Zulgad: Gophers’ challenge is getting fans back into The Barn after miserable season

[BleedGopher]

per Judd:

The real trick will be getting the Gophers fan base to buy (back) into this product. The team’s nonconference home schedule long ago stopped featuring an attractive collection of opponents, making it more and more difficult to get people into Williams Arena for what largely was a collection of creampuffs.

But forget the opponents for a moment. The key is convincing the public that the home team is at least worth paying to see. The Gophers’ non-student season-ticket base is down from 7,221 for last season to 6,246, according to a plugged in source.

The Gophers’ opened their season last Friday with a victory over Louisiana Lafayette before an announced crowd of 8,453. That number dropped to 7,986 on Monday and Minnesota’s 80-56 victory over Mount St. Mary’s on Wednesday attracted an announced total of 7,940. The past two games were played with the student section sparsely populated and the upper deck largely empty.

Pitino and a few of his players even visited classes this week to attempt to generate interest among the students.

“Students are extremely important in the Big Ten,” Pitino said after Wednesday’s victory helped the Gophers improve to 3-0. “I think that’s what is great about the Big Ten. Everywhere you go there are great arenas, great home-court advantages and great student sections. We need that as well, but with that being said, we know we have to earn everyone’s trust and respect back.”

There is no question that this Gophers team is more fun to watch than the collection that literally could not shoot straight a year ago.

http://www.1500espn.com/gophers-2/2...ng-fans-back-williams-arena-miserable-season/

Go Gophers!!

 

[GopherLady]

For those of you who weren't there, this was what the crowd looked like.

 

[WindyCityGopher]

I'm a firm believer that if you provide good entertainment people will ultimately elect to spend their dollars to watch it. Last year was a $hit show, so they have that much more work to do to prove Gopher basketball is good entertainment. Wins over the P5 non-conference schools this year will be a start, but they're going to have to play consistently in the B1G and upset a team or two to start bringing folks back. This is a talented team - certainly much more so than last year - so I think they can get to that point. At least I hope they do.

 

[Ope3]

The vastness of empty seats was quite an eye opener.

Last night was my first game this year and it had the feeling of previous years exhibition games, with even less fans. I could sense it all the way up to tip, lack of traffic, easy parking, empty tables at Stubs, hardly any crowd on the sidewalks & no line at Drew's popcorn stand. When I got into the arena, the crowd felt like it does when I get there early during shoot around except it was just a minute or two before the national anthem.

 

[El Amin Fan]

Geez those pictures and Ope's review are really sad. I can't believe it is that bad. I bet even a good game on Friday night, there won't be 10,000 actually there. That's sad.

 

[GophersInIowa]

I don't think this is just a problem at the U. Attendance appears to be down across college basketball and football.

But it is pretty simple, win and people will come. I do expect a better crowd tomorrow night as long as the weather isn't too bad.

 

[BballJones]

I hope tomorrow is better. I think it will be at least slightly better, unless the weather keeps people away. The game should be good - two teams that struggled mightily last year, but added many new pieces this year. I see Shamorie Ponds has played well for SJ.

 

[Ope3]

winning

I don't think this is just a problem at the U. Attendance appears to be down across college basketball and football.

But it is pretty simple, win and people will come. I do expect a better crowd tomorrow night as long as the weather isn't too bad.

Winning will help, but even a 50% increase in actually breathing souls in the stands will only get the gate to around 11,000 still far from full.

 

[Rouser]

Winning will help, but even a 50% increase in actually breathing souls in the stands will only get the gate to around 11,000 still far from full.

Winning is the only thing that will change this.. and winning includes winning a lot. I think those that have watched the team thus far knows they are improved and are a legit Big Ten team for once. That said, we will need to win some big games to create buzz.. really, this year will be about rebuilding the brand so next year starts out stronger (attendance).

 

[howeda7]

Should be better tomorrow, though the snow could affect it some.

 

[MissouriGopher]

It was also a Wednesday night game against a pretty bad opponent. I have season tickets and had to skip because I had work. And I went to almost every game last year.

Win and they will come.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Winasota Gopher]

It was also a Wednesday night game against a pretty bad opponent. I have season tickets and had to skip because I had work. And I went to almost every game last year.

Win and they will come.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm even coming on Friday, 4 1/2 hour drive door to door.....

 

[Governor Sibley]

Let's consolidate football and basketball fanbases into just one sport. We'd be respectable.

