Where's this week's student ticket sales story?

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If the students don't care enough to be there, I doubt they'd care enough to be embarrassed about not being there. What I am about to say is quite profound: it simply has to be more fun for them to be at the stadium than it currently is for them to be wherever they are currently choosing to be during U football games. :)

Sure, winning will help that, along with the bazillions of suggestions that have been suggested in other threads. I doubt some sort of sense of "duty" would ever move the needle on student attendance.
 

Schnauzer said:
If the students don't care enough to be there, I doubt they'd care enough to be embarrassed about not being there. What I am about to say is quite profound: it simply has to be more fun for them to be at the stadium than it currently is for them to be wherever they are currently choosing to be during U football games. :)

Sure, winning will help that, along with the bazillions of suggestions that have been suggested in other threads. I doubt some sort of sense of "duty" would ever move the needle on student attendance.
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I agree, it does no good to shake our fists at the students for not coming to Gopher football games. It is not possible to shame them into coming, they have to want to come.
 

It's just too many Student Tickets. It's been a problem since the first year when students found out they couldn't just buy tickets and scalp them to the highest bidder, or to their Wisconsin and Iowa buddies. The drop-off in Student Tickets this year? Probably due to Iowa and particularly Wisconsin not being on the schedule. In the e-mail from Mr.Teague he states that they have more than "5,000 seats in the Upper Level" available for Saturday's game. That's the Student Section.

The obvious solution? Lower the bleeping number of Student Tickets! Let the Legislators whine. Take it down to the number that can be crammed into the Lower Level. Sell the Upper Level to the public. Until Kill can get the Gophers winning on a regular basis and the demand by "I want to see the GOPHERS win" , who's going to lose any sleep over U of M Badger and Hawkeye fans not getting into the game?

Besides with beer now being available at TCF does anybody really want to see more drunken Hawkeye and Badger fans at the game anyway?
 

husker70 said:
How many of the students do not have $90 for tickets? Or take into account 7 games or less than $13. How many out of 30,000 undergraduates? No, I doubt its the money, rather the attraction. I would bet those who claim poverty, are spending $90 in a semester on Pizza and Beer or some herb. The attraction of the football team winning will find these same students reordering priorities and buying tickets. Last weekend was a picture perfect illustration of what it should be. It as simple as it can be, Just Win, Baby! Beat Western Michigian!
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Not having the $90 is pretty weak.

Back in my day, HS students attended a good share of the home football games. Especially in smaller towns. I don't think that is the case in most larger HS so watching the weekly football game is not the norm for many college kids.

Its all about priorities. And the UM needs to step up and create an atmosphere that will attract the Students. Then they will realize that TCF is the place to be on Saturdays and the $90 will not be an excuse.
 

Iceland12 said:
It's just too many Student Tickets. In the e-mail from Mr.Teague he states that they have more than "5,000 seats in the Upper Level" available for Saturday's game. That's the Student Section.

Sell the Upper Level to the public. ?
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Agree somewhat but I don't think there is huge public demand for those seats. They will sit empty except when they play Iowa/ Wisconsin.

Instead what they should do is create a "bridge" section for new graduates. Let any former student ticket holder buy season tickets there at a price similar (if students pay 80 let the former student's pay 100) to the students (new grads are often poorer than students as they are paying off debt with less help from parents). Give them two or three years as a bridge and hopefully they become full season ticket holders.

Former students are better than empty seats.
 


Winnipegopher said:
Instead what they should do is create a "bridge" section for new graduates. Let any former student ticket holder buy season tickets there at a price similar (if students pay 80 let the former student's pay 100) to the students (new grads are often poorer than students as they are paying off debt with less help from parents). Give them two or three years as a bridge and hopefully they become full season ticket holders.
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They do this already.
 

Winnipegopher said:
Agree somewhat but I don't think there is huge public demand for those seats. They will sit empty except when they play Iowa/ Wisconsin.

Instead what they should do is create a "bridge" section for new graduates. Let any former student ticket holder buy season tickets there at a price similar (if students pay 80 let the former student's pay 100) to the students (new grads are often poorer than students as they are paying off debt with less help from parents). Give them two or three years as a bridge and hopefully they become full season ticket holders.

Former students are better than empty seats.
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I don't disagree Winnipeg; just rather have 2-3,000 more bodies in those seats for the Non-Conference games even if they're all on "special deals". People who WANT to be there, because thousands of student apparently don't . Big Ten games will look a lot fuller anyway. Nice not having to fill 62,000 seats.
 

