Shama: U Nears 1,000 New Season Tickets Since Fleck Took Over

BleedGopher

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per Shama:


As of Friday, the Gophers had sold 861 new football season tickets since January 6 when P.J. Fleck was announced as head coach. The total was obtained from an athletic department spokesman and is for nonstudent season tickets (a student season tickets total will be available later in the year).

Fleck’s outgoing personality, and the reputation he earned at Western Michigan for being one of America’s most promising young coaches has prompted some renewed interest in football at the U. The athletic department sold 253 season tickets in less than 30 days after the 36-year-old Fleck took over as coach.

Fan interest declined last year under head coach Tracy Claeys and the Gophers sold about 5,100 fewer nonstudent season tickets in 2016 than in 2015. The Gophers didn’t sell out a single home game in 50,805 seat TCF Bank Stadium and many sold seats weren’t occupied. Last year the athletic department sold about 23,000 nonstudent season tickets and student season ticket sales were around 7,000.

The new season tickets sold this winter and spring is being accomplished without a marketing campaign. Promotional efforts are expected to start soon and will likely play off of Fleck’s “Row The Boat” mantra to create excitement. The phrase refers to a never give up attitude, and Fleck paid Western Michigan $50,000 for the rights to “Row The Boat.”

Fleck has big ambitions for attendance at TCF Bank Stadium, a venue that ranks near the bottom in seating capacity among Big Ten schools. Sports Headliners reported last month that in three years Fleck wants to expand seating capacity to 85,000. (See April 2, 2017 column).

http://shamasportsheadliners.com/

Go Gophers!!
 

Good to have two marketing geniuses at the top.
 

This sounds like good news, but I feel like all Shama cares about is ticket sales and attendance.
 

is being accomplished without a marketing campaign.

Maybe not a dedicated campaign, but there are always things going on, Fleck has been super active on twitter, and youtube. I wouldn't say "without".
 

861 new tickets? I'll take it, but it's underwhelming.

Sure, season tickets declined last season, coming off a disappointing 5-7 season and large price increase, not to mention an unattractive schedule. This year we're coming off of nine wins for the first time in more than a decade, we have a more attractive schedule that includes Wisconsin and Nebraska, and prices remained the same. And that boring coach is gone.

861 new tickets is disappointing.
 


when have season ticket sales at the U of M EVER been accompanied by a marketing campaign?

The U's idea of marketing is "Gopher FB - maybe you want to show up for a game if you're not too busy!"
 

when have season ticket sales at the U of M EVER been accompanied by a marketing campaign?

The U's idea of marketing is "Gopher FB - maybe you want to show up for a game if you're not too busy!"

I actually saw some advertising randomly on some one random channel.....
 

861 new tickets? I'll take it, but it's underwhelming.

Sure, season tickets declined last season, coming off a disappointing 5-7 season and large price increase, not to mention an unattractive schedule. This year we're coming off of nine wins for the first time in more than a decade, we have a more attractive schedule that includes Wisconsin and Nebraska, and prices remained the same. And that boring coach is gone.

861 new tickets is disappointing.

Agree but its only May 1. Nobody is thinking about football right now.
 

So we are -4100 tickets since Kill left? Yikes. To me this doesn't sound very positive.

Has Kaler been fired yet?
 



We'll see where we net out when September rolls around. If we're at or above 28k I will be impressed, given the price hikes. There's still a chance we get there. I imagine most new season tickets are sold during the summer months.
 

when have season ticket sales at the U of M EVER been accompanied by a marketing campaign?

The U's idea of marketing is "Gopher FB - maybe you want to show up for a game if you're not too busy!"

How about "Yes they were sheetee again last season, but maybe they'll be good this year!"

Good marketing plans work to get people to sample a product. Even great marketing plans can't get people to buy again if the product stinks. Which, with only a handful of seasons aside, Gopher Football has for many years. Why many "fans" on here keep telling people that even a 9 win season is a lousy one.

Too early to tell if there are enough people out there who are curious enough with Fleck to spend their money yet.

We do know that there are enough Cornhusker and Badger fans out there to fill TCF up at least 4 times this coming season. What we don't know is how many of them will be confident enough in the Gophers this year to gamble on buying Season Tickets with the hope of selling the games they don't want to go to.
 


So we are -4100 tickets since Kill left? Yikes. To me this doesn't sound very positive.

Has Kaler been fired yet?

Kill was a big attraction. I think there was a bump for 2014 so more to lose, and man 2015 was brutal :(
 



Kill was a big attraction. I think there was a bump for 2014 so more to lose, and man 2015 was brutal :(

2015 was truly a brutal season. At least for everything except attendance. The 2014 record helped, but having TCU, NE, MI and WI on the schedule helped even more. Those extra 3,000 seats came in handy too.

