Where's this week's student ticket sales story?

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Gopher07

Gopher07

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I, for one, would be interested to see if there's a bump from kids who had free tickets on Saturday purchasing tickets for the rest of the year after the game. Here's hoping we'll be over 6,000 for Western Michigan and higher for Syracuse if we can beat the Broncos.
 

I have student tickets, I can't make the next two weeks of games, I was talking to two guys that got the free ticket and they cited the cost of the student ticket as the reason they hadn't gotten season tickets. The economy is still down and maybe money is tight.
 

Coolew01 said:
I have student tickets, I can't make the next two weeks of games, I was talking to two guys that got the free ticket and they cited the cost of the student ticket as the reason they hadn't gotten season tickets. The economy is still down and maybe money is tight.
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How does the economy being down have anything to do with a student being able to afford tickets? Most traditional students (undergraduate, 18-22 year old kids) don't have a job during school, and if they do it's an on-campus one (either a dummy job or a research one). Most are taking out loans to pay for school, and I guarantee they can find $90 in their budget to go to games.

Has NOTHING to do with the economy. They aren't not able to afford tickets because they can't find jobs or jobs pay less than they used to. They "can't afford" tickets because they are prioritizing those expensive apartments going up on campus, 4 Chipotle burritos a month over the course of the season, ONE PS3/XBox video game, etc etc. And this is because they still don't see the value in paying $90 for 7 football games and a t-shirt compared to the other things they are buying with their (parents') money.

Funny how in a down economy people at Wisconsin and Iowa are able to "afford" higher priced student tickets. So odd.
 

FWIW, tickets are still on sale for the normal price of $84 plus the $7 fee. So my guess is, no ticket sales won't increase.
 

It was great seeing the crowd on Saturday. To me, TCF Bank and Target field are the two best venues in town. Outdoor football with the band and the energy from the campus all make the college football experience for more fun and interesting to me than an NFL game. I hope the student ticket sales pick up. I remember being a student at the U and having to prioritize my expenses. It's not easy to come up with an extra $100 if it's not a high priority. Once the team continues to win, I think students will find a way to fill it up.
 


GopherInPittsburgh said:
FWIW, tickets are still on sale for the normal price of $84 plus the $7 fee. So my guess is, no ticket sales won't increase.
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Hopefully they modify the price soon (taking into account of one less game) if that is keeping anyone from buying a student season ticket.
 

Coolew01 said:
I have student tickets, I can't make the next two weeks of games, I was talking to two guys that got the free ticket and they cited the cost of the student ticket as the reason they hadn't gotten season tickets. The economy is still down and maybe money is tight.
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No it is NOT, There are part time jobs everywhere for people who actually look and TRY to find a job for some extra income during college.. I just graduated, between all of the businesses around the U, and all of the University jobs that are available I find it ridiculous people are still complaining about jobs.. Stop being so damn picky and thinking you need some elite job or you're too good for it mentality.. I am 25 and supported myself all the way through college, my parents gave me a total of about 200 bucks my whole 4.5 years there, and I could not be more irritated by all the Daddy and Mommy money all these College kids get for college and then complain about everything possible. There are plenty of jobs, and even if you don't get a job student loans cover soooo much more then just tuition.. Blaming the cost and the economy is the last thing you should be doing. /rant

And when I say 'you' it's more of a general student population thing, not YOU.
 

The Twin Cities are an extreme anomaly in the country in that the unemployment rate is around 5% in general. It is more like 2% for those holding a college degree. Campus recruiting is ramping up, and given the extensive construction on campus, I would say there are plenty of jobs available that cater to university students. The economy in the Twin Cities is far from being down.

Now if you were budgeting for buying tickets between Football, Basketball, and Hockey....then I would believe the price matters. It would not surprise me if the U would start promoting to students that single game tickets are still available for $15 every week as opposed to trying to sell season ticket packages at this point.
 

