Shama: If there was a negative about U's win over Fresno State, it was the attendance

Donate To GopherHole
Sparlimb said:
The Fresno game was brutal. They had like 164 reviews in a row in the 2nd quarter. That quarter alone took about 4 1/2 years off my life.
Click to expand...

If we keep passing a lot .... get used to it :(
 


If the Gophers win meaningful games, people will come. Casual fans aren't going to drop $250 for their family of 4 to get in the stadium. Add in ridiculous prices for food and beers (I know, because I like 4 beers per game to the tune of $40+), plus I like to eat at the stadium...and damn, you're out $400 for the fam to enjoy games vs. NMSU, Miami OH, etc.

Then, when a good team comes in, the Iowa's, Wisconsin's, etc, you jack up ticket prices. Makes sense to make the $$$ but maybe build fan loyalty somehow.

Note: I am not a football season ticket holder. I go to 4-5 games per year at home and try to get to a road game every year. Its not the cost but rather the commitment of being at the games every weekend. Watching from home, at the bar, at the cabin, etc is a 3 1/2 hour commitment. Even living in Plymouth, I am talking 5+ hours to go cause I don't walk in as the national anthem starts. I'm there 45 minutes early, drinking $10 beers, eating cheese curds, and enjoying the atmosphere. My choice, but its a long day. I have season tickets for 4 other gopher sports so I don't think I'm the problem.
 

$25 minimum is much too high if you're expecting to fill 50,000 seats as an unranked team, with a poor track record, against Miami of Ohio.

Not a dumb buy if you're into it through thick and thin, but not representative of the general population.
 
Last edited:

:horse:

Issues:
- One of the few nice weekends left for the year. Minnesotan's are a cabin going people. That outweighs local sports teams minus the Vikings.
- Fairweather fans and apathy towards local sports teams. Not enough casual fans on the boat.
- Product. Need to have consistent winning and be a B1G contender for average sports fans in this market to care
- Opponent. Not even Miami FL would sell out right now. All the local critics that say "play some real teams" going to ignore this one.
- They have made TVs so good you can sit in a comfortable couch and not pay $10 for a beer.
- Prices, not just tickets, but concessions. $9.50 for a cheap beer and $11 for a Surly.

We got some work to do to get big crowds and over time I think we will once we are further along on the Fleck rebuild. Until then, this market has a lot of casual sports fans that need to see something different. To then product hasn't changed since the 70s. Not enough people will own the Gophers as their hometown team if they didn't attend the U. If we can get some of those over time like Iowa and Wisconsin do, then the place will fill up. Until then 40K max for non-conference games.
 


I like some of these ideas here...how about more 'fun' activities in-between quarters, during tv timeouts, etc...where the hell is the marketing person who should be putting all these ideas into a campaign, communicate it out to promote more ticket sales and execute...c'mon man! it doesn't cost much to give cheap stuff away like shirts, bobbleheads, caps, etc.
 

Sparlimb said:
The Fresno game was brutal. They had like 164 reviews in a row in the 2nd quarter. That quarter alone took about 4 1/2 years off my life.
Click to expand...

The 1st Quarter took 30 minutes. 2nd - 4th Quarters took 3 hrs.
 

I know there are a large number of camper people now. I never understood it, but evidently it seems like a popular thing. Anyway, I think people choose a weekend camping in their trailers as well.

I think anytime you don't sell out it's largely a price issue.

But again, even in the last few years, the advantage of watching from how are pretty good.
Halftimes can be a bit long. Lots of interruptions.
Length of halftime is probably a driver of people leaving at halftime alone.
 




It will be interesting if a day game will make a difference. Night games and the late arrival home, isn't desirable with kids, or whatever. Did you notice the student section became smaller after the half? I guess Saturday night partying is more important then football.
 

Rog said:
It will be interesting if a day game will make a difference. Night games and the late arrival home, isn't desirable with kids, or whatever. Did you notice the student section became smaller after the half? I guess Saturday night partying is more important then football.
Click to expand...

