Shama: Gopher Football Ticket Sales Decline; down 2,572 from last year, no Fleck bump

BleedGopher

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
60,579
Reaction score
15,659
Points
113
per Shama:

Ticket sales continue to decline for Golden Gophers home football games. In response to a request from Sports Headliners, the University of Minnesota reported that both non-student and student season tickets had declined 2,572 from last year.

As of late September, 21,682 non-student season tickets had been sold compared to 22,990 in 2017. The student season tickets total of 4,730 compared with 5,994 last year.

The public isn’t rushing to buy single game home tickets either. Announced attendance for four games so far includes three totals under 42,000 in TCF Bank Stadium with a seating capacity of 50,805. The attendance of 38,280 for the Fresno State game was the second lowest in stadium history since its opening in 2009.

There is also the eyeball test at each game that shows huge patches of unsold or unused seats all over the stadium, including many that are expensive seats. Buyers are paying for tickets but not showing up or successfully giving those seats away. This was evident even at the most attractive game on the 2018 schedule, last Saturday’s rivalry game against Iowa.

Announced attendances for college football games, including those at TCF Bank Stadium, have long raised eyebrows and caused speculation about accuracy. A Wall Street Journal article last summer reported that based on actual ticket scans at FBS games last year far fewer fans actually show up in their seats than what announced attendances indicate.

Interest in Gophers football began declining with the mid-season resignation of head coach Jerry Kill in 2015. Kill had the program on the rise and was a popular personality who connected with the public. Ticket buyers didn’t respond the same way with Kill’s successor, Tracy Claeys, who had one full season as head coach in 2016.

A couple weeks prior to the start of the 2016 season the University reported about a 19 percent decline in non-student season tickets. The total in 2015 had been 27,885 but in mid-August of 2016 the Gophers had sold 22,706 non-student season tickets.

Despite a winning Big Ten record and unexpected Holiday Bowl win in 2016, Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle and University president Eric Kaler terminated Claeys in early January of 2017. “I determined that the football program must move in a new direction to address challenges in recruiting, ticket sales and the culture of the program,” Coyle said in a statement.

University regent Michael Hsu said the message from administrators was there would be a “Fleck bump” in ticket sales by hiring P.J. Fleck, known as an exciting young coach from Western Michigan who was coming off a 13-1 season. Fleck had drawn national press coverage because of both his record and salesmanship. Hsu told Sports Headliners he had been reluctant to approve Fleck’s contract because it was not only considerably more compensation than Claeys earned, but also the athletic department was taking on the expense of over $3 million for buyouts of Claeys and his assistants.

In fact, there hasn’t been much “Fleck bump” in ticket sales. Last year, the Gophers’ first under Fleck, attendance for seven home games averaged 44,358—slightly improved over the average of 43,814 in Claeys’ only full season as head coach. That average was the lowest in TCF Bank Stadium history. The Gophers had averaged a TCF best 52,355 fans in 2015 when the Kill-effect was still in play and the stadium had a temporary larger capacity because the Vikings were playing there.

This season might set a new attendance low at TCF with the team off to a 0-2 Big Ten start, giving up 90 points in the first two league games. The Gophers could be underdogs in all of their remaining games. The remaining home schedule has three opponents with no marquee pull—Indiana, Northwestern and Purdue. Through four home games Minnesota is averaging 42,233 fans per game in announced attendance.

The “honeymoon” effect of TCF Bank Stadium has been gone for some time. As the weather turns colder, and the possibility of precipitation is in play, having an outdoor facility in this marketplace (compare to U.S. Bank Stadium) is a liability in selling tickets, and it causes those with tickets to stay away.

http://shamasportsheadliners.com/

Go Gophers!!
 

Anyone expecting a serious fleck bump to last more than a game or two or a handful of tickets.... not paying attention to sales.

Outside of 14 to 15 we haven't had much where a thing obviously impacted sales.

