Gopher Season Ticket Costs Going Way UP?

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Just got the e-mail:

"Today, Gopher Athletics is announcing adjustments to the scholarship seating program in TCF Bank Stadium. These adjustments, which will take place over the next three years, include increasing scholarship seating donation levels in some sections of the stadium, as well as expanding the sections in the stadium that are considered scholarship seating. We are announcing our long-term plan now so fans are able to plan for future seasons. This announcement does not affect scholarship seating in Mariucci Arena, Williams Arena or the Sports Pavilion.

These adjustments are necessary. We have not adjusted our scholarship seating donation levels since TCF Bank Stadium opened in 2009 and that has left us behind many of our Big Ten peers in our ability to fully meet the needs of our student-athletes. The cost of supporting our 750 Gopher student-athletes (fourth-most in the Big Ten) has increased dramatically in recent years. This challenge is not unique to Gopher Athletics, which is why most Big Ten schools and FBS schools in other major metropolitan areas adjust the total price of their tickets, including donation levels, on a regular basis. Director of Athletics Norwood Teague further explains the need for these changes in this message to season ticket holders.

Beginning in 2015, scholarship seating at TCF Bank Stadium will include all current scholarship seating, as well as all chairback sections in both the lower and upper bowl, bench seating in the stadium’s lower bowl, and the first nine rows of bench seating in the upper bowl. This new footprint and the new donation levels in these sections were determined by extensive research and review of each section in the stadium. It’s important to note that there will still be approximately 5,000 season tickets available in the stadium that do not require any scholarship seating donation and priced among the lowest in the Big Ten.

There are more details about today’s announcement and its impact available atGoldenGopherFund.com. We encourage all season ticket holders to visit the website to view seating maps and learn more about scholarship seating. If you have further questions, please email [email protected] to set up an appointment for a one-on-one consultation. Scheduling a call will make the most efficient use of your time on the phone.

Thank you for your support of our student-athletes."
 


You gotta be kidding. Glad I threw away all that money on the Brewster years, just to get gouged now. I'm pissed.
 

Wow at the level the U is proposing, they look for sure like they are pricing our whole group out of season tickets this is sad.
Wages and salary levels sure have not kept up at the increase levels the U is talking I know my pocket book has been pretty stagnant the lastfour years. The season tickets have been a good value for 18 long years, but many years you could have purchased good seats at street level for steep discounts on places like stub hub compared to what they are talking.
Eighteen years of season tickets and now I really feel like I'm being kicked out of the stadium, I get there costs have gone up, but this is a jump that nobody in my group is going to be able to afford. Sucks excitement of the bowl game coming up and now I don't even want to go to the game no matter the decision on where the Gophers go. No matter how Norwood Teague presents this he just took a giant dump on many season ticket holders who will end up dropping seats because of this. Honestly I don't know how were going to keep two seats let alone four at this tiered pricing thing. Color me major league bummed, I expected and increase was hoping for about $75 bucks each seat. There is just no way I can sustain at the tier levels they are talking about.
I'm not going to be going to every game that is for certain now and will lose all bowl privledges and everything else.
 

This will likely take the season ticket group of 10 down to about 4
 


I am speechless. I can't believe how dramatic that is. With most games you can get tickets on the street for $10-20 ($30 max, even for a big name) the ticket base will drop dramatically.

This is an f'n kick to the nuts of the most loyal customers. Wow. Tone deaf U.
 

Wow. This is gonna blow up in their face. What a dick slap to everyone that kept their tickets through the Brewster years.
 

Gopher07 said:
Details: https://www.goldengopherfund.com/Online/scholarship-seating-adjustments

That sucks. Damn near everything is going up at least $75 in 2015 and more after that.

My seats in 243 go from $0 in 2014, to $75 in 2015, $150 in 2016 and $250 in 2017. **** that.
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My $100 donation seats are going up to $150 per seat and eventually up to $500 per seat by 2017. This is a huge money grab and is going to backfire for sure. Norwood has way overplayed his hand. There is not nearly as much interest in Gopher Football as he thinks to justify this.

Minnesotans who currently pay $0 extra are going to go berserk on principle alone, but these increases are massive. This might have been accepted after a Rose Bowl or BCS bowl or two, but not now.

There is a going to be a rebellion. I am more realistic than some and would have swallowed the $150, but since they were stupid enough to tell me up front they are going to bend me over for $500 on the heels of the 50% increase, I will refuse and walk away on principle as well.

Holy crap!
 

I'll be amused next year when the athletics department acts bewildered by the lack of attendance. Brilliant move guys, guess I need to take back what I said about them not possibly being that dumb. I am also amused by the way they say they "have not adjusted our scholarship seating donation levels since TCF Bank Stadium opened in 2009." If they split up the cost into enough different components, they can always raise something and say "oh, well our hot dog vender contribution seat license fee hasn't been increased in 20 years."
 



The backlash is going to massive against this as it's basically saying F you to the people who have stuck by this team through thick and thin. The unintended consequences of this are going to be that you are pushing out the average Joe who's one fun expenditure was season tix to Gopher football. Yeah corporate types will not have an issue with this cost but this is going to cripple gameday atmosphere and will lead to secondary market ticket prices going up which all will lead to further lower attendance. This is just a foolish move far too fast. IF the school was being intelligent at all, you keep prices low while this team gets hot and then capitalize down the road when overall demand goes up and the whole state is wanting to get tix. Now instead you're pushing people to the Vikes and their flashy new stadium as the more logical investment despite their poor on the field results right now. Just idiotic.
 

