Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

[mnstate0fhockey]

If you look at household income in the state, broken down by county, you start to see a drop around SCSU that continues on to the west, north and south. SCSU has increased tickets to be inline with there the Gophers were just a few years prior, with $35 being the top end, and $25 being the norm. I think the school is relying upon its alumni in the Twin Cities to make the trek up to see games, but they're not accounting for lackluster income growth when compared to the CPI and GDP growth.

The average Gopher ticket price is $50. Jupiter just broke this down on GPL. St Cloud's ticket prices are not comparable to the Gophers.

EDIT: I misread. I see now that you are saying SCSU's prices are inline with what the Gopher's were a few years ago. That could be right.

 

[Slap Shot]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Kids these days also have the Wild, which tons of Gopher fans didn't have when they started following hockey.

Everyone my age had the North Stars and we sure as s**t followed them as passionately as any kid these days follows the wild. Gophers ticket prices have simply become out of control.

 

[mnstate0fhockey]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

For me personally, I am at the point where I have completely moved on from pining for the days of the WCHA. And I mean completely. It bothered me when the shakeup first happened, but it isn't going to change and I am not going to waste any more energy being upset about it.

As for Notre Dame, I can see why those that arestill bitter about the WCHA break up (and I am not judging) wouldn't like it. But all of the points made about why they make sense do make sense to me.

- They are a school in the mold of what the B1G is looking to add from a brand perspective
- They do fit geographically
- We aren't the only program in the B1G and they are a bigger rival to other B1G programs
- Tied into the point above, they do provide name recognition
- They have been successful and will help with the Pairwise issues our conference has been facing.

The last point is most important for me. It is HUGELY important that we address the Pairwise issues. At 6 teams we are very susciptible to having a bad season or two from programs tanking the whole conference.

Not only does adding another team give the B1G more OOC games to impact our conference team's Pairwise position and mitigate the influence of one or a few program's having bad seasons, but adding a team with proven succes like Notre Dame has had will have an even bigger positive impact.

 

[Stauber1]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Now you're not going to like this...but my opinion is not based on Compton's attendance nor Notre Dame's ability to recruit in Minnesota.

4+ games taken away from the NC best teams across the country - teams with which we've had historic rivalries - and given to Notre Dame that will rank near the bottom in Mariucci attendance is a bad deal for us Gopher fans. Now I've given my opinion and you are allowed to hate it.

I can understand why, from a Gopher perspective, the addition of Notre Dame isn't that exciting; but from a conference perspective this is clearly a good thing. Notre Dame is a legitimate NCAA Tournament program 3 out of every 5 years, they add name recognition that is going to interest fans from the other 5 conference schools beside Minnesota, and they were long-time and recent conferencemates of 3 of the current 6 schools in the BTHC.

I also am not sure just how much this is really going to affect our NC schedule. The last 3 seasons we have had a series with ND on the schedule, so when comparing future schedules to the last 3, we are actually only losing 1 NC series. Additionally, judging by comments made to the media it sounds as if the current scheduling structure between the Gophers and the other MN schools is likely to change. I'm not sure exactly what the relationship between these schools will look like going forward, but I would wager we were already likely to see the number of games decrease, and it sounds as if people are at least considering whether the NCC will continue to be played. My guess is that we will see 2-4 fewer games against MN schools going forward, and that seemed to be the case prior to the addition of Notre Dame as a Big 10 hockey affiliate.

So, for me it comes back to: what exactly do people want? The options really are limited if not non-existent. There have been a lot of complaints about how games against the other MN schools just don't have the same "feel" now that they are in different conferences. That's not going to change. People want to see UND back on the schedule, and everything I see indicates that is going to happen with consistency going forward. So apart from adding those schools to the Big 10 (which simply is not going to happen) I don't know what else can be done.

 

[cross cheque]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Everyone my age had the North Stars and we sure as s**t followed them as passionately as any kid these days follows the wild. Gophers ticket prices have simply become out of control.

Pretty unrealistic prices for the product and competition. Better to lower the ticket prices to get people in the door and make them buy 3-4 $5 sodas for their kids and make the money on concessions and merchandise, but what do I know?! Minnesota is still claiming 9k tickets sold per game!

 

[Bonin21]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

The tickets are sold. A lot go to companies that don't feel a hit if they don't show.

 

[cross cheque]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

The tickets are sold. A lot go to companies that don't feel a hit if they don't show.

There were at least 500 tickets on stubhub alone for the last couple series of the year and i'm pretty sure corporate wasn't buying all the tickets for the conference tourney in St Paul .

 

[Slap Shot]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

They averaged well over 9,000 sold per game during the regular season which doesn't include tickets to the X where the prices were even more outrageous.

 

[Bonin21]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

There were at least 500 tickets on stubhub alone for the last couple series of the year and i'm pretty sure corporate wasn't buying all the tickets for the conference tourney in St Paul .

