I'm Shocked So Many Great Premo Seats

LesBolstad

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are still available. Why aren't more picking fantastic seats for $100-$500? I got four smack dab on the 50 lower level for the $250 cont. Other B10 schools (except maybe IU/NU) would think we are nuts. I know we aren't OSU, Mich, or PSU but those same seats would go for 5K/year or more at those schools.
 

Until the Gophs can prove that they won't break our hearts on an annual basis, you won't find many people willing to pay anything more than what they're priced at now.
 

On the one hand, I'm loving it, since I don't select for another 15 days and I'm hoping four of those $100/$250 are still available, so I don't have to drop $500 a pop for good seats. On the other hand, it's depressing. If we can't get excited and spend a little extra money to watch outdoor, on-campus college football then we've got a lot of Nervous Gopher and folks of his ilk as Gopher "fans".

I wonder about the extent to which the current recession has affected premium ticket sales....
 

I expect some, if not all, of the waiting list people will get a shot at the $500 donation seats.
 

Personally, the current condition of the economy has driven me to not go with the $250 or $500 donation tickets. If it were 2-3 years ago (or even last year) I most likely would have ponied up the extra cash. I'm sure I'm not alone in this thinking.
 


Personally, the current condition of the economy has driven me to not go with the $250 or $500 donation tickets. If it were 2-3 years ago (or even last year) I most likely would have ponied up the extra cash. I'm sure I'm not alone in this thinking.

Exactly...this plus no B10 championship in decades is why. It doesn't bug me that much to be honest. I think the U might have been better off with a slightly smaller preferred seating allotment (though I know they did their homework on the #), but I don't have any doubts that all the preferred seats will go. I'm wondering how many of them will become Corp seats though.
 

Personally, the current condition of the economy has driven me to not go with the $250 or $500 donation tickets. If it were 2-3 years ago (or even last year) I most likely would have ponied up the extra cash. I'm sure I'm not alone in this thinking.

Yeah, I completely agree with that. My group and I are all about the $250/$100 tickets, but I'm not certain we'll bite on the $500 seats. $750 per year (and you KNOW that seat tax will go up when the program turns around and ticket demand increases, if for no other reason than to finance the stadium expansion) is a little tough to take. I'll find out about my willingness to support the Gophers at any cost in two weeks, I guess.
 

I think the gophers crapped themselves by offering no donation chairback seats. They needed to put the bleacher seats as no donation. Why would a guy pay 250 bucks on top of his tickets if he could get seats directly across the aisle and not pay anything? At least make them choose between a chairback and a bleacher.
dumb...dumb...dumb...

And look at all the premium parking still available. Who made these decisions? Obviously someone that hasn't walked around the tailgating lots the past few years. We were paying 300 bucks for a parking spot/goal line club membership for our tailgating lot and the lot wasn't hardly filled and I'd say 1/3 that did purchase came to the lot an hour before the games.

So we will have empty tailgating lots around the stadium and empty 50 yardline seats all the way in the lower to the upper deck.
 




No and no.

Agreed, there are a lot of people left to pick, as stated before, the gap between the quality of the premium seats and the non premium seats will continue to widen as the selection process continues. I do agree that there should have been a license of at least $100 on all of the chairback seats though, that gap would have widened earlier in the process with less $500 and more $100 seats.
 

All seats backs should be donation

I agree with GoGophers2005. All seat backs should have been some donation. All seats between the goal line and 20s should have been $100. It will likely cost $40-$75 to get a seat cushion if you get bench seats and want a back rest.

Also, the U should have guaranteed that donation levels will not increase for at least the next 5-10 years like the Wild did for club seat owners when the X opened. I would opt for $250 seats but I'm afraid how high the donation level will go in the near future due to possible sucess/expansion.
 

Agreed, there are a lot of people left to pick, as stated before, the gap between the quality of the premium seats and the non premium seats will continue to widen as the selection process continues. I do agree that there should have been a license of at least $100 on all of the chairback seats though, that gap would have widened earlier in the process with less $500 and more $100 seats.

