament.

If there were two or three guaranteed games, people would be far more likely to attend. Am I going to fly all the way down to Phoenix for one basketball game? No.
 

GopherinPhilly said:
I heard the stadium is an hour from the hotels and city. Plus first time they have had a basketball game in stadium.
Click to expand...

There are many hotels within walking distance to the stadium/Westgate entertainment center/hockey arena...The cab from Sky Harbor to my hotel was 20 minutes max. Beyond the arenas, hotels, and Westgate, there's not much around that part of Glendale that's within walking distance....good luck trying to find a grocery store for example.
 

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