PioneerPress Shipley: Gophers’ football crowd still a few oars short

GridironGus

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 10, 2018
Messages
291
Reaction score
382
Points
63
https://www.twincities.com/2019/09/14/shipley-gophers-crowd-a-few-oars-short/

"Eleven years after opening TCF Bank Stadium on the east edge of campus, and a couple of years after opening its $166 million Athletes Village, Gophers football still has an attendance problem. It was as clear Saturday as the easy deciphered “MINNESOTA” written in gold seats in the north upper deck. Official attendance for Saturday’s 35-32 victory over Georgia Southern was 41,021, about 9,000 below capacity. But before you wonder who is going to pony up to watch the Gophers play Georgia Southern, consider that 97,420 watched LSU beat the Southern Eagles 55-3 on Aug. 31 in Baton Rouge, La."



You cannot compare Minnesota to LSU. Baton Rouge (and the 1 hour away New Orleans) does not have a first place major league baseball team or a NHL or MLS team competing for sports dollars along with other non-sports events. NFL football is over an hour away, not 5 minutes away. Minnesota hasn't been a consistent winner in decades. If Fleck gets them to the winning level that Wisconsin has been at for 20 years then there will be talk of expanding the stadium. But anyone who waited in line to get in to the stadium yesterday would agree that there were A LOT of people there yesterday. And why concentrate on people that aren't there? How about the fact that there were 40,000 of us there cheering on the
Gophers? Isn't that MORE than the Twins have seen for any game this year? Isn't that more than any Wild and Timberwolves games combined? I do agree with those that wrote about how the TV timeouts have lengthened the games too much. But if you are attending the game with people you enjoy spending time with, shouldn't that be an enjoyable interlude?
 

I've given up obsessing about the people who are not there. Look at the Twins crowds this week against the Nats.
 

I've given up obsessing about the people who are not there. Look at the Twins crowds this week against the Nats.

The upper half of the "expensive" seats in 211 was basically empty yesterday...while the "less-expensive" section was pretty full.

I'd rather have butts-in-the-seats however it does make for a pretty unobstructed view.

What I don't know is whether these seats are actually taken by STHs and not being used...or are really available on gamedays on an individual basis. Given this is a pretty consistent pattern for this section even in B1G play, consideration should be given to reassigning them to the "less-expensive" STH status and giving the dedicated fans a better spot.

I know this blows up the seating model but so be it.
 

I've given up obsessing about the people who are not there. Look at the Twins crowds this week against the Nats.

Has certainly been a lot of fixation on it lately from the quick hit media types. Apparently they can't see that attendance it s problem at most places around the country and they want to act like it is just us. Comparing our attendance against GSU to the attendance LSU got against them is just foolish because they are not comparable at all.

These morons need to stop acting like it is just a Minnesota football thing and understand it is a Nationwide problem at college venues all over the country.
 

Granted, I got to the stadium late, but when I got there .... I would estimate 20-25k actual people in the seats, cheering (including probably 500-1k GSU fans).

How in the heck did they sell 40k tickets to this game?? People must've assumed it was going to be an easy win, and didn't show up?


Man, 15k out of 40k didn't even show up to the game they bought tickets for? I don't know ...


Or was it more full to start, and people left quickly?
 


Gophers? Isn't that MORE than the Twins have seen for any game this year? Isn't that more than any Wild and Timberwolves games combined?

Well Gus, you could name even more stadiums that don’t have the capacity of 40K and really drive your point home. Hell, I think we may have more tickets sold than every MLB, NHL, and NBA team. Look away. Nothing to see here.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Has certainly been a lot of fixation on it lately from the quick hit media types. Apparently they can't see that attendance it s problem at most places around the country and they want to act like it is just us. Comparing our attendance against GSU to the attendance LSU got against them is just foolish because they are not comparable at all.

These morons need to stop acting like it is just a Minnesota football thing and understand it is a Nationwide problem at college venues all over the country.

