Shooter: Gophers averaging 43,487 in first 3 games, 327 per game fewer than last year

PMWinSTP said:

In many cases, they are open/unsold seats because the season ticket holder chose not to renew because of the seat donation increases. Especially true in between the 20's in the upper deck. Most of those seats carry a $300 or $600 donation. I'm on a corner and went from four to two for that reason at $100/seat.

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Well if that's the case, time for a price adjustment. Butts in the seat is additional monies spent on consessions and parking. I wonder how much getting Big 10 money takes the pressure off making a pricing on seats reduction?

We opened with two home games against non power conference FBS schools that won't attract fans on their own. Then we played Maryland which many fans haven't gotten used to as a Big Ten team, which has no meaningful history against us in football or any other sport (unlike fellow recent Big Ten arrival Nebraska for instance), and which has no great presence of alumni in this area be they transplants or Minnesotans who went away to school and then came back. These games don't draw beyond a certain level. It's just how it is at this point in time. I'd be more interested in an attendance comparison after we get into the heart of the Big Ten slate with two opponents in Nebraska and Wisconsin that have plenty of local and traveling fans, especially if we recover from this loss and get some momentum as a decent team.

Sports_Realist said:

We opened with two home games against non power conference FBS schools that won't attract fans on their own. Then we played Maryland which many fans haven't gotten used to as a Big Ten team, which has no meaningful history against us in football or any other sport (unlike fellow recent Big Ten arrival Nebraska for instance), and which has no great presence of alumni in this area be they transplants or Minnesotans who went away to school and then came back. These games don't draw beyond a certain level. It's just how it is at this point in time. I'd be more interested in an attendance comparison after we get into the heart of the Big Ten slate with two opponents in Nebraska and Wisconsin that have plenty of local and traveling fans, especially if we recover from this loss and get some momentum as a decent team.

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So what your saying is the "fans" will come out not to see their team, but who they are playing. This is the culture that NEEDS to be changed. Ski-U-Mah &RTB!

Whytetale said:

So what your saying is the "fans" will come out not to see their team, but who they are playing. This is the culture that NEEDS to be changed. Ski-U-Mah &RTB!

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This topic has been beaten to death in multiple threads out here. You would think they'd have lowered the prices and/or done away with the seat donations, but they haven't. There are a multitude of sports options to spend your money on so the competition for that dollar is high. Twins are competitive, Vikes are in the regular season, Wild playing. T'wolves soon to follow.

Who gives a sh¡t?
What's with the obsession over how many people are sitting in the seats at the stadium?
Even on a bad day, there are more people at these games than more than half of D1 football programs. (And twice as many than show up for the NFL's games in Los Angeles).
It's time to get over it.

Whytetale said:

So what your saying is the "fans" will come out not to see their team, but who they are playing. This is the culture that NEEDS to be changed. Ski-U-Mah &RTB!

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I am saying something along those lines. Excluding those people who truly don't care, a more elaborate to say it is that there are three groups of fans. There are the diehards who show up more or less week in and week out. There is a less diehard group of fans who don't come every week, but get to a game or two per season and will watch on TV while keeping up with the team in the media. Then there is a casual group of fans who might go to a game during a particular season and might not. They will certainly read the recap of the game and check out the Big Ten standings, but they don't watch all games on TV, they may go seasons without getting to the stadium, will rarely see more than a game per year during the seasons in which they attend, and are apt to consider a last fall weekend at the cabin, a trip to the apple orchard, raking leaves, running errands with the game on the radio between stops or not, and other activities as taking priority over Gopher football. This last group is also likely not coming if it's raining or bitterly cold, but a beautiful fall day could combine with other factors to get them to attend.

For the people in the last group, who we play matters. Putting aside family packs and other deals, an FCS team or a MAC team mostly won't get them into the stadium and they may not see anything in the eastern newcomers (Maryland and Rutgers) or the more generic Big Ten teams (Purdue and Illinois). They are more apt to go out of the way to see a ranked team from out of conference (see TCU), a legacy school (see USC), a trophy game, and Michigan and Ohio State. The key is getting the casuals to increase their level of interest. We can never hope to fill the house regularly until that occurs. The way to do that is to win and then keep winning while meeting and exceeding the rising level of expectations.

Goldmember said:

Who gives a sh¡t?
What's with the obsession over how many people are sitting in the seats at the stadium?
Even on a bad day, there are more people at these games than more than half of D1 football programs. (And twice as many than show up for the NFL's games in Los Angeles).
It's time to get over it.

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1. It is more fun with a packed stadium ... although that makes the bathroom lines longer....

2. People are supposed to do what we want them to and they're not and according to the internet I'm supposed to be way mad about that.

I went to a couple of the fall practices and Mark Coyle was at both of them making his rounds and mingling with fans in between.

I also attended the Gopher chalk-talk road tour this summer and Coyle was very polite and respectful and talked to a lot of the fans in attendance. He is actually very approachable and down to earth from my experiences.

Lou Nanne has stated numerous times that Mark Coyle has been very active with the corporate community and they have done a great job with fundraising over the last 6-12 months and have built some good relationships with corporate partners.

We also need to keep in mind that Mark Coyle is responsible for the entire athletic department, not just football. And unless we know the details of his day-to-day schedule, we should reserve judgement on his whereabouts.

I thought the attendance for Maryland was very disappointing considering it was the Big Ten opener. The 11am kickoffs are difficult, but it's just a nature of the business that most teams will deal with, some teams more so than others. This is simply part of the culture change that PJ talks about. We also need to keep in mind that both the Twins and Vikings were playing at home this weekend.

Tickets are expensive and a team whose basic play is a two-yard run up the middle isn't likely to draw fans away from all the other attractions in the Twin Cities.

A few thoughts

We replaced a season opener against Pac 12 team Oregon State with a season opener against MAC team Buffalo
We replaced a B1G opener against traditional rival Iowa with a B1G opener against Maryland
Ticket sales/attendance was going to be affected by the incident that made headlines to some degree

I am actually surprised we are at less than 1K difference in total fans through three games given the factors listed above. I also think it's a positive that the incident that go so much attention last year has seemingly already been forgotten as I haven't even heard it mentioned on any of the 4 broadcasts.

I am of the belief that you will only get consistent sellouts if you can prove you are a relevant team and the Gophers have never been truly relevant in my lifetime. There might be a few outliers who do well despite not competing for conference championships (South Carolina comes to mind), but for the most part the teams that win are the teams that fill stadiums. Iowa struggled to try to sellout a nationally televised night game against Penn State after a thrilling OT win over their hated in state rival and just one season removed from going undefeated through conference play. Have their fanbase go through the 30 years the Gophers have gone through and I am confident you'd see sparse crowds there.