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Gopher Nation? Just 37,000 tickets distributed for season opener; Only 2/3 will show up!!!

just pointing the facts out; not trying to be an arse ;)

The Minneapolis-St. Paul metro is now an estimated 3,600,618 residents. That is a 251,759 increase from the 2010 census, according to figures released Thursday. Mar 22, 2018.

The entire state of Iowa? The latest number I found was 3,146,000.
Maybe if they give away free tickets to the homeless to fill their stadium.

Hell, buy them 3 frozen pizzas while they’re at it.
 
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Here's how I see it.

1) let's face it, coming off last season and the fact it's NM State - how big a ticket is this really?

2) when you've had the lack of long term success they've had (been since the early 60's since they were relevant on a national scale)...the ticket buyers are gonna be leery.

3) buy into it or not, Minnesota ticket buyers have also have MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS, WNBA and who knows whatever other tickets to plan for...let alone buying tickets for a football program that has mostly stunk for 50+ years.

4) Fleck Fatigue Factor. I've been of the opinion that he was the exact wrong type of personality for that state. If he were an Iowa hire, pretty sure his act would go over like a lead balloon. Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin I think are fairly similar with what I would term "average citizen temperament" - look at who Iowa and Wisconsin have for coaches for proof, their personalities.

No nonsense, results produced. Something to believe in to trigger emotions such as wanting to buy tickets.

5) there no doubt is still major hangovers from the prior eras and how they turned out.


They'll start selling tickets when they start winning something worth buying tickets for. They don't want to hear about a turnaround coming, they want to see it first. And I cannot blame them at all and I suspect given the exact same circumstances Iowa would have the same issues.
Here's what I don't get. Michigan and Michigan State will have home games on the same day and both will sell out.

75,000 Mich State
107,000 Michigan
_____________________
182,000 Total tickets sold

The state of Michigan is just like the state of Minnesota and has the NHL, NFL, NBA, WNBA and MLB.

Also, don't forget all the directional Michigan teams that are selling football tickets.

45,000 Central Michigan
30,300 Eastern Michigan
30,200 Western Michigan

Somehow, the University of Minnesota can't sell 50,000 tickets when there are no other D1 teams to compete with and they have 3.6 million people in the Minneapolis/St Paul metro to sell to.
 
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16 pack? That should be good for about 10 tickets!!!
 
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Here's what I don't get. Michigan and Michigan State will have home games on the same day and both will sell out.

75,000 Mich State
107,000 Michigan
_____________________
182,000 Total tickets sold

The state of Michigan has the NHL, NFL, NBA, WNBA and MLB.

Also, don't forget all the directional Michigan teams that are selling football tickets.

45,000 Central Michigan
30,300 Eastern Michigan
30,200 Western Michigan

Somehow, Minnesota can't sell 50,000 tickets when there are no other D1 teams to compete with and they have 3.6 million people in the Minneapolis/St Paul metro to sell to.

Bingo. And don't give me the "there's nothing to do there"angle. Michigan is surrounded by the Great Lakes and plenty of outdoor options.
 
Having lived in the Twin Cities for some time now (and I'm sure others can attest) one thing that's become very obvious is it is a pro sports market. The Vikings are king, the Wild are a close second, the Wolves are on the come-up and the Twins at least draw weekend crowds even when they're bad. The Gophers are an afterthought. Granted, it doesn't help that their money-making programs haven't been successful, but the University will always play second fiddle to the professional teams around here.
 
Having lived in the Twin Cities for some time now (and I'm sure others can attest) one thing that's become very obvious is it is a pro sports market. The Vikings are king, the Wild are a close second, the Wolves are on the come-up and the Twins at least draw weekend crowds even when they're bad. The Gophers are an afterthought. Granted, it doesn't help that their money-making programs haven't been successful, but the University will always play second fiddle to the professional teams around here.
They have just 7 games to market. 7! They only have 50,000 seats to sell for each game.

Again here's what I don't get. Michigan and Michigan State will have home games on the same day and both will sell out.

75,000 Mich State
107,000 Michigan
_____________________
182,000 Total tickets sold

The state of Michigan is just like the state of Minnesota and has the NHL, NFL, NBA, WNBA and MLB.


Also, don't forget all the directional Michigan teams that are selling football tickets.

45,000 Central Michigan
30,300 Eastern Michigan
30,200 Western Michigan

Somehow, the University of Minnesota can't sell 50,000 tickets when there are no other D1 teams to compete with and they have 3.6 million people in the Minneapolis/St Paul metro to sell to.