The U is damned if they do, damned if they don't. I know specifically that Joel Maturi said at a luncheon last fall that they wanted to make sure that some of long time season ticket holders (who weren't wealthy) would be rewarded for their loyalty with the chance to have a chairback without having to pay a fee. So, the U caves to try to appease some and in the process ticks others off. If they had charged $100 for the seats between the 20 and the goal line, then the cry would have been that they were freezing out long time, loyal backers who couldn't afford them. Let's face it, WCCO-TV already did a story on the disappointed people who had great seats at the Metrodome and now have to pay $500 for the prime seats at TCF (which is relatively cheap when compared to other Big Ten schools). I'm sure the school felt by offering some chairbacks with no addtional fee, there was an answer for some. There is no perfect situation. Ask anyone in sports marketing and one of the hardest political balls they have to juggle is ticket locations, donation levels, ticket pricing, seat upgrades, etc.
 

I agree with GoGophers2005. All seat backs should have been some donation. All seats between the goal line and 20s should have been $100. It will likely cost $40-$75 to get a seat cushion if you get bench seats and want a back rest.

Also, the U should have guaranteed that donation levels will not increase for at least the next 5-10 years like the Wild did for club seat owners when the X opened. I would opt for $250 seats but I'm afraid how high the donation level will go in the near future due to possible sucess/expansion.

I think the issue with making all chairback seats donation right now is twofold.
1) You would have long time season ticket holders who would be unable to afford being in chairbacks. Right now there is only a small outcry b/c longtime ticket holders with lots of points can easily get good chairback seats if they can’t/won’t pay the donations.
2) It would have made too high a % of the seats require a donation. Given our problem with attendance, the U can’t be too greedy with the seat licenses. If all chairbacks required a donation that would mean that approx 45% of the non-student seats (approx 36% of the overall seats) would require a donation. From zero donations in the Dome to almost half the available seats? Um…no. We don’t have the season ticket base to sustain that.

I do agree that a freeze on seat donation fees would have been a good way to encourage more people to purchase them.
 



We have 6 tickets and there is no way in hell with this economy that we can afford to put down $3000 or even and extra $1,500 down for the games. At least not until we start winning more.:D
 

Some good points to banter around. Consider this: My wife and I have had season tickets for 19 years and anxiously look forward to outdoor football at TCF. Much has changed for us in the last 6 months to the point that we can barely afford season tickets, which I did purchase recently with some of my tax return money. I would have been happy with bench style seats but did select non-premium seat backs. I for one think that the U made the right move by making some seat backs non-premium so that fans like myself can be made to feel appreciated for our 19 years of loyalty.
 

I think the gophers crapped themselves by offering no donation chairback seats. They needed to put the bleacher seats as no donation. Why would a guy pay 250 bucks on top of his tickets if he could get seats directly across the aisle and not pay anything? At least make them choose between a chairback and a bleacher.
dumb...dumb...dumb...

And look at all the premium parking still available. Who made these decisions? Obviously someone that hasn't walked around the tailgating lots the past few years. We were paying 300 bucks for a parking spot/goal line club membership for our tailgating lot and the lot wasn't hardly filled and I'd say 1/3 that did purchase came to the lot an hour before the games.

So we will have empty tailgating lots around the stadium and empty 50 yardline seats all the way in the lower to the upper deck.

I agree completely. I stated a similar opinion several months ago and got hammered for it. I think that you create full demand before you play with supply. A fair number of the premium seats and parking will not be used every week. I picked my employers seats and parking earlier this month and can tell you that I picked 12 premium seats and 2 tailgate spots that will not be used more than 2 times per year and most likely for the UW or Iowa games will go to UW or Iowa fans who do business with us. Our seats in the past had the same history. If someone thinks that my company is the only one, they're smoking something really good. When this was discussed before I was drilled with people telling me that the "U" with their outstanding history of infallibility surely had thought of these things when setting up the system. I mentioned the stale atmosphere and 1/4 empty seats in Mariucci and was told that didn't was not true. Of course, anyone with Gopher hockey tix will know exactly what I'm talking about when I use the term "Corpies". My hope is that after this season, the University looks at the seating plan and makes adjustments if needed. I'm not 100% sure there will any issues, but Hal Steinbrenner thought they would have no problem with the premium seats in the new Yankee Stadium either. We shall see. And before I get drilled again and told to stop whining, I could not be any happier about the new stadium, picked my own seats and will be there tailgating each week at least 3 hours before each game, rain, snow or shine. I just think that we should really strive to do everything as well as we can. We need to build a gameday experience, that is what will sustain and grow our fanbase through any future lean years.
 

I think we need to remind ourselves that only slightly over 1/3 of season ticket-holders have selected their seats. As of last Friday, over 50% of all the donation seats had already been taken.

All things considered, I think the U came pretty darn close to getting the donation amounts perfect. They are well on their way to selling each and every one of those donation amounts, but...

