updated seating availability

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Here's a question: Once you pick your seats, are you locked into those for future seasons? Two friends and I got onto the waitlist for four tickets each (securing some for friends, who are also U grads), and we would like to sit together, or as close together as possible. It looks like finding 12 adjacent seats will be nearly impossible.
 

Future seasons

Good question. Will I be locked in to my seats for many seasons? Or will the U go through this seating process every few years where people have the chance to move up or down (through seat dontations or by not paying a seat donation and moving down to lesser priced seats)?
 

It was my understanding that they won't be doing a mass seat selection again (or at least until they expand) and changing seats would be based on priority/gopher points and seat availablity. I don't think people can be deposed from their current seats based on others points/priority (ex. I would prefer to have your seats next year and I have more gopher points than you). So basically, what you've got is more or less what you're going to have.

That's one of the issues some people worried about with the donation seats. If the price went up to something they couldn't afford, would they end up not being able to get seats if all the non-donation seats were sold out.
 

Section 210 Rows 18-24 ($250)

I'm not sure the site is updating properly. It still shows green on the map but if you select in, there are no seats available....anyone else notice that?
 

ditt1605 said:
It was my understanding that they won't be doing a mass seat selection again (or at least until they expand) and changing seats would be based on priority/gopher points and seat availablity. I don't think people can be deposed from their current seats based on others points/priority (ex. I would prefer to have your seats next year and I have more gopher points than you). So basically, what you've got is more or less what you're going to have.

That's one of the issues some people worried about with the donation seats. If the price went up to something they couldn't afford, would they end up not being able to get seats if all the non-donation seats were sold out.
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I don't think there was a huge concern about not getting seats, I think the concern was with not getting a lot of choice about where you could sit.
 


GopherVotary said:
Check your math, Goldmember. Also, you seem to be assuming that all of the outdoor club ticket buyers are new to season tickets. I would assume most of them are coming from the 29,100 of last year's season ticket holders.
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Club level buyers did not need to use their season ticket priority or season ticket to buy the club seats. I've talked to more than one Club buyer that are going to also renew their old season tickets.

If half of all Club Level buyers that were previous season ticket holders ALSO renew their season tickets (for family, friends, etc.), reduce the number of available seats by 750.
 

Regarding the question of what will happen in future years. I can comment on how Wisconsin does it. They have traditionally had 99% renewal, and this year have 95% renewal. They advise that seat improvements are very difficult to effect the larger the number of seats you have. They advise those in groups to indicate whether they are willing to split to improve their seats. They use the points system to rank move requests. So moving a group of 12 will likely be impossible if the U takes the same approach, unless a pair of people in your row drop their seats and you get to 'shift' closer to the 50.

One other note that is simply astonishing, both existing season ticket holders and non-season ticket holders need to give $2500 in the year that they buy additional seats. This might not be so bad if you already owned four $500 donation seats and wanted to buy a fifth, but would be downright brutal if you were a recent grad looking to buy a season ticket in the corners. Hopefully everyone on the wait list gets seats this year as I'd hate for anyone to have to pay that one time lump sum just for the right to an upper deck bleacher seat in the corner like they do in Madison. Also, one side of me hopes for a healthy wait list so that we always have sellouts and have a nice secondary market for tickets to the games we can't make, but I really don't want recent grads to face a 'buy in' like that.
 

badgergopher said:
One other note that is simply astonishing, both existing season ticket holders and non-season ticket holders need to give $2500 in the year that they buy additional seats. This might not be so bad if you already owned four $500 donation seats and wanted to buy a fifth, but would be downright brutal if you were a recent grad looking to buy a season ticket in the corners. Hopefully everyone on the wait list gets seats this year as I'd hate for anyone to have to pay that one time lump sum just for the right to an upper deck bleacher seat in the corner like they do in Madison. Also, one side of me hopes for a healthy wait list so that we always have sellouts and have a nice secondary market for tickets to the games we can't make, but I really don't want recent grads to face a 'buy in' like that.
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To be clear, the above is what they do in Madison. No news yet if the U plans a similar scheme.
 

If not too much trouble, can anybody give me 5/21 update on approximately how many seats are still left, including the $250 and $500's on the visitor side?

Thanks in advance.
 



TNGophfan said:
If not too much trouble, can anybody give me 5/21 update on approximately how many seats are still left, including the $250 and $500's on the visitor side?

Thanks in advance.
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I'm not sure this is possible unless you click on each section and take the time to count all the pin-head sized green dots (which may cause blindness)? Does anyone else know of an easier way to find the number of remaining seats (do they track this somewhere)? I couldn't find this on the site. Thanks.
 

TNGophfan said:
If not too much trouble, can anybody give me 5/21 update on approximately how many seats are still left, including the $250 and $500's on the visitor side?