Having said that it isn't out of the realm of possibilities that Fleck himself still has a net positive impact ... it's not just as much as Ws and Ls gets you, and outside of Saban coming here I doubt few coaches could change that.
 

there is no answer to the decline for just about every program in the country. Even in the SEC, they have these problems too. MLB and the NFL as well. I literately cannot give my extra tix away. Have 8 (down from 12) tix n my group and for the last two years, eat 1 or two every single game from my 4. My kids who went to every game from infants through college no longer are able or not interested. It is sad. For the most part, weather is not a real factor unless it is raining or absurdly cold like below 20 for most. As revenue falls, creativity needs to be employed. Not sure what that would be. Winning is only part of the pull these days.
 

Need pep talk...losing faith!

Anyone expecting a serious fleck bump to last more than a game or two or a handful of tickets.... not paying attention to sales.

Outside of 14 to 15 we haven't had much where a thing obviously impacted sales.

Having said that it isn't out of the realm of possibilities that Fleck himself still has a net positive impact ... it's not just as much as Ws and Ls gets you, and outside of Saban coming here I doubt few coaches could change that.

Have had season tickets in the family for 40+ years....and thinking of dumping out. (basketball too) The music man, (PJ) offers great uniform combinations, snappy sideline wear, and unbounded enthusiasm.....but the team is essentially the same thing we've watched for most of the last 50 years. Yes...we are young...haven't we always been?


Cold weather games against Indiana, Purdue and Northwestern remain.....and I doubt I could get 30 bucks for my very good seats on Stubhub. (unless visitors bought them)

Also...my son (although a 3rd generation Gopher booster) does not seem interested in going to more than one game a year. I take friends, (wife will go once)
but have to beg them, and if I asked them to pay face value they would decline.

I still love the team and University, but find it painful to lose year after year, after year.

I got built up during the Kill years, but that ended in a hot mess. At least he could coach. Not sure about this guy....have seen NOTHING, resembling a sophisticated offense, and the defensive schemes look far worse than previous staff.

Help me? Rah.
 

Have had season tickets in the family for 40+ years....and thinking of dumping out. (basketball too) The music man, (PJ) offers great uniform combinations, snappy sideline wear, and unbounded enthusiasm.....but the team is essentially the same thing we've watched for most of the last 50 years. Yes...we are young...haven't we always been?


Cold weather games against Indiana, Purdue and Northwestern remain.....and I doubt I could get 30 bucks for my very good seats on Stubhub. (unless visitors bought them)

Also...my son (although a 3rd generation Gopher booster) does not seem interested in going to more than one game a year. I take friends, (wife will go once)
but have to beg them, and if I asked them to pay face value they would decline.

I still love the team and University, but find it painful to lose year after year, after year.

I got built up during the Kill years, but that ended in a hot mess. At least he could coach. Not sure about this guy....have seen NOTHING, resembling a sophisticated offense, and the defensive schemes look far worse than previous staff.

Help me? Rah.

I'm fairly sure that if we ever see an attendance boom, it won't be from the old guard... and may be without them.
 


Of course as the article talked about the decline and yet again, for the 8,734th time in a row failed to actually mention the main reason for this: the ill-fated scholarship seating price hikes. Although the program was stopped short of its original aim (which would have left the stadium nearly completely void of season ticket holders if it had gone through), the original price hikes are still in place and a slow rise from Fleck with no guarantees hasn't brought a stampede of potential season ticket holders back. And yes, it is a problem throughout college football with declining attendance. One ray of good fortune is the fact our stadium seats 51k. I wonder how this is playing out in other schools where large stadium expansions were recently constructed?

