Any idea what's behind OSU's season ticket woes?
Ohio State football season-ticket sales dip for 2021 season (dispatch.com)
Article says their sales have declined every year since 2017, including around only 42,000 for this year. Is it fatigue from having so much regular success and they got spoiled or complacent or something?
August 14th, 2021 at 11:03 PM ^
This is pretty surprising. Guessing they’re not immune to competing against the TV experience.
August 15th, 2021 at 1:06 AM ^
Eh, this is happening everywhere though. Most places far worse. Millennials (and gen Z now?) just don't care nearly as much and there are too many other competitors for entertainment, especially when college games are wayyyy too long with too many stoppages.
August 15th, 2021 at 8:34 AM ^
It’s also getting stupid expensive. Can sit at home and watch the game for free and if it sticks turn it off or change the station
August 15th, 2021 at 9:21 AM ^
Also, why waste money on the preseason? Save up for when the games actually start to matter... BIG10 champ and CFP
August 15th, 2021 at 9:48 AM ^
The cost of traveling to B10 title game and 2 playoff games?
why not use the money for that instead of the dog games on the schedule?
The 1978 Montreal Canadiens were in the midst of a run of 5 consecutive Stanley Cups.
The first round games against the Red Wings were not sold out.
August 15th, 2021 at 5:35 PM ^
Yep. Having a good time watching at home with Uncle Dad and Aunt Mom.
August 15th, 2021 at 6:06 AM ^
They're saving their money to buy all the tickets to their game in Ann Arbor.
August 15th, 2021 at 11:09 AM ^
Easily their most expensive home game
August 15th, 2021 at 11:15 AM ^
As much as I truly HATE seeing a flood of scarlet and grey jerseys all of those fans are wearing all around Ann Arbor every two years, you are 100% correct. I feel this year will be no different.
We'd have to go back to the 1990s (before Tressel) when there wasn't THAT many OSU fans milling about Ann Arbor.
August 15th, 2021 at 12:04 PM ^
I know everyone has a right to do what they want with their Michigan season tickets - 'Murica! - but I hear so many people say that, "hey, I can sell the OSU game, it pays for all the other tickets!!!" This mentality just sucks from a Michigan fan perspective, but hey, 'Murica!
August 15th, 2021 at 12:50 PM ^
If someone sells their tickets to someone from Ohio, then they deserve to be banned from being a season ticket holder ever again.
Not to mention it's "Senior Day". How many people on this board bitch about the negative people here, trumpet how much of a fan they are, and then sell their tickets -- to the game which honors the players out there busting their asses and doing the work?!
That last part is what truly disgusts me.
August 15th, 2021 at 1:15 PM ^
I'm sure season ticket holders might feel a bit different if Michigan won a game against OSU more than once a decade at this point. If Harbaugh had an even record with OSU right now I have a feeling there would less than 25% of Michigan season ticket holders selling their tickets to The Game.
August 15th, 2021 at 9:49 AM ^
It's an epidemic throughout CF - not just OSU - and a lot of it centers around the insane ticket prices
August 14th, 2021 at 11:07 PM ^
Is Columbus as much as a nightmare on gameday as Ann Arbor?
August 15th, 2021 at 8:58 AM ^
Yes, probably worse from experience
August 15th, 2021 at 11:36 AM ^
Yeah - in a lot of ways it's worse. Keep in mind that AA is a pretty small town and on a gameday, the football game traffic is the only traffic to contend with. Columbus is a good sized city with plenty of other traffic impacting things. Also you have more OSU fans with a longer drive. Sure, many of them live in Columbus, but a large proportion (much larger than you'd have at Michigan) are driving from Cleveland and Cincinnati.
August 15th, 2021 at 2:37 PM ^
Yeah, just heard on the news the other day that Columbus is right around 1 million people now (new census) inside the city limits and 2.3 million (with the suburbs). It has exploded since the 1960s. It's now the 2nd largest city in the Midwest behind Chicago. Keep in mind, the OSU campus is just north of downtown which equates to a logistics nightmare on gameday.
August 15th, 2021 at 5:09 PM ^
It’s misleading to call it the “second largest city in the Midwest.” Metro Detroit is about twice its size. Columbus just has really generous city limits.
But it is definitely a lot bigger than Ann Arbor.