And the people who keep reminding us it is a nationwide trend need to stop acting like we aren't seeing worse declines than our B1G peers. It is possible for these two things to be true at the same time: (1) there is a negative nationwide trend and (2) we are doing poorly because we are underperforming even when controlling for that trend.
 

Unless attendance in Evanston gets addressed, and soon, the Wildcats will never make it to the B1G championship game.
 

I am not worried about attendance.

Life is too short to worry about football attendance.
 



And the people who keep reminding us it is a nationwide trend need to stop acting like we aren't seeing worse declines than our B1G peers. It is possible for these two things to be true at the same time: (1) there is a negative nationwide trend and (2) we are doing poorly because we are underperforming even when controlling for that trend.

You don't WIN! you won't fill seats it's just that simple. Nothing to do with other sports or whatever else is going on in town.



Sent from my SM-J737V using Tapatalk
 

From where I was sitting, I thought attendance was OK for Georgia Southern. I was expecting less people than the SDSU game because there was no flash sale and freshman didn't get in free but given the opponent, the announced attendance was about what I was expecting.

If we beat Purdue then the Illinois game should be pretty full and if we win that one then Nebraska should be a sellout. It all hinges on the Purdue game, so important.
 

Granted, I got to the stadium late, but when I got there .... I would estimate 20-25k actual people in the seats, cheering (including probably 500-1k GSU fans).

How in the heck did they sell 40k tickets to this game?? People must've assumed it was going to be an easy win, and didn't show up?


Man, 15k out of 40k didn't even show up to the game they bought tickets for? I don't know ...


Or was it more full to start, and people left quickly?

I would say it was between 30-35K. I think the empty upper deck seats behind the Gophs bench is a combo of no-shows and those STH spending a lot of time in the club area.
 

Shipley has been a poor “journalist” for longer than TCF has been open. Fine, he’s an opinion writer that caters to the superficial crowd but his facts have consistently been lacking. He ends the piece with this inanity:

Forty-one thousand people is more than most Minnesota towns can call residents, but it’s not enough paying customers to make Minnesota athletics go, which in a fiduciary capacity is the biggest job of any FBS football team. Yes, it’s ridiculous, but inanity never stopped anything from being true.
 



I would say it was between 30-35K. I think the empty upper deck seats behind the Gophs bench is a combo of no-shows and those STH spending a lot of time in the club area.

Wish they would publicly release the "tickets scanned" number. Probably a number they want to keep under wraps, though.
 

Wish they would publicly release the "tickets scanned" number. Probably a number they want to keep under wraps, though.

Its also probably irrelevant. Tickets sold is income. Tickets sold not used is income.
 


A good journalist will rely on the official turnstile turns numbers. The announced attendance does not take into account the no shows.
 

There are more than a few observations and conclusions to be made about average attendance at Gopher football games since they last won a Big 10 championship. The two that stand out for me are: (1) Gopher football attendance hasn't changed a helluva lot during the last 50 years; and (2) the totally unwarranted increase in season ticket prices by our jackass AD from the East Coast.


Memorial Stadium

1967 ... 39,633
1968 ... 52,134
1969 ... 45,417
1970 ... 45,093
1971 ... 34,610
1972 ... 37,013
1973 ... 42,153
1974 ... 37,688
1975 ... 31,440
1976 ... 43,813
1977 ... 35,303
1978 ... 38,569
1979 ... 40,325
1980 ... 44,184
1981 ... 43,035

HHHMetrodome

1982 ... 58,898
1983 ... 48,735
1984 ... 51,791
1985 ... 60,985
1986 ... 55,848
1987 ... 53,131
1988 ... 44,665
1989 ... 39,607
1990 ... 40,585
1991 ... 36,369
1992 ... 37,908
1993 ... 39,996
1994 ... 42,309
1995 ... 48,574
1996 ... 43,519
1997 ... 44,898
1998 ... 41,642
1999 ... 45,441
2000 ... 47,352
2001 ... 43,485
2002 ... 41,785
2003 ... 44,148
2004 ... 47,573
2005 ... 49,024
2006 ... 52,206
2007 ... 51,791
2008 ... 48,958

TCF Bank Stadium

2009 ... 50,805
2010 ... 49,513
2011 ... 47,714
2012 ... 46,637
2013 ... 47,797
2014 ... 47,865
2015 ... 52,355
2016 ... 43,814
2017 ... 44,358
2018 ... 37,915

https://gophersports.com/sports/2018/5/21/sports-m-footbl-spec-rel-attendance-records-html.aspx
 
Last edited:

Gonna have to put a show on to bring folks in.