Gary Clark Jr. was playing over at Surly Brewing Saturday night. Guessing some of them headed over there?
 

It is a 2:30 start this week and it is supposed to be hot and sunny. I don't know what kind of crowd to expect on Saturday.
 

Ya know, with B1G schools receiving $50 million a year in TV revenue, you would think high ticket prices would be a thing of the past. Time to start filling the seats ... to make a better atmosphere for people watching on TV.

JTG
 



Minnesota Ticket Pros:
- Has a great game-day experience
- Has good food
- Has alcohol
- Has great video production
- Has pretty good band

Minnesota Ticket Cons:
- The team is not a consistent winner
- They play an extremely boring home schedule

Where Minnesota did the most damage:
Right as the team was beginning to stabilize, U Athletics decided to jack up ticket prices, then telegraph future price increases.
This not only made fans mad, but also warned them that things were only going to get worse.
That gave fans an incentive to cut bait early.
Fans that had been holding onto season tickets got screwed after years of loyalty.
Those fans aren't coming back.

Why the situation will persist:
The pricing situation got even worse with the latest tax overhaul.
There is a lack of trust between potential ticket holders and the U athletics office that will never be resolved.
The U cannot lower prices for two reasons:
- If they lower prices and it doesn't draw fans back in then they reduced revenue with no benefit.
- If they lower prices then it will be difficult for them to reverse course once the stadium starts filling again.

My suggestion is that they start winning games and building new fans.
Get out into grade schools with Goldie, give away family ticket packages, give away tailgating spots, get in peoples faces every time something goes well.
Perhaps even run an advertisement that's just a highlight tape of their past win.
Win back mothers with videos of the players doing community service during local news.

They have a good product, they cannot change the price or the place, so it's time to invest in promotion.

Just my humble business school take on the situation.
 
Last edited:

hello-world said:
Minnesota Ticket Pros:
- Has a great game-day experience
- Has good food
- Has alcohol
- Has great video production
- Has pretty good band

Minnesota Ticket Cons:
- The team is not a consistent winner
- They play an extremely boring home schedule

Where Minnesota did the most damage:
Right as the team was beginning to stabilize, U Athletics decided to jack up ticket prices, then telegraph future price increases.
This not only made fans mad, but also warned them that things were only going to get worse.
That gave fans an incentive to cut bait early.
Fans that had been holding onto season tickets got screwed after years of loyalty.
Those fans aren't coming back.

Why the situation will persist:
There is a lack of trust between potential ticket holders and the U athletics office that will never be resolved.
The U cannot lower prices for two reasons:
- If they lower prices and it doesn't draw fans back in then they reduced revenue with no benefit.
- If they lower prices then it will be difficult for them to reverse course once the stadium starts filling again.
Click to expand...

I agree with much of what you say, with the exception of video production. I only get to 1-2 games a year, but I've been disgusted with lack of replays the last couple years. Very frustrating not being able to get a second look at crucial plays.

JTG
 

Ruggers said:
I like some of these ideas here...how about more 'fun' activities in-between quarters, during tv timeouts, etc...where the hell is the marketing person who should be putting all these ideas into a campaign, communicate it out to promote more ticket sales and execute...c'mon man! it doesn't cost much to give cheap stuff away like shirts, bobbleheads, caps, etc.
Click to expand...

I like the new hot chick they kept showing, they should let her talk every TV timeout.
 

hello-world said:
Minnesota Ticket Pros:
- Has a great game-day experience
- Has good food
- Has alcohol
- Has great video production
- Has pretty good band

Minnesota Ticket Cons:
- The team is not a consistent winner
- They play an extremely boring home schedule

Where Minnesota did the most damage:
Right as the team was beginning to stabilize, U Athletics decided to jack up ticket prices, then telegraph future price increases.
This not only made fans mad, but also warned them that things were only going to get worse.
That gave fans an incentive to cut bait early.
Fans that had been holding onto season tickets got screwed after years of loyalty.
Those fans aren't coming back.