I think it's obvious which one that should be.

 

[Gopherbbdude]

I'll be there tomorrow night as well......assuming my wife's flight is on time...tickets are in her purse

 

[Hates Monikers]

Winning will help, but even a 50% increase in actually breathing souls in the stands will only get the gate to around 11,000 still far from full.

That's the problem with a diminishing season ticket base. If we've sold 6,200 season tickets, that means two things: 1) The unattractive non-conference games won't have an attendance much higher than that and 2) there are A LOT of tickets left to sell even for the attractive games; they'll be fighting weather, other activities, etc.

In the best case, building the attendance back up with be a multi-year process.

 

[tonestang]

On FS1 Rutgers is playing DePaul and there is maybe 300 people there.

 

[GringaGopher]

On FS1 Rutgers is playing DePaul and there is maybe 300 people there.

I have had season tickets for years. If I did not split the tickets with my nephews I would have dropped them years ago. As stated earlier , win and the fans will return to the Barn.

 

[GopherJake]

I think it's going to be a long road to build the season ticket base back up. Multiple reasons. First, the program has been a $hit show for quite some time now. Anything and everything has seemingly happened without much on-court success. Second, the forced donations. Along with a pretty hefty price to begin with. Third, football and the ridiculous donation prices again. Forces people to consider cutting one or even both.

The only way we get the base restored is multiple consecutive top-of-the-conference finishes along with some NCAA runs. Once you lose a season ticket holder, it's twice the work to get them back.

22 year season ticket holder here, in case you question my street cred.

 

[builtbadgers]

People will come back when it is sustained success . The program has great fans as witnessed by near sellouts for every conference game in season where the record was .500 . There are only a few dozen programs that sell out every single home gain.

 

[GopherJake]

People will come back when it is sustained success . The program has great fans as witnessed by near sellouts for every conference game in season where the record was .500 . There are only a few dozen programs that sell out every single home gain.

Selling single game tickets isn't a season ticket base. Over half the home games are non-conference. The money is made on a season ticket base. Also, I bet we can count on only a few hands (one?) the number of sellouts we have had in the past 15 years.

 

[macgopher]

Selling single game tickets isn't a season ticket base. Over half the home games are non-conference. The money is made on a season ticket base. Also, I bet we can count on only a few hands (one?) the number of sellouts we have had in the past 15 years.

People are surprised by this after last years record? Start winning.. The Minnesota Twins are experiencing a significant drop in fans as well.

 

[jamiche]

I think it's going to be a long road to build the season ticket base back up. Multiple reasons. First, the program has been a $hit show for quite some time now. Anything and everything has seemingly happened without much on-court success. Second, the forced donations. Along with a pretty hefty price to begin with. Third, football and the ridiculous donation prices again. Forces people to consider cutting one or even both.

The only way we get the base restored is multiple consecutive top-of-the-conference finishes along with some NCAA runs. Once you lose a season ticket holder, it's twice the work to get them back.

22 year season ticket holder here, in case you question my street cred.

Season ticket holder for about thirty years. I donate a lot of the preseason games and sell the B1G games that I have to miss. This is my last year. I feel like a sucker sitting there w/ 5K other people watching scrimmages. (At least the gophers are winning the scrimmages this year and they plugged in two reasonable preseason games.) I think of Rutgers and PSU as the equivalent of preseason games so there are really 7-8 games a year that I want to see out of about 20 and I usually miss a couple of those because I'm out of town. Going forward, even if I have to pay up for the half dozen games that I really want to see, I'm well ahead.

I've supported the program for a long time. The gratification has been very intermittent and the treatment of loyal fans has been borderline disdainful. The Barn is a top five venue in the country when it is loud and proud. Almost nothing like it. Unfortunately, that's about 2% of the total experience of being a gopher season ticket holder since Clem left.

 

[LesBolstad]

Season ticket holder for about thirty years. I donate a lot of the preseason games and sell the B1G games that I have to miss. This is my last year. I feel like a sucker sitting there w/ 5K other people watching scrimmages. (At least the gophers are winning the scrimmages this year and they plugged in two reasonable preseason games.) I think of Rutgers and PSU as the equivalent of preseason games so there are really 7-8 games a year that I want to see out of about 20 and I usually miss a couple of those because I'm out of town. Going forward, even if I have to pay up for the half dozen games that I really want to see, I'm well ahead.

