Gophers hope to fill TCF Bank Stadium via more wins, capped donation amount

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MNGoldenGophers1

MNGoldenGophers1

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"“I’ve visited with a lot of people, and the main reason the tickets are down is because of the increase in the donation,” Claeys said."

Thank god Woody self destructed when he did before bringing the entire ship down with him. In addition, we are very fortunate Coyle stepped in and stopped the hemorrhaging before the program died from this disastrous ticket gouging policy.

A new AD, a new HC, and (hopefully) a bunch of wins will result in a much fuller stadium in the future.

http://www.twincities.com/2016/08/3...nk-stadium-via-more-wins-lower-ticket-prices/
 

MNGoldenGophers1 said:
"“I’ve visited with a lot of people, and the main reason the tickets are down is because of the increase in the donation,” Claeys said."

Thank god Woody self destructed when he did before bringing the entire ship down with him. In addition, we are very fortunate Coyle stepped in and stopped the hemorrhaging before the program died from this disastrous ticket gouging policy.

A new AD, a new HC, and (hopefully) a bunch of wins will result in a much fuller stadium in the future.

http://www.twincities.com/2016/08/3...nk-stadium-via-more-wins-lower-ticket-prices/
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Bravo this article - down 5,000 season tickets with stupid policy that insulted their best customers.
 


gophmeister said:
Hopefully they quietly dial back the increases.
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Maybe cover less seats...but I can't see the $$ amount going down per seat. Hope I'm wrong. To have a donation on a corner end zone seat in the second deck is pretty dumb at this point.
 

Considering last year's results I'm willing to bet the donation increase for 2017 wasn't going to happen at all no matter who was in charge.

Coyle was just handed a freebie when he took over, good choice to get the new AD established.

Now we'll see if they can pick up some momentum with the ticket holders beyond the easy call of canceling the price increases. That will be the real trick....
 


A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Considering last year's results I'm willing to bet the donation increase for 2017 wasn't going to happen at all no matter who was in charge.

Coyle was just handed a freebie when he took over, good choice to get the new AD established.

Now we'll see if they can pick up some momentum with the ticket holders beyond the easy call of canceling the price increases. That will be the real trick....
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Can't agree with you on that one. You make the AD job sound so easy.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Can't agree with you on that one. You make the AD job sound so easy.
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Skipping the donation increase is easy.

The last bit I referenced is will be way hard.

Also the AD job is so much more than just that.
 

I talked to a friend on Monday that I was surprised to hear had quit all 6 of the season tickets he had owned for years with his dad. He is the kind of guy I would never expect to give up his season tickets. It was the donation plan that did it. This has been the case with 100% of the people I have talked to that quit on their season tickets. Apparently Reusse didn't talk to anyone when he wrote his column saying the drop in ticket sales didn't have anything to do with the donation plan.
 

Schnauzer said:
I talked to a friend on Monday that I was surprised to hear had quit all 6 of the season tickets he had owned for years with his dad. He is the kind of guy I would never expect to give up his season tickets. It was the donation plan that did it. This has been the case with 100% of the people I have talked to that quit on their season tickets. Apparently Reusse didn't talk to anyone when he wrote his column saying the drop in ticket sales didn't have anything to do with the donation plan.
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How many times were we told here on GH that the increase was absolutely needed to compete with the big boys? I was going to do it regardless, but I was going to do it kicking and screaming.
 



A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Skipping the donation increase is easy.

The last bit I referenced is will be way hard.

Also the AD job is so much more than just that.
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You know I was kidding on the AD...product on the field will put butts in the seats. Consistently hitting at least 8 wins should do it for the Gophs, with an occasional magical season and stinker sprinkled into the mix.

I do believe a little bit in someone's comment here about the number of alum in town and the fact that the stadium is not filled every game. That's where he can focus...alums, especially recent grads...seems like low-hanging fruit.
 

PMWinSTP said:
You know I was kidding on the AD...product on the field will put butts in the seats. Consistently hitting at least 8 wins should do it for the Gophs, with an occasional magical season and stinker sprinkled into the mix.

I do believe a little bit in someone's comment here about the number of alum in town and the fact that the stadium is not filled every game. That's where he can focus...alums, especially recent grads...seems like low-hanging fruit.
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Yeah no doubt Ws is what will make a difference.
 

