Sid Hartman: Can U get football fans back?, Coyle says people have been renewing tix

BleedGopher

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Can U get football fans back?

Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle said he firmly believes this year will see an increase in Gophers football attendance after some disappointing seasons at the ticket window, including an average of 37,914 fans per game in 2018, their lowest mark since 1992.

The most recent attendance data from the NCAA, from 2017, ranked the Gophers eighth in the Big Ten Conference with 310,506 fans at seven home games, an average of 44,358.

But that season, the distance between the Gophers and the seventh-ranked school, Iowa, was an additional 153,851 total fans for the Hawkeyes home games. That gap was larger than the gap between the Gophers and Northwestern, which had the lowest conference attendance with 250,969 fans.

How does Coyle feel about season ticket renewals this year?

“Our season ticket renewals are out and people have been renewing,” Coyle said. “We feel very confident that we’ll have an increase in ticket sales this year, based on a couple factors.

“Obviously again winning three of those final four games and the excitement that coach [P.J.] Fleck and his staff have brought with their recruiting classes the past couple of years, that has been a big jolt to our program. Also our home schedule next year, we feel like we’ve got a really good home schedule. We have Nebraska, Wisconsin, Penn State — three home games right there that will generate a lot of interest. We’re trying to be creative and earn people back to TCF Bank Stadium.”

http://www.startribune.com/will-vikings-break-trend-and-draft-an-offensive-lineman/508852752/

Go Gophers!!
 

yes they can get fans in the stands but IMHO i think Mega Tongue did more damage to the die hard fans than most will admit. Those were the fans that stuck with the program through some really lean and poorly coached and recruited teams.

What will happen when the uptick in wins start to fade and fall off as in rebuilding or coaching change and we are back to a brewster type team? the people filling the stands right now will be gone.
 

No surprise, but no plans to lower "donation" levels. That's the real elephant in the room. Yes, revenue would drop a great deal initially but in the long run it would mean more STH and long term revenue increases.
 

No surprise, but no plans to lower "donation" levels. That's the real elephant in the room. Yes, revenue would drop a great deal initially but in the long run it would mean more STH and long term revenue increases.

100%
 

“Obviously again <b>winning three of those final four games and the excitement that coach [P.J.] Fleck and his staff have brought with their recruiting classes the past couple of years, </b>that has been a big jolt to our program.

Good for Mark. Either he or an assistant must read GH.


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I've never ridden the bash Coyle bandwagon but what the H does "and people have been renewing" mean? Of course people have been renewing, but to what extent?
 

Win good games and they will come. The end of last year was a good start.
 

At a bare minimum, we should be able to do better in the ticket office than when Brewster was coach.
 

I wish the U would go all out to fill the stadium. Get rid of mandatory donations and other barriers to entry. Get creative and do whatever it takes to have the stands actually filled for home football games. They will likely make less money in the short term, but could entice young people to become lifelong fans for the long term.

Getting people through the doors should be goal 1. Now is the time for bold moves while the team is on the upswing.

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At a bare minimum, we should be able to do better in the ticket office than when Brewster was coach.

While Coyle has demonstrated he's challenged in promoting the program, or even uttering complete, coherent sentences, comparing today's issues to Brewster levels really isn't a fair evaluation. There has been a fundamental change in the market for sports in general, that is negatively impacting attendance, on top of some benefits Brewster had (e.g. new stadium). It's just not an apples to apples comparison.

Just remember. People are renewing.
 

Mark Coyle said:
"We’re trying to be creative and earn people back to TCF Bank Stadium.”

Does anyone have any examples of this "creativity" that he's talking about? I haven't seen much in regards to football ticket sales. Obviously the end of last season is reason for excitement and I'm sure that is helping ticket sales, but what else?
 

Does anyone have any examples of this "creativity" that he's talking about? I haven't seen much in regards to football ticket sales. Obviously the end of last season is reason for excitement and I'm sure that is helping ticket sales, but what else?

apparently making it harder for existing fans to continue to buy tickets is a part of the plan based on some of the reports from this board. I can tell you there have been zero efforts to contact past season ticket holders and try to entice them back, but then again, I live in another state, so why would you bother with that?
 

This should be a simple equation in all honesty.

