GopherLady: This soon-to-be 8-0 Gophers team deserves better. (picture)

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Go Gophers!!
 

In some fairness, the upper deck of the student section did fill in as the second quarter went on. Might have been some good frat parties that made for late arrivals.
 

That photo was taken into the 3rd quarter when it was a blowout.
 


sure hope it's full for the entirety of the psu game.
 


Don't sweat the attendance stuff

Gopher Lady had a good Twitter post about the locals not supporting this team as much as they deserve. She is right and at least one former player, Kobe McCrary, piled on about how our fanbase was embarrassing. He is right too, but even though this bugged me a bit while I was at the game, I think it's a bad look to shame local folks for not showing up. I was talking to a fan leaving the game at the end, and he said it's a new problem for fans to leave early because we are blowing out a big ten team.

I'm surprised today didn't sell out, and it looks like it's going to take a little while to and maybe take year over year success to turn this into a packed house. Enjoy the ride and let the marketing dept promote this next game.
 


C'mon Nadine, you know the section was a LOT fuller earlier.
 

WorkingMyTailOff said:
Gopher Lady had a good Twitter post about the locals not supporting this team as much as they deserve. She is right and at least one former player, Kobe McCrary, piled on about how our fanbase was embarrassing. He is right too, but even though this bugged me a bit while I was at the game, I think it's a bad look to shame local folks for not showing up. I was talking to a fan leaving the game at the end, and he said it's a new problem for fans to leave early because we are blowing out a big ten team.

I'm surprised today didn't sell out, and it looks like it's going to take a little while to and maybe take year over year success to turn this into a packed house. Enjoy the ride and let the marketing dept promote this next game.
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I read McCrary's tweet as objecting to Nadine's, not piling on.
 



BeenHazy said:
I read McCrary's tweet as objecting to Nadine's, not piling on.
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How could you possibly have read Kobe’s tweet that way? He was clearly piling on. He has been very critical of fan turnout all season.
 

Anecdotally I know the new option to have purchased seats assigned the day before (using the phone app) is working. The family is splitting some tix and decided the product and experience is worth it. Seen that GHers are doing this too.

All you can do is pitch the experience and let the product sell itself. The price is a big barrier here. Given up trying to understand why for a single game but that's the reality. Still though have at least 3 new folks who are going to look into attending PSU. That's all that one can do...sell the program right beside Coach.
 

I agree bitching at the fans doesn't work.

If people aren't showing up it's a $$$ issue or an access issue.
 

El Amin Fan said:
How could you possibly have read Kobe’s tweet that way? He was clearly piling on. He has been very critical of fan turnout all season.
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Wishful thinking?

Upon further review...yeah, he's piling on.
 



This is literally an issue at all schools. Saban’s talked about this exact issue on multiple occasions at Alabama (!!!). https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ARiB4GckF6s

Otherwise I think the U needs to do a better job promoting the program to students...this $7 student deal they had this week was a great start and it looked like they had decent results prior to when this picture was taken...otherwise the football program isn’t all that visible on campus. How about we put the weekly radio show somewhere on campus instead of Roseville? How about some small events or giveaways in and around Coffman during the week? I believe the team wear wristbands and give them to patients at the Children’s hospital...how about we make that a universal thing by giving them away to every freshman at orientation connecting the student body, the football program and the Children’s Hospital? I don’t know...marketing is a tricky game but I do think they are just scratching the surface. They seem committing to improving fan engagement on gamedays and otherwise so more is probably coming. Good on them for that.
 

Nadine is letting me down lately. We don't need another Reusse.

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BleedGopher said:
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Go Gophers!!
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Agree completely. Not at all an unpopular opinion. Just a fact. MN sports fans are ****.
 

I’m starting to think this is a good reason why gopher football really tanked beginning in the 1970s hardly anyone gave a **** anymore. Am I right??
 

An average Colorado team had the stadium packed vs an average USC (helmet school) on Friday night. We can't do better than that at 8-0????? People need to step their games up.
 

I don’t give a **** about how it looks to tell people to get to the stadium. Get to the stadium. Of all the stupid expensive **** people spend money on throughout each year. You can’t pay for slightly overpriced tickets (which I would say aren’t overpriced anymore in a season like this) to a game during a historic gopher football season? What is it going to take to make it worth it to these people to buy the tickets and get to the game?