Why the situation will persist:
The pricing situation got even worse with the latest tax overhaul.
There is a lack of trust between potential ticket holders and the U athletics office that will never be resolved.
The U cannot lower prices for two reasons:
- If they lower prices and it doesn't draw fans back in then they reduced revenue with no benefit.
- If they lower prices then it will be difficult for them to reverse course once the stadium starts filling again.

My suggestion is that they start winning games and building new fans.
Get out into grade schools with Goldie, give away family ticket packages, give away tailgating spots, get in peoples faces every time something goes well.
Perhaps even run an advertisement that's just a highlight tape of their past win.
Win back mothers with videos of the players doing community service during local news.

They have a good product, they cannot change the price or the place, so it's time to invest in promotion.

Just my humble business school take on the situation.
Click to expand...

they get about 51 million a year from BTN they got about 31 million in 2015 they are fine for revenue. lowering the ticket cost will be fine.
 

Flecknation said:
they get about 51 million a year from BTN they got about 31 million in 2015 they are fine for revenue. lowering the ticket cost will be fine.
Click to expand...

No competent person in their situation would significantly lower ticket cost, and they most certainly wouldn't acknowledge or advertise it if they did.
 
Last edited:

Maybe this had been addressed but what percentage of the food/beer sales does the U get? Can't they easily make up the difference in ticket sales if someone buys a few beers and cheese curds?

Edit: And parking money, and gear sales, etc.
 


hello-world said:
No competent person in their situation would significant lower ticket cost, and they most certainly wouldn't acknowledge or advertise it if they did.
Click to expand...

Can you go further into depth on this? From a “common sense” perspective if there are competing activities and products for the dollars of Minnesotans it seems like price is at least a small factor in the decision process. It also seems like creating a big crowd/fun atmosphere will increase the likelihood of potential return customers and even at a cost is beneficial for the overall long term health of the product.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Can you go further into depth on this? From a “common sense” perspective if there are competing activities and products for the dollars of Minnesotans it seems like price is at least a small factor in the decision process. It also seems like creating a big crowd/fun atmosphere will increase the likelihood of potential return customers and even at a cost is beneficial for the overall long term health of the product.
Click to expand...

If they lower the price they risk not selling additional tickets. That risk carries value even if you think the risk is small. People don't like to lose money.
If they lower the price then they will get flack for increasing it again later. That will lead to a hit to their reputation which I'm sure they don't want to deal with.

If it were just a demand curve then I would agree with you.

But they're people and if one of them suggests lowering ticket prices and it doesn't work then they just significantly harmed the organization.
When they need to raise the price again they will meet increased resistance which will be a giant pain in the ass and could lead to an even greater decline in ticket sales.

It's far more difficult to raise prices after lowering them so I cannot see them taking more than small steps (such as they did prior to this year) in that direction.
 
Last edited:

The Fresno State single game tickets were also priced much higher than NMSU or Miami. They were priced about the same as a regular Big Ten game which I think was a mistake as very few people actually realize this is a decent Fresno team.
 

Flecknation said:
they get about 51 million a year from BTN they got about 31 million in 2015 they are fine for revenue. lowering the ticket cost will be fine.
Click to expand...

Absolute revenue is important, but not as important as revenue relative to your peers. All of our Big Ten peers (except maybe Rutgers and Maryland since they're so new, not sure) get that same amount of TV money, so if we forego other sources of revenue (such as ticket sales) all we are doing is voluntarily choosing to lag behind our peers. And, furthermore, people complain that the U doesn't put enough money into football. The U will spend on football such as their cash flow will afford. You can't have it both ways.

So no, lowering the ticket cost will not be fine.
 

