Pioneer Press: Gophers football season ticket sales drop slightly after changes

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I would categorize a less than one percent change in tickets "flat," but the article probably gets more clicks if they use "drop slightly."

We're talking about a couple hundred tickets here on a base of almost 30,000!

I'm sure they wanted to just call it a straight drop, but it was just too much of a stretch.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
I can see Iowa having a lower turnout. After losing to Illinois, there was talk that the Gophs would go 0-4 through November. However, that should have turned around after absolutely destroying Iowa in every phase of the game. I don't know if there were even 35k Gopher fans in the seats against OSU and the Gophers were ranked #25. That has to change.
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According to ESPN, the official attendance number was 45,778 for the OSU game. I think that is based on tickets sold vs. people walking through the gates. Your point is valid. Ranked #25 against the #8 team (at the time) absolutely should threaten a sell out. Yes, it was cold and snowing. But we are Minnesotans - get over it. You can ski later.
 

Gopherdrummer said:
According to ESPN, the official attendance number was 45,778 for the OSU game. I think that is based on tickets sold vs. people walking through the gates. Your point is valid. Ranked #25 against the #8 team (at the time) absolutely should threaten a sell out. Yes, it was cold and snowing. But we are Minnesotans - get over it. You can ski later.
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Attending games at the bank since it's opening has really changed my view on Minnesotan toughness. For some it seems like a stiff brisk wind and clouds are enough to keep them away from an outdoor event. Not to mention snow.
We have along ways to go as a fanbase before enough fans have "grown up" on outdoor gopher football. Too many got used to the dome or something.
That OSU game should have been a testament to our Minnesota heritage, instead it was another reminder of how far we as fans have to go before truly embracing the elements here.
 

Ole said:
Attending games at the bank since it's opening has really changed my view on Minnesotan toughness. For some it seems like a stiff brisk wind and clouds are enough to keep them away from an outdoor event. Not to mention snow.
We have along ways to go as a fanbase before enough fans have "grown up" on outdoor gopher football. Too many got used to the dome or something.
That OSU game should have been a testament to our Minnesota heritage, instead it was another reminder of how far we as fans have to go before truly embracing the elements here.
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To be fair, back in the old days the TV experience wasn't nearly as fantastic as it is now so there really wasn't an option between braving the cold and having a great viewing experience. If you wanted to see the game you had to attend. Now, it's pretty easy to sit at home if the weather is iffy with a 60" HDTV.
 


Ole said:
Attending games at the bank since it's opening has really changed my view on Minnesotan toughness. For some it seems like a stiff brisk wind and clouds are enough to keep them away from an outdoor event. Not to mention snow.
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You could get tickets to a Vikings game vs the Jets this year for like $6 the morning of the game. It wasn't even that cold. Minnesotans are not tough at all when it comes to fandom. Although we've known that for decades.
 

mnsportsgeek said:
You could get tickets to a Vikings game vs the Jets this year for like $6 the morning of the game. It wasn't even that cold. Minnesotans are not tough at all when it comes to fandom. Although we've known that for decades.
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What? We've known that the teams have sucked for decades? Is that what you were referring too?

The Gophers haven't rewarded their fans with a Big Ten Championship since 1967 or a Rose Bowl trip since JFK was President. The Vikings haven't won their conference since 1977 and you're whining about scalpers prices for a meaningless game ending another meaningless season. Anybody who's stuck through most/all of those godforsaken seasons has been pretty damn tough, big football fans or idiots.

Those sitting in the stands against the Jets probably fall in the latter category. Though the Vikings did reward that cowardly faithful with a win didn't they?

Who knows, maybe this year Kill and Zimmer won't close their seasons with 3/4 losses. Do that a few times and there could even be a demand for all those meaningless games.
 

Iceland12 said:
What? We've known that the teams have sucked for decades? Is that what you were referring too?