Lower ticket prices and win some freaking games.

People will support a winner, but that hasn't happened real often around here. Add to that the fact that ticket prices have been high and the weather during October, November and December isn't exactly balmy and folks predictably stay home.

The bottom line is that the U has been price gouging based on the performance of football, men's basketball and men's hockey. Now, reality is coming back to bite them in the behind, so they're having to alter their ticket packages and scheme ways to convince people to come back. For instance, keeping "mandatory donations," but lowering ticket prices in certain areas of each stadium for some season ticket holders.

At the end of the day, it's up to Fleck, Pitino and Motzko to show the average fans with smaller incomes that their teams are worthy of the investment.

Otherwise, I doubt attendance at TCF, Williams Arena or Mariucci is going to dramatically increase.
 



apparently making it harder for existing fans to continue to buy tickets is a part of the plan based on some of the reports from this board. I can tell you there have been zero efforts to contact past season ticket holders and try to entice them back, but then again, I live in another state, so why would you bother with that?

I am a former STH that has been contacted by the ticket office.

IMO, there is a timing issue involved with pricing changes in the athletic department. We have seen basketball and hockey revamp pricing, both at the end of the season and before renewals start. Football can't announce pricing changes at this time because of the current commitments that have already been made. I fully expect for football tickets to follow suit with hockey and basketball at the end of next season, unless Gopher football wins the BIG West.
 

I wish the U would go all out to fill the stadium. Get rid of mandatory donations and other barriers to entry. Get creative and do whatever it takes to have the stands actually filled for home football games. They will likely make less money in the short term, but could entice young people to become lifelong fans for the long term.

Getting people through the doors should be goal 1. Now is the time for bold moves while the team is on the upswing.

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

The seats with no donation are not filling up as it is....
 

I can tell you there have been zero efforts to contact past season ticket holders and try to entice them back, but then again, I live in another state, so why would you bother with that?

I am a former season ticket holder who was contacted to try to entice me back. And they succeeded. I am back.
 
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The seats with no donation are not filling up as it is....

A couple options there:
1) They could cut the prices in those non-donation seats as they are, relative to the rest of the stadium, not the greatest seats.
2) I dropped my season tickets in section 208 when they announced that section was becoming a donation seating section, which dramatically increased the price of that ticket. They could roll back the donation section expansion and make sections like 208 non-donation once again. Section 208 is chairback - it's a more appealing option than bleachers for many people. That might get some people back or new people to sign up.
 

There is more competition for the sports $ than there was just a few years ago. That's a fundamental change that occurred with another team playing in the Gophers own building.

MNUFC draws a good number of fans at prices that should be similar to Gopher football. Currently, MNUFC is a better value and now in their own new stadium in which high level donations aren't required to get tickets. MNUFC has twice the number of home dates during summer months and their games have had a better atmosphere.
 

A couple options there:
1) They could cut the prices in those non-donation seats as they are, relative to the rest of the stadium, not the greatest seats.
2) I dropped my season tickets in section 208 when they announced that section was becoming a donation seating section, which dramatically increased the price of that ticket. They could roll back the donation section expansion and make sections like 208 non-donation once again. Section 208 is chairback - it's a more appealing option than bleachers for many people. That might get some people back or new people to sign up.

Renting chairbacks for a non chairback seat is pretty cheap. I don't think that is holding people back. I don't care what the reasons are, just adjust pricing until you fill the stadium and then give yourself a chance to create scarcity for once in my lifetime. Nothing makes it easier to raise prices in the future than to have a waiting list for season tickets.
 

On Friday I was watching a youtube one hour replay of the 2014 win over Purude. I couldn't help but notice how many people were at that game. I didn't look up offiical attendance and I'm sure it wasn't full but just from the video it at least had the appearance the stadium was full. I would love to see most games return to that situation where the stadium "felt" mostly full. Too many empty seats not to notice last season.

This gets rehashed A LOT here and the ideas nearly always repeat themselves. Like others have said, they are holding pretty tightly to the donation requirements on many of the seats so I don't suspect that program will go away any time soon.
 

Coyle knows Gophs FB need to win at an elevated level from the recent past to get fans back in seats, as that is a reason he stated in making the HC change. All his eggs seem to be in that basket.
 