I know there is a risk to lowering ticket prices but to wait for this team to "win games" I don't think is the answer either.

At what number of wins does it become enough to sell the place out?
Nine wins on an easier schedule wasn't enough, so do we need 10 or 11?
At that point, as a fan you are basically asking for a guaranteed win in order for you to buy tickets.

Nebraska hasn't done that in many years and they sell out. Of course the difference is they don't have anything else to do.
But the other difference is, they sell out at whatever price, so there is a bit of a pent up demand to go.

With Gopher football there has never been a pent up demand because day of you know you can go and find tickets so no need to buy early.
 

RandyLahey17 said:
They dont even show replays at the game for bad calls because they dont want the crowd to boo the refs

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

This is a big part to me. I make it to more than half the games, but I am left feeling that I get to see much more of what happened if I am at home. I hate texting my friends who are watching at home and asking what happened on a particular play because they wont replay things.
 

hello-world said:
If they lower the price they risk not selling additional tickets. That risk carries value even if you think the risk is small. People don't like to lose money.
If they lower the price then they will get flack for increasing it again later. That will lead to a hit to their reputation which I'm sure they don't want to deal with.

If it were just a demand curve then I would agree with you.

But they're people and if one of them suggests lowering ticket prices and it doesn't work then they just significantly harmed the organization.
When they need to raise the price again they will meet increased resistance which will be a giant pain in the ass and could lead to an even greater decline in ticket sales.

It's far more difficult to raise prices after lowering them so I cannot see them taking more than small steps (such as they did prior to this year) in that direction.
Click to expand...

Well, I’m not up going to argue too much because the reasons for low attendance are many and won’t go away overnight. I do think the value proposition comes into play. The team isn’t competing for championships yet and thus it’s more of a day trip/something to do for casual fans and students. It may be hard to give away the less desirable seats at this point. I don’t know that raising prices on a perennial hot ticket/Big Ten championship caliber team will raise as many protests as you say and I hope we find out some day.
 


patrick08 said:
:horse:

Issues:
- One of the few nice weekends left for the year. Minnesotan's are a cabin going people. That outweighs local sports teams minus the Vikings.
- Fairweather fans and apathy towards local sports teams. Not enough casual fans on the boat.
- Product. Need to have consistent winning and be a B1G contender for average sports fans in this market to care
- Opponent. Not even Miami FL would sell out right now. All the local critics that say "play some real teams" going to ignore this one.
- They have made TVs so good you can sit in a comfortable couch and not pay $10 for a beer.
- Prices, not just tickets, but concessions. $9.50 for a cheap beer and $11 for a Surly.

We got some work to do to get big crowds and over time I think we will once we are further along on the Fleck rebuild. Until then, this market has a lot of casual sports fans that need to see something different. To then product hasn't changed since the 70s. Not enough people will own the Gophers as their hometown team if they didn't attend the U. If we can get some of those over time like Iowa and Wisconsin do, then the place will fill up. Until then 40K max for non-conference games.
Click to expand...

If you are well off enough to own a cabin, then you can afford tickets and some pocket change for a couple beers and a hot dog.
 

Pricing is a hard nut to crack.

Huge complaints that the Dome sucked and we finally get an outdoor, on-campus stadium and just that fact is not good enough.

Teague handled cost increase poorly but it was not really that far out of line with the other B1G schools or college FB generally. It costs money to run a Division 1 athletic program and the principal revenue sports will bear the main burden.

We really are at a generational point where the "average fan" may not be willing to pay to have the onsite gameday experience...at least under the current model. Until the high revenue generating sports are freed from greater funding obligations for the other non-revenue sports, it's probably a vicious cycle. Then throw on top of this that TV/internet commercials have eliminated any flow in the games thus making them ever longer.

The trend line to me is that an ever shrinking "in the seat" fanbase will be asked to pay more until it can't be sustained. Hard to imagine but that does seem to be the path we're on. Not sure what the answer is for this one.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom