Brandon: Crisler sold out for remainder of season
It's not a 100 percent certainty as some tickets remain to various games, but the prediction from DB and the athletic department's marketing staff is that the 13 remaining home games will all be sold out. 3 of the first 5 home games were sold out, so if true, Michigan will reach 16 sellouts this season. In comparison, 2010-11 saw 3 sellouts total, and last year there were 8. Congrats to the team for making it "must-see" action, Coach B and his staff for getting this group of players together, Bill Martin for kickstarting the PDC and making the program more attractive to recruits, and Dave Brandon for overhauling Crisler. A true group effort if I've ever seen one.
Caveats about linking to a Freep article apply: http://www.freep.com/article/20121205/SPORTS06/121205056/university-of-michigan-basketball-wolverines-attendance?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Sports
Edit: If you are too principled to link to the Freep, Mlive has just added a similar write-up:
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2012/12/michigan_basketball_selling_ti.html#incart_river
December 5th, 2012 at 3:46 PM ^
His evil master plan is coming together prefectly. Muahahahahahaaa!
/s for those who can't tell
December 5th, 2012 at 3:44 PM ^
December 5th, 2012 at 3:51 PM ^
Guess I won't be going to that one after all. The place is always half empty without the students. We've NEVER sold out. I walked up the day before the last game of the Fab Five together and got seats.
December 5th, 2012 at 3:55 PM ^
Who would have ever thought that stubhub/street scalpers would profit on Michigan basketball. Times, they are a-changin'
December 5th, 2012 at 4:06 PM ^
Exactly. I've already had to sell a couple of games from my season ticket package due to being out of town and got $100 each for both NC State and Arkansas.
Incredible.
December 5th, 2012 at 8:17 PM ^
December 5th, 2012 at 4:19 PM ^
Wait til the last minute... you'll be able to get that game for <$10-15 on Stubhub.
December 5th, 2012 at 10:55 PM ^
December 5th, 2012 at 4:32 PM ^
I'm surprised they sold out... I just called this morning cause I missed the deadline to get student tickets for the break games that was yesterday, and they still got me student seats to all 3 through a workaround. So I wonder if some seats will open up now that student tickets can't be sold any more? No need to block out those 200-level sections for students if the students aren't buying them.
December 5th, 2012 at 4:01 PM ^
Where is the best place to buy tickets reasonably for a Big Ten game this season? Really want to make it to Crisler this season and Stubhub's prices seem pretty high for a decent seat.
December 5th, 2012 at 4:03 PM ^
Stubhub is a great site to buy tickets, just wait until a day or (if you can) hours before the game tips. Sellers get desparate and realize they'd rather get something rather than have the seats go to waste.
December 5th, 2012 at 4:13 PM ^
If YOU just want to see a game, single seats are still available.
(I think they had some together for a few games still, like Penn State, but certainly expect to sell those).
December 5th, 2012 at 4:02 PM ^
Good thing I took advantage of the package deal when the season started. Can't wait to see this team in person!!
December 5th, 2012 at 4:08 PM ^
Man, glad I snagged my tickets when I did! Can't wait to see this team take the floor in person.
December 5th, 2012 at 4:09 PM ^
This is Michigan fergodsake.
December 5th, 2012 at 4:21 PM ^
December 5th, 2012 at 4:25 PM ^
From the mlive article:
"Whatever empty seats there are, it'll be people who have chose not to come (because the tickets have been sold)," Brandon said.
December 5th, 2012 at 4:47 PM ^
Busted for not actually reading the article. :)
Still, a TON of empty seats last night for something being officially called a sellout.
December 5th, 2012 at 4:51 PM ^
Even NC State had a fair number of empty seats though. Not 6,000 of them, but if NC State can't get the full 17,000 to show up there's no way people are going to show up to watch us play a school nobody really cares about.
December 5th, 2012 at 4:26 PM ^
Why not? They've been doing it for football games for a while now.
December 5th, 2012 at 4:42 PM ^
December 5th, 2012 at 4:51 PM ^
Seems like there were packages purchased, but games not attended.
Our experience was similar to yours, against the Rock (The Rock?), maybe 1/2 full, and that was even in our re-gifted seats...many empty seats all around us.
December 5th, 2012 at 4:30 PM ^
might be the best single higher the University of Michigan has ever made and with Red Berenson around that's saying something.
December 5th, 2012 at 4:38 PM ^
hire.
December 5th, 2012 at 4:39 PM ^
hire?
Edit: Damn, you corrected your typo already!
December 5th, 2012 at 9:48 PM ^
Hyer?