And in terms of generic decline: I will also maintain the way the game has been sold out to TV has been a constant drain on the fun factor of attending a game in person. It isn't just the fact everyone can watch it on high def big screens at home. Not being able to plan for what time the kickoff will take place is an obvious problem. Being at a game and watching Mr. red hat continually hold up play to orchestrate the next extended break for TV commercials is ridiculous. And now sneaking in Friday night games will continue to erode the willingness for people to attend games. It is getting to the point where they are basically daring people to attend a game - and for good measure the prices are now much higher (thanks to scholarship seating) than they were 5 years ago. Season ticket holders can't stem the tide of these higher prices by reselling a few games, as they had done in the past. They eat their increasing large investment at a time where it is a bigger problem getting to and enjoying games than it was in the past. Is there any wonder? Yes, a big winning season or two will help but the hill is now much higher than it was 10 years ago.
 


Sadly, our group is considering dropping our 4 season tickets after this year. (we've had them 13 years).

There are just too many other things to do in the Fall. We have a family cabin just north of Brainerd that doesn't get used when the Gophers are home, there are Fall festivals and other fun things I feel I've missed out on over the years, as I watch the same tired product get beat by our neighbors to the south and east. The scholarship seating makes the price per ticket too high for the value I'm seeing on the field. I'll probably just snag a ticket or two on Stub Hub or from a scalper when I want to see a game. We will still take an occasional road trip (Lincoln, etc.) and that will suffice. My falls will have more "balance" going forward.
 

Hard to get the family motivated on cold days, fight traffic and parking to see the Gophers get beat. When they start winning, it will be much easier. They are making it less fun from the standpoint of fan experience.
 



I forgot to mention another thing that stuck with me after this last game. Perhaps this is at least partially my fault and I missed a notification of this but security was changed prior to the Iowa game, with walk-through metal detectors now in place. Was this announced? It caught me off guard and the result is I missed the beginning of the game. I left from the parking lot at the exact same time that ALWAYS gets me to my seat in time for the pregame rouser and rotating of the "M" and this time, quite out of the blue, I was backed up in a massive line waiting to be screened - that was long enough I missed not only the kickoff but the entire first possession of the game. As I was standing there, doing a slow burn, the thought "what's the use?!?!?!" popped into my head a few times. Yet another example of how attending a game can be a pain.
 

Of course as the article talked about the decline and yet again, for the 8,734th time in a row failed to actually mention the main reason for this: the ill-fated scholarship seating price hikes. Although the program was stopped short of its original aim (which would have left the stadium nearly completely void of season ticket holders if it had gone through), the original price hikes are still in place and a slow rise from Fleck with no guarantees hasn't brought a stampede of potential season ticket holders back. And yes, it is a problem throughout college football with declining attendance. One ray of good fortune is the fact our stadium seats 51k. I wonder how this is playing out in other schools where large stadium expansions were recently constructed?

And in terms of generic decline: I will also maintain the way the game has been sold out to TV has been a constant drain on the fun factor of attending a game in person. It isn't just the fact everyone can watch it on high def big screens at home. Not being able to plan for what time the kickoff will take place is an obvious problem. Being at a game and watching Mr. red hat continually hold up play to orchestrate the next extended break for TV commercials is ridiculous. And now sneaking in Friday night games will continue to erode the willingness for people to attend games. It is getting to the point where they are basically daring people to attend a game - and for good measure the prices are now much higher (thanks to scholarship seating) than they were 5 years ago. Season ticket holders can't stem the tide of these higher prices by reselling a few games, as they had done in the past. They eat their increasing large investment at a time where it is a bigger problem getting to and enjoying games than it was in the past. Is there any wonder? Yes, a big winning season or two will help but the hill is now much higher than it was 10 years ago.

So true, the ticket prices have gotten so out of hand that most people don’t look at it as a viable entertainment option to take a family. It seems to have always been a pain to recover anything on tickets you can’t use. Even back in the hay days of Gopher hockey, everybody said they wanted to go to games, but I never found anyone ever willing to pay for the tickets, and most times couldn’t give them away.
Sports, in general, have sold their future for the current TV $’s.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

Hard to get the family motivated on cold days, fight traffic and parking to see the Gophers get beat. When they start winning, it will be much easier. They are making it less fun from the standpoint of fan experience.