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A couple options there:
1) They could cut the prices in those non-donation seats as they are, relative to the rest of the stadium, not the greatest seats.
2) I dropped my season tickets in section 208 when they announced that section was becoming a donation seating section, which dramatically increased the price of that ticket. They could roll back the donation section expansion and make sections like 208 non-donation once again. Section 208 is chairback - it's a more appealing option than bleachers for many people. That might get some people back or new people to sign up.

If it's not "OMG it's the donation" then maybe it isn't the price either....
 

If it's not "OMG it's the donation" then maybe it isn't the price either....

You and others keep dismissing that, but I know with 100% certainty the price change/donation is what got me to cancel and is still keeping me away. I know others that feel the same way.
 

You and others keep dismissing that, but I know with 100% certainty the price change/donation is what got me to cancel and is still keeping me away. I know others that feel the same way.

Based on the attendance and ticket sales drop over the past couple years, there now are plenty of great seats available that don't have donation fees, so come on back, should be a fun slate of home games this year!
 

What's the cost for student tickets? Many future potential season ticket holders are current students. Get them hooked.
 

You and others keep dismissing that, but I know with 100% certainty the price change/donation is what got me to cancel and is still keeping me away. I know others that feel the same way.

Just curious if the Gophers dropped the “seat donation“ would there be enough new ticket sales to offset the lost revenue from seat donation? Not asking for a poll, but what GH’ers think? (perhaps we have had this question/poll previously, but I don’t recall the results).
 

You and others keep dismissing that, but I know with 100% certainty the price change/donation is what got me to cancel and is still keeping me away. I know others that feel the same way.

That's what you say, but you also could have seats without a donation... but you don't.

Talk is cheap and everyone is quick to say the solution is to save them money.
 

I think the prices are fine - With 2 kids under 5 ponying up for their tickets is a little bit of a pain, but also want them to grow up with the Gophers!
 

Based on the attendance and ticket sales drop over the past couple years, there now are plenty of great seats available that don't have donation fees, so come on back, should be a fun slate of home games this year!

People always point to the fact there are available seats without donations as if they are equal in every way except for the donation. They aren't. There is a reason why donantions were never slapped on them. They are the worst seats in the stadium. And that brings in one of the other core problems of why its getting harder to get fans to stadiums all over the place: High definition TV's and the game in general being changed to best accomodate a TV audience, over the ticket paying audience.

If I was still watching gopher football on a 19" tube TV those donation-free seats might seem okay. But for me personally if I am going to go through the trouble of going through security, waiting for the red hat man to start play, pull up my hood when it rains, etc. etc. - I am going to want to sit in decent seats. I suspect there are others like me.

Season ticket holders weren't just lost in the second deck corners, they were lost all over the stadium and the biggest reason they parted ways was because of the donations required to remain in their same seats. I'm sure some migrated to donation-less seats but I personally haven't talked to a single person who took that "opportunity." Everyone I know that dropped their seats are now watching on their flat screens.
 

People always point to the fact there are available seats without donations as if they are equal in every way except for the donation. They aren't. There is a reason why donantions were never slapped on them. They are the worst seats in the stadium. And that brings in one of the other core problems of why its getting harder to get fans to stadiums all over the place: High definition TV's and the game in general being changed to best accomodate a TV audience, over the ticket paying audience.

If I was still watching gopher football on a 19" tube TV those donation-free seats might seem okay. But for me personally if I am going to go through the trouble of going through security, waiting for the red hat man to start play, pull up my hood when it rains, etc. etc. - I am going to want to sit in decent seats. I suspect there are others like me.

Season ticket holders weren't just lost in the second deck corners, they were lost all over the stadium and the biggest reason they parted ways was because of the donations required to remain in their same seats. I'm sure some migrated to donation-less seats but I personally haven't talked to a single person who took that "opportunity." Everyone I know that dropped their seats are now watching on their flat screens.

Thanks for pointing this out, although the "worst seats in the stadium" comment may be a bit overdone. I sat in those seats for the TCU opener a few years back, and I was grateful to be there for that particular game. OTOH, I have little interest in sitting in those seats for the entire season, at least at the price being offered.

JTG
 




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