HAIL: Fail?

This loyalty measure will be a real game changer in student section behavior. They'll suddenly all start showing up 20 minutes early, packing the section, so that it no longer looks to millions of viewers on national television like the University of Michigan has an entire student section full of apathetics. What a relief it will be when....oh wait. OK. Now I'm picking up on the sarcasm....

Having had season football and hockey tix from 1993 - 2002 (as a student... yes, I know... COLLEGE):

1. Hockey used to be a "sleep outside the ticket office" until priority by number of years. Is that still the case? I was pretty much guaranteed to be behind the parents at center ice by my 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th years of student tix. 

2. A free t-shirt? Are you shitting me? You can get one for fraudently filling out a credit card app at the stadium. 

3. Why not discounted Bowl tickets as a reward if you are ON TIME. 20 minutes early in the seats, I don't see the point.

At $80 for season tix, I don't think the students really care all that much about being on time. Now, if you gave say - 12 free Little Caesar's Pizzas from the Union, that would probably change some tunes. Is there still a LC at the Union? I always traded in my meal credits for dollars so I could eat Subway and by CDs at the Union....

Mgoblog Brandon auto-bitch engaged

If i didnt know better id be surprised that people who have been advocating for a loyalty program are bitching that they created one that isnt perfect in its FIRST YEAR

Obviously the stick is a more effective tool here than the carrot, and i fully expect them to start dinging people once the program is established and accepted

for a free pencil sharpener!

You don't jump into this system by basing student seats on it the first year. You have to test the technology, how it works on a game day, and how students might game the system first. Then in future years you can put in better rewards like basing ticket location on points.

This is much too complicated.  Just go with general admission to the student section and that will resolve the problem.  People who really care will make sure to get there on time.  Many schools do this.

Well thank you very much for the location spoofer link. Guess this HAIL program is a great idea after all

Whatever happened to bribing students with food?  Isn't that how most campus organizations get people to attend meetings and stuff?  I'm sure I went to some dorm thing for free Stucchi's.  Give out pizza a half hour before the game.  Get off my lawn and all, but to me paying students a cash incentive is tacky.  

They should address the problem of getting into the stadium before they reward us for being early. The lines are so damn long and charley foxtrott'd that even if you arrive 30 minutes before kickoff you probably wont get in until national anthem or later. Speaking from experience of course. I'm a productive drunk student

They should have a loyalty program for old people standing up. Stand up more than once a game and you'll get a free clapper to make more noise

We'll see if it has any effect on the symptoms before we label it a failure.

Having tried to use my phone at Michigan Stadium to get Twitter updates on injuries, once you get into the bowl, it's a crapshoot to get 3G or 4G.  So now add, let's be conservative and say 10K additional people trying to hail the HAIL app, and I'm seeing a distinct potential problem.  I will not be surprised if we see complaints in this department as much as anything else.

The idea is sound, I'll reserve judgment on execution until we see what happens this season.

I have to disagree with a lot of people in here. I think it's less about football and basketball and more about the non revenue sports that no one goes to. It's also not about the average student. It's encouraging people like the maize rage and the children of yost to go bring a presence to other sports like girls softball or water polo or something like that. Some other maize ragers and I are already talking about hitting every single sport to get that $100 gift card.

I guess that I am going to have to be the first to suggest a different problem, and solution.

I see the students showing up 20 minutes late for the games, because they stood in an unmoving crowd for 20 minutes outside of the north-perimter entry gates, a/k/a Gate 9, waiting to get in. 

Get more entryways opened.  Get more ticket takers.  Speed it up.