Also for those of us with kids... the Thursday / Friday or night games are actually a bit more of a pain.
 

The family is getting excited about professional soccer coming to the Midway.

I can see where the Gophers and D1 college football in general will lose future generations of fans - the young kids.

If the parents decide not to go to live games (for all the myriad of reasons) and on TV instead, how can college football continue to expect new future fans to be interested? The students bail out early.

Even Alabama is having problems - https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/2013/saban-tells-fans-stay-for-the-entire-game/
 



I forgot to mention another thing that stuck with me after this last game. Perhaps this is at least partially my fault and I missed a notification of this but security was changed prior to the Iowa game, with walk-through metal detectors now in place. Was this announced? It caught me off guard and the result is I missed the beginning of the game. I left from the parking lot at the exact same time that ALWAYS gets me to my seat in time for the pregame rouser and rotating of the "M" and this time, quite out of the blue, I was backed up in a massive line waiting to be screened - that was long enough I missed not only the kickoff but the entire first possession of the game. As I was standing there, doing a slow burn, the thought "what's the use?!?!?!" popped into my head a few times. Yet another example of how attending a game can be a pain.

Iowa was the fourth Home Game. The metal detectors were there at the start of the season.
 

I don't think they have been at my gate before Saturday. I've been at every game.

EDIT: Thinking I might have gone nuts, I just confirmed with my wife as she has been at every game too. At our gate (D) the Iowa game was the first appearance by walk-through metal detectors. The backup was HUGE.
 
Last edited:

2013: 33284 season tickets sold. Gophers host Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin (very attractive schedule) and finish 8-5, losing in the Texas Bowl. Optimism is starting to creep up for Kill.
2014: 33385 season tickets sold. Gophers host Iowa and Ohio State. Team contends for Big Ten West and makes NYD Bowl. Ticket increase is announced towards end of season.
2015: 27885 season tickets sold. 1st year of increase. Kill suffers mid-season health issues and leaves the team. Gophers finish a disappointing 6-7. Claeys is signed to extension.
2016: 22706 season tickets sold. 2nd year of increase. Announcement that 3rd year of increase is suspended. Gophers finish 9-4. Claeys fired. Fleck hired.
2017: 22990 season tickets sold. Gophers finish 5-7.
2018: 21682 season tickets sold. Only marquee game is Iowa. Gophers finish ??????

You'd have to be a fool to look at these stats and not realize that the ticket increase is directly responsible for the plunge in attendance. After our best season in decades, we lost 5500 season tickets overnight due to phase 1.
 

2013: 33284 season tickets sold. Gophers host Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin (very attractive schedule) and finish 8-5, losing in the Texas Bowl. Optimism is starting to creep up for Kill.
2014: 33385 season tickets sold. Gophers host Iowa and Ohio State. Team contends for Big Ten West and makes NYD Bowl. Ticket increase is announced towards end of season.
2015: 27885 season tickets sold. 1st year of increase. Kill suffers mid-season health issues and leaves the team. Gophers finish a disappointing 6-7. Claeys is signed to extension.
2016: 22706 season tickets sold. 2nd year of increase. Announcement that 3rd year of increase is suspended. Gophers finish 9-4. Claeys fired. Fleck hired.
2017: 22990 season tickets sold. Gophers finish 5-7.
2018: 21682 season tickets sold. Only marquee game is Iowa. Gophers finish ??????

You'd have to be a fool to look at these stats and not realize that the ticket increase is directly responsible for the plunge in attendance. After our best season in decades, we lost 5500 season tickets overnight due to phase 1.

:drink:
 

What are tv ratings doing? That will help tell the tale if it’s mainly a financial issue or if overall popularity of the team is declining/ other activities taking football’s place. I would guess more people sitting on the sidelines so to speak will pay to see a competitive product in person.
 