1. They didn't set it so low that they were gone immediately
2. They didn't set it so high that there will be hordes of donation seats left after picks are done
3. Anyone in the top say 17,000 (rough min. of 4-5 years w/ tix) will have the option of a "free" chairback

Considering the state of the economy over the past year, I would imagine this has turned out about exactly how they had hoped.
 

I think the situation that they have created is exactly what is going on over at Mariucci.
I think companies have a lot of those tickets and don't bother finding someone for an open game.
I'm not sitting here and whining....i want the U to get as much money as they can get...however I think they did a lousy job of finding out who the typical gopher football fan is.

$350 donation should have easily been the most expensive seat. Then $275, and then $150.
All Chairbacks should be donation only.

Doing things on the lower end would sweeten the pot for people to sit in these areas and make it more inexpensive to the long time season ticket holders.

$2500 for a parking spot? Who are they kidding?
 

I agree completely. I stated a similar opinion several months ago and got hammered for it. I think that you create full demand before you play with supply. A fair number of the premium seats and parking will not be used every week. I picked my employers seats and parking earlier this month and can tell you that I picked 12 premium seats and 2 tailgate spots that will not be used more than 2 times per year and most likely for the UW or Iowa games will go to UW or Iowa fans who do business with us. Our seats in the past had the same history. If someone thinks that my company is the only one, they're smoking something really good. When this was discussed before I was drilled with people telling me that the "U" with their outstanding history of infallibility surely had thought of these things when setting up the system. I mentioned the stale atmosphere and 1/4 empty seats in Mariucci and was told that didn't was not true. Of course, anyone with Gopher hockey tix will know exactly what I'm talking about when I use the term "Corpies". My hope is that after this season, the University looks at the seating plan and makes adjustments if needed. I'm not 100% sure there will any issues, but Hal Steinbrenner thought they would have no problem with the premium seats in the new Yankee Stadium either. We shall see. And before I get drilled again and told to stop whining, I could not be any happier about the new stadium, picked my own seats and will be there tailgating each week at least 3 hours before each game, rain, snow or shine. I just think that we should really strive to do everything as well as we can. We need to build a gameday experience, that is what will sustain and grow our fanbase through any future lean years.

obviously the tickets belong to the company you work for, but how about instead of being "that lame guy and/or lame local company who sells/gives free tickets to visiting enemy fans" you sell/give those tickets to gopher fans that your company does business with instead? i know crazy concept huh?! i mean you are a gopher fan right?!

maybe your company needs to assign a new person to manage their ticket distribution to ensure they don't fall into the wrong hands. just a thought! ;)
 

I think we need to remind ourselves that only slightly over 1/3 of season ticket-holders have selected their seats. As of last Friday, over 50% of all the donation seats had already been taken.

All things considered, I think the U came pretty darn close to getting the donation amounts perfect. They are well on their way to selling each and every one of those donation amounts, but...

1. They didn't set it so low that they were gone immediately
2. They didn't set it so high that there will be hordes of donation seats left after picks are done
3. Anyone in the top say 17,000 (rough min. of 4-5 years w/ tix) will have the option of a "free" chairback

Considering the state of the economy over the past year, I would imagine this has turned out about exactly how they had hoped.

I'm actually equally concerned with whether the seats are sold and with their utilization. I look at the Yankee example, they've been a national laughingstock with their premium seats being half full each game. Their issue is a sales and usage problem and they've been hammered in a press that is pretty friendly. If we end up with a Mariucci situation it will be sad. And while winning would cure much of the ills, the problem at Mariucci persists despite the fact that Minnesota is the premier program in all of college hockey in a state where hockey is as big as it gets. I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect we will see the largest concentrations of red and black and gold in those premium seats. Especially since we've broken up the visitors section into 4. If we end up with that I think the program has made a strategic mistake. That said, we'll just have to see how it plays out. At least for season 1, it shouldn't be a problem, after that, who knows...
 

I'm actually equally concerned with whether the seats are sold and with their utilization. I look at the Yankee example, they've been a national laughingstock with their premium seats being half full each game. Their issue is a sales and usage problem and they've been hammered in a press that is pretty friendly. If we end up with a Mariucci situation it will be sad. And while winning would cure much of the ills, the problem at Mariucci persists despite the fact that Minnesota is the premier program in all of college hockey in a state where hockey is as big as it gets. I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect we will see the largest concentrations of red and black and gold in those premium seats. Especially since we've broken up the visitors section into 4. If we end up with that I think the program has made a strategic mistake. That said, we'll just have to see how it plays out. At least for season 1, it shouldn't be a problem, after that, who knows...

again there is an easy solution to this problem vinko. please don't be that guy who manages the tickets for his company and lazily gives them to enemy fans just because they starting emailing you about it 6 months in advance and are all over your jock and crawling up your ass like cockroaches to get their hands on them. always do the right thing and instead give them to gopher fans that your company does business with.
 

