Reusse's Reasons for Gopher Attendance Problems

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Rickman55 said:
There is no Game Day Experience for Gophers games. I try to get there as close to game time as possible because there is nothing to experience. If you tailgate that’s different but most people do not. I’ve said this before, but I think the pregame show with the band is stale and needs to change. I saw a Texas HS band play the rouser on an ESPN game (it was their school song) and they played it with more tempo/faster and it sounded imuch better. Hate to pick on the band because I love it and all their work, but I think they need to change some things.
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So tell me where the NFL gets it right then? I love the band! I love watching the players come into the stadium from the bus! I love the tailgating! I love the kids out in front of their fraternities before the game! There is not one thing the NFL or Vikings do to create a better game day experience. That being said, I think the gophers could do a lot more than what they are doing.
 

badgergopher said:
#2 doesn’t make one iota of difference unless you think walkup tickets are the difference between healthy and unhealthy attendance
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Aren't they, though? The U sold 22,000 season tickets last year. I dont remember if that includes students -- let's assume not and add 5,000 student season tickets.

That means they have 23,000 extra tickets to sell for every game. That makes every November game against teams not named Wisconsin and Iowa really tough. Same with an October game against Indiana in 40 degrees and rain and some non-conference games with nice weather.

Season tickets are critical for a decent attendance at games that are not very attractive.

The donation program cut the season ticket base by a third, ensuring that November games will be sparsely attended. But, hey, my daughter got two tickets to the Nortwestern game by spending $8 on three pizzas. So there's that.

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WorkingMyTailOff said:
It’s a catch 22. For the pre game to be special the fans have to get there earlier.
On SON’s point I don’t think it needs to be 2 or 3 really good seasons. I think one good season and a good bowl game will do the trick.
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We had a really good season a few years back, with a Jan. 1 bowl game. They announced ticket increases afterward. Season ticket sales plummeted for two years before (hopefully) hitting bottom.

It is going to take a few good seasons to change things.

JTG
 

I still blame Claeys for the poor attendance.


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Patrick's favorite hobby is trolling Gopher fans. Winning cures a lot of ails.
 


The one thing I think he got wrong is the Vikings - the higher prices have forced some people to not go altogether, now they have money for the Gophers. But they choose not to spend it there.

Weather doesn't help, but it especially doesn't help when 2-3 times in the last 50 years the team's been in contention for the B1G title in November. I mean, they could have guaranteed the weather to be 75 and sunny and a lot of people would have balked at coming to a crappy Friday night game against a losing MN team and a bad IN team.

It will take more than a one or two seasons, as others have said. They need to legitimately be in the hunt for the West, probably win it a couple times and start routinely winning trophies (not all every year, but more of all of them should be every other meeting or so pace). They need to end the season ranked above #20 for a few years. They need to show up in the preseason rankings and remain ranked all year. They need to beat ranked teams.

If that type of turnaround happens, you will start seeing TCF fill. Until then, it's going to be more of the same...
 

rockford said:
We had a really good season a few years back, with a Jan. 1 bowl game. They announced ticket increases afterward. Season ticket sales plummeted for two years before (hopefully) hitting bottom.

It is going to take a few good seasons to change things.

JTG
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With all due respect Mr Garner, I think the first game of the year after the ticket prices were raised was a sellout but I might be confused.
Adding donation fees was definitely a Norwoodian move though.
 

WorkingMyTailOff said:
With all due respect Mr Garner, I think the first game of the year after the ticket prices were raised was a sellout but I might be confused.
Adding donation fees was definitely a Norwoodian move though.
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There was a thread a couple weeks back where somebody provided the year-by-year sales of season tickets. Nearly a third of season-ticket buyers disappeared in the first two years after the increase, and IIRC the increase occurred immediately after the Jan. 1 bowl. I made the remark in that thread that given the new prices, it's obviously going to take several years of success to move the needle in sales.

Doesn't matter if "the first game of the year" was a sellout. What's happened since then?

JTG
 

HoustonTXGopher said:
So tell me where the NFL gets it right then? I love the band! I love watching the players come into the stadium from the bus! I love the tailgating! I love the kids out in front of their fraternities before the game! There is not one thing the NFL or Vikings do to create a better game day experience.
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They provide a better chance to see a victory on any given game day? I switched from Gophers to Vikings because of the ability to sell tickets for games I can't go to and ability to not sit in freezing cold weather games.

Game day experience is about the same in my eyes; I'm not a tailgater and standing around @ Stub N Herbs is the same for me as standing around on the USBank Stadium plaza.
 