Gopher fans can make all the excuses they want. The numbers don't lie.
 
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They have just 7 games to market. 7! They only have 50,000 seats to sell for each game.

Again here's what I don't get. Michigan and Michigan State will have home games on the same day and both will sell out.

75,000 Mich State
107,000 Michigan
_____________________
182,000 Total tickets sold

The state of Michigan is just like the state of Minnesota and has the NHL, NFL, NBA, WNBA and MLB.


Also, don't forget all the directional Michigan teams that are selling football tickets.

45,000 Central Michigan
30,300 Eastern Michigan
30,200 Western Michigan

Somehow, the University of Minnesota can't sell 50,000 tickets when there are no other D1 teams to compete with and they have 3.6 million people in the Minneapolis/St Paul metro to sell to.

Gopher fans can make all the excuses they want. The numbers don't lie.

There are "reasons" why Minny has trouble with ticket sales - that doesn't make them excuses. Apparently, the tradition in Michigan is go to CF games. In Minny, they like the Vikes and hockey - even high school hockey is big in Minnesota.

Minnesota is going to have to become much more of a threat to win the West to rebuild the fan base - to begin to build a tradition of their own.

I'd compare it to Iowa basketball. Over the last 20 years, Hawks fans have lost interest in going to the games. And, once fans lose interest in something, it's a bitch to get them back.
 
There are "reasons" why Minny has trouble with ticket sales - that doesn't make them excuses. Apparently, the tradition in Michigan is go to CF games. In Minny, they like the Vikes and hockey - even high school hockey is big in Minnesota.

Minnesota is going to have to become much more of a threat to win the West to rebuild the fan base - to begin to build a tradition of their own.

I'd compare it to Iowa basketball. Over the last 20 years, Hawks fans have lost interest in going to the games. And, once fans lose interest in something, it's a bitch to get them back.

Far less expensive to retain a fan than to attract a fan. Iowa missed that session in marketing 101 class. Trying to catch up now.
 
Having lived in the Twin Cities for some time now (and I'm sure others can attest) one thing that's become very obvious is it is a pro sports market. The Vikings are king, the Wild are a close second, the Wolves are on the come-up and the Twins at least draw weekend crowds even when they're bad. The Gophers are an afterthought.

Holy cow! I just realized how miserable it must be to be a sports fan up there. That level of futility is unprecedented. They put Cleveland to shame.
 
They have just 7 games to market. 7! They only have 50,000 seats to sell for each game.

Again here's what I don't get. Michigan and Michigan State will have home games on the same day and both will sell out.

75,000 Mich State
107,000 Michigan
_____________________
182,000 Total tickets sold

The state of Michigan is just like the state of Minnesota and has the NHL, NFL, NBA, WNBA and MLB.


Also, don't forget all the directional Michigan teams that are selling football tickets.

45,000 Central Michigan
30,300 Eastern Michigan
30,200 Western Michigan

Somehow, the University of Minnesota can't sell 50,000 tickets when there are no other D1 teams to compete with and they have 3.6 million people in the Minneapolis/St Paul metro to sell to.

Gopher fans can make all the excuses they want. The numbers don't lie.

Seriously Fran? Did you just post the exact same thing you did just a little ways up in the same thread, only making some words red in order to stress your point? That's over the top even for you.
 
There are "reasons" why Minny has trouble with ticket sales - that doesn't make them excuses. Apparently, the tradition in Michigan is go to CF games. In Minny, they like the Vikes and hockey - even high school hockey is big in Minnesota.

Minnesota is going to have to become much more of a threat to win the West to rebuild the fan base - to begin to build a tradition of their own.

I'd compare it to Iowa basketball. Over the last 20 years, Hawks fans have lost interest in going to the games. And, once fans lose interest in something, it's a bitch to get them back.
in Michigan, they like the Lions and hockey, too
 
College teams that are in big cities have a tendency to have a hard time drawing. The Michigan example is a very bad example. Ann Arbor is about 50 miles from Detroit. When you think of a college town it comes to mind (I lived there for 5 years). Michigan state is close to their capital but population wise it's comparable seat to Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. So not a big city. Cedar Rapids probably has even more people then Lansing

I won't comment about the other directional schools. But saying Eastern Michigan gets 30,000 is laughable. Ypsilanti is right next to Ann Arbor. As in Ypsi ends and Ann Arbor begins. They struggle to stay above averaging 15, 000 a year. Most fans in Ypsilanti are Michigan fans.
 