$2500 for a parking spot? Who are they kidding?

That's not the cost of the parking spot. The cost of the most premiere parking spot is $175. You only can purchase that if you have donated $2500 or more.

And, most of the close lots are already sold out.
 

I agree completely. I stated a similar opinion several months ago and got hammered for it. I think that you create full demand before you play with supply.

Call me crazy, but it appears you actually are disagreeing with the poster you said you agreed with. He suggested that they require a fee for ALL seatbacks. Wouldn't that feed MORE into your idea of only "corpies" getting those seats. I could be reading it wrong, but maybe not.

A fair number of the premium seats and parking will not be used every week.

Eventually, that could happen. Not in the first couple years, though. No way.

I picked my employers seats and parking earlier this month and can tell you that I picked 12 premium seats and 2 tailgate spots that will not be used more than 2 times per year and most likely for the UW or Iowa games will go to UW or Iowa fans who do business with us. Our seats in the past had the same history.

That's not the U's fault. That's your company's fault. Plain and simple. Why any company would invest big money in season tickets and not use them is baffling at best, poor management at worst. The U would be incredibly idiotic to turn away corporate money in this environment. Unfortunately, that leads to company's like yours doing strange things.

Hal Steinbrenner thought they would have no problem with the premium seats in the new Yankee Stadium either. We shall see.

Hal Steinbrenner was charging $100,000 PER GAME for some of those suites. The Gophers are not comparable. The Gophers ticket cost is still one of the lowest - on average - in the Big Ten. Even with brand new digs.
 

again there is an easy solution to this problem vinko. please don't be that guy who manages the tickets for his company and lazily gives them to enemy fans just because they starting emailing you about it 6 months in advance and are all over your jock and crawling up your ass like cockroaches to get their hands on them. always do the right thing and instead give them to gopher fans that your company does business with.

Wish I could Bronko, unfortunately, the distribution of our seats is left to an administrative person who oversees a concierge service we offer to our best clients. I'd eat the tickets before handing them over, but at my place of employment, I'm not afforded that option. I was placed in charge of picking seats and parking since its well known that I haven't missed a home game since the 1996 season amongst our senior management team. One time shot, for the record, I did consider breaking up the seats into 2 singles in the upper deck corners, but figured my wife would be PO'd if I didn't get a paycheck any longer. ;)
 

Call me crazy, but it appears you actually are disagreeing with the poster you said you agreed with. He suggested that they require a fee for ALL seatbacks. Wouldn't that feed MORE into your idea of only "corpies" getting those seats. I could be reading it wrong, but maybe not.



Eventually, that could happen. Not in the first couple years, though. No way.



That's not the U's fault. That's your company's fault. Plain and simple. Why any company would invest big money in season tickets and not use them is baffling at best, poor management at worst. The U would be incredibly idiotic to turn away corporate money in this environment. Unfortunately, that leads to company's like yours doing strange things.



Hal Steinbrenner was charging $100,000 PER GAME for some of those suites. The Gophers are not comparable. The Gophers ticket cost is still one of the lowest - on average - in the Big Ten. Even with brand new digs.

Addressing your issues point by point. (which I don't like to do but since you've done so I feel compelled to respond:

1. I probably could have elaborated better, I was specifically responding to his point that the planning seems subpar to me.


2. I'm not as convinced, I hope you're correct, but from my personal seats in the dome, there were far to many empties and opponent fans using corporate seats. I do think the newness of the stadium will draw for year one, but the fact remains that we still have a small fanbase. Evidence of this is the fact that we expect to supply every person on our waiting list with a seat despite a reduction in capacity.

3. I don't disagree with you. Not sure what you do for a living, but that's life in corporate America. There is a ton of waste (don't get me going on the economy :p ), but we look at it like this...having the seats used twice a year is a good investment for a client who provides us with 6 figure revenue. We do the same with the Vikes, Twins, T-Wolves and Wild. If you add it up, we have probably $50K+ in unused tickets each year. Still, we use them as a perk for folks who buy millions of dollars of our services, so that expenditure is relatively minor and if it keeps a client happy and writing checks. So what may look like a waste to many, really is just marketing. If you look at it like a fan, it doesn't make sense, but from a business standpoint, its a good use of funds. Unfortunately, corporate policy doesn't allow employees at any level (including senior management) to utilize the seats, otherwise I'd be glad to take them.

