Grapple On The Gridiron Ticket Sales
- Thread starter bman546
- Start date
Not bad. Got about 15k to go before I'll be really excited about the attendance. I think Hawk fans will get close.
I figure there will be close to 5k walk-ups from the football tailgaters. Hopefully they sell 10k over the next 5 weeks. Sure would love to see 40k+.
I figure there will be close to 5k walk-ups from the football tailgaters. Hopefully they sell 10k over the next 5 weeks. Sure would love to see 40k+.
Even in the internet age, I was wondering if it would make sense to have a couple of booths set up in Kinnick during football games to sell tickets. Some of these folks might be impulse buyers with a couple of beer in 'em.
sorry if this was mentioned in another thread, but is BTN or some other entity doing video feed over the interweb?
I presume with this being football season, no way BTN does live coverage but even a tape delay of the event would be great.
Thanks in advance
I presume with this being football season, no way BTN does live coverage but even a tape delay of the event would be great.
Thanks in advance
I really like your posts normally, WWDM, but this is absolutely bonkers. You're not excited that Iowa has sold over 26,000 tickets more than a month before the meet? This post is the epitome of what people think of when they think of Iowa wrestling fans: completely irrational.
I think the proper interpretation is WWDM Hawkeye, knowing the Iowa fanbase as well as he does, knows 26,00 tickets sold as of now was a sure thing. He has faith in our fanbase and has realistic, yet lofty goals that we can get 40k in Kinnick.
You'll have to cut WWDM some slack. The 2014 football season drove him to the brink, and he is just now beginning to recover.
I don't see anything "bonkers" about it. They're holding the meet in a FOOTBALL STADIUM, for crying out loud. Of course the crowd's going to be big -- it's Iowa, after all, and we support wrestling like nobody in the nation. Who didn't expect to sell 26,000? That's at the low end of just about every projection I've seen. We easily sell out Carver for big meets. It's a no-brainer that we can sell about 25,000 for a meet in Kinnick that's being promoted to the hilt.
I'm not saying I don't think it's a good thing that we've sold 26,000. I'm saying that 26,000 was expected, as a low-end projection by most, and I'll really be excited if we get over 40,000. It will be a great event and the record will get broken, but let's be real -- if you're holding the meet in a 70,000-seat football stadium, you expect not just to break the record set in a 16,000-seat arena -- you expect to DEMOLISH it. I don't think your average diehard Iowa wrestling fan is just hoping to fill the south end of the stadium. They want to fill at least half of the place. Heck -- I want to see Kinnick full! Don't you? Especially considering that there will be about 70,000 football fans milling around the Kinnick area that day, I don't think it's unreasonable to hope we get 40,000 fans in there for the Grapple on the Gridiron.
Bman546 had it exactly right, BTW.
Fwiw, it was confirmed sales were over 28k last week. Unfortunately Poke fans don't support wrestling very well so we can't count on them to help bolster the numbers. Wonder if ISU or UNI faithful will be there for this historic event?
Weather will be a factor as well whenever you have an event outdoors in November. There are a lot of fans that just do not want to go and sit in freezing weather when they can watch from their warm living rooms at home. Not me though, I will be in Kinnick...
They should have had this meet against UNI and had it in the Unidome. Warm and climate controlled. I bet they would have sold the place out by now...
They should have had this meet against UNI and had it in the Unidome. Warm and climate controlled. I bet they would have sold the place out by now...
I completely support WDM here. When you consider the history and tradition of this team, and the support Iowa receives from its sports fans, then go on to consider the once-in-a-lifetime event that is taking place, it would be "bonkers" to not expect a minimum of 25,000 tickets sold. It would have been a fail of epoch proportions for Iowa to hold a meet in a 70,000 seat stadium for the express purpose of smashing the attendance record, then not even getting it nearly half-full. With 25,000 as a embarrassing minimum, it's completely reasonable to set 40,000 as the number to look for before you're actually "excited."
I hope the wrestling gods smile upon Iowa City that day and give us a sunny, 50+ day that is not uncommon in November. I'm hoping they sell 35,000 in advance. I'm hoping the football team keeps winning so a lot of football fans get excited and make a last minute decision to attend the meet -- and that a couple thousand Minnesota fans (who also love wrestling) decide they want to be part of history -- so we get over 45,000 people in the stands and the day becomes one that is talked about for decades.
