Doogie: There are several thousand tickets available for season opener

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UI: About 5,500 tickets remaining for Saturday vs. Wyoming. (That means 65,000 sold.) $45 adult, $25 kids.

Even Iowa has problems selling out the first game.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Found this in a Shama column - it matches with what I remember about the move to Thursday night games:

The Gophers and State Fair authorities made an agreement before TCF Bank Stadium opened, which resulted in all these Thursday night games. The agreement runs through June 30, 2022, and it states that any Gophers home game prior to Labor Day will be played on a Thursday evening. A U spokesman said he isn’t aware of any discussion to change the agreement.

The reason for the agreement is that during the State Fair drivers can park their cars for free on the University’s Minneapolis campus and ride free buses to the fairgrounds in nearby Falcon Heights. The Gophers usually play their home schedule on Saturdays but because of larger fair-going crowds on the weekends, U officials agreed to switch their games to Thursday evenings to better accommodate fair customers.

The existing agreement inconveniences fewer fair-goers but it’s not a winning policy for the Gophers. Fans have to fight rush-hour traffic to attend Thursday night games.

So, it appears that the Gophers agreed to play games on a Thursday night to accommodate the State Fair. I guess we know who wears the pants in that relationship.
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All I can say is that it's better than being in the Metrodome!

I am in the minority, but I enjoy the Thursday night opener. It's national exposure regardless of TV Network or Opponent. You are a Big Ten team opening on Thursday night.

It also allows most people to do other things on Labor Day weekend or go out of town. And as far as the team is concerned, it gives them an extra two days to prepare for week 2.

Would you rather have a Thursday night game or an 11am Saturday game on Labor Day weekend?
 

lmh839 said:
All I can say is that it's better than being in the Metrodome!

I am in the minority, but I enjoy the Thursday night opener. It's national exposure regardless of TV Network or Opponent. You are a Big Ten team opening on Thursday night.

It also allows most people to do other things on Labor Day weekend or go out of town. And as far as the team is concerned, it gives them an extra two days to prepare for week 2.

Would you rather have a Thursday night game or an 11am Saturday game on Labor Day weekend?
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I am with you I like the Thursday night game as the opener. Like you said we are in the minority though I think
 

Can they bundle up State Fair tickets with Gopher football tickets? Fans go see the Gophers Thursday night, and they can go to the fair on Friday or another day of their choosing.

That is one way to co-promote.
 



PMWinSTP said:
Count me in too...guess we all one of the new 4-5?
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Me too. I like the Thursday night game as I knock off work early, go to the game, then take Friday off work to recuperate and begin a blissful 4-day weekend.
 

I also prefer the Thursday night games. That Saturday is many times very hot. Saturday afternoon game would be a hotbox. And I, along with many Minnesotans, prefer to spend the last weekend of summer at the lake, not in the city.
 

I love the Thursday Night game. Always felt in the minority too, but maybe not?


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Going back to the O.P., anybody know how many tickets are still left to be sold?
 



I don't mind Thursday openers, although the kickoff this year being at 6:00 is earlier than I'd prefer. I can guarantee if the openers were played on Saturday afternoon, this message board would be filled with comments about how the crowd size is obviously taking a hit because it is the last weekend at the summer and everyone is out of town, and how it would likely be much better if the opener could be played on Thursday night. After all is said and done, if the team has a buzz within the community and has a well known power 5 opponent for an opener opponent, the stadium will fill (regardless what day it is). If fans are in wait and see mode and the opponent is MAC or FCS, there will be open seats. It is just the way it is for the foreseeable future.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Me too. I like the Thursday night game as I knock off work early, go to the game, then take Friday off work to recuperate and begin a blissful 4-day weekend.
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I'm completely fine with the Thursday night game as I always get off at 2:30 on Thursday and have Friday off. I don't care about the Fair, or the Vikings, and I can bike to the tailgate = no conflicts at all.
 


Schnauzer said:
I can guarantee if the openers were played on Saturday afternoon, this message board would be filled with comments about how the crowd size is obviously taking a hit because it is the last weekend at the summer and everyone is out of town, and how it would likely be much better if the opener could be played on Thursday night. After all is said and done, if the team has a buzz within the community and has a well known power 5 opponent for an opener opponent, the stadium will fill (regardless what day it is). If fans are in wait and see mode and the opponent is MAC or FCS, there will be open seats. It is just the way it is for the foreseeable future.
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Fair points.
 



Iceland12 said:
Going back to the O.P., anybody know how many tickets are still left to be sold?
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I don't know the exact amount. All the ticket rep at the U would tell me is it won't sell out. My guess is that means there are a few thousand left to sell?
 

Iceland12 said:
Going back to the O.P., anybody know how many tickets are still left to be sold?
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This is a guess based on scanning available seats on Gophersports - it looks like there are a lot of tickets available in the 200s on the away (sunny) side, even in the chairback seats, but not a ton elsewhere. My estimate a few weeks ago was around 8-10k general public seats remaining, my guess is we're somewhere in the 5-7k range now. If I had to make a marginally-educated guess, I'd say we're looking at around 44k announced attendance tomorrow, depending on student sales, which is very much in line with other Thursday openers against teams not ranked #2 in the country.
 