August 15th, 2021 at 8:31 PM ^
My point was that Columbus is booming and getting huge. It's city area hasn't really changed much since 1960 and from that time it's city population has grown from 471,000 to it's current estimate of 952,000 in 2021. It's 2021 metro is estimated now at 2.2 to 2.3 million. Not exactly a cow town. Either Columbus or Indianapolis is listed as the Midwest' 2nd largest city behind Chicago on the websites that list city populations - it's close between the two
But if you really want to see how big Columbus has gotten, check out its skyline. It had one skyscraper in the 1960s - the Lincoln Leveque Tower. Take a look now.
Believe me, comparing Detroit to the current Columbus is like comparing night to day. I know, I've lived and done business in both cities
August 14th, 2021 at 11:07 PM ^
The game is at Michigan...... Before I get killed, I haven't sold my 5 tickets
August 14th, 2021 at 11:21 PM ^
I'd guess it's because the in person football experience declines every year. The game is very slow and media timeouts have hit an unpalatable level. It's just better to watch at home with friends where you can shoot the shit during the 45 seconds of nothing happening between every play.
August 14th, 2021 at 11:44 PM ^
Yes, but there’s also something about “being in it” together at the Big House that watching on tv can’t touch. I get your point, but imagine Michigan wins The Game this year and you’re at home instead of Michigan Stadium.
August 15th, 2021 at 12:52 AM ^
I'm just taking a few minutes to imagine this scenario.
In conclusion, i think I'd be happy either way.
August 15th, 2021 at 2:03 AM ^
but imagine Michigan wins The Game this year
August 15th, 2021 at 2:08 AM ^
That’d feel just as grand, like my childhood years when UM actually did win the games and I feel deeper in love with UM in my OSU hometown.
I am sure the stadium will be rocking, but there is still a pandemic and loads of people are extremely annoying when there isn’t a mutating virus and early winter looming.
August 15th, 2021 at 7:47 AM ^
Well, The Game weekend costs as much as a week long vacation so watching from home is usually the most sensible option for us out of towners.
I've been to a handful of the games against OSU in my life and they're fantastic (I've only been to one loss). Getting bent over a barrel by hotels and 3rd party ticket vendors is not fantastic. Really hard to justify the cost now considering it's pretty much a guaranteed loss.
August 15th, 2021 at 8:02 AM ^
I guess it’s been, what, 20 years, since you have been to an OSU game, eh?
August 15th, 2021 at 8:57 AM ^
42-41 loss in 2013 is the last one I attended.
August 15th, 2021 at 1:14 PM ^
That's the game when I knew we did something to piss off the football gods and were doomed.
August 15th, 2021 at 7:27 AM ^
The traditional college football Saturday has slowly been turning into the sterile, highly commercialized, pumping in shitty rawk music, Sunday football that is frankly ho-hum.
August 15th, 2021 at 7:57 AM ^
This is the right answer. I am strongly considering not going to many, or any games this year. It’s become more of a chore at this point. You give up your whole Saturday, the stands are packed, bathrooms are difficult to access, food/drinks are outrageously priced. Then you add that media timeouts suck the energy out of the stadium. I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten who had the ball or what the last play was or where the ball is after coming back from a timeout. And for all of those reasons I haven't even gotten to the product on the field, but even for a team like OSU, the regular season has very little meaning anymore, at least compared to what it used to be.
August 15th, 2021 at 8:23 AM ^
Yep, I think it's 3 things:
- Price of everything. Food, parking, tix (see Seth's post 2 weeks ago). Used to be you could run up to A2 for a NW game, find street parking (might have to walk but w/e), grab a ticket from a scalper (or a friend who doesn't mind giving a ticket or two when they paid <$20-30 each). It went from a $100-200 dollar day to $500-750 for 4 ppl.
- HDTV, ALL games on TV + obnoxious fans you don't have to deal with. I don't go to games to treat MSU, OSU fans like subhumans; that's not fun for me. I certainly don't want to be treated that way.
- So many games. I talked to a guy I worked with 13 years ago who would set up HUGE tailgates every home game at the golf course (I think). It used to be 4-6 special events where you'd prep food and pack up on friday night, get up at 5-6am Sat, set up, cook, etc. game, then clean up - a 12-15 hr day. That's doable 4-6 times a year: twice in mid-late Sept and 3-4 more in Oct-early Nov. Now it's literally every weekend in Sept and every other in Oct thru the weekend after turkey day. Weather is now too hot (or huge T-storms sometimes) the 1st 1-2 games, and too shitty the last 1-2. It's just not worth it - and this is coming from a BIG tailgater family.
