Were there really empty seats in the upper sections?

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monsoongopher

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As I was watching the 1st Qtr on Saturday, I thought I noticed quite a few empty seats in the upper sections in the corners. Were there empty seats the whole game?? I've been seeing the posts about the fans leaving early. That was clearly noticeable from the TV broadcast. They panned in on whole groups of people walking outside the stadium in masses with 5 minutes left to go....pathetic! However, it's even more pathetic if the stadium wasn't sold out for just it's second game in existence against an 8th ranked team on a gorgeous day!! Is the fan base that fickle that they wouldn't sell out a new stadium in just it's second game?

I need to hear it from the people that were there. FYI, I would have been there but.....I live in Phoenix! I am flying in just for the game against S. Dakota St. on Nov 14th. GO GOPHERS!!
 

It was sold out. It was a combo of possibly a few students not showing up, with a lot of them cramming into the lower level to get closer. It was pretty full up in that corner for most of the meat of the game.
 

All of the empty seats were student seats, it wasn't that tickets went unsold or regualr fans did not show up. I'll just add on to Monty's explanation by saying that the student seats are general admission, so that's why they are able to pack into the lower level so tightly like that.
 

Is the fan base that fickle that they wouldn't sell out a new stadium in just it's second game?
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The stadium was sold out. A sell out means that all the tickets are sold, that's all it means. It doesn't mean that there is a butt in every seat.

The students do have a tendency to stagger in late. And you're never going to have everyone with a ticket showing up. As the student section is not assigned seats, the empty spots are going to be concentrated in the least desirable seats, in the upper corners. In this was assigned seating, you would never notice scattered empty seats.

There is some debate over whether students were crowding in tighter than the alloted space in the lower rows, that could account for at least some of the empty spaces in the corners. I was at the Air Force game, and there was a small number of open spots up in the corners.

If students are indeed crowding more tightly than the alloted space, then for next year, the U could shave a couple inches off the alloted space to sell some more student tickets. Since they scan all the tickets, it should be possible to tell how many students actually showed up to the game.
 

Also, it was pretty hot in the sun and a number of people moved into the concourses to watch.
 


At one point durring the game every seat was accounted for. Between showing up late and leaving early, there will always be some empty seats.

Because the students pack-in beyond capicty in the lower bowl they should sell an extra 500 student tickets with the idea that the last 500 students to show up get to stand.
 

Yes, the student section looked full at one point but the upper corners of the student section were open for much of the first half. Some of it is cramming (there is MORE room between the bench seating than most college stadiums) and some of it is arriving late/leaving early.

The main seating bowl is sold out for the season so they are all "sell outs" but I'm sure we will see open seats in the student second deck corners again... especially for 11:00 AM starts.

I agree they should do something different for the Student general admission tickets next year, especially if there is a student demand for more tickets. If so, they could start by renumbering the student section for smaller seats/more seats per foot. They could perhaps raise the number of student season tickets
 

I had the KFAN postgame show on Saturday and forgot to turn the station. So on Sunday, while driving to church I listened to Barreiro's "sunday sermon" segment. Stupid SOB said there was so many empty seats that there "couldn't have been more than 42,000 in that stadium". Of course he pulled that number out of thin air and ran with it.
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
I had the KFAN postgame show on Saturday and forgot to turn the station. So on Sunday, while driving to church I listened to Barreiro's "sunday sermon" segment. Stupid SOB said there was so many empty seats that there "couldn't have been more than 42,000 in that stadium". Of course he pulled that number out of thin air and ran with it.
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But we're supposed to believe every word that KFAN says, aren't we? :rolleyes:

Since capacity is about 50,800, if we really had only 42,000, that would mean that there would have to be about 8800 empty seats, or only about 83% filled. The question is does he actually think that, in which case he just can't do math, or is he lying?

A small number of seats in the upper corners of the student section doesn't ad up to 8800 seats!
 



I've seen some empty seats in the upper deck in both games. Not sure why, it seems kind of stupid to be a no show. I suspect that the brokers who wanted $150+ for those seats ended up eating some.
 

FireCosgroveGuy said:
I've seen some empty seats in the upper deck in both games. Not sure why, it seems kind of stupid to be a no show. I suspect that the brokers who wanted $150+ for those seats ended up eating some.
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Plain and simple people like to stand and watch.

I think this stadium allows people to get out of their seats, and therefore you see that exactly. Empty seats.

I was wondering who the hell would pay for the outdoor club and not watch the game. Then I remembered. Oh yeah, they have a club where they can watch the game.

I think we are making this into something it is not.

Forsure some students were no shows, but I am not sure how many because of the cramming. I think they are 100 going to regret not making that one solid section in the endzone with no open concourse. Spilting the student section was not necessary.
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
I had the KFAN postgame show on Saturday and forgot to turn the station. So on Sunday, while driving to church I listened to Barreiro's "sunday sermon" segment. Stupid SOB said there was so many empty seats that there "couldn't have been more than 42,000 in that stadium". Of course he pulled that number out of thin air and ran with it.
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LOL!!! those were the LOUDEST 42,000 fans I've ever heard, then. Barriero is a f'ing MORON.
 

Bareirro can kiss my Golden Gopher butt

You know, I used to like Danny Downer, but then he got all up on Gophers fans. I'm not even talking about Brewster and the football program. He was alienating fans! It's one thing to rip the football program and Brewster. It's another to attack Gophers fans and the listeners.

He did it again on the radio today. The guy just wants to piss people off. He likes being an a--hole. That's his shtick. Don't feed his act. Just tune out him and the rest of those KFAN small-timers.

btw, I guarantee there were 50,000+ fans at the game. And I bet there were 9,900+ students.
 



KFAN's M.O. is to rip Gopher fans. They try to appeal to Hawkeye and Badger fans while pimpimg the Vikings at the expense of the Gophers.

You can not be a Gopher fan and listen to KFAN.

You also can't be a man and listen to KFAN (but that's a whole different topic).
 

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