Would 8-0 Minnesota Sell Out Against Penn State?

fmlizard

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There's still an alarming number of tickets that appear to be available for what would be the biggest Gopher game in the TCF era, and maybe in the modern history of the program. Forget Gameday coming to Minneapolis...can the Gophers even sell out without a big boost from opposing fans? Seeing a bunch of empty seats for that one would be depressing.
 


I’ll be back with my family.

Bought these tickets back in June before the season even started. Can’t wait!
 

Just wish there was a way to get more students into the stands, not sure if that would mean dropping ticket prices to say $100 a seat for the year or even making it part of their freshman welcome materials here is your seat inside the stadium for game day. Those years away at the Dome have been hard to over come and get that on campus momentum back.
 

Just wish there was a way to get more students into the stands, not sure if that would mean dropping ticket prices to say $100 a seat for the year or even making it part of their freshman welcome materials here is your seat inside the stadium for game day. Those years away at the Dome have been hard to over come and get that on campus momentum back.


The Dome has nothing to do with student attendance. As a student from 04-08 during the Mason years we had no problem filling the student section in the Dome. We had to bus down there and back. There’s no excuse for today’s students not to show up. I just think for whatever reason it seems like much of the student body today at the U either commutes or are foreign with little love for College Football. It amazes me a school our size cannot fill the seats. Though, to be fair they haven’t had anything to get excited about in recent history. Even coming into this season Minnesota was picked 5th, so I get the lack of pre season hype.
 


At this point there isn’t any benefit to buying seats until after next Saturday. The options on the secondary market are better than what is available from the U. I understand all the conversations about loyalty points etc, but I am waiting due to sheer economics. Assuming we win next Saturday I will buy 2 premium seats and the availability at this point doesn’t motivate me to buy.


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In my mind a lot of it has to do with the upper deck. At the Dome we wrapped around from the end zone to the 10 yard lines but we’re all in the lower level.
 

Opening deer hunting week-end and a men's basketball game in Sioux Falls don't help matters.
 

I think the student section is a bit of a mirage. At the dome each seat was an individual seat so the kids had a spot that was their own. At tcf it’s benches and when I look at the student section I see all the kids packed on the lower deck at a 2:1 ratio. I literally think you could sell all of the student tickets and it would still look under sold because no one wants to sit in the upper deck and they all pack in the lower.


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In my mind a lot of it has to do with the upper deck. At the Dome we wrapped around from the end zone to the 10 yard lines but we’re all in the lower level.

I do wonder if it would be possible to mimic that to some extent and switch the upper deck to general seating without pissing off season ticket holders in those corner sections.
 

Opening deer hunting week-end and a men's basketball game in Sioux Falls don't help matters.

I'm torn on deer hunting, if we beat MD I'm skipping hunting this year though and I've been going over 25 years. I have had season tix with my son for a few years now and we have never seen a Top 15 match up in person.

Awesome atmosphere when we almost beat #2 TCU so hoping for that electricity again.
 


I'm hearing rumblings that this game is going to be sponsored by Heinz Baked Beans.
 



how fun is that game going to be if things hold to serve and we are both undefeated? I don't go to many PSU games any more even living within 20 minutes of campus....I just like sitting in my own living room too much I guess....but a game at TCF Bank Stadium would be fun as hell...if I win the lottery and quit working maybe I'll take my 2 sons to the game
 

Just wish there was a way to get more students into the stands, not sure if that would mean dropping ticket prices to say $100 a seat for the year or even making it part of their freshman welcome materials here is your seat inside the stadium for game day. Those years away at the Dome have been hard to over come and get that on campus momentum back.

I'm pretty sure student season tickets are $100 now.

I think someone did the math and showed that they're only making $250k per year on student tickets. At that point, they'd be better off making them free and packing the place. I wish they'd try making them free first come first serve or $5 per game to reserve a seat.

Letting students bring in alcohol would also help. Very few are paying for stadium beer and many of them sneak in stuff anyway. Just remove the barrier and don't make them hide it. That would help attendance and probably help encourage responsible drinking if they can better monitor it.
 