College teams that are in big cities have a tendency to have a hard time drawing. The Michigan example is a very bad example. Ann Arbor is about 50 miles from Detroit. When you think of a college town it comes to mind (I lived there for 5 years). Michigan state is close to their capital but population wise it's comparable seat to Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. So not a big city. Cedar Rapids probably has even more people then Lansing

I won't comment about the other directional schools. But saying Eastern Michigan gets 30,000 is laughable. Ypsilanti is right next to Ann Arbor. As in Ypsi ends and Ann Arbor begins. They struggle to stay above averaging 15, 000 a year. Most fans in Ypsilanti are Michigan fans.

Actually, Michigan is a great example.

Ann Arbor's pop is 120,000; they have no problem filling their 107,000 seat stadium.

East Lansing's pop is 49,000; Lansing's pop is 116,000; Michigan State fills their 75,000 seat stadium

Obviously, people are traveling from all over to get to the Michigan and Mich State games.

In the Twin Cities, Gopher fans don't have far to travel far to get to the game.

The Twin Cities metro pop is 3.6 MILLION; in last night's game, even with free pizza and comp'ed tickets, just 27,500 actually showed up in tiny 50,000 seat TCF Bank stadium. 27,000 from a 3.6 million metro population. Incredible.
 
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Actually, Michigan is a great example.

Ann Arbor's pop is 120,000; they have no problem filling their 107,000 seat stadium.

East Lansing's pop is 49,000; Lansing's pop is 116,000; Michigan State fills their 75,000 seat stadium

Obviously, people are traveling from all over to get to the Michigan and Mich State games.

In the Twin Cities, Gopher fans don't have far to travel far to get to the game.

The Twin Cities metro pop is 3.6 MILLION; in last night's game, even with free pizza and comp'ed tickets, just 27,500 actually showed up in tiny 50,000 seat TCF Bank stadium. 27,000 from a 3.6 million metro population. Incredible.

I don't understand the point you are trying to make. Michigan has more fans than Minnesota does, and they have more fans that want to go to the games than Minnesota does. If you are trying to prove that the Goofers don't have a huge die hard fan base, you would be correct. I don't think anyone is arguing that they do.
 
Far less expensive to retain a fan than to attract a fan. Iowa missed that session in marketing 101 class. Trying to catch up now.

Marketing Iowa basketball to convince people to come to the games is difficult. I would hazard a guess that everybody over the age of 25 that has the slightest interest in Iowa BB has been to a game. They know what they are getting, or not getting, when they go. I have been an Iowa basketball fan my whole life and usually look forward to seeing the games on TV, but I have no interest in going to CHA for a game. Free tickets, free concessions and rock star parking wouldn't get me to go. Weather, traffic, games ending at 10 pm, and the convenience of my family room and my big screen TV are a lot to overcome. I'm sure there are similar reasons for people to pass on Goofer FB.

The team simply has to get better, and stay better for a while, to get the fans interested in coming to the games.
 
Yawn.


https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-footballs-growing-problem-empty-seats-1535634001

The average count of tickets scanned at home games—the number of fans who actually show up—is about 71% of the attendance you see in a box score, according to data from the 2017 season collected by The Wall Street Journal. In the Mid-American Conference, with less-prominent programs like Central Michigan and Toledo, teams’ scanned attendance numbers were 45% of announced attendance...

Many schools take a generous approach in compiling announced attendance, by including ushers, security guards and even the guy at the concession stand who sells you a Coke. That partly explains how Purdue’s announced attendance last season spiked 13,433 per game—the largest jump in college football. (Purdue didn’t report how many tickets it actually scanned last year, citing what a spokesman called “outdated equipment, connectivity problems and user error.”)..


Sagging student attendance remains a problem, even at perennial power Alabama. As part of a recently announced renovation of Bryant-Denny Stadium, the school plans to add a student terrace to create “a more interactive and social environment,” athletic director Greg Byrne said.

The renovations also will add more club and lounge areas and slightly reduce the stadium’s 101,821 capacity, part of a trend of downsizing college football stadiums.

Crowds at South Carolina have ebbed in recent years and scanned attendance made up 78% of the Gamecocks’ announced attendance last season. South Carolina held a one-day sale for the season opener against Coastal Carolina: $18.01 per ticket in honor of the school’s founding year. It sold 3,100 of those.

“If you’re in the upper deck and buying a ticket for 45 bucks, and the choice is, I can sit on my couch and have a really good view, you might do that,” said Lance Grantham, associate athletic director for ticketing and customer relations. “The [TV] product is just outrageously good.”