The Home gates were: 54,147, 52,823, 53,917, 54,062, 50,789, 47,976 and 52,850.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Minnesota_Golden_Gophers_football_team
 

2015 was truly a brutal season. At least for everything except attendance. The 2014 record helped, but having TCU, NE, MI and WI on the schedule helped even more. Those extra 3,000 seats came in handy too.

The Home gates were: 54,147, 52,823, 53,917, 54,062, 50,789, 47,976 and 52,850.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Minnesota_Golden_Gophers_football_team

The atmosphere at the Michigan game in 2015 was amazing. I would love for every week to have the fan energy that we had at that game.
 

2015 was truly a brutal season. At least for everything except attendance. The 2014 record helped, but having TCU, NE, MI and WI on the schedule helped even more. Those extra 3,000 seats came in handy too.

The Home gates were: 54,147, 52,823, 53,917, 54,062, 50,789, 47,976 and 52,850.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Minnesota_Golden_Gophers_football_team

Yeah, of all the times to get great attendance. :(

If there is something good to take away from that though, with 2014, we know that if the gophers can do well... they will draw big crowds.
 


Yeah, of all the times to get great attendance. :(

If there is something good to take away from that though, with 2014, we know that if the gophers can do well... they will draw big crowds.

2016 was also year 2 of a 3 year price increase which was substantially more than the 1st year increases and compounded on top of that increase. Add to that losing a popular coach, and a schedule without the same quality of home rivalry games. This was the perfect storm that wiped out ~20% of our season ticket holders. Getting 20% of that 20% back is a good start.
 

2016 was also year 2 of a 3 year price increase which was substantially more than the 1st year increases and compounded on top of that increase. Add to that losing a popular coach, and a schedule without the same quality of home rivalry games. This was the perfect storm that wiped out ~20% of our season ticket holders. Getting 20% of that 20% back is a good start.

I don't think the price increases really played much of a part in the 14 to 15 drop.

It was the season + Jerry + fans who just joined and were understandably disappointed in 2015 compared to 14.
 

So....about a 4% increase in non-student season ticket sales. While that sounds underwhelming, keep in mind that it's May 1 and the vast majority of people (except for the die-hard fans) have not even begun to think about football season yet. And to Shama's point, they haven't kicked off any of the marketing campaigns yet. I'm assuming the rate of sales will accelerate as we approach August 31. Regardless, it's a step in the right direction.
 

I used to have season tickets, when they jacked the ticket prices up, I quit buying them. After that I would show up to the games without a ticket and buy a couple from a street guy for about 10 bucks.
 

I have talked to a LOT of people who dropped their season tickets. So far, 100% of these people dropped their tickets because of the donation seat prices. Yet, nearly every time I see the topic of a drop in Gopher season ticket numbers on Gopher Hole, at least one person suggests the main reason for the drop was something other than the sharp price increases brought on by the donation requirements.

People are bad at reporting their own motivations.

If the Gophers had done better would they have kept their tickets? If so then it's not just the prices ;)
 

I used to have season tickets, when they jacked the ticket prices up, I quit buying them. After that I would show up to the games without a ticket and buy a couple from a street guy for about 10 bucks.

I have talked to a LOT of people who dropped their season tickets. So far, 100% of these people dropped their tickets because of the donation seat prices. Yet, nearly every time I see the topic of a drop in Gopher season ticket numbers on Gopher Hole, at least one person suggests the main reason for the drop was something other than the sharp price increases brought on by the donation requirements.
 

I have talked to a LOT of people who dropped their season tickets. So far, 100% of these people dropped their tickets because of the donation seat prices. Yet, nearly every time I see the topic of a drop in Gopher season ticket numbers on Gopher Hole, at least one person suggests the main reason for the drop was something other than the sharp price increases brought on by the donation requirements.

People are bad at reporting their own motivations.

If the Gophers had done better would they have kept their tickets? If so then it's not just the prices ;)
 

The atmosphere at the Michigan game in 2015 was amazing. I would love for every week to have the fan energy that we had at that game.

I agree,but unfortunately every game can't be Halloween!! Can't wait for the Halloween game this year in Iowa City...gonna be fun!
 

It says we old 800 plus new season tickets. It doesn't say how many people who had tickets decided not to buy. Is it a net gain of 800 or are we still at net loss or even with last year? Or did we really sell 1500 new season tickets to get to 800 plus etc etc? 100% renewal rate?
 

I have talked to a LOT of people who dropped their season tickets. So far, 100% of these people dropped their tickets because of the donation seat prices. Yet, nearly every time I see the topic of a drop in Gopher season ticket numbers on Gopher Hole, at least one person suggests the main reason for the drop was something other than the sharp price increases brought on by the donation requirements.

Exactly. I'm sure most of the people you know had season tickets pre Kill when we were losing to FCS teams and winning 3 games a year. If they stuck around during those stinky years but are leaving when we're making bowl games I'm sure price was 95% of the reason.
 


*sigh* We're damned if we do and damned if we don't.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 





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