The Gophers haven't rewarded their fans with a Big Ten Championship since 1967 or a Rose Bowl trip since JFK was President. The Vikings haven't won their conference since 1977 and you're whining about scalpers prices for a meaningless game ending another meaningless season. Anybody who's stuck through most/all of those godforsaken seasons has been pretty damn tough, big football fans or idiots.

Those sitting in the stands against the Jets probably fall in the latter category. Though the Vikings did reward that cowardly faithful with a win didn't they?

Who knows, maybe this year Kill and Zimmer won't close their seasons with 3/4 losses. Do that a few times and there could even be a demand for all those meaningless games.
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Okay, so we'll only attend cold games (or games at all for that matter) during winning seasons. We're so tough.

And the whole argument goes out the window when the 10-6 division champion Vikings couldn't sell out their home playoff game in 2008. Their first home playoff game in 8 years! Indoors! You should have heard the "Let's go Eagles" chants. It was embarrassing.

Minnesotans are crummy sports fans. It's not a secret.
 

josh087 said:
I would categorize a less than one percent change in tickets "flat," but the article probably gets more clicks if they use "drop slightly."

We're talking about a couple hundred tickets here on a base of almost 30,000!

I'm sure they wanted to just call it a straight drop, but it was just too much of a stretch.
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It's a full on conspiracy, using the word slight to describe a small quantity.
 



mnsportsgeek said:
Okay, so we'll only attend cold games (or games at all for that matter) during winning seasons. We're so tough.

And the whole argument goes out the window when the 10-6 division champion Vikings couldn't sell out their home playoff game in 2008. Their first home playoff game in 8 years! Indoors! You should have heard the "Let's go Eagles" chants. It was embarrassing.

Minnesotans are crummy sports fans. It's not a secret.
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2008? The first season time in 8 years that the Vikings finished with a winning record and made the playoffs? That's your example of the team providing a winning tradition? So you got nothing then.
 

You should talk to this guy. He at least had a clue. :eek:

mnsportsgeek: Young fans

I'll have to admit that I didn't care at all about the Gophers growing up. Nobody in school cared, so I didn't care. It wasn't until I enrolled at the University that I fell in love with Gopher Football and Basketball.

Now my friends who went to other private colleges all keep up with Gopher Football, but they're like most Minnesota sports fans and only follow the hot team. Right now that is Gopher Football, the Wild, and the Vikings. The Vikings and Wild are the only staple in this town that people will watch regardless of success, and I bet they wouldn't survive if they were terrible for 10+ years.

I guess the question is what kind of fandom level are we trying to reach? The Wolves and Twins will have all the support they could want during playoff seasons. But they won't sell tickets during down years. The Wild and Vikings sell tickets even if they stink for 5 years in a row. If we're trying to reach Twins and Wolves levels, I think we're nearly there. If we're trying to reach Vikings and Wild levels, it's gonna take Rose Bowls and 10-15 years of 8-12 win seasons. We're gonna have to earn our way into that category by being consistently the best team or top 2 in town for an extended period of time.
 

Iceland12 said:
You should talk to this guy. He at least had a clue. :eek:

mnsportsgeek: Young fans

I'll have to admit that I didn't care at all about the Gophers growing up. Nobody in school cared, so I didn't care. It wasn't until I enrolled at the University that I fell in love with Gopher Football and Basketball.

Now my friends who went to other private colleges all keep up with Gopher Football, but they're like most Minnesota sports fans and only follow the hot team. Right now that is Gopher Football, the Wild, and the Vikings. The Vikings and Wild are the only staple in this town that people will watch regardless of success, and I bet they wouldn't survive if they were terrible for 10+ years.

I guess the question is what kind of fandom level are we trying to reach? The Wolves and Twins will have all the support they could want during playoff seasons. But they won't sell tickets during down years. The Wild and Vikings sell tickets even if they stink for 5 years in a row. If we're trying to reach Twins and Wolves levels, I think we're nearly there. If we're trying to reach Vikings and Wild levels, it's gonna take Rose Bowls and 10-15 years of 8-12 win seasons. We're gonna have to earn our way into that category by being consistently the best team or top 2 in town for an extended period of time.
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Looks like someone is bored today? But anyways...