Because they don't understand that it's BETTER to sell 50,000 tickets for $20 average than 30,000 tickets for a $40 average.

Think bigger than the near-term dollars and cents ledger. Think about PR perception and long term ROI over whatever is "most profitable" short term.
 
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Two pretty big factors:
1. Must beat Maryland
2. Weather definitely needs to cooperate.

Question: How well does Penn State travel?
And, If we are both undefeated it would seem to maybe add just greater area football fans...historical I was there kinda thing because somebody won’t be undefeated at days end. Not too often in the Big Ten two teams meet 8 and 0.

Hopefully, that’s the matchup!
 

From my time as a student, I simply did not have any money to attend all the home games. I was selling my blood plasma 2x per week at Cention Bioclinic (sp?) and all my other disposable income was spent on beer. I literally did the "Subway Diet" before it was a thing because I cut out 200 buy one 6 inch, get one free coupons from the campus mailer/welcome materials - I rented a room in a professional fraternity house and the advertiser dropped a box of 100 of the mailers on our porch (2 coupons/book). When I had family come into town on gameday, I went to a few games but usually used the cash to enjoy the game at a sports bar (Sally's, etc) with better quality food than Subway.

I know students these days do not view money the same way - they take out tons of loans and live like mid-career professionals, but I can understand those that are financially responsible and use their money for other purposes. But, they should be taking in the game somewhere - creating a campus buzz is very important. Because of a lot of the poor teams when I attended, about 50% of those on campus had no clue who we were playing. Those memories are why I never talk ill of Mason - I think he inherited a generational dumpster fire of horrible facilities, apathetic fan base, incompetent administration, and a general sense of acceptance for failure/losing.

While attendance numbers go up and down, the Gophers are in a much better place now - so, I think there are issues outside of the product on the field causing the issues.
 

We had 4 friends who bought tickets for the Nebraska game at about $135/per ticket. They were in the upper deck on the NW side of the stadium, right at the goal line, and surrounded by Nebraska fans. They asked a couple of fans from Lincoln how much that type of ticket would cost at Memorial Stadium in Nebraska and the answer was around $60 per ticket. In checking a few other BIG10 web sites for ticket prices, it seem that our tickets are consistently overpriced, by quite a bit. I still think it comes to supply and demand. If you are winning and still can't sellout a 51,000 seat stadium, then lower the prices. $135 for a goal line ticket, in my opinion is about double what it should be. I know the U is trying, with some flash sales and other specials, but long term, I don't think that will get it done. We really need to sellout the remaining games.
 

We had 4 friends who bought tickets for the Nebraska game at about $135/per ticket. They were in the upper deck on the NW side of the stadium, right at the goal line, and surrounded by Nebraska fans. They asked a couple of fans from Lincoln how much that type of ticket would cost at Memorial Stadium in Nebraska and the answer was around $60 per ticket. In checking a few other BIG10 web sites for ticket prices, it seem that our tickets are consistently overpriced, by quite a bit. I still think it comes to supply and demand. If you are winning and still can't sellout a 51,000 seat stadium, then lower the prices. $135 for a goal line ticket, in my opinion is about double what it should be. I know the U is trying, with some flash sales and other specials, but long term, I don't think that will get it done. We really need to sellout the remaining games.

I agree. Several years ago I did a pretty deep look into ticket prices and it was sad how overpriced our tickets are. You could see the best teams in the country for way cheaper that what Minnesota charges.

We will never create a sold out party atmosphere with ticket prices the way they are. Period. You’ll get people to show up for the big ones, but it’ll be 1-2 games a year.
 

