OT: Season tickets a challenging sell at Iowa
It sounds like Iowa fans have had enough. Reading some of the comments section, most people are putting the blame on Barta(the AD) for keeping Ferentz.
Now, the athletic department takes on the challenge of keeping season ticket-holders coming back to Kinnick Stadium. And they do so with data from a survey of Football Bowl Subdivision schools that showed just 64 percent of Iowa's 2014 season ticket-holders who responded were likely to renew.
The cost of season tickets will remain the same as last season — $395 for the general public, $325 for faculty and staff — with some enhancements added. If fans order season tickets by March 13, they'll receive $70 to spend at Kinnick's concession stands during games and a 30 percent discount off all items purchased during one visit to Herky's Locker Room before the season starts.
February 16th, 2015 at 6:33 PM ^
February 16th, 2015 at 6:40 PM ^
February 16th, 2015 at 6:55 PM ^
February 16th, 2015 at 6:59 PM ^
That was clearly a failed retail activation, just meant to add value to the Fan Experience and improve The Brand.
February 16th, 2015 at 8:42 PM ^
... I think it instead demished the brand equity.
February 16th, 2015 at 7:25 PM ^
A huge smack in the face to the season ticket holder that paid PSD's too!
February 16th, 2015 at 7:39 PM ^
1 Coke.
February 16th, 2015 at 7:51 PM ^
RC Cola.
February 16th, 2015 at 8:39 PM ^
February 16th, 2015 at 9:07 PM ^
Fact: RC Cola is the best of all colas, in any conditions. FACT!
Fact: Those that disagree are stupid and wrong. FACT!
February 16th, 2015 at 10:18 PM ^
February 16th, 2015 at 9:17 PM ^
February 16th, 2015 at 6:41 PM ^
February 16th, 2015 at 7:07 PM ^
Bob Stoops is their version of Jim Harbaugh.
Brett Beilema is their Les Miles.
So either one of those 2.
February 16th, 2015 at 7:36 PM ^
They should hire this guy as he can teach the Iowa fans the value of the Hawkeye Brand....
February 16th, 2015 at 9:23 PM ^
Too late. Lochdogg rises like a Phoenix to embiggen the Suns' brand:
http://phoenix.suntimes.com/phx-business/7/83/127280/suns-name-hunter-l…
February 16th, 2015 at 6:49 PM ^
In case anyone missed it, alum96 wrote a great piece on how Iowa could have fired Ferentz and hired Herman and broke even financially. I wonder if Illinois missed a good opportunity here. It's not like Tim Beckman will be there for long, why not take a gamble on a hot assistant like Herman or even Narduzzi.
February 16th, 2015 at 6:51 PM ^
Beckman is 10X better than Ferentz. He has only had 3 years to try to turn that tire fire around. Ferentz has been screwing Iowa up for going on 16 yrs.
February 16th, 2015 at 7:03 PM ^
Even with a few terrible years recently, he's still winning at an above average rate for Iowa (.575 to .530), and brought Iowa their first win in a BCS bowl since 1959. He also took them to 12 of their 26 bowl games, had three consecutive top ten finishes (which Fry never accomplished) and was national coach of the year at one point.
I'm not saying Ferentz should be a model of 21st century football strategy or that Iowa shouldn't fire him, but he's got a much better resume than Beckman (and a lot of other coaches out there).
February 16th, 2015 at 7:11 PM ^
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February 16th, 2015 at 7:14 PM ^
I think it's pretty obvious to everyone outside the Iowa AD that Ferentz needs to be fired, but comparing Beckman's resume to Ferentz's is a complete joke.
February 17th, 2015 at 11:16 AM ^
to the phrase "screwing up Iowa for going on 16 years", which clearly ignores the good periods Ferentz enjoys.
The assertion that Ferentz has been bad lately is valid. The assertion that Ferentz has been bad constantly for 16 years is bunk.
February 17th, 2015 at 2:09 AM ^
To be fair, Hayden Fry was 143-89-6 at Iowa, for what I think is a .616 winning percentage (sorry, I don't remember what to do with the ties). Ferentz going .575 is not as good as his predecessor.
For comparison, Brady Hoke went .608 and we all wanted him gone by the end of this season. I can see why Iowa fans are fed up.
February 16th, 2015 at 8:46 PM ^
Ferentz's tenure has grown stale, but to say Beckman is "10X better than him" is crazy. There's a reason Ferentz got that huge contract in the first place. At one time he was one of the hottest coaches in the country.
At this point with Ferentz, it seems like Iowa will always win 6-8 games and play in some minor bowl. That's not hugely satisying, but at a school that really has no recruiting base, things could be worse. I mean, for all the grief Ferentz gets, he's actually beaten us in four of the last five meetings.
February 16th, 2015 at 10:25 PM ^
Everyone has beaten us in four of the last five meetings. That's why we fired two of the last three coaches.
K-State has even less of a recruiting base than Iowa, and they manage to be competitive. I can see how Iowa fans don't want to settle for being a glorified MAC team.