I'm confused about your point. The post you brought from dead is in large part about ticket sales over the long run. People show up to the games as a form of entertainment, I acknowledge that the Wild and Vikings are the hottest tickets in town. There are enough people here to sell a lot of tickets to sporting events. That doesn't mean we have good fans buying tickets.

So I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Our fans are rightfully mediocre considering our past? Agreed. We have good fans considering how bad we've been? Disagreed. Good fans show up to NFL playoff games even if you are the underdog. Good fans show up to watch your 7-2 football team play a title contender. History doesn't matter at that point. I don't care if you've been bad for 10 years prior. If you call yourself a fan, you want to be at those games.

Again, not sure what you're trying to say. If you simply think that our fans have earned the right to be crummy, then I agree with you. Although I wouldn't call the passionate fans idiots as you have done because that would essentially call every Gopher ticket buyer a moron.
 

mnsportsgeek said:
Looks like someone is bored today? But anyways...

I'm confused about your point...So I'm not sure what you're trying to say...Again, not sure what you're trying to say...Although I wouldn't call the passionate fans idiots as you have done
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"Anybody who's stuck through most/all of those godforsaken seasons has been pretty damn tough, big football fans or idiots." You've ruled them out as being tough or big fans but you wouldn't call them idiots.

Okay...

You seemed a lot smarter less than 8 weeks ago and your reading comprehension skills have certainly deteriorated. Since you didn't become a Gopher fan tell you got to college, maybe you haven't been a fan long enough yourself. Or maybe you just wanted to "humble brag" that why those other lousy Viking fans weren't there YOU certainly were.

Bully for you but maybe those people were just smarter.

Hopefully when you're sitting in your Gopher Season Ticket seats all those other "weak" Gopher Fans can earn your respect.

Better yet, hope the Gophers actually win more than one of those season ending games and start to everybody's support.
 



I will go again to a non conference nice weather game vs a late season big ten game any day .. Why freeze my ass off when I can watch on tv. I will also hit early season big ten game. I am in my 30's I always laughed at some many people wanting vikes to build open air stadium that was cool decades ago. Not anymore my friends.
 

Guaranteed seats must mean somethig to them

Killjoy said:
Wow! So you are saying those Badger and Huskers fans were willing to pay the additional season seating licences to get tickets for their teams away game with the Gophers? Amazing! What happen to the story going around that they would be picking them up after the predicted significant drop in season tickets?
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The $50 donation in those sections must not be that much a detriment this year. Will be when the price increases a lot more. Like I said these are people that already live in the TC or Western Wisconsin so they must be diehard fans of those teams. The one lady and his wife are Badgers fans but attend more Gopher games than Badgers because they live in Cottage Grobe and seem to love football.
 

Iceland12 said:
Anybody who's stuck through most/all of those godforsaken seasons has been pretty damn tough, big football fans or idiots. Those sitting in the stands against the Jets probably fall in the latter category.
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Iceland12 said:
"Anybody who's stuck through most/all of those godforsaken seasons has been pretty damn tough, big football fans or idiots." You've ruled them out as being tough or big fans but you wouldn't call them idiots.
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I gotcha now, you believe the people that show up are great, stupid fans. Great fans for supporting their teams through thick and thin, as well as idiots for wasting their time during such depressing times. Therefore, it is acceptable to have empty seats, and we can't expect to have 50,000-60,000 idiots congregate to cheer for their team during the biggest games during successful seasons because we have bad history.