HoustonTXGopher said:
So tell me where the NFL gets it right then? I love the band! I love watching the players come into the stadium from the bus! I love the tailgating! I love the kids out in front of their fraternities before the game! There is not one thing the NFL or Vikings do to create a better game day experience. That being said, I think the gophers could do a lot more than what they are doing.
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I think some people just appreciate that the NFL is the best players playing football. There's also the fantasy football people that are drawn in.
I prefer college, but to each their own I guess.
 

Word said:
I think some people just appreciate that the NFL is the best players playing football. There's also the fantasy football people that are drawn in.
I prefer college, but to each their own I guess.
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I would still watch the Vikings every game but probably wouldn't watch the other games nearly as much if I wasn't participating in fantasy football.
 

WorkingMyTailOff said:
With all due respect Mr Garner, I think the first game of the year after the ticket prices were raised was a sellout but I might be confused.
Adding donation fees was definitely a Norwoodian move though.
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After good years in '13 and '14 and with a great Home schedule a lot of people kept their seats and/or bought ticket packages for '15. That first game was against #2 TCU and it was a good night to see a game. Besides TCU, Michigan, Nebraska and WI were on the schedule. The last 3 usually bring a lot of fans with them.

It was in 2016 that tickets started to really started to fall. This year it's been godawful..

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

2016: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Minnesota_Golden_Gophers_football_team

2017: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Minnesota_Golden_Gophers_football_team

2018: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Minnesota_Golden_Gophers_football_team
 





Iceland12 said:
After good years in '13 and '14 and with a great Home schedule a lot of people kept their seats and/or bought ticket packages for '15. That first game was against #2 TCU and it was a good night to see a game. Besides TCU, Michigan, Nebraska and WI were on the schedule. The last 3 usually bring a lot of fans with them.

It was in 2016 that tickets started to really started to fall. This year it's been godawful..

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

2016: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Minnesota_Golden_Gophers_football_team

2017: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Minnesota_Golden_Gophers_football_team

2018: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Minnesota_Golden_Gophers_football_team
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Thank you Iceland[emoji482]and no thank you Norwood.
I would love to see the donations reduced or eliminated. I think there is a 10% chance it happens.
 

mkAz said:
Patrick's favorite hobby is trolling Gopher fans. Winning cures a lot of ails.
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totally agree - just win baby - "I tell you what (spoken ala Jimmy Wacker)"....if and when that Saturday game on Thanksgiving weekend against Wisconsin is for the BIG West title I am quite sure TCF will be full... its just too bad that venue has not had any meaningful tilts since it opened. Remember the Michigan game on Friday night in the dome - we were 6-0 and put 65,000 in the dome for that game - fans will come when it matters. As far as game day - you get put of it what you out into it... tailgate lots are generally full and very fun and you can't beat the outdoor bar at Sterbs...always funs
 

Word said:
I blame our old strength and conditioning coach.
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Apparently jNU thinks the S&C coach can impact attendance - I mean why else would they let that jack-o-lantern act like such an idiot on the sidelines?


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MNfootballfan said:
Are you serious?

I consider myself a diehard Gopher fan on Saturdays and diehard Viking fan on Sundays. I would believe the majority of people are like me and cheer for the hometown team regardless of sport...
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+1. The only people who think there is some rift are a few vocal ones on this message board.
 

howeda7 said:
+1. The only people who think there is some rift are a few vocal ones on this message board.
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I don't know if there's a "rift" between Gophers and Vikings fans. I watch the Gophers. I watch the Vikings. The difference is, I care about the Gophers.

Can't say precisely why that is.

JTG
 

Iceland12 said:
He ain't wrong.

Reasons beyond win-loss record for terrible Gophers football crowds:

• AD Norwood Teague trying to use a Citrus Bowl appearance to assess excessive “scholarship seating’’ fee remains a disaster for maintaining the ticket base.

• Being outdoors and on campus might look great when playing TCU in late summer, but the public and students now say “forget it’’ in wet and/or cold later in the schedule.

• Fans of the Vikings now are charged twice as much for similar seats in The Zygi as in the Metrodome. There go the crossover dollars for Gophers tickets.

http://www.startribune.com/are-buxton-sano-best-of-the-busts/498799621/
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FWIW, some within the program mentioned this was actually Kill who pushed most for this to help raise dollars for facilities, and he let Teague take all the heat, especially after the mega tongue incident...
 

t-docious said:
FWIW, some within the program mentioned this was actually Kill who pushed most for this to help raise dollars for facilities, and he let Teague take all the heat, especially after the mega tongue incident...
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FWIW many have said that Osama bin Laden and Bill Cosby were behind it...
 