Public attendance numbers are part of some schools’ identity. Michigan Stadium, the “Big House,” whose 107,601 capacity is the nation’s largest, still claims a streak of 100,000-plus attendance games dating back to 1975, even though two games last year showed fewer than 80,000 scanned tickets...


Nebraska boasts a sellout streak that dates to the 1962 season. But during last year’s 4-8 record, there was an average gap of more than 18,000 per game between scanned and announced attendance—mostly no-shows, a spokesman said...

Free tickets often are counted among attendance figures even if they’re never used. California, on the hook to repay the cost of a $321 million renovation for Memorial Stadiumunveiled in 2012, gave away 57,108 tickets last season. That’s nearly an entire free game at the 62,467-seat stadium. About 35% of the free tickets were used, school officials say.
 
Actually, Michigan is a great example.

Ann Arbor's pop is 120,000; they have no problem filling their 107,000 seat stadium.

East Lansing's pop is 49,000; Lansing's pop is 116,000; Michigan State fills their 75,000 seat stadium

Obviously, people are traveling from all over to get to the Michigan and Mich State games.

In the Twin Cities, Gopher fans don't have far to travel far to get to the game.

The Twin Cities metro pop is 3.6 MILLION; in last night's game, even with free pizza and comp'ed tickets, just 27,500 actually showed up in tiny 50,000 seat TCF Bank stadium. 27,000 from a 3.6 million metro population. Incredible.

You are completely overlooking that college teams in big cities have a hard time drawing for the most part. Look at Miami look at Pitt. Once again, the situation at the Michigan schools is different then in Minnesota. These are legit college towns. Minneapolis isn't.
 
You are completely overlooking that college teams in big cities have a hard time drawing for the most part. Look at Miami look at Pitt. Once again, the situation at the Michigan schools is different then in Minnesota. These are legit college towns. Minneapolis isn't.
Still, shouldn’t 3.6 million be able to fill a 50,000 seat stadium? Really pathetic
 
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Gopher Hockey is still the top draw at the University but they tried to force students who wanted hockey season tickets to purchase football season tickets as well. Couple that with all the conference rivalries the Gophers had in the WCHA are now gone and while the Big Ten has great hockey schools, there just isn't the history and tradition that fans were used to.

Vikings and Twins were both on the road Thursday as well so there was no direct competitions that night.
 
Gopher Hockey is still the top draw at the University but they tried to force students who wanted hockey season tickets to purchase football season tickets as well. Couple that with all the conference rivalries the Gophers had in the WCHA are now gone and while the Big Ten has great hockey schools, there just isn't the history and tradition that fans were used to.

Vikings and Twins were both on the road Thursday as well so there was no direct competitions that night.
Vikings out of town.
Twins out of town.
Buy 3 Red Baron pizzas, get 2 FREE football tickets.
Free tickets handed out to others
3.6 million people to market to
Just 50,000 seats to fill
just 7 games to worry about

And just 27,500 actually showed up last night.
 
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Another factor is you have an alumni base who didn't bother to go over to the metrodome when they were students, so football saturdays are not really a thing for them.
 
Marketing Iowa basketball to convince people to come to the games is difficult. I would hazard a guess that everybody over the age of 25 that has the slightest interest in Iowa BB has been to a game. They know what they are getting, or not getting, when they go. I have been an Iowa basketball fan my whole life and usually look forward to seeing the games on TV, but I have no interest in going to CHA for a game. Free tickets, free concessions and rock star parking wouldn't get me to go. Weather, traffic, games ending at 10 pm, and the convenience of my family room and my big screen TV are a lot to overcome. I'm sure there are similar reasons for people to pass on Goofer FB.

The team simply has to get better, and stay better for a while, to get the fans interested in coming to the games.

I don't disagree with that at all. My TV does a great job. I think that Iowa, when the teams were good, treated the fans as if they were always going to come out, that students would always show up. They did very little to improve the game day experience because they felt they had a captive and very loyal fan base. They neglected that fan base to a large degree and are now stuck in a tough spot of overcoming the obstacles that you mentioned.
 
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I don't disagree with that at all. My TV does a great job. I think that Iowa, when the teams were good, treated the fans as if they were always going to come out, that students would always show up. They did very little to improve the game day experience because they felt they had a captive and very loyal fan base. They neglected that fan base to a large degree and are now stuck in a tough spot of overcoming the obstacles that you mentioned.

Agreed. Still, they hired a prick, then a sleep-walker. Hard for the Marketing dept to overcome.
 
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