Would I be satisfied with 30,000 people in the stadium? Sure; we would solidify the attendance record for the foreseeable future. But to be "excited" I think any fan would be looking for a lot more.
I don't think it's irrational to expect the final attendance to be well over 26,000. On that we all agree, I think. I just think it's irrational to not be pleased and excited that 26,000 tickets were sold in the first few days they were on sale to the general public. We can talk all we want about "this is Iowa, of course we're going to sell out the football stadium for a wrestling meet" but whenever you're talking about a first-ever event there's an element of uncertainty as to how it will play out. To me, the excitement of having already sold 26,000+ tickets is that it bodes well for the event to end up with a truly dazzling final attendance number.
Except it would be UNI's record then. And you would only get about 22-23k.
I think the administration should market this to wrestling programs around the entire state. Let kids get in for a nominal fee when they show they are a member of a wrestling team. Perhaps even set aside a parking area (only until the meet is over) that teams could carpool or bring school buses to. Young wrestlers are the perfect target to support the sport and to get excited about Hawkeye wrestling.
Yes, but 26k was the low end in ACTUAL ATTENDANCE, meaning that while sitting in the stadium, looking around, there are 26k people there.
It certainly isn't the "low end" this far ahead of the meet. Hell, the big Iowa/ISU meets that set the records weren't sellouts a month in advance. We've hit this mark right on schedule, or ahead of. 12k prior to public sale and 14k in the week after. It was ALWAYS going to be about the week leading up and walk-up attendance.
26k is already "demolishing it", but I agree that 40k isn't "unreasonable", but it should be seen as "awesome." You sound like you expect it.
Good idea, but parking is likely going to be a cluster-f* regardless, as tailgating vehicles will be there well ahead of the football game. Wrestling fans =/= football fans, and I'm not sure how much overlap there will be. I could see 58k solely there for football (with another 10k tailgating solely for football) with an overlap of just 10-12k with wrestling fans, which would leave another 15k just wrestling fans that wouldn't have been there otherwise. 15k people is, what, 6500 more cars than usual? Even with it at 11am, and 7pm, parking is going to be packed.
I think the "wrong" part of what I see you guys posting is that you keep citing the 70k capacity stadium. They didn't choose Kinnick because it had 70k seats....they chose it because it is the only viable option over the current record. If we had a 40-50k venue available, I'm sure that is where it would be.
Beaver Stadium holds 110k people, but you'd be crazy to think that because they hold it there they would be able to reach that limit. It isn't the venue that is necessarily drawing the fans, it is the ability to fit more in and create a spectacle. The 70k aspect is really irrelevant, and shouldn't be compared to.
Basically, what I'm saying too long-windedly is you set yourself up for disappointment when you immediately chase the absolute maximum amount of people possible, as opposed to the excitement of how many people might actually show up.
40k! sounds awesome! 40/70k sounds less so.
Updated forecast, low clouds, 55 degree's for 11/14/15
I'm not sure everybody here really disagrees all that much. WDM was saying what number would "excite" him for total attendance; which is 40k. I agree that this is the mark it would take for me to be excited. Some of you are talking about it being exciting that we've sold >25k a month in advance. I agree that's an encouraging sign. I'm just not going to be excited until I see 40k butts in the seats on that day. Do I "expect" it? To the extend that I expect to be excited, yes, I guess I do expect it. To quantify it:
< 25k = very disappointed
25k to 30k = mildly disappointed
30k to 35k = pretty happy
35k to 40k = very happy
> 40k = excited
25k to 30k = mildly disappointed
30k to 35k = pretty happy
35k to 40k = very happy
> 40k = excited
My guess is most here wouldn't be much different than that.
Certainly there would be some obstacles to coordinating all of this but great minds can always come up with creative solutions to complex problems such as this. Perhaps they could create express bus lanes around Kinnick that would allow school buses to drop off before the meet and then pick up afterwards but park several miles away during the meet so as not to affect tailgate areas? I'm sure there could be many other ideas or ways to make it happen.