Let's see how many are curious and walk up. I know of two who are going down from Ely based on curiosity. First time at TCF for both.
 

ruppertflywheel said:
Let's see how many are curious and walk up. I know of two who are going down from Ely based on curiosity. First time at TCF for both.
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Won't change the count if majority buy through scalpers, which is likely going to be the case.
 

Gopher07 said:
This is a guess based on scanning available seats on Gophersports - it looks like there are a lot of tickets available in the 200s on the away (sunny) side, even in the chairback seats, but not a ton elsewhere. My estimate a few weeks ago was around 8-10k general public seats remaining, my guess is we're somewhere in the 5-7k range now. If I had to make a marginally-educated guess, I'd say we're looking at around 44k announced attendance tomorrow, depending on student sales, which is very much in line with other Thursday openers against teams not ranked #2 in the country.
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Just looking through the various sections I was doing rough counts.

Sunny side upper deck is averaging about half full. About 250 open seats per section = 5000.

Shady side is better. Maybe 1,000-2,000 open on that side

Lower deck: Maybe 1,000 on sunny side.
Shady side: Maybe about 500-600.

So I think you're pretty close with your estimate.
 

I really have a hard time stressing out about the attendance for a Thursday Night Buffalo Bills game with 5 other events happening in the city. Especially when the Star Tribune has a headline of "Thursday may feel like rush hour all day". The Twins are playing the best baseball since 2010 when every game was sold out, but now as a Season Ticket Holder being at most games, i'm guessing the average is around 30k or 70% of capacity.

People often Buy High into sports teams and if it's not sustained it's really hard to win them back. I often think it takes 5x the effort to win a fan base over then it does to lose it. I hope the leadership is looking at this as a full season experiment and time to learn and are not judging success/failure game by game even if the Media finds it as a great way to generate emotion and discussion.
 

homermn said:
I really have a hard time stressing out about the attendance for a Thursday Night Buffalo Bills game with 5 other events happening in the city. Especially when the Star Tribune has a headline of "Thursday may feel like rush hour all day". The Twins are playing the best baseball since 2010 when every game was sold out, but now as a Season Ticket Holder being at most games, i'm guessing the average is around 30k or 70% of capacity.

People often Buy High into sports teams and if it's not sustained it's really hard to win them back. I often think it takes 5x the effort to win a fan base over then it does to lose it. I hope the leadership is looking at this as a full season experiment and time to learn and are not judging success/failure game by game even if the Media finds it as a great way to generate emotion and discussion.
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Attendance for the Twins on Monday was announced at 20,500. For a team with a lot of exciting young players and battling for a playoff spot.

So, I would say this - once you lose the fan base - or a portion of the fan base - it becomes exponentially more difficult to win those fans back. I think you have a better chance of creating new fans then you do of convincing fans to change their mind once they have given up on a team. Sad to say, I think some of the Gopher fans who bailed because of the seat donation fiasco may be gone for good.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Attendance for the Twins on Monday was announced at 20,500. For a team with a lot of exciting young players and battling for a playoff spot.

So, I would say this - once you lose the fan base - or a portion of the fan base - it becomes exponentially more difficult to win those fans back. I think you have a better chance of creating new fans then you do of convincing fans to change their mind once they have given up on a team. Sad to say, I think some of the Gopher fans who bailed because of the seat donation fiasco may be gone for good.
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I think with the Twins it is a hard measurement to make on how quickly you get folks back.

We saw from 14 to 15 interest shot up pretty dramatically and fast. I think the Gophers could do it pretty quickly.

Winning though is the hard part....
 

I am much more concerned about the student section than the general attendence. I don't know if, or what, they have done to promote more students getting to the game. Or if they do anything to really get the freshmen to show up for the 1st game, but I think they are the ones that really matter. Especially being that they are the first students with PJ at the helm. I don't care if they have to give away free tickets, the student section needs to be full, or damn close anyways.
 

GopherfanUpNorth said:
I am much more concerned about the student section than the general attendence. I don't know if, or what, they have done to promote more students getting to the game. Or if they do anything to really get the freshmen to show up for the 1st game, but I think they are the ones that really matter. Especially being that they are the first students with PJ at the helm. I don't care if they have to give away free tickets, the student section needs to be full, or damn close anyways.
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All freshman and transfer students get a free ticket to the first game I believe. In addition, per another thread, they are doing a scholarship give away each game which should help too.
 

The twins game is at noon - so great time for out state MN sports fans to come to both games. Should be a plus.
 

GopherfanUpNorth said:
I am much more concerned about the student section than the general attendance.
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^ This guy gets it. We aren't the ones that matter. Luckily, I think PJ gets it too.


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