It is kinda funny because I go to UMD and I would kill to be able to get student season tickets to the UofM football games. Instead I have to purchase general season tickets. :(
 

Iceland12 said:
It's just too many Student Tickets. It's been a problem since the first year when students found out they couldn't just buy tickets and scalp them to the highest bidder, or to their Wisconsin and Iowa buddies. The drop-off in Student Tickets this year? Probably due to Iowa and particularly Wisconsin not being on the schedule. In the e-mail from Mr.Teague he states that they have more than "5,000 seats in the Upper Level" available for Saturday's game. That's the Student Section.

The obvious solution? Lower the bleeping number of Student Tickets! Let the Legislators whine. Take it down to the number that can be crammed into the Lower Level. Sell the Upper Level to the public. Until Kill can get the Gophers winning on a regular basis and the demand by "I want to see the GOPHERS win" , who's going to lose any sleep over U of M Badger and Hawkeye fans not getting into the game?

Besides with beer now being available at TCF does anybody really want to see more drunken Hawkeye and Badger fans at the game anyway?
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You would have a difficult time giving those seats back to the students if they sold season ticket packages for the closed upper deck. Trying explaining to a season ticket holder that they can no longer have their seat because it is no longer available and being given to the students. It probably won't fly.

I have thought the student turnout has been pretty solid given the slow sales a few weeks before the season. Am I mistaken here?
 



Might need to investigate who is in charge of admissions.:)
 

On a lighter note, the twitterverse is reporting the $10 seats are now sold out!
 

Some people spend $90 drinking in clubs over the weekend. Either you like football or you don't. The big thing I think is the team's poor performance the last two seasons and just the way the MACturi administration ran the place like a jail makes kids think twice about buying tickets. They only gave out a few hundred tickets last week and the student section was fuller than before. I imagine that the season opener give away plus the improved play of the team are changing some minds. Of course nothing will change the minds of Phd nursing grad students who are probably in their 30s, I think there is some other students on campus who weren't asked.
 

If the $10 tickets are sold out does that mean that the game itself is a sell out?
 



gophmeister said:
Some people spend $90 drinking in clubs over the weekend. Either you like football or you don't. The big thing I think is the team's poor performance the last two seasons and just the way the MACturi administration ran the place like a jail makes kids think twice about buying tickets. They only gave out a few hundred tickets last week and the student section was fuller than before. I imagine that the season opener give away plus the improved play of the team are changing some minds. Of course nothing will change the minds of Phd nursing grad students who are probably in their 30s, I think there is some other students on campus who weren't asked.
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Exactly... I agree on all points.
 

Gopherdrummer said:
You would have a difficult time giving those seats back to the students if they sold season ticket packages for the closed upper deck. Trying explaining to a season ticket holder that they can no longer have their seat because it is no longer available and being given to the students. It probably won't fly.

I have thought the student turnout has been pretty solid given the slow sales a few weeks before the season. Am I mistaken here?
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They gave away tickets to students for New Hampshire and they showed-up. Many didn't show-up last week.

As for Students being upset at the lack of tickets when and if Kill gets them on the winning track, yeah, that would break my heart. :rolleyes:
 

Iceland12 said:
They gave away tickets to students for New Hampshire and they showed-up. Many didn't show-up last week.

As for Students being upset at the lack of tickets when and if Kill gets them on the winning track, yeah, that would break my heart. :rolleyes:
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I was speaking more towards season ticket holders would be mad about not being able to renew their tickets because the U decided to re-expand the stadium.

Even if fewer students showed up last weekend, the energy level was still there. Better showing (energy wise) than most of the games the past two seasons.
 

Iceland12 said:
They gave away tickets to students for New Hampshire and they showed-up. Many didn't show-up last week.

As for Students being upset at the lack of tickets when and if Kill gets them on the winning track, yeah, that would break my heart. :rolleyes:
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I would say why penalize future student who are not currently students?

As a grad student it would be nice not having to pay ~290 for the guest pass for the year. I only have one class a week and I don't know anyone in the program well enough to want go to every game with them. Let the students buy a second pass for $90 so they can bring a friend/family member who might not be a student it would be better than empty seats.
 

Gopherdrummer said:
I was speaking more towards season ticket holders would be mad about not being able to renew their tickets because the U decided to re-expand the stadium.
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I get what you're saying, but this isn't a "problem" the U will ever have to worry about. If there ever comes a point where demand is consistently outpacing supply, the stadium can be expanded.
 

Coolew01 said:
I would say why penalize future student who are not currently students?