December 5th, 2012 at 4:37 PM ^
...that doesn't mean all seats will be filled (or at least close to capcity) for all the games. People need to show to these games and with this team, there is no excuse to not have the seats full or almost full.
December 5th, 2012 at 4:42 PM ^
blowing off going to Michigan basketball games for years. Many times there are emtpy seats in the lower bowl for the entire game and they won't let you move down.
People are buying up all of the tickets and placing them on stubhub. There will be plenty of empty seats for a lot of those games.
Does it please Brandon that tickets are sold to people that will not bother attending? Some of them don't even bother to put them on stubhub or even give them away. They just get the 4pack or season tickets and the ticket gets cold on the kitchen counter. Michigan will still get money for the ticket, but they will not be getting any additional money that an actual person in a seat might spend and there will be empty seats shown on tv.
I guess that's what happens when they actually align themselves with a ticket scalping website, though.
You can get tickets in the upper bowl for quite a few games for a relatively low fee. You might pay more than face value, but there are tickets on stubhub you can get and that most can afford. It is a hassle to have to go through that, though.
December 5th, 2012 at 4:58 PM ^
The AD placed the majority of the Maize Rage section in direct camera angles, and the roving cam(s) generally take shots conducive to leaving the impression Crisler is packed. (Not saying it's a new thing...looking at the implosion of discretionary monies available, and you can see empty seats in all those amusing pics Brian shows for Miami (YTM) games, televised NFL games, etc.)
December 5th, 2012 at 7:23 PM ^
December 5th, 2012 at 6:13 PM ^
December 5th, 2012 at 5:14 PM ^
December 5th, 2012 at 6:20 PM ^
Look at football...announced sellouts (and the streak), and just recently, DB started to let the cat out of the bag a bit by sharing that the number of students in attendance vs. sold tickets differed upwards of 6000 seats. Slippery slope, that. To my eye (26 years of attendance, between undergrad years and now in post-collegiate life), I can tell by looking across the field if there seems to be more shoulder room there, more hip room in my row, to ascertain that we certainly are packed in cheek-to-cheek...or not.
The ticket package dealio has done it's work...made people shell out far more dollars than normal...another round of PSL + ticket cost vs. StubHub should be run for MBB. I'd imagine the results would be similar to the 2012 home football slate, whether full season, partial or just premium games were somehow compared.
December 5th, 2012 at 6:17 PM ^
They are only sold out because of the 5 game ticket plans people had to buy to get the MSU or Indiana games.This could be said of almost any school's games against cupcake opponents. Even a school like Kansas, UNC, Kentucky, etc would probably have a tough time selling a cupcake game if it were a standalone deal. Those games sell out because they're part of larger packages (season-tickets, first and foremost).
December 5th, 2012 at 5:16 PM ^
So happy I managed to go see them play here in New York at Madison Square Garden for the NIT tip off tournament. That KSU game was a bit of a snoozer (the good kind), but that Pitt game was a blast. Michigan really shut up that 13 year old Pitt fan who was talking trash all game.
December 5th, 2012 at 5:33 PM ^
They'll be back (this time in Brooklyn) for the WVU tilt.
December 5th, 2012 at 5:36 PM ^
That's right. I forgot that they're playing in the new Barclay's Center. I'll have to look into tickets for that; I think I'll be in Brooklyn that Saturday anyways. Thanks!
December 5th, 2012 at 6:39 PM ^
December 5th, 2012 at 6:53 PM ^
December 5th, 2012 at 7:12 PM ^
December 5th, 2012 at 7:58 PM ^
It's student spillover. I think students take sections 228-233 or something like that. It's a lot. This year, it filled up (for the most part) for the NC State game but been completely empty for the rest of the games.
Basically, TONS of students buy tickets and don't go. If you wanted a ticket to WMU yesterday, they were going for $5 to free. Same with the next two games, with finals coming and all. It's worse than football, way worse. They just sell too many tickets to students with no interest in using them other than trying to sell the big games for a profit, or just buy them to go to one game, decide they don't like it, and never go back. Either they need to raise the student prices to deter this, which would cause backlash, sell less tickets, or at least provide some StubHub-like way for students to sell their tickets to the general public. Because they don't need to provide any incentive to show up, the best MBB team in 20 years should be enough.
December 5th, 2012 at 7:50 PM ^
Wake me up when the seats are actually full instead of just sold.
December 6th, 2012 at 12:18 AM ^
Damn, I'd been thinking of going to a couple of crappy B1G games
Guess I'll be heading to Yost instead