I've supported the program for a long time. The gratification has been very intermittent and the treatment of loyal fans has been borderline disdainful. The Barn is a top five venue in the country when it is loud and proud. Almost nothing like it. Unfortunately, that's about 2% of the total experience of being a gopher season ticket holder since Clem left.

Agree 100%. I had season tickets for 15 years, and gave them up couple years ago for the same reasons. Also, really sickening seeing MN's best players leave for better national programs year after year. Doesn't help seeing a program like Wisconsin have great success with players we should be able to recruit here.

 

[Bad Gopher]

Winning will help, but even a 50% increase in actually breathing souls in the stands will only get the gate to around 11,000 still far from full.

Yeah, on its surface this shapes up as a long, uphill road to hoe. BUT...I remember in the wake of the Madison scandal, Clem had the same uphill battle. He personally handed out free tickets in the lobby of the Bierman building to get people into the stands - and that was a league game! Just a few years later - after a run to the Sweet Sixteen and on the verge of a Final Eight - the place was packed and rocking. Clem knew how big the problem was, and he humbled himself and the program by giving away tickets. I wonder if Richard has the humility in him to grovel to local fans like that.

 

[Tim1406]

Season ticket holder for about thirty years. I donate a lot of the preseason games and sell the B1G games that I have to miss. This is my last year. I feel like a sucker sitting there w/ 5K other people watching scrimmages.

I hope you don't think this is new. I picked random years skipping a few between season hoping to catch different coaches non-conference schedules,

2016-17 home game schedule: Lou-laff, U texas arlington, Mount St. Marry's, St. Johns, Arkansas, NJIT, Georgia southern, Northern Ill, Long Island U, Arkansas st
2008-09:Concordia, bowling green, Georgia st, Eastern washignton, North dakota st, virginia, Cornell, south dakota st, southeastern louisiana, High point
2000-01: North Carolina greensboro, georgia, Morris Brown, bethune Cookman, Louisiana Tech, Dartmouth, Centenary
1996-97: Steven F Austin, West virginia, St. Johns, Alabama st, Long Island U, Mercer.
1990-91: Robert morris, Augusta state, northern Ill, Santa Clara, Oregon State, Cincinati, Virginia(only ranked team I've found so far)
1986-87: Eastern Michigan, Austin Peay, whitchita st. tennesee tech, murray st.
1982-83: US international (before professional?), marquette, Indiana st(admittedly decent back then), montana state,
1978-79: Idaho, Loyola, southern florida, south carolina, houston, Georgia tech(before they joined the acc).

My point is we only play against 1 or 2 good named school per year. the difference is in the total number of games that are played. there are a lot more non conference games now than before. So while it seams like we had better home schedules before in reality we just had fewer games.

 

[BleedGopher]

Yeah, on its surface this shapes up as a long, uphill road to hoe. BUT...I remember in the wake of the Madison scandal, Clem had the same uphill battle. He personally handed out free tickets in the lobby of the Bierman building to get people into the stands - and that was a league game! Just a few years later - after a run to the Sweet Sixteen and on the verge of a Final Eight - the place was packed and rocking. Clem knew how big the problem was, and he humbled himself and the program by giving away tickets. I wonder if Richard has the humility in him to grovel to local fans like that.

Per Chad:

During an otherwise mundane economics class Wednesday at the University of Minnesota, the school’s cheerleaders and marching band stormed in through the back door of the large lecture hall, pom-poms out and horns blaring.

Distracted, the few hundred students in the large classroom almost missed men’s basketball coach Richard Pitino and captain Jordan Murphy enter through the front doors.

The band played the school’s rouser, the cheerleaders danced and Pitino asked students to come see his team play.

http://www.twincities.com/2016/11/1...itino-makes-personal-pitches-to-umn-students/

Go Gophers!!

 

[BleedGopher]

I think it's going to be a long road to build the season ticket base back up. Multiple reasons. First, the program has been a $hit show for quite some time now. Anything and everything has seemingly happened without much on-court success. Second, the forced donations. Along with a pretty hefty price to begin with. Third, football and the ridiculous donation prices again. Forces people to consider cutting one or even both.

The only way we get the base restored is multiple consecutive top-of-the-conference finishes along with some NCAA runs. Once you lose a season ticket holder, it's twice the work to get them back.

22 year season ticket holder here, in case you question my street cred.