Schnauzer said:
I talked to a friend on Monday that I was surprised to hear had quit all 6 of the season tickets he had owned for years with his dad. He is the kind of guy I would never expect to give up his season tickets. It was the donation plan that did it. This has been the case with 100% of the people I have talked to that quit on their season tickets. Apparently Reusse didn't talk to anyone when he wrote his column saying the drop in ticket sales didn't have anything to do with the donation plan.
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That's similar to our situation. I've had season tickets for 21 years now (since '96), and four of them together since 2002 or 2003. I wish I still had four, but we had to let two of them go last year. Several family and friends were really surprised to hear we were dropping seats--there aren't too many more die-hard fans out there--but we just couldn't afford it with our income and other family expenses. We basically paid as much for two tickets (Section 137) this year as we did for four seats just three years ago. That's 100% increase over three years for the same product. I told some friends in Athletics administration that if someone like me is forced to let seats go, imagine how many casual fans will drop theirs...it sounds like that concern was valid. -Joe
 

Do we need to sign our posts now? -Spoofin


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 



Re: the alumni. I could be wrong on this, but I get the sense that a lot of MN alums just don't seem to have the same feeling about the school as alumni from other schools. I know a guy who is a Penn St alum, and he always talking and tweeting about PSU. And, I think it has a lot to do with location. The U of M is in a major metropolitan area, a lot of students live off-campus, and there are a zillion entertainment options that do not involve the U of M. AT a lot of other B1G schools (IA, WI, PSU, etc) the college/university is the center of attention - often the only game in town - and the social life revolves around campus events. As a result, students leave IA or WI with all these great memories of keggers, pre-game and post-game parties, etc. at MN, a lot of students don't go to games, or their social life revolves around off-campus activities, so they just don't have the same positive memories or feelings about their student days.

Bottom line - the U needs to step up its efforts to get the Freshmen to games and get them hooked on the experience. If they have to give them free tickets, do it. Whatever it takes to get them in the door. At the same time, the new AD and the Prexy need to find some (legal) way to improve the game-day atmosphere. The goal is to have students associate Gopher sports with fun, and carry that association after school so they will become season-ticket buyers as alumni.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Re: the alumni. I could be wrong on this, but I get the sense that a lot of MN alums just don't seem to have the same feeling about the school as alumni from other schools. I know a guy who is a Penn St alum, and he always talking and tweeting about PSU. And, I think it has a lot to do with location. The U of M is in a major metropolitan area, a lot of students live off-campus, and there are a zillion entertainment options that do not involve the U of M. AT a lot of other B1G schools (IA, WI, PSU, etc) the college/university is the center of attention - often the only game in town - and the social life revolves around campus events. As a result, students leave IA or WI with all these great memories of keggers, pre-game and post-game parties, etc. at MN, a lot of students don't go to games, or their social life revolves around off-campus activities, so they just don't have the same positive memories or feelings about their student days.

Bottom line - the U needs to step up its efforts to get the Freshmen to games and get them hooked on the experience. If they have to give them free tickets, do it. Whatever it takes to get them in the door. At the same time, the new AD and the Prexy need to find some (legal) way to improve the game-day atmosphere. The goal is to have students associate Gopher sports with fun, and carry that association after school so they will become season-ticket buyers as alumni.
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Somewhat agree, but there are a lot of alum in their mid 30s-50s who are buying multiple season tix to several sports right now. I'm thinking of more of the single game tixs or multi-game and multi-sport packages. Need more of those specifically targeting alum.
 

Spoofin said:
Do we need to sign our posts now? -Spoofin


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Yes. Mobile phone numbers and home addresses would be helpful as well.
 

tikited said:
How many times were we told here on GH that the increase was absolutely needed to compete with the big boys?
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The decision to not implement the increase next year doesn't change that. They obviously felt the optics of a full stadium were more important.
 

Maximus said:
The decision to not implement the increase next year doesn't change that. They obviously felt the optics of a full stadium were more important.
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Increasing revenue is still needed; gouging and ultimately bleeding loyal fans was never necessary to achieve that goal.
 

theTurning said:
Increasing revenue is still needed; gouging and ultimately bleeding loyal fans was never necessary to achieve that goal.
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I think that the AD and U leadership felt they needed to show that they were willing to generate seed $$ for the athletic village. Now it can be argued that they went too far, but I think those willing to make substantial donations wanted to see some sort of action by the athletic department. My two cents.
 

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