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Like Chip Scoggins wrote tonight, referring to the Penn State game “There shouldn’t be an empty seat inside TCF Bank Stadium for this one. If a game of this magnitude doesn’t generate a sellout, there is no hope for college football in this market.”

He absolutely nailed it! 8-0 and two weeks to sell tickets.
 
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A few things I don't get. Number one is why you would leave early in a game your team is winning. This seems unique to Minnesotans as if there is some sort of prize handed out for least amount of time spent at a stadium or most efficient use of of your day. You had planned to allocate X hours to a college football game and, to me at least, one of the most enjoyable aspects is the garbage time of a game your team is winning. There is no stress, just an oppotunity to enjoy a win with your fellow fans while watching the backups get some time. To contrast this, the second thing I don't really get is this idea that Minnesota has "bad" fans. Please point to a fanbase that has been more supportive while accomplishing less than Minnesota has over the last 50 years. Most of the posters here have never seen a conference title. Up until this season, the Gophers had been ranked for just 8 total games in about 15 years. To make matters worse, both rival schools have had the best stretch of their programs entire history in the last decade or two. Northwestern has 37,124 people show up for their final home game against Illinois last year when they were 7-1 in conference play and headed towards a Big Ten West Division Championship. That program has actually been to a Rose Bowl in my lifetime. It might take an actual special season before people pack TCF Bank Stadium and I think that would be the case most places that have struggled for so long. Finally, it wouldn't occur to me to take a picture of the empty seats during a game in which the Gophers were moving to 8-0. When you have a presence like GopherLady does (who I believe got some face time at her tailgate on ESPN today), I am not sure what the upside of showing those empty seats are? Is that more likely to be used by an assistant coach at a rival to recruit against Minnesota or to motivate people to come (or stay in) to the game? My opinion is the former is far more likely than the latter.
 

EG#9 said:
A few things I don't get. Number one is why you would leave early in a game your team is winning. This seems unique to Minnesotans as if there is some sort of prize handed out for least amount of time spent at a stadium or most efficient use of of your day. You had planned to allocate X hours to a college football game and, to me at least, one of the most enjoyable aspects is the garbage time of a game your team is winning. There is no stress, just an oppotunity to enjoy a win with your fellow fans while watching the backups get some time. To contrast this, the second thing I don't really get is this idea that Minnesota has "bad" fans. Please point to a fanbase that has been more supportive while accomplishing less than Minnesota has over the last 50 years. Most of the posters here have never seen a conference title. Up until this season, the Gophers had been ranked for just 8 total games in about 15 years. To make matters worse, both rival schools have had the best stretch of their programs entire history in the last decade or two. Northwestern has 37,124 people show up for their final home game against Illinois last year when they were 7-1 in conference play and headed towards a Big Ten West Division Championship. That program has actually been to a Rose Bowl in my lifetime. It might take an actual special season before people pack TCF Bank Stadium and I think that would be the case most places that have struggled for so long. Finally, it wouldn't occur to me to take a picture of the empty seats during a game in which the Gophers were moving to 8-0. When you have a presence like GopherLady does (who I believe got some face time at her tailgate on ESPN today), I am not sure what the upside of showing those empty seats are? Is that more likely to be used by an assistant coach at a rival to recruit against Minnesota or to motivate people to come (or stay in) to the game? My opinion is the former is far more likely than the latter.
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Yes, why do we have fans leaving in the 3rd quarter, and early 4th quarter, when we’re crushing a team??? Why did you even buy damn tickets if you don’t want to stay for the end? Why pay for parking? Why drive out to crowded Minneapolis? Is beating traffic more important than seeing what’s shaping up to be a historic Gopher football season? What the hell do you have going on that’s better than watching the game to the end and socializing with fellow fans? It drives me nuts, and I’ve never seen ANY fan base do this except our fans. Anyone that leaves that early, during a good victory game, is a piece of trash fan that should just stop going altogether. When I sit in Section 237 Row 27 seats 1-4, and I see these lame asses walking down the stairs it makes me wonder “do the players see that from the field?” And “that wouldn’t make me want to play hard for these fans if they’re going to leave on me when I’m giving it my all out there”.

Hope the players don’t lose their steam at all seeing our fans abandon them after they look impressive as hell, because that’s just sad.


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As many have pointed out here, this picture is deceiving when compared to what it looked like earlier in the game. Look at virtually any other student section and it would look the same in a blowout. The Wisconsin student section takes almost the entire first half to fill and then empties very quickly after Jump Around. The diehards (like myself) will stay through the alma mater, and the casual fans will leave once the game becomes uninteresting. It’s a national trend.