Those mistakes.... don't help.

Attendance worries with a shaky team seem like putting the cart before the horse.
 

I think there was a considerable walk up as well as I saw a line at the game day ticket windows.
 


This is true.

And there should be no harm in releasing the tickets scanned number, then?

I get all my tickets scanned sometimes ... even if i'm not filling every seat...


Granted I do make sure to officially sit in every seat for a few minutes.
 

Its also probably irrelevant. Tickets sold is income. Tickets sold not used is income.

But income isnt the only goal, there is also value in having a packed house and that contributes to a good stadium environment. That can help the team on the field. Also, it makes the games more fun to be at, which makes it easier to sell more tickets in the future, which is also income. If you think ticket revenue is all that matters, why even measure tickets sold? Just ask them to report ticket revenue.
 

Simplistic but true - People go to games when they want to go to games. If they want to go badly enough, price is not an obstacle. Look at the Vikes.

But, if people are wavering on whether to go to the game, then price can be the determining factor.

As of today, some people are deciding that cost of attending a Gopher game is more than they are willing to pay. Yes, I know there are cheaper options on the secondary market - but if you're undecided about whether to attend a game, you're probably not going to make that extra effort to track down a ticket.

If the Gophers dropped ticket prices/donation amounts across the board, I think you would see more actual bodies in seats.

I do not expect that to happen.

Honestly, as this point, I would be surprised to see an actual sellout this season - where every seat is filled by an actual person.

Gopher football is just not at that point yet where people will do whatever it takes or pay whatever it takes to be at the game.
 

It's just not the home side that's vacant.

Taken 6 min into the 2nd quarter.
IMG_2160 (1).jpg
 

Its also probably irrelevant. Tickets sold is income. Tickets sold not used is income.

It's absolutely relevant.

A packed house means a louder, more hostile environment that both provides additional energy to our players as well as makes it harder for the opposing teams.

A packed house will impress more recruits that come to games and we had two 4 stars, the #1 senior in the state and the #1 junior in the state at the game as well as 3 basketball visitors, one of which was a top 100 guy and one of which was a 5 star.

A packed house makes it a more enjoyable, fun environment for the people that come which makes it it more likely they come to games in the future.

A packed house also means more people paying for parking and concessions and maybe Goldy's locker room apparel.

All of that helps the program more than income IMO and will lead to additional future income as well.
 

Granted, I got to the stadium late, but when I got there .... I would estimate 20-25k actual people in the seats, cheering (including probably 500-1k GSU fans).

How in the heck did they sell 40k tickets to this game?? People must've assumed it was going to be an easy win, and didn't show up?


Man, 15k out of 40k didn't even show up to the game they bought tickets for? I don't know ...


Or was it more full to start, and people left quickly?
You got there late. Definitely looked like 40000 plus at the start. Good showing by the fans for the second time this season.
 

You got there late. Definitely looked like 40000 plus at the start. Good showing by the fans for the second time this season.

I agree with 40k or a bit more. You have to remember that there may be as many as 4-5 k down in the concourses at any give time.
 

You got there late. Definitely looked like 40000 plus at the start. Good showing by the fans for the second time this season.

Ok! Fair enough. Then scanned would show closer to 40k than I thought. I’m glad that was the case.

But then, where did everyone go? It looked really sparse.
 

Ok! Fair enough. Then scanned would show closer to 40k than I thought. I’m glad that was the case.

But then, where did everyone go? It looked really sparse.
See Vandy’s post. Move on . It was a good turnout.
 




Top Bottom