RailBaronYarr said:
Funny how in a down economy people at Wisconsin and Iowa are able to "afford" higher priced student tickets. So odd.
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Funny how people on this board tell people how to spend their money. Why pay $90 if Teague and Kill drive around in a golf cart every week passing out freebies?
 



People are free to spend their money as they wish. If they don't want to spend $90 to come to Gophers games, berating students will not persude them to attend. It's up to the U to persude students that it is worthwhile to attend Gophers football games.

But if $90 is too expensive given the current economy, while it wasn't too expensive in previous years, we should see some evidence of this. Take pizza, for example. Are students purchasing less pizza or purchasing cheaper pizza? If money is so tight that they have to cut back on football tickets, surely they must be cutting back in other areas as well. Are students spending less money in Dinkytown then they previously had?
 

Art Vandelay said:
Funny how people on this board tell people how to spend their money. Why pay $90 if Teague and Kill drive around in a golf cart every week passing out freebies?
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He didn't tell them how to spend their money. He observed that students at Iowa and Wisconsin were able to afford tickets and inferred that the reason students at Minnesota weren't buying student tickets wasn't because of the price.
 

How many of the students do not have $90 for tickets? Or take into account 7 games or less than $13. How many out of 30,000 undergraduates? No, I doubt its the money, rather the attraction. I would bet those who claim poverty, are spending $90 in a semester on Pizza and Beer or some herb. The attraction of the football team winning will find these same students reordering priorities and buying tickets. Last weekend was a picture perfect illustration of what it should be. It as simple as it can be, Just Win, Baby! Beat Western Michigian!
 

Art Vandelay said:
Funny how people on this board tell people how to spend their money. Why pay $90 if Teague and Kill drive around in a golf cart every week passing out freebies?
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Handing out free tickets for the opener now qualifies as "every week?"
 




I'm not convinced that students of this generation wouldn't rather spend Saturday playing video games, surfing the web on their $30/month (data package) iphones, texting, twittering, etc. than going to a football game. I'm not sure winning will do it.
 

Coolew01 said:
I have student tickets, I can't make the next two weeks of games, I was talking to two guys that got the free ticket and they cited the cost of the student ticket as the reason they hadn't gotten season tickets. The economy is still down and maybe money is tight.
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If anyone is attempting to pass this off as a legitimate excuse, it is complete BS.
 

Firejumper said:
I'm not convinced that students of this generation wouldn't rather spend Saturday playing video games, surfing the web on their $30/month (data package) iphones, texting, twittering, etc. than going to a football game. I'm not sure winning will do it.
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Then what is your explanation of those insane kids that help fill up gigantic stadiums around the nation (almost all of which do not serve those students beer)?
 

Gopher Warrior said:
Then what is your explanation of those insane kids that help fill up gigantic stadiums around the nation (almost all of which do not serve those students beer)?
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Agreed, students at other schools are part of the same generation. Since students at other schools attend football games, we cannot attribute the student ticket situation to a generational issue, if we could, we'd see the same thing all over the country. People are alwyays shaking their fists at the current generation. It used to be shaking their fists at young people and their transistor radios. Before that, it was shaking fists at jalopies and racoon coats.
 

Firejumper said:
I'm not convinced that students of this generation wouldn't rather spend Saturday playing video games, surfing the web on their $30/month (data package) iphones, texting, twittering, etc. than going to a football game. I'm not sure winning will do it.
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I sit in Section 117 right by the student section. I can tell you that a good chunk of the students are texting, tweeting, facebooking, foursquaring, emailing, surfing the web, etc. right from their seats so this can't be a legitimate reason as to why students aren't coming to games. They can still do this and it doesn't bother me as a die-hard fan because at least they're at the game and supporting the team in some capacity.
 

RodentRampage said:
He didn't tell them how to spend their money. He observed that students at Iowa and Wisconsin were able to afford tickets and inferred that the reason students at Minnesota weren't buying student tickets wasn't because of the price.
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Thank you for your reading comprehension skills. I never told anyone that Gopher football games was what they SHOULD spend their money on, simply that the excuse given was complete and utter BS.

