Fickle

Fans=ATMs. That sums it up perfectly.

I'm only going because Saturday will be my last game as a season ticket holder and I want to Enjoy the view one last time.  I'm also looking forward to saying goodbye to some of the folks that I've sat near for a long time but as I am writing this I've realized they're probably smarter than I am and will have sold their tickets.  Oh well.  I can only hope all the OSU fans aren't too awful.

Its going to be miserable.  Those who stayed are chumps!

Yeah, I was trying to remember what I paid for season tickets as a student just 20 years ago, and I seemed to recall it was like $25 per. Adjusted for inflation, that'd be about $40 today, which is half of what the average face value is nowadays.

One thing Brian didn't really get into is that 20+ years ago when I was a student, we had nonconference games like Washington State, Oklahoma State, Florida State (who whipped our ass), whereas today we get the likes of Eastern Michigan, Delaware State, and Akron (who almost whipped our ass).

So not only has the cost gone up well above the rate of inflation, the product has been watered down, not only in terms of the competition brought in, but in terms of Michigan's ability to actually win even against shit teams. I mean, the best game on next year's home schedule is... Slippery Rock.

If I actually paid for season tickets, instead of bartering with friends who do for individual games, I'd be plenty more peeved about all of this, too. Hoke, whose main strength it's often said is that he "gets Michigan," chose his words poorly there, no doubt.

Maybe a bit over the top, but good to see you express yourself:

Is like an old dog that, for mercy's sake, is just begging to be put down. I've been watching this dog limp around for the past month and now my pity for the team is turning into contempt. My contempt is not directed at the players (though they have often been out-executed), but for the offensive coaches, who so often put them in position to fail. I admire the players for how they've handled their disappointment - I'll be cheering for them on Saturday. Go Blue!

I totally agree with the general sentiment here, but I think the reason we are seeing fewer sellouts and less fan appreciation isn't so much the product on the field as the general uptick in choices/"sophistication" of the fans.  I mean, Alabama is the defending MNC and one of the most dominant teams in recent memory, yet they still have decent no-shows against mediocre opponents.  They have this issue because people aren't stuck with 2 movies, 3 tv stations, and a couple of stations on the radio dial; I have 14 HBO channels, and I got the starter package!  People have TV, internet, video games, streaming movies, Pintrest boards, LOLCatz, whatever to keep them occupied, so watching a boring blowout in 30-degree weather isn't anyone's idea of a good time.

And let's be honest - UM is nothing more than a middling B1G team in this game, and so if you are OSU and you are two games and a DA in Florida away from an MNC shot, why wouldn't you jump in your IROC and head north to storm a hated rival's stadium?  Heck, you'll be able to watch the blowout, grab some nice food, maybe stop at Cabella's on the way home, and still have time to masturbate in a public library.  Hoke has lots of problems and they start with the same prehistoric views of the offense that led him to retain Borges despite ample evidence it wasn't working out, but I guess "fickle" is just a nice way of saying "unwilling to watch an ass whooping."  He's telling the truth to an extent, and some of that is on him and some of that is just the reality of the sport landscape in general.

The pricing doesn't help, though I do think much of that is an NCAA issue, not just UM.  And to be frank, MSU is going to lose maybe 3 games all year and they can't fill half that stadium most games,  UM at least has the fanbase that will support the cost.  And while "dynamic pricing" sounds great, name we one semi-popular service that truly saves people money in this way.  People like money, and as long as you are willing to hand it over they aren't going to turn it down even if they might dress up the name.

i have to say, i couldn't give two craps less about what brady hoke says about his football team or staff in a press conference.  i don't believe, as many apparently do, that his demeanor is the same in the locker room, or that his unwillingness to go all mike gundy at the podium is some sort of betrayal.  the people that do believe that are, in my humble opinion, batshit, monkeyballs crazy.  also stupid.

anyway - the use of "fickle" is really off-putting.  it implies that the reason michigan fans might choose to not spend a couple hundred bucks each watching his crappy football team is because they have better "entertainment options," or some such.  this isn't some goddamn sitcom, brady.  a lot of us really care about this, probably unhealthily so.  don't minimize our choices as mere whim.  the people that are giving up their tickets are, in all likelihood, feeling really shitty about it.

by the way, dave brandon - this is thanksgiving weekend, and a lot of kids are going home.  if you think the student section looked like shit earlier this season, just wait.  the sight of a bunch of red shirts in that corner is going to look really bad on tv.  but hey, tv rights.  congrats on the upcoming men's ballroom dancing team.

It seems like you took one word or a sentence and made an article out of it. This is a great article when AD created the new model for season ticket holders.

I understand your frustration with ticket prices and agree with you also.

But, he is not talking about ticket prices or at least I don't think so. Hoke has no control over the ticket price. May be it would have made us all happy, if he would have said that "we stink and our ticket prices are too high. We should be giving the money back to ticket holders". There was no good answer for that question.

He walked into a trap and sounds emotional about seeing too much Red in the stadium. But that word does not need this article. AD does when Al Borges stinks it up again and still gets another year to bring us down further.

Just may be....

Agree with you. I am so fed up I would like to see the entire staff dumped if a top coach is available. As a minimum the offensive staff needs to go. The reality is Hoke is aside from recruiting, at best a middle of the coach in the Big Ten and although I think he is a great person, that alone will not win games. I see little chance that we can approach being a leader in the conference with this staff. I am paying big bucks for a product that is non competitive , that makes me stupid as well as disappointed.

In any other context, I'd be agreeing with Hoke, and that you stand out there and support your team /especially/ when things are bad.  

But not like this.  

When Dave Brandon and the Atheletic department made this about the money with the insane ticket pricing, they undermined that undying loyalty we might have otherwise had.  

We aren't new york city, we are Michigan.  

We are the hard working heart of America. We are a land of people who do the jobs that aren't flashy enough for the east coast and not stylish enough for the west coast.  We stood at the front lines of the economic depression that hit us harder than any other state of the union, and even as our core industry was faced with bankruptcy and bailout, the production lines still built cars even as the banks kicked our friends and families out of their houses.  

We get what loyalty is. The best sports fans in America are in this state.   I've never been any place more intense than a red wings playoff game.  Tigers fans turn Comerica park into someplace magical, in a way the Yankees couldn't reproduce in the bronx.  Lions fans file down to Ford Field every home sunday and every thanksgiving despite over 50 years of continual futility.  

My first game at the big house was The Horror.  

I was there in the frigid rain as we capped the 2008 home season with a loss to Northwestern.  

I was there in 2009 listening to the sea of red in the big house chant O-H-I-O for hours as we fell victim yet again to a superior buckeye team.  

I love this team, and hope we somehow magically win against Ohio State, but seriously would never pay face value to see this game.  Jacking up the price for this game takes advantage of our fandom, while the program fails to deliver an elite caliber team.  If the program wants to charge that kind of money, then maybe they need to deliver a product on the field that backs it up, else they can enjoy OSU fans subsidizing the experience.

It's not being fickle when you are talking about a significant amount of many local fans' budget on the table.  

Both in comments and articles, and doesn't think fans are fickle are completely delusional. 

And no one is out buying tickets for a "bad product." Everyone already bought the tickets, so there's no increase in cost...it's already sunk. People are now just choosing not to go to the game, and giving them to Ohio State fans (and as the prices show, not even getting their money back.) You don't want to pay for a ticket because the price is too high for the product? That's not fickle. Having already determined you can afford it and have purchased it but now decide you're not going to the game because it isn't meeting your expected standards? Yeah, that's fickle.