STrib: Gophers attendance drop among nation's steepest declines, lowest since 1992

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per STrib:

According to that data, obtained this week by the Star Tribune, TCF Bank Stadium was less than half full for five of the team’s seven home games.

The Gophers’ average announced attendance was 37,914, their lowest since Jim Wacker’s first season as coach in 1992.

And that’s announced attendance, or tickets distributed, not the actual number of tickets scanned at the turnstiles. The official scanned ticket numbers show the Gophers’ actual average attendance was 22,656.

The Gophers announced a crowd of 41,291 for their opener against New Mexico State, for example, but the number of scanned tickets was 20,218. In four of the following home games, actual attendance was fewer than 23,000 in TCF Bank Stadium, which now has a capacity of 50,805.

Only three years ago, with a home schedule that included TCU, Nebraska and Wisconsin, the average announced attendance was 52,355, all but filling the stadium that whole season. So that average has dropped 14,440 since 2015.

Of the 65 Power Five teams, only one has suffered a bigger drop in that time — USC, with 20,784 fewer fans per game. The Trojans still have one home game left, with a big crowd expected for No. 3 Notre Dame. In terms of percentage, USC and the Gophers have had almost identical drops over that span: 27.6 percent.

The last two home games came with kickoff temperatures of 21 degrees and 23 degrees, for Purdue and Northwestern, respectively. It rained for the Friday night game against Indiana on Oct. 26. The average announced attendance for those three final home games was 32,158.

And the university’s official scanned ticket numbers for those games — 20,357 (Indiana), 15,434 (Purdue) and 15,160 (Northwestern) — were even more alarming.

“I’m not concerned with that at all,” Fleck said of the overall attendance numbers. “I think we’ve got an incredible fan base, and we have a lot of people who love and care for us … and our student section and the band. I appreciate their loyalty, and those are the ones we’re going to focus on.”

http://www.startribune.com/gophers-...p-among-nation-s-steepest-declines/501108962/

Go Gophers!!
 

Ouch. Want to walk back that one idiotic reason you gave for dismissing Claeys, Mr. Coyle?
 

BleedGopher said:
per STrib:

According to that data, obtained this week by the Star Tribune, TCF Bank Stadium was less than half full for five of the team’s seven home games.

The Gophers’ average announced attendance was 37,914, their lowest since Jim Wacker’s first season as coach in 1992.

And that’s announced attendance, or tickets distributed, not the actual number of tickets scanned at the turnstiles. The official scanned ticket numbers show the Gophers’ actual average attendance was 22,656.

The Gophers announced a crowd of 41,291 for their opener against New Mexico State, for example, but the number of scanned tickets was 20,218. In four of the following home games, actual attendance was fewer than 23,000 in TCF Bank Stadium, which now has a capacity of 50,805.

Only three years ago, with a home schedule that included TCU, Nebraska and Wisconsin, the average announced attendance was 52,355, all but filling the stadium that whole season. So that average has dropped 14,440 since 2015.

Of the 65 Power Five teams, only one has suffered a bigger drop in that time — USC, with 20,784 fewer fans per game. The Trojans still have one home game left, with a big crowd expected for No. 3 Notre Dame. In terms of percentage, USC and the Gophers have had almost identical drops over that span: 27.6 percent.

The last two home games came with kickoff temperatures of 21 degrees and 23 degrees, for Purdue and Northwestern, respectively. It rained for the Friday night game against Indiana on Oct. 26. The average announced attendance for those three final home games was 32,158.

And the university’s official scanned ticket numbers for those games — 20,357 (Indiana), 15,434 (Purdue) and 15,160 (Northwestern) — were even more alarming.

“I’m not concerned with that at all,” Fleck said of the overall attendance numbers. “I think we’ve got an incredible fan base, and we have a lot of people who love and care for us … and our student section and the band. I appreciate their loyalty, and those are the ones we’re going to focus on.”

http://www.startribune.com/gophers-...p-among-nation-s-steepest-declines/501108962/

Go Gophers!!
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Fake news!!! This is just the awful Minnesota media treating the Gophers really unfairly. It’s so unfair. We had the largest crowds. Really, really great crowds. All sellouts.
 