RodentRampage said:
But if $90 is too expensive given the current economy, while it wasn't too expensive in previous years, we should see some evidence of this. Take pizza, for example. Are students purchasing less pizza or purchasing cheaper pizza? If money is so tight that they have to cut back on football tickets, surely they must be cutting back in other areas as well. Are students spending less money in Dinkytown then they previously had?
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Thank you for illustrating my point that clearly disposable income is still being spent on frivolous items in Dinkytown. Businesses are not shutting down; in fact, more restaurants and bars are open now than ever before and students are choosing to live in swankier, more expensive apartments. Clearly the income/available cash is there but students are choosing to spend it NOT on Gopher football.
 

Art Vandelay said:
They will now as long as they have 10,000-12,000 extras every week.....
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Considering the student section has a 10,000 total seat allotment and they've sold well over 3,000 now (more? where are the numbers since this weekend?), I highly doubt they have 10-12,000 leftover student tickets.

This was a recognition that they were not attracting students to the games, and that of the total season ticket package, the UNH game held the least value to students given the level of competition. This means they were not diluting the value of a season ticket package by much since 4 B10 games remain (including homecoming), and 2 NC games, one of which is a night game against a BCS conference opponent. They will not continue to hand out free tickets, this was a smart marketing move to get students to see the gameday "product" - the stadium, team, atmosphere, etc and get hooked.

Tell me, have you ever bought a CD even though the radio kept giving you the music for free? Have you ever paid full price for a meal at a restaurant even though they sometimes run specials or give out coupons? Should I go on?
 

It's motivation and desire to be there. An xbox game is $55. The cell phone is $50/month. Endless jobs posted on the U's website. Heck give plasma twice for an hour for $50 each and you are covered. How many will BLEED for Gopher seats?
 

popeyoung5 said:
It's motivation and desire to be there. An xbox game is $55. The cell phone is $50/month. Endless jobs posted on the U's website. Heck give plasma twice for an hour for $50 each and you are covered. How many will BLEED for Gopher seats?
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I went with making a different type of donation at cryolife.
 


You can charge tickets to your student account. I did that most years for hoops, football, and hockey.
 



It's a great job that I can just go home and blow it off.
 

STrib Letter to the Editor:

GOPHERS
And if beer doesn't help, try free tuition



As a season-ticket holder since the Lou Holtz days, I have heard many times about the University of Minnesota hiring marketing companies to fill the student section. Judging by Saturday's game, the efforts are failing. The entire upper-deck student section was empty. The U has sold only about 3,000 student season tickets out of an allocation of 10,000.

How to sell the rest? Simple: Give away one annual tuition at every home game. Current tuition is $13,459 per year. With seven home games, such a promotion would cost $94,213. Look at it this way. Selling 10,000 student tickets at $80 or 12,994 beers at $7.25 would certainly cover the cost.

What U of M parent wouldn't shell out $80 for their kid to have a chance for free tuition?

PAT MANION, EDINA

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/letters/170100526.html

Go Gophers!!
 

The students at the U should be embarrassed by their lack of commitment to their school, fellow classmates, and for the Gopher Football program. A school of 50k students should not need multiple promotions, free give-aways, etc. in hopes to have a 10k student section more than half full for 6 or so football games a year.

However, this is very sadly what the present situation is. It is very embarrassing for the program to have a really empty student section every week so whatever our leaders think is best to get them in the doors is fine by me. Props to Pat for providing an idea for a possible solution instead of just complaining. I believe President Kaler, AD Teague, and Coach Kill have the right vision and goals for the direction of the program going forward and I trust they will make decisions and that they will do whatever it takes to get us there.

If they agree with Pat's suggestion then I support it, simple as that. I like the creativity of the idea, hopefully the public will continue to provide help rather than take the all too familiar route of degrading the program for all its faults while ignoring potential solutions and current successes/positives.
 

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