I don't think they have been at my gate before Saturday. I've been at every game.

EDIT: Thinking I might have gone nuts, I just confirmed with my wife as she has been at every game too. At our gate (D) the Iowa game was the first appearance by walk-through metal detectors. The backup was HUGE.

Maybe they had them at some gates before and used the wands at others or maybe not. We've walked thru them on the West side more than once. Got backed-up when a guy kept setting them off at an earlier game.

Again, or maybe not.
 

Although the biggest factors have to be winning and cost, as others have mentioned, there are a lot of little things that aren’t helping. The TV timeouts are painfully long and plentiful. My cursing of the red hat guy occurs every game. Every time athletics sends a survey, I respond with “more replays!”, as the quality and quantity of replays is laughably bad in-stadium.

I got free tix to the Vikes home opener this year (my first game in probably 5 years), and the pace seemed much faster than at TCF. Seemed like much fewer TV timeouts, and the much shorter halftime didn’t hurt. The big TV $ the providers are doling out necessitate the proliferation of advertising, but it seems like the conferences may be selling their soul at the expense of long term fan interest.
 

The downward spiral continues. At least there was foresight a dozen years ago to build a downsized stadium, even though it was still too large.

We might yet break the existing record for smallest TCF crowd this season. Three times.
 

2013: 33284 season tickets sold. Gophers host Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin (very attractive schedule) and finish 8-5, losing in the Texas Bowl. Optimism is starting to creep up for Kill.
2014: 33385 season tickets sold. Gophers host Iowa and Ohio State. Team contends for Big Ten West and makes NYD Bowl. Ticket increase is announced towards end of season.
2015: 27885 season tickets sold. 1st year of increase. Kill suffers mid-season health issues and leaves the team. Gophers finish a disappointing 6-7. Claeys is signed to extension.
2016: 22706 season tickets sold. 2nd year of increase. Announcement that 3rd year of increase is suspended. Gophers finish 9-4. Claeys fired. Fleck hired.
2017: 22990 season tickets sold. Gophers finish 5-7.
2018: 21682 season tickets sold. Only marquee game is Iowa. Gophers finish ??????

You'd have to be a fool to look at these stats and not realize that the ticket increase is directly responsible for the plunge in attendance. After our best season in decades, we lost 5500 season tickets overnight due to phase 1.


Thank you for validating what I've thought all along: the University priced itself out of relevance.

Slash prices (at least 40%), market aggressively ("This is your team"), develop a better product, fill the place up consistently (recouping ticket discounts through higher food and beverage sales) ... THEN think about raising prices incrementally.

OR keep selling to a diminishing group of people who can actually afford the luxury, and to corporations that don't care if their tickets are used or not.

JTG
 

There will be no attendance boom....without winning (see Schnauzer above)

There are other things the U could do to increase attendance. For example, if they had a guys in hotdog, hamburger, and grilled cheese sandwich costumes doing a race at halftime you’d get more people interested. Maybe a guy in a ketchup bottle costume too. Or even all condiments. You get the point.
 

2013: 33284 season tickets sold. Gophers host Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin (very attractive schedule) and finish 8-5, losing in the Texas Bowl. Optimism is starting to creep up for Kill.
2014: 33385 season tickets sold. Gophers host Iowa and Ohio State. Team contends for Big Ten West and makes NYD Bowl. Ticket increase is announced towards end of season.
2015: 27885 season tickets sold. 1st year of increase. Kill suffers mid-season health issues and leaves the team. Gophers finish a disappointing 6-7. Claeys is signed to extension.
2016: 22706 season tickets sold. 2nd year of increase. Announcement that 3rd year of increase is suspended. Gophers finish 9-4. Claeys fired. Fleck hired.
2017: 22990 season tickets sold. Gophers finish 5-7.
2018: 21682 season tickets sold. Only marquee game is Iowa. Gophers finish ??????