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God said:
Fake news!!! This is just the awful Minnesota media treating the Gophers really unfairly. It’s so unfair. We had the largest crowds. Really, really great crowds. All sellouts.
Click to expand...
Yes, it’s horribly biased and unfair coverage. Why are they posting our attendance numbers. UNFAIR! They didn’t bother to mention all the people that thought about coming, but got busy. Not ONE mention of that. And the “tone” of the reporting attendance was bad too. They could have reported that the 14,000 that were there had a great time, or something like that. But, no. It’s so obvious why we are not good. The media is so against us.
 



Time to lower season ticket donations to get more butts in the seats.

Just kidding. They would never do that
 

Mark Coyle is one of the least competent athletic directors in the country. Our department needs to figure some stuff out and get this back on track. Its lazy to say attendance is down nationwide when we are struggling even when compared to that declining trend.
 

“I’m not concerned with that at all,” Fleck said of the overall attendance numbers. “I think we’ve got an incredible fan base, and we have a lot of people who love and care for us … and our student section and the band. I appreciate their loyalty, and those are the ones we’re going to focus on.”

Leadership. :confused:
 

Yeah, well, we still out-draw most MAC teams! Why doesn’t the negative media focus on that?
 



How are the TV ratings doing? If you're making a case for apathy towards the program, you've got to look at both. I haven't been to a game all year, but I've watched almost every single one. TCF is a giant production studio for BTN. So is Mariucci.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 

Watch them increase prices for next year.

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(The) Bump


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

There were more than 15,000 at the NW game. I was there. And what would all you experts have done or would do now to change things. I agree the seat license contributed, but don't give me things would have been different with Claeys.
 



Rickman55 said:
There were more than 15,000 at the NW game. I was there. And what would all you experts have done or would do now to change things. I agree the seat license contributed, but don't give me things would have been different with Claeys.
Click to expand...

I dont know what I would do to change things. If i were drawing a salary to manage the department, not being able to figure out a solution would be a fair thing to criticize me for.
 


Iceland12 said:
“I’m not concerned with that at all,” Fleck said of the overall attendance numbers. “I think we’ve got an incredible fan base, and we have a lot of people who love and care for us … and our student section and the band. I appreciate their loyalty, and those are the ones we’re going to focus on.”

Leadership. :confused:
Click to expand...

Really. Positivity is great and all, but if he's not really concerned with this behind closed doors then he doesn't understand the culture of this program/fanbase/market dating back far beyond his era. The CEO of a company with plummeting sales is going to get fired if they don't find more customers or slow the exodus of existing ones. Just saying you feel good about your current customers (who can't be squeezed for much more revenue) doesn't cut it.

Crappy attendance has been a drag on Gopher Football since at least the mid-80s. It drags on recruiting, resources, and is a vicious cycle that encourages even more people to stay home because a 1/3 full stadium isn't a great live experience.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
I dont know what I would do to change things. If i were drawing a salary to manage the department, not being able to figure out a solution would be a fair thing to criticize me for.
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Well, what you say would make sense in a non-2018 world - but, unfortunately that’s where we now find ourselves. Its been an Alice in Wonderland society for a few years now. Our head coach just verbalizef several times he’s not concerned about whether people attend games or not!?!? He’s just there for the one guy that may be there. You can’t make it up - but, again, it’s 2018. Why would they spend time trying to fix something they think doesn’t matter? (Again, don’t think rationally here - it actually doesn’t make sense - but, we’re supposed to buy whatever PJ says). What a great gig, if you can get it!!
 

Win and it will take care of itself. On another note Mark Coyle probably read this story and thought to himself, "dang, why did I say declining ticket sales as one of the reasons I hired PJ?!?"
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
Mark Coyle is one of the least competent athletic directors in the country. Our department needs to figure some stuff out and get this back on track. Its lazy to say attendance is down nationwide when we are struggling even when compared to that declining trend.
Click to expand...

You’re first sentence is beyond stupid. Coyle has yet to make a mistake since he’s been here. Although I will agree that it’s him who needs to make the decision to lower prices significantly for all three major men’s sports, get rid of the donation entirely. But I’m so thankful to have Coyle running the department, for the first time in a long time we have incredibly competent leadership at the top.
 

Rickman55 said:
There were more than 15,000 at the NW game. I was there. And what would all you experts have done or would do now to change things. I agree the seat license contributed, but don't give me things would have been different with Claeys.
Click to expand...