I totally follow you now. You're really intelligent. Glad we have intelligent guys like you to all the rest of us idiots.
 

mnsportsgeek said:
I gotcha now..Glad we have intelligent guys like you to all the rest of us idiots.
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Gees, all these posts just because you were expecting people to pat you on the back and say "good job sportsgeek, lucky we have you to balance out all the cowards"!

Hey, don't sell yourself short. You might be lord of the braggarts. Those cowardly, Minnesota fans don't deserve to be lumped in with the mighty mnsportsgeek. You always show-up because your are SUPERFAN!!

So how many Season Tickets have you committed to Superfan? 1, 2, 4, maybe a whole section? :cool03:

You seemed pretty intelligent back in May. Too much booze, paint chips, drugs or just plain hubris?
 

Iceland12 said:
Hey, don't sell yourself short. You might be the king of the idiots.

Seemed pretty intelligent back in May. Too much booze, paint hips or drugs?
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Too many sporting events as it turns out.
 

Are you gonna add any more paragraphs to that or are you done?
 



mnsportsgeek said:
Okay, so we'll only attend cold games (or games at all for that matter) during winning seasons. We're so tough.

And the whole argument goes out the window when the 10-6 division champion Vikings couldn't sell out their home playoff game in 2008. Their first home playoff game in 8 years! Indoors! You should have heard the "Let's go Eagles" chants. It was embarrassing.

Minnesotans are crummy sports fans. It's not a secret.
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The Packers had trouble selling playoff tickets just a few years ago.

I think a lot of your points are valid. Minnesotans have no problem being outside in the winter for many things, just not sports for some reason. In places like Iowa and Wisconsin, they'll sit through anything while watching their favorite teams. But my experience has been they aren't as active doing other things on the cold and dreary days and many are complaining the minute the temp drops below 40.
 

mnsportsgeek said:
This is just the beginning. This year is the reasonable increase.
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SOME EVEN WENT DOWN IN PRICE!!! Some of the old $250/seat went down this year to $150/seat. Next year will be under 25000 STH. I don't want to see it, but that's how I think it'll go.
 

Ole said:
Attending games at the bank since it's opening has really changed my view on Minnesotan toughness. For some it seems like a stiff brisk wind and clouds are enough to keep them away from an outdoor event. Not to mention snow.
We have along ways to go as a fanbase before enough fans have "grown up" on outdoor gopher football. Too many got used to the dome or something.
That OSU game should have been a testament to our Minnesota heritage, instead it was another reminder of how far we as fans have to go before truly embracing the elements here.
Click to expand...

The actual temperature at games seems to be a crapshoot for me. I was really cold during the 2013 Wisconsin game at an announced 18 degree temp and the 2010 Iowa game, even though I was in the sun the whole first half, in my former seats that were generally out of the wind.

The OSU game, with a 15 degree kickoff temp. felt really nice to me, even though there was no sun at all and it was snowing.

For me, and when it is below 40 degrees,I almost always wear basketball shoes, layers, a long wool coat, and cover my head well, the temperature does not matter at all. The next step would be to wear one more layer and real boots. I cannot fathom how anyone can complain about the cold if they do not dress correctly. Layers are the key, combined with actually covering your head and hands with some loose gloves or mittens.

Being in the rotten Metrodome for almost 30 years was so toxic that I relish every outdoor game.

Skinny jeans and beard will not be enough.
 

Gopherdrummer said:
True, we didn't sell out a game. But remember that last year we had the bleacher seats (do we still this season? I recall they aren't there right now. Probably just a summer thing). So a sellout last season would mean ~53,000 people. We had 51,241 at the Purdue game last year, which would have been a sellout in the normal seating configuration.

Your point is valid, though. No reason we can't get at least 50,000 to show up when tOSU is in town. Or even Iowa (only 49,000 for that game).
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That number for the Purdue game was tickets sold not actual butts in the seat. I know I said we didn't "sell a game out" so I get your point, that is very close, but if you were at the game there were not anywhere near that many people there. And the OSU game probably only 35k people were actually there. Its just sad really and I don't think the athletic department or media should be putting any kind of positive spin on the numbers when we have a decline in season tickets coming off one of our best seasons in my life time. I guess I wasn't as mad about the ticket price increase as others because I assumed it was coming, its just frustrating to see them making moves that lower season ticket sales when the stadium hasn't actually been full in 5 years.
 

