Don't hate the student section this time, the rest of you let down TCF Bank today

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17thAveHallofFame

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First off obviously I am not blaming everybody, and I know a lot of the people from the board here were the ones staying the entire game, but I was extremely upset with how empty TCF was today. And no..it wasn't the students fault, this one is entirely on the rest of you. The amount of Ohio St. fans at the game and nonetheless in the lower level was really unacceptable and embarrassing to our fan base. It seemed that it was at least 30% Ohio St. fans, if not closer to 40%.

To make things worse everybody started leaving once we went down 17. It was halfway through the 4th, were those 6 minutes worth it that much to you not to cheer on your seniors one last time at TCF? The student section largely stayed the entire time, and cheered loud at least from my vantage point most of the game.

This post goes out to all of you season ticket holders who sold your tickets to Ohio St. fans and decided not to show up to watch the #25 Minnesota Golden Gophers play the #8 Ohio St. Buckeyes. Shame on you for not supporting your team when they needed you most.

I sound upset and I sort of am, I just expected a better crowd today. I know it's cold, but that game was a ton of fun to watch live. The snow made it an amazing experience, honestly probably my favorite game I've been to since Nebraska last year. Let's pick it up next week and Go Gophs!
 

I posted my thoughts regarding this issue under the the thread "We have a good team, a very good team." I couldn't understand why anyone left early with the game still in doubt.
 

" It seemed that it was at least 30% Ohio St. fans, if not closer to 40%."

Have another beer.
 

Was there really that many Ohio St fans? It didn't look to me like there was more than 5,000 on TV.
 

As a student, I can confirm that we were screaming very loudly. I pride myself on staying to the end of games no matter what the score is and was very shocked to see so many people leaving, throughout the entire stadium, with so much time left. I did notice that some people started to leave once we punted, but amazingly came right back once we recovered the fumble... weird coincidence, no?
 



You addressing that to me?

Just asking in case you don't know what quotation marks mean.
 

17thAveHallofFame said:
First off obviously I am not blaming everybody, and I know a lot of the people from the board here were the ones staying the entire game, but I was extremely upset with how empty TCF was today. And no..it wasn't the students fault, this one is entirely on the rest of you. The amount of Ohio St. fans at the game and nonetheless in the lower level was really unacceptable and embarrassing to our fan base. It seemed that it was at least 30% Ohio St. fans, if not closer to 40%.
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Hyperbole is one thing but come on. 30 to 40 percent Buckeye fans in the lower deck?? I can't believe I even wasted time replying. The people who were there did very well. I sit in the lower deck and I don't remember another game where I was consistently standing. Bad OP.
 




Go4fan4ever said:
As a student, I can confirm that we were screaming very loudly. I pride myself on staying to the end of games no matter what the score is and was very shocked to see so many people leaving, throughout the entire stadium, with so much time left. I did notice that some people started to leave once we punted, but amazingly came right back once we recovered the fumble... weird coincidence, no?
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I agree with all of this. The last 2-3 seasons, the student section has been outstanding. And the crowd was definitely not 30-40% OSU fans.
 

I will also add that if it really was 30-40% OSU fans, then you have to believe the upper deck corners would have been filled a lot more.
 

I wrote this on my walk back to Dinky, I was sitting in the second row and should have said lower rows of the stadium (which from the right side of the student section it at least on the right side of the stadium had an odd amount of Ohio St. fans where there should have been Gopher ticket holders).
 

This was a pretty weak showing by everyone, and it wasn't even that cold. Bummer too cuz it was a good game.
 



Speaking strictly from my own experience, I noticed no significant numbers of Ohio State fans, certainly not 30% to 40% by any stretch. I sat in the upper tier in a section by the smaller video board. I could count the number of Ohio State fans by us on two hands with fingers to spare. From there I saw the three main pockets of Ohio State fan on the visitors side in the upper deck corners and on the lower deck behind the bench (the three designated visiting fan sections). There were scattered fans elsewhere, but not in great numbers as far as could be seen. Were there certain sections or rows that were mainly Ohio State or had significant minorities? I'd go for that. However, I was actually surprised by how few Ohio State fans came in comparison to 2010 and when taking into account that a preview of the game at either ESPN.com or CBSsports.com weighed the possibility of there being enough Buckeyes fans to negate the home field advantage. We fell short of a sell out that wasn't happening regardless, but those who turned up were for the Gophers by a wide margin.
 