We had 4 friends who bought tickets for the Nebraska game at about $135/per ticket. They were in the upper deck on the NW side of the stadium, right at the goal line, and surrounded by Nebraska fans. They asked a couple of fans from Lincoln how much that type of ticket would cost at Memorial Stadium in Nebraska and the answer was around $60 per ticket. In checking a few other BIG10 web sites for ticket prices, it seem that our tickets are consistently overpriced, by quite a bit. I still think it comes to supply and demand. If you are winning and still can't sellout a 51,000 seat stadium, then lower the prices. $135 for a goal line ticket, in my opinion is about double what it should be. I know the U is trying, with some flash sales and other specials, but long term, I don't think that will get it done. We really need to sellout the remaining games.

I paid well over $100 every time I've gone to Lincoln. They may be saying for face value, but there is no such thing there due to sellouts. Their stadium is also 80k+ with 3 decks
 

I'm pretty sure student season tickets are $100 now.

I think someone did the math and showed that they're only making $250k per year on student tickets. At that point, they'd be better off making them free and packing the place. I wish they'd try making them free first come first serve or $5 per game to reserve a seat.

Letting students bring in alcohol would also help. Very few are paying for stadium beer and many of them sneak in stuff anyway. Just remove the barrier and don't make them hide it. That would help attendance and probably help encourage responsible drinking if they can better monitor it.

I think your intentions are well placed, but major stadium events usually have exclusive contracts with food&beverage vendors to provide that to fans, and I'm guessing there are standard agreements in the contracts stating that they must bar fans from bringing in their own stuff (food or bev).
 

If both are 8-0, there will be such a buzz for this game .... CGD might not come, but I guarantee TCF will be like it was for the TCU game.
 

I'm hearing rumblings that this game is going to be sponsored by Heinz Baked Beans.

We'll see if the brilliant marketing minds at the U who can't figure out what colors to ever pick call for a "White Out". I don't put it past them based on past years...
 

Opening deer hunting week-end and a men's basketball game in Sioux Falls don't help matters.
I was ready to buy tickets and head to the Cities for the game and checked my calendar and realized that the basketball game in Sioux Falls was that day and already have tickets for that.
 

There's still an alarming number of tickets that appear to be available for what would be the biggest Gopher game in the TCF era, and maybe in the modern history of the program. Forget Gameday coming to Minneapolis...can the Gophers even sell out without a big boost from opposing fans? Seeing a bunch of empty seats for that one would be depressing.

100%, yes. If not Gopher fans, there are great airfare deals from Philly.
 

Yes, it will be sold out. The bye week will help build buzz for the game. However, if they lose to Maryland, all bets are off. Don’t lose to Maryland.


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We had 4 friends who bought tickets for the Nebraska game at about $135/per ticket. They were in the upper deck on the NW side of the stadium, right at the goal line, and surrounded by Nebraska fans. They asked a couple of fans from Lincoln how much that type of ticket would cost at Memorial Stadium in Nebraska and the answer was around $60 per ticket. In checking a few other BIG10 web sites for ticket prices, it seem that our tickets are consistently overpriced, by quite a bit. I still think it comes to supply and demand. If you are winning and still can't sellout a 51,000 seat stadium, then lower the prices. $135 for a goal line ticket, in my opinion is about double what it should be. I know the U is trying, with some flash sales and other specials, but long term, I don't think that will get it done. We really need to sellout the remaining games.

Yeah the ticket prices are insane. I’m a rather high income person, a huge lifelong Gopher fan, and don’t have kids to pay for and I’m still going to have to grin and bear it and say it’s the biggest game of my Gopher fan life for Penn State. The single game price between the 30s is what I paid for the whole season 5 years ago in 138 (a good section)
 

Screenshot_20191020-095829_Chrome.jpg

Green dots indicate a lot of unsold seats in 212 for Penn State....section starts at $130 and goes to $235...one of many sections with lots of unsold seats.
 
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Because they don't understand that it's BETTER to sell 50,000 tickets for $20 average than 30,000 tickets for a $40 average.

Think bigger than the near-term dollars and cents ledger. Think about PR perception and long term ROI over whatever is "most profitable" short term.

Well, you better check your math. Under your scenario total revenue is greater with 30,000 tickets sold for an average price of $40.
 




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