February 17th, 2015 at 12:35 PM ^
K-State's foundation consists of Juco transfers. Kansas actually has a ton of high-level Juco programs, so local recruiting there isn't that bad.
February 17th, 2015 at 8:20 AM ^
Ferentz torpeoded his own program when he panicked and hired Greg Davis. They lost their pro-style, ground and pound identity by asking lanky downfield wide receivers to run underneath the coverage and pick up YAC.
He's also the worst game manager in the history of football.
February 17th, 2015 at 9:59 AM ^
You must not know who Jim Caldwell is.
February 17th, 2015 at 11:19 AM ^
in 23 years?
February 16th, 2015 at 6:50 PM ^
General public numbers have dipped from 40,506 in 2011 to 37,823 last season. Faculty/staff has dropped over that same time period from 4,438 to 4,005. And student sales have fallen from 10,513 to 6,440.
That student number is pretty remarkable really, but you're getting to a point now where some of these student probably have most of their lives coinciding with the time Ferentz has been at Iowa and they cannot remember not punting from their opponent's 35 yard line. I can see where they might want to experiment with other forms of football, maybe even throwing to someone that isn't a tight end. You never know.
February 16th, 2015 at 7:01 PM ^
For some reason the site of our helmets cause opponent coaches to go completely batt-shit crazy and then poof. Back to puntasourois-rex.
February 16th, 2015 at 8:00 PM ^
Even when we're down, Michigan is everyone's Super Bowl.
February 16th, 2015 at 7:55 PM ^
NCAA football attendance is trending down. When your program is not doing well, it is a double whammy.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/jon-solomon/24891415/co…
February 16th, 2015 at 7:52 PM ^
$395 (for close to the worst seats in the building) amounts to $56 per ticket over 7 games. Two of those games are against Illinois State and North Texas. Let's generously say those games are worth $20 a piece on the open market, and you are still talking about the season ticket price (you know, where you are supposed to get value because you're going to every game and making a bigger investment) being over $150 a game for a pair of tickets to see Pitt, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, and Purdue. Would anyone who isn't a batshit crazy Hawkeye fanatic pay that much to see one of those games?
That's the problem.
UPDATE: Just checked the Iowa website and noticed that someone willing to skip that big rivalry game with Maryland could spend the same $150 on a pair of season tickets to all 20 UI baseball games. Just $125 if you are bringing your kid between the ages of 6-18. Kids 5 and under are free, so you can take the whole gang for a low price if you're a serious breeder.
February 16th, 2015 at 8:46 PM ^
that remark!
February 16th, 2015 at 10:26 PM ^
There but for the grace of Hackett go us.
February 16th, 2015 at 7:44 PM ^
Just think, at least we're not Iowa. When has anything nationally interesting been won by Iowa? 1980 final four? 1958 feaux football national title?
No wrestling doesn't count
February 16th, 2015 at 8:20 PM ^
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February 16th, 2015 at 8:58 PM ^
February 16th, 2015 at 9:24 PM ^
but it's very much a niche sport. Iowa hasn't been nationally elite in football or basketball in....decades? Makes me appreciate our suffering a bit even though it sucked because a lot of teams would kill to get to that position. 2011 hockey national title game, 2013 basketball national title game, 1v2 game with OSU. A lot of other schools would dream to even get to the position where they play in a game like that
February 16th, 2015 at 9:26 PM ^
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February 16th, 2015 at 10:18 PM ^
February 16th, 2015 at 10:28 PM ^
They did have a pretty cool last second win over LSU a few years ago, their version of our Cap One Bowl win over Florida.
February 17th, 2015 at 11:24 AM ^
(They're also good at wrestling.)
February 16th, 2015 at 8:02 PM ^
I hate Iowa.
February 16th, 2015 at 8:14 PM ^
I did a diary on how it was economically neutral to fire Ferentz and to have hired Herman this offseason. The AD should have read it!
http://mgoblog.com/diaries/ot-iowa-could-have-fired-ferentz-and-hired-h…
I think Iowa had the 11th ranked class in the Big 10. I mean it is tough there - middle of nowhere but when Northwestern is beating you, you are in trouble.
February 16th, 2015 at 8:21 PM ^
Since that special 1995 season (more than the lifetime of current recruits), they have been a decent team more often than not. Fitzgerald is 60-53 over his 9 years there (and is still just 40 years old).
At that point things like being Chicago-adjacent and benefitting from the superior academics at NU start to factor into the equation in a way they wouldn't have back in the days of abject awfulness in Wildcat football. Picking NU over UI seems pretty logical to me, at this point.
February 16th, 2015 at 10:31 PM ^
If they would dump a little of that Big Ten money into facilities, thay could be a player in the B1G West.
If they had top faciliteis and I was a recruit in the Chicago area, I would want to go there over places like Illinois and Iowa.
February 17th, 2015 at 12:36 PM ^
they are building a new basketball arena and workout facility near the lake.