Assuming we would have won more games, the attendance would be better. People quit going because of the losing records the last two years and the price increases. I think they would have won more games with Claeys, at least in the short term. Long term, who knows. Coyle and Fleck and banking on long term. Coyle thought Fleck's personality would sell seats. He greatly miscalculated that.
 
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DMB123 said:
You’re first sentence is beyond stupid. Coyle has yet to make a mistake since he’s been here. Although I will agree that it’s him who needs to make the decision to lower prices significantly for all three major men’s sports, get rid of the donation entirely. But I’m so thankful to have Coyle running the department, for the first time in a long time we have incredibly competent leadership at the top.
Click to expand...

Least competent might be a bit too far, but his 3 big hires were all pretty much no-brainers. Fleck was, on paper, the best coaching prospect available. Same goes for Motzko. Whalen is a bit more out of the box, but if I was AD and knew she was interested I would have had a hard time not hiring her either.

So outside of those hires I can't really see what he's doing that's not Maturi-like. Teague obviously had flaws.
 

Iceland12 said:
“I’m not concerned with that at all,” Fleck said of the overall attendance numbers. “I think we’ve got an incredible fan base, and we have a lot of people who love and care for us … and our student section and the band. I appreciate their loyalty, and those are the ones we’re going to focus on.”

Leadership. :confused:
Click to expand...
What would be the right thing for him to say?

That he's worried about it and is going to change his plan after 2 seasons?
 


DMB123 said:
You’re first sentence is beyond stupid. Coyle has yet to make a mistake since he’s been here. Although I will agree that it’s him who needs to make the decision to lower prices significantly for all three major men’s sports, get rid of the donation entirely. But I’m so thankful to have Coyle running the department, for the first time in a long time we have incredibly competent leadership at the top.
Click to expand...

This fan base. . .
 

DMB123 said:
You’re first sentence is beyond stupid. Coyle has yet to make a mistake since he’s been here. Although I will agree that it’s him who needs to make the decision to lower prices significantly for all three major men’s sports, get rid of the donation entirely. But I’m so thankful to have Coyle running the department, for the first time in a long time we have incredibly competent leadership at the top.
Click to expand...

All three revenue sports teams are coming off of terrible years, and he is presiding over an embarrassing collapse of football attendance. But, yeah, hes doing a bang up job.
 

fmlizard said:
Really. Positivity is great and all, but if he's not really concerned with this behind closed doors then he doesn't understand the culture of this program/fanbase/market dating back far beyond his era. The CEO of a company with plummeting sales is going to get fired if they don't find more customers or slow the exodus of existing ones. Just saying you feel good about your current customers (who can't be squeezed for much more revenue) doesn't cut it.

Crappy attendance has been a drag on Gopher Football since at least the mid-80s. It drags on recruiting, resources, and is a vicious cycle that encourages even more people to stay home because a 1/3 full stadium isn't a great live experience.
Click to expand...

How about "next year is going to be a great year for gopher football as we return a lot of players who got some solid big ten playing time this year. Look for our record to be much improved, you better get your tickets now".
 

flecks career sittin at 3rd down and 12 yds to go.

yep, Fleck failed with Robb Smith and is being punished by folks not attending games. He messed up. and it might cost him his job.


No worries tho cuz many of you posters believe in every coach the U hires....its like the Life of Brian. 'This one's the messiah! I should know i have followed a few."
 

Word said:
Least competent might be a bit too far, but his 3 big hires were all pretty much no-brainers. Fleck was, on paper, the best coaching prospect available. Same goes for Motzko. Whalen is a bit more out of the box, but if I was AD and knew she was interested I would have had a hard time not hiring her either.

So outside of those hires I can't really see what he's doing that's not Maturi-like. Teague obviously had flaws.
Click to expand...

How many times in our recent history have the Gophers actually landed these ‘no-brainer’ coaching candidates??

Coyle has a very good track record of hiring coaches without consulting companies and he’s continuing that here.
 


bleedsmaroonandgold said:
All three revenue sports teams are coming off of terrible years, and he is presiding over an embarrassing collapse of football attendance. But, yeah, hes doing a bang up job.
Click to expand...


Just because things aren’t where they need to be at this minute doesn’t mean that the future isn’t incredibly bright. It takes time to erase decades of losing and Coyle has been doing what he needs to do to fix that.
 

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