I love threads like this. As if those who didn't show up feel "shamed." C'mon.
 

I sat in 113 and saw minimal OSU presence. Fewer Buckeye fans than Iowa, Wisky, or Nebraska in past years.
 

Students were great.

212 was great too.

There were some Buckeyes but not too many.

I don't know what will fill all the seats. "Just win baby" is offered but I don't know if that will do it. Maybe it's a cost thing...

You couldn't pay me to miss these 6, 7, or 8 Saturdays in the fall at TCF.

Meanwhile, the Billds will be in Lincoln on Saturday, looking for today's level of effort.

Go Gophers!
 

Empty seats greatly outnumbered OSU fans. OSU fans around us laughed heartily when the attendance was announced.
 

The announced attendance had to be tickets sold as opposed to tickets used. Regardless, the U of M is between a rock and a hard place in this regard and may be best off not announcing anything.

Filling the seats on the "just win baby" theory is very much a long haul operation. The needle won't move on the basis of a single season or segment of a season. The Gophers will require several consecutive 9-3 and 8-4 type seasons with national rankings, trophy game wins, a trip to a bowl of a Citrus/Outback/Gator level game on New Year's Day, nonconference games and wins over power conference foes as opposed to FCS, Sun Belt, and MAC teams, and wins over the legacy Big Ten schools. Attendance would also be helped by the athletic department actually trying to sell tickets in an aggressive manner as opposed to running some cute ads, sitting back and waiting for fans to come to it, followed by running some cut rate deals when the fans don't stampede to the ticket office. Some of the football gains happened with Mason, but he never sealed the deal. The decline had started before he left and then Brewster sank the ship. Kill as the team moving in the right direction, but even the gains of the past two seasons won't translate to significantly bigger crowds when the people of Minnesota have so many entertainment options not to mention hard wired low expectations (no matter how well we do, the casual fan assumes we have zero chance of winning the Big Ten, possibly ever, and that's hard to overcome).
 

Visitor side felt packed. Home side was thin as usual. Students were awesome.
 


gopherjay said:
You have to understand osu fans are assholes.
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Yes, but the stadium was embarrassing today. I would expect any opposing fans to laugh. There were less than 40k in the seats today, so about 70-75% capacity for two ranked teams. About 35k Gopher fans, so we would have filled the stadium to 66% capacity without their help.

On a relatively pleasant winter afternoon I might add. This was the nicest weather on senior day we've had in 3 years. The team deserved better.
 

afurry91 said:
Yes, but the stadium was embarrassing today. I would expect any opposing fans to laugh. There were less than 40k in the seats today, so about 70-75% capacity for two ranked teams. About 35k Gopher fans, so we would have filled the stadium to 66% capacity without their help.

On a relatively pleasant winter afternoon I might add. This was the nicest weather on senior day we've had in 3 years. The team deserved better.
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There's something wrong when people start saying the team 'deserved' more from the fans (not just you) or that the fans 'let the team down'. The teams at the university exist for the pleasure of the fans, so to criticize fans for not doing what you want with THEIR tickets is just wrong. There are countless things that the athletic department could do to get better attendance but that's 100% on them, not the fans. It's a bad day when people start to blame the consumer for not consuming a product they don't want to.

It was a great game today. The crowd was loud and we hung in there with one of the big guys. Things are looking up. Go Gophers!
 

JMWZ said:
There's something wrong when people start saying the team 'deserved' more from the fans (not just you) or that the fans 'let the team down'. The teams at the university exist for the pleasure of the fans, so to criticize fans for not doing what you want with THEIR tickets is just wrong. There are countless things that the athletic department could do to get better attendance but that's 100% on them, not the fans. It's a bad day when people start to blame the consumer for not consuming a product they don't want to.