IDK, I think the ticket packages that get you 3-4 games are great. Unless you're a 1%er who can afford the suits, I'm not sure there are a lot of ppl who want full season tix pkg anymore.
August 15th, 2021 at 9:58 AM ^
Wait, are you blaming global warming for the change too? Hmmmmmm….
August 15th, 2021 at 11:23 AM ^
You guys are correct so the question is; will supply and demand drive DOWN ticket prices? Econ 101 says it should but is not 100% reliable. Demand is shrinking and by at least 10% or more so that should dictate both ticket prices and food prices at the stadium. Also, couple that with the more strict safety rules, long gone are days one can bring there own booze and coolers into the stadium.
August 15th, 2021 at 3:42 PM ^
Also no bringing in your own water. No bringing in signs, flags, idk if people are allowed to still bring in cowbells anymore either but I dont remember them the last few years. The atmosphere is sterile and boring, almost contrived every game.
August 15th, 2021 at 10:16 AM ^
Exactly evenyou.... hour drive to the stadium, parking, seating, food, getting out and home after the game. The media time outs. Ticket prices. Seems like a trip with the family for 3-4 games a year was costing more than $2000.
We stopped going a few years ago and with the money I saved purchased a nice tv.
I just upgraded this year to a large OLED and couldn't be happier. The beer is cheaper, the bathroom closer, no travel time, and I can actually switch between games during commercials.
August 14th, 2021 at 11:36 PM ^
The cooler doesn’t trap the poop smell. Nobody wants to smell shit all day in a stadium.
August 15th, 2021 at 12:06 AM ^
Geez, you would think that they would be used to it by now....
August 15th, 2021 at 8:31 PM ^
Yep, the seat fits perfectly. In fact, the comparison is un-canny (pun intended)
August 15th, 2021 at 12:18 AM ^
The O-H-I-O spelling test to get in has become too difficult?
August 15th, 2021 at 12:56 AM ^
My guess is the fans are tired of being so good and gaming what is a very boring Big Ten slate without any real challenging regular season games. Also they are always let down by their season's goal (national championship) despite having the best players in every position, the best coaches, and an athletic department that will pay whatever it takes.
Life must be tough for Buckeye's fans these days.
August 15th, 2021 at 9:18 AM ^
I agree. OSU is pretty much guaranteed to go undefeated through the B1G. The only compelling home games are Oregon and maybe PSU. Perhaps they are saving their money for the B1G Championship/CFP travel and tickets.
August 15th, 2021 at 1:14 PM ^
Sounds like even their fans are getting sick of all the body-bag blowouts in their stadium every September, along with the high ticket prices.
August 15th, 2021 at 1:02 AM ^
Same as everyone else, ticket prices are too high, home schedule has just two big games (Oregon, Penn State), in stadium experience sucks games too long, tickets and the day in general getting to expensive. Why buy a season ticket package when you can pick and choose on the secondary market.
August 15th, 2021 at 7:24 AM ^
It’s tough even for diehard fans to justify the costs of going to every game, especially when you know more than half of those games are going to be non-competitive blowout wins. The article notes that mini packages (3 or 4 games are becoming more popular). People still want to go to games, but they now have so many more options than just buying a full season ticket package. Consumer habits are simply evolving.
August 15th, 2021 at 2:03 AM ^
I imagine it's a combination of boring non-conference opponents, the high cost of tickets, and a global pandemic.
August 15th, 2021 at 8:07 AM ^
This, all of this. Is it really a surprise that in the middle of a pandemic people may not want to sit with 100k other people and pay a bunch of money to do it?
Before we keep crushing our own AD, might be worthwhile to note all the other schools are having the same problem, and possibly worse.
August 15th, 2021 at 12:21 PM ^
Plus there have been well over half a million people who died. I don't know how that keeps getting left out of these conversations.
August 15th, 2021 at 7:59 AM ^
My brother had OSU season tickets. A few years ago, they started reassigning seats every year based on voluntary “contributions” to the school. He lost his seats he’d had for several years, and got less desirable ones. The price of tickets also went up frequently. That, together with the diluted Big Ten schedule everyone deals with, led him to drop the seats. So, yeah, another example of the Big Pig theory at work.