You'd have to be a fool to look at these stats and not realize that the ticket increase is directly responsible for the plunge in attendance. After our best season in decades, we lost 5500 season tickets overnight due to phase 1.

There are only so many diehard dedicated fans that “need” to see the games in person. It looks pretty obvious that the price increases drove away about 10,000 of those dedicated season ticket holders (almost 1/3). That is real hard to make up in a market that is saturated by so many other sports options. The U obviously needs to give special treatment to the season ticket holders. They not only generate revenue (a fraction of BTN), but they are a very important part of the game atmosphere and help in recruiting. The U desperately needs to try and get those ticket holders back by rolling back the fees/prices and improve the game experience. Winning will help, but there are 10,000 season ticket holders that have decided that it wasn’t worth it anymore. And as others have pointed out, we were winning when this drop happened.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

I have both tickets to Iowa State and Minnesota. Iowa State sells out nearly every game in a larger stadium and there product is at or below Minnesota's over the years. On top of that they have donation fees of 5000 to 12000 per seat in some locations. Minnesota highest is 1750. I realize demographics and location are apart of this as Iowa State is the only show but donation fees aren't the main deterrent as nearly every stadium has them. On top of that they've added 15000 seats over the past five years and still sell out. It is possible.

Sent from my VS988 using Tapatalk
 

2013: 33284 season tickets sold. Gophers host Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin (very attractive schedule) and finish 8-5, losing in the Texas Bowl. Optimism is starting to creep up for Kill.
2014: 33385 season tickets sold. Gophers host Iowa and Ohio State. Team contends for Big Ten West and makes NYD Bowl. Ticket increase is announced towards end of season.
2015: 27885 season tickets sold. 1st year of increase. Kill suffers mid-season health issues and leaves the team. Gophers finish a disappointing 6-7. Claeys is signed to extension.
2016: 22706 season tickets sold. 2nd year of increase. Announcement that 3rd year of increase is suspended. Gophers finish 9-4. Claeys fired. Fleck hired.
2017: 22990 season tickets sold. Gophers finish 5-7.
2018: 21682 season tickets sold. Only marquee game is Iowa. Gophers finish ??????

You'd have to be a fool to look at these stats and not realize that the ticket increase is directly responsible for the plunge in attendance. After our best season in decades, we lost 5500 season tickets overnight due to phase 1.

I hope this doesn't continue, but if it does PJ will coach better because he'll think he's back in the MAC when he's looking in the stands.
 

I have had season tickets for 22 years and I love college football. And I’m still excited when I wake up on Saturday morning to get ready to go the game. But once I get there I don’t have the same excitement. I think part of it for me is the mediocre play but also the game day atmosphere or lack of....I used to get chills when the band came out, but that doesn’t even excite me. The pre game show with the Swinging Gates formation has grown stale. I don’t think it’s changed much or at all in my 22 years of having tickets. It’s not just the band; if feels like everything is stale. I used to ALWAYS stand on 3rd down, always used to stand for and sing the Rouser, but don’t anymore.
 

I have both tickets to Iowa State and Minnesota. Iowa State sells out nearly every game in a larger stadium and there product is at or below Minnesota's over the years. On top of that they have donation fees of 5000 to 12000 per seat in some locations. Minnesota highest is 1750. I realize demographics and location are apart of this as Iowa State is the only show but donation fees aren't the main deterrent as nearly every stadium has them. On top of that they've added 15000 seats over the past five years and still sell out. It is possible.

Sent from my VS988 using Tapatalk

You're right but gotta add sports competition in there too.

There are way more people up here. That said the corporate and private sports dollars can be spent on a lot of sports here. It's insane. Ok, deep breath, Gopher Football, Vikings, Twins, Loons, Wild, Mens' and Women's Gopher Basketball & Hockey. Take the number of venue seats for those (50k, 67k, 15K etc.) times X the number of events (7, 10, 81 etc.) and that's a HUGE number of tickets to sell.