True, the Hawk Lot is enormous, I'm sure plenty of room for school buses. Driving to Carver and back shouldn't be that difficult at 10am for school buses, who can then pick them up after.
Like I said, I like it. Get a thousand kids there, brilliant.
So if the attendance stays flat, you, while sitting in Kinnick watching top 5 programs wrestle, will NOT be excited that there are 26k+ people there and that the record was shattered by 10k?
Honestly, no, I would not be excited at that figure. Now, if we built a 30,000 seat stadium and manged to break 25k once or twice a year I'd be very excited by that development. But when you pick one specific date for the sole purpose of demolishing the attendance record, with buzz floating throughout the entire fan community, on a football Saturday when there will be tons of Hawkeye sports fans in town, I would fully expect 25k at an absolute minimum. Who wouldn't?
And I would not be excited if we had the bare minimum that anybody would expect. Let's put it this way. If PSU had done this same thing and only got 25k into their football stadium despite all the hoopla; we'd consider their effort to be pretty lame.
I guess unless we have a very pleasant day, the walkup sales won't be as great as some may expect.
The meet is well before the football game and their may not be as many football fans there milling around early as some may think (especially if it is 30-40 degrees).
Some that think they may want to attend (people ordering 20+ tickets for the entire tailgate crew - some of which are probably female nonwrestling fans) may decide they don't want to go after all (early and in bad weather) and there may be quite a few scalping tickets.
I am planning on scalping tickets on 11-14-15 hoping to get better tickets than I could have through the ticket office. That said, I hope my plan backfires and there are no tickets available for scalping and we have 40k+ there with nice weather.
The meet is well before the football game and their may not be as many football fans there milling around early as some may think (especially if it is 30-40 degrees).
Some that think they may want to attend (people ordering 20+ tickets for the entire tailgate crew - some of which are probably female nonwrestling fans) may decide they don't want to go after all (early and in bad weather) and there may be quite a few scalping tickets.
I am planning on scalping tickets on 11-14-15 hoping to get better tickets than I could have through the ticket office. That said, I hope my plan backfires and there are no tickets available for scalping and we have 40k+ there with nice weather.
I never said I wasn't pleased or excited about the early ticket sales. I said I'd be excited about the total ticket sales if we hit 40,000. It was cool that we sold so many so quickly. That was reason for optimism, IMO, that the total number might exceed 40,000.
40k or Bust!
Will be extremely disappointed with 39,999 or less. #epicfail
Will be extremely disappointed with 39,999 or less. #epicfail
I'm hoping for a sellout of Kinnick and about 15k overflow crowd into CHA!
I'm not sure what gender has to do with it. There are plenty of female wrestling fans and plenty of male non-wrestling fans.
We seem to be missing the "big question". How marketable is wrestling, really? I don't dispute that Iowa fans and fans in Iowa are the best in the country, but do we really know how big that universe is? Yes, we sell out the state tournament every year, lead the nation in college dual meet attendance almost every year and get good attendance at things like AGON and the Division III Championships, but what metric do we have that indicates that there are 40,000+ potential ticket buyers in Iowa and surrounding markets? Do we have any data that tells us that tailgaiting football fans are a potentially strong crossover market? This event will tell us a lot about how marketable wrestling can be.
By the way - the University is not going to give tickets away to large groups of kids. There is too much NCAA red tape. If you want more kids there, please donate to Wrestling for Life or any other kids' group of which you are aware.
By the way - the University is not going to give tickets away to large groups of kids. There is too much NCAA red tape. If you want more kids there, please donate to Wrestling for Life or any other kids' group of which you are aware.
I am assuming that all wrestling fans, male and female are going to attend - regardless of weather.
I guess I was thinking that as far as nonwrestling fans go - wives would be less excited about going to a wrestling meet in 30-40 degree weather than the husbands. Could be wrong on that, but that is the way it is at my tailgaiter. It was more of a statement regarding the weather than their degree of interest in wrestling.
If somebody orders 20+ tickets for the entire tailgate (some of which will not be wrestling fans) and the weather is good, they will probably all show up early and go. If the weather is cold, some may not want to show up 8-9 hours before the football game and go to the wrestling meet.
Again, hope I am wrong.