Thanks in advance.
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I took a quick look and would say there are around 60, $250 seats and around 150, $500 seats.
 

badgergopher said:
One other note that is simply astonishing, both existing season ticket holders and non-season ticket holders need to give $2500 in the year that they buy additional seats. This might not be so bad if you already owned four $500 donation seats and wanted to buy a fifth, but would be downright brutal if you were a recent grad looking to buy a season ticket in the corners. Hopefully everyone on the wait list gets seats this year as I'd hate for anyone to have to pay that one time lump sum just for the right to an upper deck bleacher seat in the corner like they do in Madison. Also, one side of me hopes for a healthy wait list so that we always have sellouts and have a nice secondary market for tickets to the games we can't make, but I really don't want recent grads to face a 'buy in' like that.
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This isn't that astonishing to me. Once you're selling out, you can establish an "assured seating" program. The U already has this for hockey. For example, I'm on the waiting list for season hockey tickets (though I already split a pair with a friend) but I could move up to the front of the line and get tickets right away if I donate enough money. I'm not sure what that amount is right now for hockey but if we get consistent season ticket sellouts for football, the same may happen there.
 

Thanks Harry. Sounds like there will be no problem selling all those considering the wait list.
 



$250 seats gone! (other than singles). As of 2:50pm 5/21. Only about 138 of the $500 seats left (excluding singles), and they are consistently getting picked off. Looks like they will all go....
 

Goldentimeofday said:
$250 seats gone! (other than singles). As of 2:50pm 5/21. Only about 138 of the $500 seats left (excluding singles), and they are consistently getting picked off. Looks like they will all go....
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Just think, you could pick on the last day, and still have a shot at the $500 seats with tailgating spot across the street.
 

sonnygarcia said:
I'm not sure this is possible unless you click on each section and take the time to count all the pin-head sized green dots (which may cause blindness)? Does anyone else know of an easier way to find the number of remaining seats (do they track this somewhere)? I couldn't find this on the site. Thanks.
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I did not count every dot in some of the bigger sections, but I did do a rough count of all the sections. It appears we have approximately 3500 tickets or so left to sell. About 900 on the lower level and 2600 on the upper level.
 

badgergopher said:
One other note that is simply astonishing, both existing season ticket holders and non-season ticket holders need to give $2500 in the year that they buy additional seats. This might not be so bad if you already owned four $500 donation seats and wanted to buy a fifth, but would be downright brutal if you were a recent grad looking to buy a season ticket in the corners. Hopefully everyone on the wait list gets seats this year as I'd hate for anyone to have to pay that one time lump sum just for the right to an upper deck bleacher seat in the corner like they do in Madison. Also, one side of me hopes for a healthy wait list so that we always have sellouts and have a nice secondary market for tickets to the games we can't make, but I really don't want recent grads to face a 'buy in' like that.
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Just noticed this on the new site....

2009 football season tickets are SOLD OUT!
To encourage private support of our program, the best football season tickets are allocated to our most generous donors. Members of the Golden Gopher Fund receive priority in the assignment of available season tickets in TCF Bank Stadium according to their annual donation. Any additional season tickets that become available for the 2010 football season will be on sale June 15, 2010. If you would like to know more about the Golden Gopher Fund please call 612-626-4653 or email us at [email protected].

It will be interesting to see if this translates to a required gift just to come off the waiting list for a pair of non-donation seats in future years, that's what it sounds like to me...
 

badgergopher said:
Just noticed this on the new site....

2009 football season tickets are SOLD OUT!
To encourage private support of our program, the best football season tickets are allocated to our most generous donors. Members of the Golden Gopher Fund receive priority in the assignment of available season tickets in TCF Bank Stadium according to their annual donation. Any additional season tickets that become available for the 2010 football season will be on sale June 15, 2010. If you would like to know more about the Golden Gopher Fund please call 612-626-4653 or email us at [email protected].

It will be interesting to see if this translates to a required gift just to come off the waiting list for a pair of non-donation seats in future years, that's what it sounds like to me...
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I don't think it's saying a gift is required to leave the waitlist for open non-donation seats. It's simply saying you have the ability to get better seats (closer, seatback, etc) in the donation areas (should any seats open up) if you give the required levels of money.
 

GoAUpher said:
I don't think it's saying a gift is required to leave the waitlist for open non-donation seats. It's simply saying you have the ability to get better seats (closer, seatback, etc) in the donation areas (should any seats open up) if you give the required levels of money.
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The same thing applies to hockey. You can go on the normal waiting list now, and its 4000ish people long, so maybe you get tickets in 15-20 years if you are lucky.

However, if you happen to pony up a donation to the williams fund, and do so every year along with your tickets fee, you can get seats pretty much asap.

It all depends on how badly you want those tickets now.
 

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