4. Wasn't referencing the suites, please re-read, The premium seats behind the plate at Yankee Stadium were the ones that have largely been empty. The cost of those seats was $2,500 each. Many have now been reduced by half. While the scenario isn't exactly apples to apples, the basic thought process and assumptions are largely the same. The theory was that building a new place would be enough of a draw alone to fill the place up. That has not happened, at least in the premium seats.

In closing, we obviously all want the same things, a winning program and a great gameday experience. I'm just less willing than most to accept that the University is infallible in their processes. I think they've done a good job, in fact, I'd give them a B for the overall project, I just think if we end up with a Mariucci atmosphere, we've landed short of what could have been accomplished. Of course, we'll just have to let things play out. My most sincere hope is that I can come here in a few years and say TJ was 100% right and I was 100% wrong. Go Gophers!
 

having the seats used twice a year is a good investment for a client who provides us with 6 figure revenue. We do the same with the Vikes, Twins, T-Wolves and Wild. If you add it up, we have probably $50K+ in unused tickets each year. Still, we use them as a perk for folks who buy millions of dollars of our services, so that expenditure is relatively minor and if it keeps a client happy and writing checks.

Horrible corporate policy. Instead of giving these tickets to the clients who supply 6-figure revenue only twice a year, why not just give that client all of the season tickets then? At least one would hope they'd be used. Strange policy indeed, bordering on lunacy. $50,000 in unused tickets?? Wow.

The cost of those seats was $2,500 each. Many have now been reduced by half. While the scenario isn't exactly apples to apples, the basic thought process and assumptions are largely the same.

The most expensive Gopher premium seats is $110 per game ($275 + $500 / 7 games). That's hardly Steinbrenner-esque, and I would venture a guess that while we have the newest stadium in the Big Ten that our premium seat prices (tickets on the 50-yard line) are in the bottom third of the Big Ten in price when factoring in fees/required donation/ticket cost.

Go Gophers!

On this we're in 100% agreement!
 

The mixture of donation seats and free seats has spread out the old, sleepy season ticketholders. There will be more enthusiastic Gopher fans sitting in every part of the stadium this fall. Everyone seems to be getting their choice and there will be good seats (for a price) for quite a while longer. Finally, we'll be able to get everyone to stand on those third downs and short. The athletic department did a great job on this selection process.
 

Wish I could Bronko, unfortunately, the distribution of our seats is left to an administrative person who oversees a concierge service we offer to our best clients. I'd eat the tickets before handing them over, but at my place of employment, I'm not afforded that option. I was placed in charge of picking seats and parking since its well known that I haven't missed a home game since the 1996 season amongst our senior management team. One time shot, for the record, I did consider breaking up the seats into 2 singles in the upper deck corners, but figured my wife would be PO'd if I didn't get a paycheck any longer. ;)

well, then i think you need to send said "administrative person" a strongly worded email tomorrow suggesting that they must hold the gopher football tickets in the queue for your best clients WHO ALSO HAPPEN TO BE GOPHER FOOTBALL FANS! you know a little help for the home team! just a thought my friend. i am sure you can be convincing! :)
 

FYI ... there are going to be some high-rollers that pick near the end. (Not me)

Not everyone who is wiling to donate big the the U has been a season ticket holder for several years.
 

It certainly will be interesting in the next few weeks to see how the seat selections go in regards to donation vs. non-donation seats. There are a ton of donation seats available that will likely still be there for those that are low on the Gopher Points list. I, for one, think the U overestimated the number of people willing to pony up extra dough for seats inside the 20s. I know they did their research, but with the current economy, a good portion of people are going to have to make a tough decision between donation seats and poorer bench seats (or maybe no seats at all as the process moves on).

Another interesting thing I noticed: as of 3 pm today, there were still 1,375 "donation" parking spots available. I find it hard to believe there are that many remaining in line that have giving levels of $1000 or $2500 (though some of them will hit the $1000 mark with purchase of two $500 donation seats).

Like I said, should be fun to watch. For the record, I picked seats in section 213, row 13 and parking on the West Bank, and I couldn't be happier with what I got.
 




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