Like a dog returning to its vomit will Gopher fans read a Reusse article on attendance.
 

holereader said:
totally agree - just win baby - "I tell you what (spoken ala Jimmy Wacker)"....if and when that Saturday game on Thanksgiving weekend against Wisconsin is for the BIG West title I am quite sure TCF will be full... its just too bad that venue has not had any meaningful tilts since it opened. Remember the Michigan game on Friday night in the dome - we were 6-0 and put 65,000 in the dome for that game - fans will come when it matters. As far as game day - you get put of it what you out into it... tailgate lots are generally full and very fun and you can't beat the outdoor bar at Sterbs...always funs
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The myth of that Michigan game continues. I was at the game and there was maybe 50,000 in attendance. There were lots of empty seats in the upper deck. I do agree with what you are saying though.

Go Gophers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

maroonfive said:
The myth of that Michigan game continues. I was at the game and there was maybe 50,000 in attendance. There were lots of empty seats in the upper deck. I do agree with what you are saying though.

Go Gophers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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62374 was the paid attendance for that game. I doubt there were 12000 no shows given the excitement level.

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Word said:
62374 was the paid attendance for that game. I doubt there were 12000 no shows given the excitement level.

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Yep I was there and it was pretty close to a full house.
 

WoodburyTim said:
Yep I was there and it was pretty close to a full house.
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I was also there and it was very hard to navigate in the concourses and aisles (yet we somehow made it into the notorious VFW basement like "Rally Room" at half time. as it was a very large and fired up all Gopher crowd, which was a departure from most ot the full houses at the Metrodome, back when Iowa and Wisconsin used to bring large numbers to the games here. Iowa and Wisconsin fans could still show up in force at TCF in the current apathetic environment, but for some reason they do not show up. I guess they really liked that rotten Metrodome.

Back to the original topic, there may have been a few empty seats in the upper deck, but there were not 10,000 plus empty seats that night. It was the best, then the worst night in the history of the Gophers in that awful Metrodome.

I'll never forget it, It was a great warm sunny fall day, I took the day off, went golfing at a real nice course with two co-workers, went to Sally's for two hours, then got dropped off with one co-worker by our VP boss and went the game. He was from Syracuse and not a fan, but at Sally's we was tempted to try to get a ticket on the street, but just went home, and missed out on the cruel ending. The Maroney and Barber runs got it started right away and it was the best crowd I ever saw at any Gopher game.

We looked up at the scoreboard at some point and realized things were not as great as we thought. The cabdriver noted we were not looking to well (on a couple of levels) on the ride home.
 
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saintpauljeff said:
They provide a better chance to see a victory on any given game day? I switched from Gophers to Vikings because of the ability to sell tickets for games I can't go to and ability to not sit in freezing cold weather games.

Game day experience is about the same in my eyes; I'm not a tailgater and standing around @ Stub N Herbs is the same for me as standing around on the USBank Stadium plaza.
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Minnesotans perplex me. You will spend a weekend on a frozen lake fishing in the middle of winter, spend early mornings in the cold deer hunting, you pride yourselves on making sure winter won't stop you from spending time outdoors, except apparently when it comes to participating in a Gopher football game. Did I get this right?
 

HoustonTXGopher said:
Minnesotans perplex me. You will spend a weekend on a frozen lake fishing in the middle of winter, spend early mornings in the cold deer hunting, you pride yourselves on making sure winter won't stop you from spending time outdoors, except apparently when it comes to participating in a Gopher football game. Did I get this right?
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I think the obvious answer is you are assuming saintpauljeff spends weekends on frozen lakes and early mornings in the cold deer hunting.

I've lived in Minnesota my whole life. I hate the cold, but the only time I am willing to suck it up is to attend a football game. You could never find me sitting in the woods on a cold morning - that sounds like cruel and unusual punishment to me. Now with that being said, I appreciate my friends that do that and share their deer meat with me!
 

HoustonTXGopher said:
Minnesotans perplex me. You will spend a weekend on a frozen lake fishing in the middle of winter, spend early mornings in the cold deer hunting, you pride yourselves on making sure winter won't stop you from spending time outdoors, except apparently when it comes to participating in a Gopher football game. Did I get this right?
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Not even close. Not a fisherman, not a hunter, in fact I spend as little time as possible outside in the winter. Only reason I stay is I have a good job and loads of family in the state. I like football and can tolerate the cold for an outdoor football game once in a while, but my wife won’t. I’d end up at every Nov Gopher game sitting alone. Even when I used to have tickets @ TCF I couldn’t give away my wife’s seat. And this is the crux of the problem.
 

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