What should be focused on is the improvement in attendance. Last year, that upper deck wouldn’t be anywhere near even halfway full. Yeah, I’d love it to be a full, excited crowd every game, but that’s just not the reality right now. But it’s getting there.

I’m right in the thick of things in the lower deck of the student section every game, so I can’t speak for what goes on up top. But what I can say is that the hype around me has been building with every game, and things are feeling more and more loud this year than I’ve felt before. Let’s stop worrying about what we can’t control and instead celebrate what we’re seeing from the true fans.

I’m one of the many Wisconsin reciprocity students, so I can’t speak to what the Minnesota sports fan has experienced through the years. But what I’ve noticed that I absolutely cannot take is that there is a large portion of “fans” who act like the team has to earn their fandom. I’m sorry, but that’s not how it works. Either you’re in or you’re not. Through thick and thin.
 
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Even at the peak it seemed like there were hundreds of open student section seats. With $7 for student tickets, gold weather, and a 7-0 team, there's no goo excuse for that. If the students can't fill up that space those seats should go to the general public. I know they're required to have 10,000 per game for students but maybe they can cut it off the day before and give up sections if not enough student tickets are sold.

Trashing the fans won't do any good but this is really sad. The open seats in other parts of the stadium are on the marketing team for having prices too high but with $7 tickets the students had no excuse for not showing up.
 

This might not have been a huge factor in attendance but I think does have some impact this time of year for football fans in the state. Many high schools in the state have section playoff football games this Saturday and I know some people I've visited with said they would have attended the Gophers game if not for the conflict.


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BleedGopher said:
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Go Gophers!!
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Holy gaslighting Batman. This is horrific; grow up Nadine. This was the first game I can remember that the upper deck of the student section was actually full. Way to wait until the crowd thinned during an absolute blow out on the last nice day of the year to misrepresent what the atmosphere was actually like. I might ban myself if this is what an admin of an alleged gopher fan forum thinks is appropriate to do.
 

CurveballJesus said:
Holy gaslighting Batman. This is horrific; grow up Nadine. This was the first game I can remember that the upper deck of the student section was actually full. Way to wait until the crowd thinned during an absolute blow out on the last nice day of the year to misrepresent what the atmosphere was actually like. I might ban myself if this is what an admin of an alleged gopher fan forum thinks is appropriate to do.
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My thoughts exactly. Really pathetic approach. Not the first time though, won’t be the last. Get off the high horse GL.

As for people leaving early: a group of 8 behind me left early to get to their cousins section game. A group of 4 in front of me left early because they had a family dinner to get to. But all 12 of them showed knowing they’d have to leave early. Had it been more competitive maybe they stick around a little longer but showing up for 3 quarters is better than not showing up at all.
 

Having to make the case to one person that the deer will be there on Sunday too. 11/9 is the deer opener don't cha know.
 

When you haven’t won much in many people’s lifetimes, I don’t understand leaving early when you’re winning. Stay and enjoy it! We have a group of seats in front of us that are ticket broker seats, and so they are different people every game. No matter the score, nobody has yet to make it through an entire game this year. Yesterday the group of 8 left midway through the third. Meanwhile, the regular season ticket holders around us I know were all there until the end.

I think this problem starts with re-building a season ticket fanbase. Those are the people most likely to show up and stay.

With that said, Gopher football has pretty much sh** on its fans for 50 years. It’s been said before, but the fact that we have any fans left at all is a bit of a miracle. To ignore this fact and take a shot at the fans that do show up is naive and cheap.
 

There is no need to be so defensive. The dagger in the heart of MN attendance was the obscene increase in ticket price a few years ago.
Indeed other schools have noticed a decrease in attendance but if you start at 85.000 and decrease to 83,000 it is different from MN starting at 45,000 and decreasing to 35.000.
Despite the BIG TV revenue which is given equally to schools FB $$ are needed by MN and other BIG schools to support to the athletic department.
So decreasing ticket prices in the hopes of increasing revenue is about the same as decreasing taxes and being sure tax revenue will increase. It has never happened.
Getting out of the Hump decreased seating by about 25.000 seats that were filled by visiting IA, WI and NE fans. That deceased revenue also.
So the AD is in a tough spot.
 

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