It was a great game today. The crowd was loud and we hung in there with one of the big guys. Things are looking up. Go Gophers!
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You have a point. I usually don't care what people spend their money on. I just think this team deserved to go off on a high note. As long as we can agree that today's crowd was not something to be proud of, and the U needs to figure out a way to fill the seats. I don't know if that means not charging $75 a seat or what, but, you're right, that's up to the U to figure out.
 


Our fan base is so pathetic it's hard to fathom. We're in November, we're in the Big Ten race, we just crushed Iowa, we're ranked, we're playing a top-5 team in the country (imo), we have a 50,000 seat stadium in the middle of a campus with 50,000 students and a city with 2 million people, and we have HUGE swaths of empty seats. How is that even possible? I wish I could apologize to the coaches and players for playing a part in holding them back energy-wise and recruiting-wise.
 

JMWZ said:
There's something wrong when people start saying the team 'deserved' more from the fans (not just you) or that the fans 'let the team down'. The teams at the university exist for the pleasure of the fans, so to criticize fans for not doing what you want with THEIR tickets is just wrong. There are countless things that the athletic department could do to get better attendance but that's 100% on them, not the fans. It's a bad day when people start to blame the consumer for not consuming a product they don't want to.

It was a great game today. The crowd was loud and we hung in there with one of the big guys. Things are looking up. Go Gophers!
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I disagree. As Kill has said numerous times, this is the state of Minnesota's team. What the fan base does has a real impact on the program's success, and our fan base had an adverse effect on the program today.

The reason Texas A&M has the best fan base in the country is that their mindset is that they are part of the team, the twelfth man. The reason we have one of the worst fan bases in the Big Ten is that our mindset is we're consumers. A&M (and other great fan bases, such as PSU or Michigan) value tradition and community, which go beyond the on-field product and make their games cultural events. We have a bunch of consumers who show up to see a product. There's a lack of solidarity with the team, and that is what great college football environments (really any sport) are all about.

The fan base failed to represent the football program, the U, and the state on national television today.
 

AEmerson40 said:
I disagree. As Kill has said numerous times, this is the state of Minnesota's team. What the fan base does has a real impact on the program's success, and our fan base had an adverse effect on the program today.

The reason Texas A&M has the best fan base in the country is that their mindset is that they are part of the team, the twelfth man. The reason we have one of the worst fan bases in the Big Ten is that our mindset is we're consumers. A&M (and other great fan bases, such as PSU or Michigan) value tradition and community, which go beyond the on-field product and make their games cultural events. We have a bunch of consumers who show up to see a product. There's a lack of solidarity with the team, and that is what great college football environments (really any sport) are all about.

The fan base failed to represent the football program, the U, and the state on national television today.
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It was easier for many people to feel a sense of community when they weren't paying the same price as the pro teams charge(relatively) and weren't bombarded by all the commercialism. If it were the 'place to be' more students would also be there........'people attract people'.

It's now the same sense as pro sports, and universities around the country are feeling the effects on attendance.
 

AEmerson40 said:
Our fan base is so pathetic it's hard to fathom. We're in November, we're in the Big Ten race, we just crushed Iowa, we're ranked, we're playing a top-5 team in the country (imo), we have a 50,000 seat stadium in the middle of a campus with 50,000 students and a city with 2 million people, and we have HUGE swaths of empty seats. How is that even possible? I wish I could apologize to the coaches and players for playing a part in holding them back energy-wise and recruiting-wise.
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There just aren't a lot of college football fans in Minnesota. Very few people pay any attention to the rest of the games. They'll pay attention to the Gophers and watch the game on TV when they're not busy.

It sucks and I think the only way it changes is if the Gophers win the division several times in a short period (i.e. 2 out of 4 years) and win a few good bowl games against a recognizable opponent.
 

They haven't won the conference since 1967. Blaming the 'fans' is insanity.
 

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