I'm not really paying attention to the thread or half the stuff you say, but my main thing is they have no reason to lie about the number of tickets sold.

It's not all corporates. I have season tickets and skipped five games because meh the team wasn't very good and I could watch on TV. There are plenty of season ticket holders that make so much money they don't care about burning just about every one, or going to the effort to sell/hand them off.

 

[Stauber1]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

There were at least 500 tickets on stubhub alone for the last couple series of the year and i'm pretty sure corporate wasn't buying all the tickets for the conference tourney in St Paul .

StubHub is a secondary market. This shouldn't be hard to understand.

 

[goldy_331]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

There were at least 500 tickets on stubhub alone for the last couple series of the year and i'm pretty sure corporate wasn't buying all the tickets for the conference tourney in St Paul .

Actually, many corporate buyers probably did add the conference tourney tickets since all season ticket holders were offered early purchase options. Also, not sure what a secondary ticket seller like Stub Hub has to do with anything. We all know the demand for attending sucked the past couple seasons, so many holders were trying to dump their tickets somehow.

What's your point?

 

[cross cheque]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Actually, many corporate buyers probably did add the conference tourney tickets since all season ticket holders were offered early purchase options. Also, not sure what a secondary ticket seller like Stub Hub has to do with anything. We all know the demand for attending sucked the past couple seasons, so many holders were trying to dump their tickets somehow.

What's your point?

The main excuse I hear from this forum is availability of tickets hence the secondary market reference. The fact that no one is willing to admit that the gopher fans are extremely fair weather fans is my point and that very few of the conference matchups are worth attending.

 

[Stauber1]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

The main excuse I hear from this forum is availability of tickets hence the secondary market reference. The fact that no one is willing to admit that the gopher fans are extremely fair weather fans is my point and that very few of the conference matchups are worth attending.

Actually, the point you first made is that the university is claiming higher ticket sales than it really has - a claim not only unsupported by evidence, but indeed contradicted by evidence.

I haven't heard anyone suggest that actual attendance isn't an issue. So, like Goldy, I have to ask what exactly your point is.
If you want to beat the drum that this is all because Gopher fans are "fair weather," I'm not going to waste my time arguing with you. I'll just say that in reality the issues are much more nuanced than simply the on-ice success of the team. Not that I would expect you to recognize let alone understand nuance.

 

[cross cheque]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Actually, the point you first made is that the university is claiming higher ticket sales than it really has - a claim not only unsupported by evidence, but indeed contradicted by evidence.

I haven't heard anyone suggest that actual attendance isn't an issue. So, like Goldy, I have to ask what exactly your point is.
If you want to beat the drum that this is all because Gopher fans are "fair weather," I'm not going to waste my time arguing with you. I'll just say that in reality the issues are much more nuanced than simply the on-ice success of the team. Not that I would expect you to recognize let alone understand nuance.

I wouldn't say they claim higher ticket sales but for them to say average attendance is 9k is about as accurate as Obama saying ISIS was contained the day before Paris attacks. I guess i'll just apologize and slink away to watch a post season and you guys can keep circle jerking each other about line combos for next year, assuming no one else bolts or quits.

 

[Bonin21]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

I wouldn't say they claim higher ticket sales but for them to say average attendance is 9k is about as accurate as Obama saying ISIS was contained the day before Paris attacks. I guess i'll just apologize and slink away to watch a post season and you guys can keep circle jerking each other about line combos for next year, assuming no one else bolts or quits.

Look up how attendance numbers work between paint huffing sessions some time.

 

[Stauber1]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Pretty unrealistic prices for the product and competition. Better to lower the ticket prices to get people in the door and make them buy 3-4 $5 sodas for their kids and make the money on concessions and merchandise, but what do I know?! Minnesota is still claiming 9k tickets sold per game!

This post is clearly implying that the university is over-stating the number of tickets they sell, as was your next post about StubHub where you displayed a fascinating confusion about where the tickets on that site originate.


You don't need to sink away. By all means, keep posting. Everyone needs a laugh now and then, and a town fool is always good for one.

 

[MGoBlueHockey]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

So............GO BLUE!

Am I right? At least for tomorrow in your case.

 

[Bonin21]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

Yes

 

[Slap Shot]

Re: Minnesota Gophers Season Thread 2015-16

The main excuse I hear from this forum is availability of tickets hence the secondary market reference.

No the main reason given is ticket prices

This post is clearly implying that the university is over-stating the number of tickets they sell, as was your next post about StubHub where you displayed a fascinating confusion about where the tickets on that site originate.


You don't need to sink away. By all means, keep posting. Everyone needs a laugh now and then, and a town fool is always good for one.

 

[mnstate0fhockey]

So............GO BLUE!

Am I right? At least for tomorrow in your case.

For sure.