Plenty of good seats available in Zone 6 that will not increase in price whatsoever. If your seats are increasing in price by too much simply downgrade your seats.

People want the best of both worlds: new facilities and cheap tickets. Something had to give.
 

Wow that's a pretty big hike overall. Not too thrilled about it at all! We've had two years of moderate success, and looks like it will continue, but come on it's not like we've won the BIG or Division year after year. The 75-150-250 donations that I'm looking at is an insane increase. We can barely fill our stadium as is, and now they are going to force the people that already pay upfront for the year pay more, and I bet they still do extreme discounts during the year. Bad Bad Move on the U's part.
 

500 dollars per seat on the average family of four in MN will equate to 3.3% of their income before taxes and before tickets.
 



Yes, this is going to create a s***storm of epic proportion and Norwood has no idea what he unleashed. He was caught off guard by the North Carolina cancellation mess, but this is going to be nuclear bomb, that will overshadow and dim the glow of any bowl game.


I would expect that only the very deep pocket people that donate big money to the U regardless will accept this.

A mutiny is coming.

I am not going to pay a 500 percent increase from now to 2017, and I am not going to move to that tiny $0 donation zone either. They can go to hell, and any person with any sort of marketing brain would have known that this is going to fail. Even if they back off years 2 and 3, they will have created a huge amount of extreme bad will towards the U of M.

To put it in perspective ,this relatively more expensive than what is going to happen at Ziggy World, and most of those Vikings fans knew that was coming, and will pay. For my money I'd rather pay for Viking Tickets with the seat license and sell most of the tickets on the secondary market.

I've been paying full price since day one for tickets I could have gotten for $20 every week, but accepted the obligation to the U; but no more.
 

Hollinsanity said:
Plenty of good seats available in Zone 6 that will not increase in price whatsoever. If your seats are increasing in price by too much simply downgrade your seats.

People want the best of both worlds: new facilities and cheap tickets. Something had to give.
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If something has to give, apparently the U has decided it is going to be attendance.
 

This season ticket price increase is SIGNIFICANT.

Quick math in my head comes up with the following figures for our 4 seats in section 135:

Dome and first couple years at TCF: $275 x 4 = $1100
Last season: $330 x 4 = $1320
2015: $405 x 4 = $1620
2016: $480 x 4 = $1920
2017: $580 x 4 = $2320

It has been "great" supporting the Brewster years and crappy football while watching the athletic department run "deals" on cheap tickets and promotions that devalue the season tickets. I'm guessing with this news, the stadium will have more available seats than ever, despite the team's improvement. Perhaps it will make sense to dump all four and pick up scalped $20 seats or even face value seats from here on out. This is quite a gut punch.
 

Hey ah Norwood,

We couldn't even sell out Ohio State or Iowa!

This is very dumb!
 

I always thought the Gophers would end up being something good for families to do together. This is sad. We will continue to have empty seats all over the place.
 

WorkingMyTailOff said:
I am a lowly section 103 guy, and this could very well end up affecting other sections as well. However, if it's between getting the new facilities started with this fee increase vs no increase and wait another year, I think the AD dept needs to do this even if they broaden the seat fee to 103.
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Don't disagree at all. It's the amount that has us considering dropping our seats for the first time in over 20 years. Our four tickets this year cost us about $2300. By 2017 they'd cost us $4320. That's basically a 88% increase over 3 seasons.

Unless you're company is paying for them that's damn close to insane.
 

NFL tickets used to be affordable, but a lot of people got priced out of season tickets. College football season tickets have been a good deal, but it looks like they are going the same way. The arms race is getting out of hand.
 

If anybody was listening to Lou Nanne on Barrerio he said, I think, that they've raised about 75-80 million in the fundraising effort.
 

Unfortunately, the U is increasing their prices on win's and losses and not on consumer demand.
How shortsighted.
 

One of the most successfull season in many years and to my knowledge they didn't sell out one game. Now these large price increases? Doesn't make sense.
 


I hope this helps us fill the stadium with all those fans disguised as empty seats as the temperature drops. Sad
 

Definitely not donating to the facility fund drive next year. If they want to gouge me like this, I'll act like a customer for any other business. I wouldn't donate to AMC because they want new projectors in their theaters, I wouldn't donate a restaurant that wants to build an outdoor patio, I wouldn't donate to the Wild to sign a new free agent. Those are your expenses, pay for them with the profits from my ticket revenue.
 


Hollinsanity said:
Plenty of good seats available in Zone 6 that will not increase in price whatsoever. If your seats are increasing in price by too much simply downgrade your seats.

People want the best of both worlds: new facilities and cheap tickets. Something had to give.
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You are dead wrong, this is not going to work at all. They are not in the position within the market to pull this off regardless of what you think is fair. They are changing the terms for most of the fans within the current fan base, and not everyone can move to those crappy sections.

No one is going increase the cost of my two seats from $860 and $750 in 2013) per year to $1700 in the span of two years, even if I can afford it. People will walk away in droves. Every game is on TV in HD, and the University gets piles of money from that TV arrangement, and now they are going to drive the ticket buyers away.

The Big Ten Network has given them boatloads of money they did not have before and when the next level of TV agreements happens, even more money will flow in. It isn't like the revenues have been flat.
 

The gamble here is that the administration thinks they have a winner.

Hope they're right.

Otherwise it will be a total meltdown.
 

Now is the time to do it now that we were the fourth best team in the conference for one year.
 

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