As a grad student it would be nice not having to pay ~290 for the guest pass for the year. I only have one class a week and I don't know anyone in the program well enough to want go to every game with them. Let the students buy a second pass for $90 so they can bring a friend/family member who might not be a student it would be better than empty seats.
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Not if the "bleeps" were wearing Badger colors it wouldn't and we're talking about 5,000 seats, not the 15,000 to 18,000 they had to fill at the Dome.
 

Gopherdrummer said:
I was speaking more towards season ticket holders would be mad about not being able to renew their tickets because the U decided to re-expand the stadium.

Even if fewer students showed up last weekend, the energy level was still there. Better showing (energy wise) than most of the games the past two seasons.
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I know Drummer but I wouldn't advocate doing that.
 

dpodoll68 said:
I get what you're saying, but this isn't a "problem" the U will ever have to worry about. If there ever comes a point where demand is consistently outpacing supply, the stadium can be expanded.
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Not that I am taking either side, but the stadium can not be expanded instantaneously.
 

station19 said:
Not that I am taking either side, but the stadium can not be expanded instantaneously.
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That's a good question. How many "temporary" seats are going to be added for the Vikings game?
 

Coolew01 said:
I would say why penalize future student who are not currently students?

As a grad student it would be nice not having to pay ~290 for the guest pass for the year. I only have one class a week and I don't know anyone in the program well enough to want go to every game with them. Let the students buy a second pass for $90 so they can bring a friend/family member who might not be a student it would be better than empty seats.
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This is the main problem, imo. When I was in school 2002-2006, you could at least buy an extra single game student ticket for $15 so you could bring a non-student friend with you.
 


GopherInPittsburgh said:
MN Daily: Student ticket sales still lag at 3-0

http://www.mndaily.com/2012/09/19/student-ticket-sales-still-lag-3-0-0
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"The athletics department is taking the ticketing problem one step past “marketing 101” and to the Carlson School of Management.

A group of six Master of Business Administration students from the Carlson School are working on an “analysis package” that plans to outline some of the main issues surrounding empty seats in TCF Bank Stadium’s student section, LaFrenz said.

The consulting started after Teague met with Arthur Hill, associate dean at the Carlson School, at a University function, said Sarah Gisser, the program director for Carlson Enterprises.

The Carlson Enterprises group consults for a variety of corporations across the Midwest, but Gisser said this was a unique opportunity to aid the University in a pressing issue.

The six MBA students will conduct research on campus. They plan to speak with students during the week and at TCF Bank Stadium on Saturdays, and they expect to present their findings to the athletics department in mid-December, Gisser said."
 

The lacking sales doesn't surprise me since the U has been handing out tickets for free. There have been more than 4,000 students in the stands each game.

Frankly, I am surprised they didn't turn this into a case study at Carlson or bring in third party consultants when sales dropped off after the first year at TCF, or even with mild attendance at the dome. Carlson has a pretty solid Grad and Undergrad program. Seems like an obvious thing to do. It will be really funny if the findings are....just win. Men's Hockey kind of proves that point. Student tickets for the Saturday package are sold out. That hasn't been the case in recent years. Not really a fair comparison though due to the smaller student section.
 

Gopherdrummer said:
The lacking sales doesn't surprise me since the U has been handing out tickets for free. There have been more than 4,000 students in the stands each game.

Frankly, I am surprised they didn't turn this into a case study at Carlson or bring in third party consultants when sales dropped off after the first year at TCF, or even with mild attendance at the dome. Carlson has a pretty solid Grad and Undergrad program. Seems like an obvious thing to do. It will be really funny if the findings are....just win. Men's Hockey kind of proves that point. Student tickets for the Saturday package are sold out. That hasn't been the case in recent years. Not really a fair comparison though due to the smaller student section.
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To be fair, I'm sure if our football team had a great shot at winning a national title every season, the student tickets would sell out in 30 minutes.
 

I keep hearing that students don't want to go if the team is losing so it appears ironic that the first 3-0 Gopher team to play in the new stadium has the lowest student tickets sales to date.

I also find it ironic that everyone talked about how bad the Metrodome was becasue it wasn't on campus and the students had to ride busses, but the student crowds there always seemed pretty good (at least through much of the 00's, anyway).
 

station19 said:
Not that I am taking either side, but the stadium can not be expanded instantaneously.
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I believe it can be expanded to 80K in just one off-season. I think I read that somewhere.
 

From today's Pioneer Press (twincities.com)

The Gophers announced they have sold out all 5,300 of their $10 tickets for Saturday's game against Syracuse. There are still 1,500 tickets remaining for the general public, priced at $40, and 2,000 tickets for students at $10.
 

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