Unless the demand exceeds those available seats and suites the Gophers, like nearly all those other teams, are gonna have trouble getting and keeping people in the seats.

Either way a comparison to a "one-horse town" is never going to work. Compare them to Miami, Pittsburgh, Boston, the SF Bay area, Dallas/Ft.Worth and L.A.

All of those places have large populations and multiple Pro and College teams. They all have teams that struggle to fill seats.

Truly hope that ISU and the Gophers get to Bowl Games this year and that they beat the Hawkeyes every time they play them too.
 

2013: 33284 season tickets sold. Gophers host Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin (very attractive schedule) and finish 8-5, losing in the Texas Bowl. Optimism is starting to creep up for Kill.
2014: 33385 season tickets sold. Gophers host Iowa and Ohio State. Team contends for Big Ten West and makes NYD Bowl. Ticket increase is announced towards end of season.
2015: 27885 season tickets sold. 1st year of increase. Kill suffers mid-season health issues and leaves the team. Gophers finish a disappointing 6-7. Claeys is signed to extension.
2016: 22706 season tickets sold. 2nd year of increase. Announcement that 3rd year of increase is suspended. Gophers finish 9-4. Claeys fired. Fleck hired.
2017: 22990 season tickets sold. Gophers finish 5-7.
2018: 21682 season tickets sold. Only marquee game is Iowa. Gophers finish ??????

You'd have to be a fool to look at these stats and not realize that the ticket increase is directly responsible for the plunge in attendance. After our best season in decades, we lost 5500 season tickets overnight due to phase 1.


I have always blamed the attendance drop on the money grabbing scheme some slimey consultants sold hapless Norwood on after the Orlando Bowl game. I wonder where those same consultants are today. It is laughable in light of what has happened that poor Tracy Claeys was dumped on the pretext of the "scandal", when it was really because Coyle was afraid he could not sell tickets because the coach, who won 9 games, was obese and had a low key, dry speaking style. I think he missed the boat on the real problem, and history backs up this view.

Back then it seemed pretty obvious that these seat fees were going to cause serious problems, short of some 10-2 type seasons with major bowl appearances, or at least a trip to Indianapolis.


The results speak for themselves and it is a dismal situation, and I do not really blame Fleck a lot for it, even though many on this board predicted some wave like, direct positive result due to "salesmanship/ snake oil" depending on how you view Fleck's PR efforts.

Winning big is the only thing that would cure this, although Mark Coyle blew it by not rolling back at least the 2nd of the 3 increases right off the bat. I realize he held off on the final year's increase, but the damage was already done.

Reverting to the 2014 prices would be a good start to win back the faith of some of the fans, and if Fleck gets the program rolling they can try again.
 
Last edited:

Since 2015, tickets have gotten more expensive, the team has gotten worse, the stadium experience has gotten worse, the TV experience has gotten better, other local teams have generally gotten better, and off-field incidents and decisions have pushed people away from Gopher football. A lot of that is out of the Gopher's control but if they know those are all making it harder to sell tickets, they should be trying even harder to improve what they do control.

The stadium issues I've heard about frustrate the most. You can get away with that if you're constantly selling out and people just want to get in the game regardless of the experience. But when there are already attendance issues, things like long security lines, no condiments, and running out of water are inexcusable. Not that I've heard of people dropping tickets just because of those but it could be a tipping point for people on the edge.

As for ticket prices, the only conclusion I can come to is that the math says that lower capacity at higher prices makes more money than the inverse. That might be the case if they limit what they look at but I'm sure if they consider things like turning away lifelong fans for good, not getting students to come to games once they graduate, and turning away recruits who want to play somewhere that people are always watching, I doubt there's any justification to keep prices where they are.
 




Top Bottom