Teague: We are going to dig deep this offseason to improve crowd situation

[Breakin' The Plane]

No no... I managed to confuse everybody. I misunderstood Ole's point. I was referring to the spots themselves as being first come, first serve. To get in the lot, you have to make the $1000 donation, plus buy the spot; once in, then you can park wherever (same as most of hte other tailgate lots).

Sorry!

OK. Got it. I thought I was missing out of something. Truth is I'm really curious about tailgating closer to the stadium, but we just can't justify the cost. There's five in my group, no one is an alum and we've had plenty of fun at the Fairgrounds or the Flats for $10 a game. We've got (bleacher) seats we love, surrounded by good people, and I can't see us ever giving them up to move to seats where we'd automatically be bumped into the donation category. Still, we don't like that 20-minute walk to the stadium and are always intrigued by tailgating closer to the stadium.

 

[RailBaronYarr]

The concept is very similar to when Mariucci switched the student seats from assigned to first come first serve. There would be seniors who would get the good seats, not show up until partway into the game because they would be at the bar, and then we would have to start the game with good seats empty. When it became first come, first serve, the most dedicated and loudest fans filled into the lower seats and we had an intimidating atmosphere heckling the other team during warmups. The analogy is that if the lot opens at 5 AM, then the people closest to the stadium will be the people excited enough about the game to get there at 5 AM, and there is a grilling tailgating party going on for 6 hours before the game that will grow outward as people show up. That is a much better atmosphere than some scattered fans of dedicated people who show up early (such as UnitedWeStand) amongst a lot of people who just use the spot as a convenient and close parking spot at 15 minutes til kickoff.

As for the revenue thing, we will lose revenue on the spots themselves in the short run, and if sacrificing the atmosphere for that revenue is what we want, then we can't complain about the atmosphere we get. I think in the long run, having the better gameday environment would result in more overall revenue from increased attendance and concession sales.

Yeah this was frustrating to me as a student hockey ticket holder who after 2 years of tickets and attending every game (early and til the end) got denied my senior year. Luckily I was in band and joined the hockey pep band but then to watch many seats remain open was frustrating. However, empty seats til the end of the 1st was not only a student section problem.

That said, they've since reduced the student allotment when they also changed it to general admission for students, and look where it got them. The student section was and is the only one that is full and loud. I have noticed SO many empty seats at Mariucci in prime locations and most specifically the east end upper half where students used to reside. They don't just sit empty until the 2nd, they are empty the whole game. Watch the MN-WI game from tonight and tell me I'm wrong. This is what you get when you go for the revenue the easy way through corporations - empty seats, parking lots, and concession without anyone to buy them against your 2nd biggest rival in hockey (and soon to be biggest when the B10 conference takes over for hockey).

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Yeah this was frustrating to me as a student hockey ticket holder who after 2 years of tickets and attending every game (early and til the end) got denied my senior year. Luckily I was in band and joined the hockey pep band but then to watch many seats remain open was frustrating. However, empty seats til the end of the 1st was not only a student section problem.

That said, they've since reduced the student allotment when they also changed it to general admission for students, and look where it got them. The student section was and is the only one that is full and loud. I have noticed SO many empty seats at Mariucci in prime locations and most specifically the east end upper half where students used to reside. They don't just sit empty until the 2nd, they are empty the whole game. Watch the MN-WI game from tonight and tell me I'm wrong. This is what you get when you go for the revenue the easy way through corporations - empty seats, parking lots, and concession without anyone to buy them against your 2nd biggest rival in hockey (and soon to be biggest when the B10 conference takes over for hockey).

Agreed. The empty (but sold) seats in hockey is an eyesore. Football is turning into the same thing.