Bingo! I've been preaching this for years. The acquisition costs to bring in a new season ticket holder, or bring back a former one, are so much more than keeping an existing one. And as has been discussed ad nauseam, the Gophers are the worst local sports team in town at marketing, season ticket holder treatment, etc. I buy a few single game tickets to Wolves and Twins game each year and the treatment and outreach I get from them blows away the Gophers and we've had tickets in our family since 1971. And the long-term Twins and Wolves season ticket holders that I know get treated like royalty.

My biggest worry, is what I've seen in this thread from Jamiche's post. It's the long-time season ticket holder, die-hard fan who reaches his/her tipping point. They say they aren't going to get season tickets next year, but will "buy a handful of single game tickets" - which they often do year one. But they realize watching games at home isn't as bad as they thought, they then fall to 2-3 single game ticket attendees the next year, and before you know it, a long time season ticket holder turns into a casual fan who attends a game or two a year if the schedule allows.

I've seen this happen to a good 8-10 people for Gopher football and basketball who I would describe as a "die-hard" Gopher fan (attends a road game, posts on GH, hates a rival, etc.) and after 2-3 years, they are only attending 1-2 football games and maybe 2-3 basketball games a year. These are fans that a few years prior planned their entire calendar around Gopher games.

A subtle drop in season tickets year over year isn't dramatic, but an aggregate drop over the years should have the U in "crisis mode" in an attempt to turn it around.

Go Gophers!!

 

[Winasota Gopher]

I hope you don't think this is new. I picked random years skipping a few between season hoping to catch different coaches non-conference schedules,

2016-17 home game schedule: Lou-laff, U texas arlington, Mount St. Marry's, St. Johns, Arkansas, NJIT, Georgia southern, Northern Ill, Long Island U, Arkansas st
2008-09:Concordia, bowling green, Georgia st, Eastern washignton, North dakota st, virginia, Cornell, south dakota st, southeastern louisiana, High point
2000-01: North Carolina greensboro, georgia, Morris Brown, bethune Cookman, Louisiana Tech, Dartmouth, Centenary
1996-97: Steven F Austin, West virginia, St. Johns, Alabama st, Long Island U, Mercer.
1990-91: Robert morris, Augusta state, northern Ill, Santa Clara, Oregon State, Cincinati, Virginia(only ranked team I've found so far)
1986-87: Eastern Michigan, Austin Peay, whitchita st. tennesee tech, murray st.
1982-83: US international (before professional?), marquette, Indiana st(admittedly decent back then), montana state,
1978-79: Idaho, Loyola, southern florida, south carolina, houston, Georgia tech(before they joined the acc).

My point is we only play against 1 or 2 good named school per year. the difference is in the total number of games that are played. there are a lot more non conference games now than before. So while it seams like we had better home schedules before in reality we just had fewer games.

 

[book]

The team is exciting and fun to watch. Next year a great point guard and shooter arrive. People will come back - for those who are here now we are going enjoy this team and games!

 

[GophersInIowa]

Bingo! I've been preaching this for years. The acquisition costs to bring in a new season ticket holder, or bring back a former one, are so much more than keeping an existing one. And as has been discussed ad nauseam, the Gophers are the worst local sports team in town at marketing, season ticket holder treatment, etc. I buy a few single game tickets to Wolves and Twins game each year and the treatment and outreach I get from them blows away the Gophers and we've had tickets in our family since 1971. And the long-term Twins and Wolves season ticket holders that I know get treated like royalty.

My biggest worry, is what I've seen in this thread from Jamiche's post. It's the long-time season ticket holder, die-hard fan who reaches his/her tipping point. They say they aren't going to get season tickets next year, but will "buy a handful of single game tickets" - which they often do year one. But they realize watching games at home isn't as bad as they thought, they then fall to 2-3 single game ticket attendees the next year, and before you know it, a long time season ticket holder turns into a casual fan who attends a game or two a year if the schedule allows.

I've seen this happen to a good 8-10 people for Gopher football and basketball who I would describe as a "die-hard" Gopher fan (attends a road game, posts on GH, hates a rival, etc.) and after 2-3 years, they are only attending 1-2 football games and maybe 2-3 basketball games a year. These are fans that a few years prior planned their entire calendar around Gopher games.

A subtle drop in season tickets year over year isn't dramatic, but an aggregate drop over the years should have the U in "crisis mode" in an attempt to turn it around.

Go Gophers!!

I think this is happening a lot around the country. Many of the crowds I've seen have been extremely poor, even when it is a descent matchup.