I will never understand the no shows due to weather.

I gave up my seats and seventeen years of points due to general irritation about scope of the increase and arrogance of Woody (my $850 bill escalating to $1700 by 2017, with a RoseBowl I would have accepted that), combined with my economic/ job situation at the ticket deadline. I ended up getting a decent job with a higher upside but lower starting salary, but was still on the fence, so I dumped it all. Norwood never should have announced the year 2 and 3 increases when he did. A great year would have kept us all on the hook. He pulled the trigger on this whole thing one year early and it will cost the U of M.

Having said that I will pay whatever it takes on the street to make sure I am in the stadium before the band marches on the field for TCU and I will be at every game. The savings for this new plan relative to buying Norwood's new ticket plan will pay for a couple of road trips as well.
 

I'm taking a risk here because I haven't read most the posts on this thread, but let's wait and see how this all plays out before we freak out about 200-300 season ticket holders.
 

oak_street1981 said:
The actual temperature at games seems to be a crapshoot for me. I was really cold during the 2013 Wisconsin game at an announced 18 degree temp and the 2010 Iowa game, even though I was in the sun the whole first half, in my former seats that were generally out of the wind.

The OSU game, with a 15 degree kickoff temp. felt really nice to me, even though there was no sun at all and it was snowing.

For me, and when it is below 40 degrees,I almost always wear basketball shoes, layers, a long wool coat, and cover my head well, the temperature does not matter at all. The next step would be to wear one more layer and real boots. I cannot fathom how anyone can complain about the cold if they do not dress correctly. Layers are the key, combined with actually covering your head and hands with some loose gloves or mittens.

Being in the rotten Metrodome for almost 30 years was so toxic that I relish every outdoor game.

Skinny jeans and beard will not be enough.
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I'll remember the OSU game until the Alzheimer's kicks in (it's in my family, so I'm toast). The weather greatly added to the experience. I don't remember being cold at all (and I was mostly sober for that one). Heck, it even made a minor celebrity out of the dude with the Dilly Bar.
 

As a follower of MN sports teams since the mid-60's, I think I am qualified to make this statement:

Each team has a relatively small group of hard-core fans - who make that team their #1 priority. Beyond that, you have a larger group of sports fans who jump on and off the bandwagon depending on which team is "hot" or generating some buzz in the media.
I've seen that pattern repeat with every team in town, including the pro teams and the gophers FB and men's BB teams. In 1988, the Twins were the 1st team in the American League to sell over 3-million tickets in a season. a couple of years later, you could walk up to the Dome 5 minutes before the start of the game, and buy a seat in virtually any section of the stadium.

As far as Gopher FB is concerned, you're dealing with several factors - but the main one is this: this is a team that hasn't won a conf title since 1967. That means anyone born in 1968 or after has never seen a Gopher FB team win a conference title in their lifetime. And, couple that with a local media that has made Gopher FB a butt of jokes for 40+ years, and you can understand why it's not easy to sell Gopher FB tickets.

I'm not saying it's hopeless, but my gut tells met that the Gophers will need to keep winning to build the fan base. at some point, a big year is needed - at least 9 or 10 wins - preferably a conference title (or at least appearing in the title game) and winning a reasonably prominent bowl game.
 

We wintered in Texas this year and the popularity of all football is unreal. There are high school stadiums that actually have suites. People that live in double wide trailer's buy season football tickets for high school and pro or college. In Minnesota I actually believe if you held a flea market in the dome the same day the Gophers played the flea market would out draw the Gopher game. The State is full of a bunch of tight ass penny pinchers.
 

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