Shama: Student tix 2,777, stark contrast to prior yrs; season tix down 22% since 2015

BleedGopher

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per Shama:

Neither public season tickets nor student season tickets are providing as many guaranteed fans in the stands as the Gophers would like. According to information provided by the U this week after a request by Sports Headliners, the public season tickets total for 2019 is 21,689. Ironically, the total last year was 21,663. The student total is 2,777, a stark contrast to many prior years when the total was thousands of tickets more. Student sales aren’t a significant source of revenue, but it’s interesting that part of the rationale in building an on-campus stadium (opened in 2009) was the argument it would increase attendance by undergraduates.

The U reported 19,170 public season tickets are renewals from last year, meaning close to 90 percent of customers decided to purchase tickets again. The total of new public season tickets is 2,519.

Included in the new sales total is a U innovation this year, The Gopher Pass, which for $199.96 guarantees entry to all seven home dates—even if it’s a standing-room-only space because a game is otherwise sold out. Billed as the “most flexible ticket ever for Gopher football fans,” the U sold 673 of the all-mobile passes.

Marketers are using a strategy of affordability and flexibility in their attempts to attract fans. Public season tickets were promoted this year with prices starting at $35 per game. Mini Plans allowed fans to choose from multi-game ticket packages starting as low as $60. Those sales resulted in 3,310 tickets being sold.

When single game sales were announced in July, the entry price point promoted was $20. The flash sale implemented a week out from the August 29 opener provided even more aggressive single game sales pricing, and although nothing has been announced it could be the U will offer a $10 ticket for a Big Ten game this fall.

With more creativity on flexibility and pricing than ever before, the U is responding to a ticket selling challenge that has been going on for awhile. Football interest has declined since popular head coach Jerry Kill resigned during the 2015 season. The Gophers sold 27,885 public season tickets in 2015, a year when Kill quit after seven games because of health issues. The public season ticket totals in 2016 and 2017 were 22,785 and 22,131 respectively.

http://shamasportsheadliners.com/

Go Gophers!!
 

Hard to really draw conclusions on small changes in any direction.
 

Typical Shamwa piece on attendance. As always, it leaves out the two most important parts: 1. Ticket sales took a hit primarily because of the season-ticket-killing scholarship seating price hikes. 2. Attendance is a nationwide problem. It is is not specific to the U. Literally the two most important parts of this "story" and once again completely overlooked by Shamwa.
 
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Typical Shamwa piece on attendance. As always, it leaves out the two most important parts: 1. Ticket sales took a hit primarily because of the season-ticket-killing scholarship seating price hikes. 2. Attendance is a nationwide problem. It is is not specific to the U. Literally the two most important parts of this "story" and once again completely overlooked by Shamwa.

Reminds me a bit of the "OMG ONLY AT THE U!?!?!!?" folks where it's more "Naw dude that happens everywhere, you'd know if you were paying any attention."
 



Net gain of 26 in general public season tix! The tide has turned!
 

Game attendance is still the biggest problem facing Gopher football and keeping it from becoming stronger, and I don't mean that from a gate revenues perspective. This has been the case since at least 1984 or so.
 

The pricing of student season tickets just doesn't make sense for those who don't care to go to relatively weak non-conference games, or those who are wary of poor weather later in the season. Single game tickets, whether directly from the U or through resale, are far cheaper if a student plans to go week to week. Granted, more students buying single game tickets means higher attendance despite the lower season ticket number.

We've seen through the games where tickets are free (football and basketball) that those outlier students will show up. Obviously the U can't just give away tickets for free, but taking another look at how student tickets are sold could help. Why not introduce a slightly cheaper B1G season ticket? Or have some sort of mini plan option similar to what the general public has? I'm far from a financial expert, but improvement can be made.
 

Typical Shamwa piece on attendance. As always, it leaves out the two most important parts: 1. Ticket sales took a hit primarily because of the season-ticket-killing scholarship seating price hikes. 2. Attendance is a nationwide problem. It is is not specific to the U. Literally the two most important parts of this "story" and once again completely overlooked by Shamwa.

I actually think the most important part of the story is that attendance sucks for a University our size and hasn’t improved a bit since it was identified as an issue. The attendance problem here is worse than it is “nationwide” and the event you mention was a long time ago - figure it out U. What you consider “the two most important parts” to this story I consider burying the lead. That was the point tho, right?


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Maybe they should hire a new, young, energetic coach. that should boost ticket sales.

What was that?............Oh, never mind.
 

Game attendance is still the biggest problem facing Gopher football and keeping it from becoming stronger, and I don't mean that from a gate revenues perspective. This has been the case since at least 1984 or so.

Scoring more points than our opponents might help.
 

A whole 2,777? This is why they need to just make them free, but say that if you don't show up to more than 2 games, you lose them.
 

Hmm, what is the current cost for student season tickets?

In 1996 as a U Grad Student, I got season football tickets for $35 for the SEASON! That just so happens to be the same price I paid as an undergrad in 1988.

Maryland gives students tickets for free in a lottery system so poorly participated in, my son never failed to get a ticket for any game he wanted. They also sell guest tickets for $35 for Basketball games in the student section.

How do schools like Maryland get away with this? How many other B1G schools let students in for free?

Make it affordable for students and they would come.
 



Hmm, what is the current cost for student season tickets?

In 1996 as a U Grad Student, I got season football tickets for $35 for the SEASON! That just so happens to be the same price I paid as an undergrad in 1988.

Maryland gives students tickets for free in a lottery system so poorly participated in, my son never failed to get a ticket for any game he wanted. They also sell guest tickets for $35 for Basketball games in the student section.

How do schools like Maryland get away with this? How many other B1G schools let students in for free?

Make it affordable for students and they would come.

I want to say it was $100 ... also ages ago.

Granted my wife went back to school and there was a fee every semester for the new stadium (it had a athletic themed name). So it was more than that.

The only thing I would worry about free being the amount of noshows eating up tickets "cuz free".
 

Maryland also gives students free stuff waiting in their seats because....Under Armor.
 

My daughter is a senior at the U. She would like to go to games (had season tickets for the first two years), but none of her friends go. They're not oblivious -- they know it's game day. They dress in maroon and gold and pregame like ... college students. Then, instead of going to the game, the stay at the party.

How to get them walk down the street and into the stadium? I don't know. I do give the U credit for trying a few things, like awarding money in the second half, but more is obviously needed. But free or much cheaper tickets might be the only answer.
 

My daughter is a senior at the U. She would like to go to games (had season tickets for the first two years), but none of her friends go. They're not oblivious -- they know it's game day. They dress in maroon and gold and pregame like ... college students. Then, instead of going to the game, the stay at the party.

How to get them walk down the street and into the stadium? I don't know. I do give the U credit for trying a few things, like awarding money in the second half, but more is obviously needed. But free or much cheaper tickets might be the only answer.

As a student, price would be the biggest. There's also a noticeable lack of unique student section traditions that provide any draw. I'll compare to Wisconsin since that's the only other atmosphere I have any connection with (though it's not entirely fair to compare due to their recent success). They have Jump Around, they have "f*** you, eat s***", they have Build Me Up Buttercup, they have come sort of chant or dance with almost every band sons. The list goes on.

We have some fun things: the Ski-U-Mah flag, swaying while the team walks on (I honestly have no idea what that looks like outside of the student section but it's fun to do), chopping on third down, the Gopher, scholarship giveaways, etc. But there's nothing that you could say "THAT'S what makes the student section unique." I enjoy everything we do, but again, it's those fringe fans that need to be brought in.
 

My daughter is a senior at the U. She would like to go to games (had season tickets for the first two years), but none of her friends go. They're not oblivious -- they know it's game day. They dress in maroon and gold and pregame like ... college students. Then, instead of going to the game, the stay at the party.

How to get them walk down the street and into the stadium? I don't know. I do give the U credit for trying a few things, like awarding money in the second half, but more is obviously needed. But free or much cheaper tickets might be the only answer.

Free booze and a game day drinking-age waiver would almost certainly bring them in.
 

Tickets should be $10.00 for students, they should get some swag and have the Maryland segregated area to drink if of age. The mandatory "donation" must be addressed, it is too expensive and creates negative value IMO.
 

A whole 2,777? This is why they need to just make them free, but say that if you don't show up to more than 2 games, you lose them.

Times $100 each. $277k isn't much compared to nine figures, but it's not nothing.

The U cares about revenue more than units sold, at the end of the day.
 

There are attendance issues all over the country at college football games. The Gophers are not unique to this issue. Just yesterday on ESPNU radio, they spent a whole segment talking about how the numbers are down almost everywhere, including some of the blue blood programs.


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Just win baby! Give people a reason to be there and they will show up.
 

During the MB3/Maroney years, the student section at the Dome, off-campus and indoor a stale stadium was more full than now.
 

During the MB3/Maroney years, the student section at the Dome, off-campus and indoor a stale stadium was more full than now.

The student section was packed against SDSU. It's as good as I've ever seen it. Of course it helps when all freshman get in for free but recently I actually think student attendance has been decent. Its the rest of the stadium, specifically the chair back sections that need work.
 


Times $100 each. $277k isn't much compared to nine figures, but it's not nothing.

The U cares about revenue more than units sold, at the end of the day.

You'd think they could find a "sponsor" for the student section that would pay $270K per year for the publicity/goodwill.
 

You'd think they could find a "sponsor" for the student section that would pay $270K per year for the publicity/goodwill.

I was thinking the same exact thing. Give someone naming rights to the student section and drop the cost, or eliminate it entirely.
 







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