How much will the economy hurt Attendance?
Fans seem to be pretty excited and optimistic about UofM football this year, despite last season. However, I am wondering if the economy will keep some people away from games. I'd hate to see a lot of empty seats at games.
Michigan has had to try and sell tickets with the "All In" package. While MSU must also be struggling to sell all of their seats, since they have been running TV ads and I just saw a giant billboard truck advertising Spartan Season Football Tickets with a subtle allusion of the 300 movie in Grand Haven.
There is still plenty of time to sell tickets and the big games will sell out. However, it would be a blow to me as a fan to go to the Delaware State/Indiana/EMU/Purdue game and easily notice large patches of empty seats.
is football and there are very few home games each year, Michigan isn't too worried about attendance.
I think it will be the same as always. If one person can't buy the ticket - there are probably 100 that can. I think what you WILL see this year is a lot more tickets being sold closer to face value. I think the real difference is that a ticket you could have sold for $500 5 years ago will go for $200 this year. Not that I have ever sold my tickets but I don't think Michigan will ever have a problem filling the seats.
i doubt it will be much of an issue. last year they still sold out every game despite going 3-9, so i'm sure they will again.
If the 3-9 season affects ticket sales, it will be reflected this year, not last. We sell 99% of our tickets long before the season starts.
The All-In for Michigan promotions seem to me to be a clear effort by the athletic department to pump up attendance. The confluence of the new preferred seating donation requirement (which runs $500/seat between the 25 yard lines) and the particularly acute slide in the Michigan economy has really pounded season ticket renewals.
It's my understanding that last year renewals were down to 93% when they used to be 99%+. I was on the waitlist for 8 years after graduation before I ponied up enough scratch for Victors Club to guarantee tickets. I sat in the same seats for three years.
Then they added the PSD.
In the past 4 years, my seats have moved from diagonal end zone corner (section 8) to 25 yard line (section 43) to 35 yard line (section 44) to 45 yard line (section 1). On the flip, my dad has had tickets since 1959, and didn't move any closer to the 50 yard line for 25 years in a row, sitting on the 15 yard line. He now has seats in section 23 on the 47 yard line.
Judging from that admittedly anecdotal evidence, and the fact that I've received 4 separate solicitations for the All-In plan over a 2 month period, I've got to conclude that ticket sales are weaker than they'd like.
True, but you do get people who buy tickets, and then don't go and wind up not getting rid of them to someone else. This tends to happen more with the Lions though.
If there is one thing that needs to be cracked down uppon it's the selling of tickets on sites like stubhub and ebay. We are seeing a huge increase in the number of other team's fans at the game and I would assume it has to be because of sites like the ones above.
The best way to cut down on that is to win. When you go 3-9, you'll see selloffs.
Why would you "cutback" on stubhub and others? They provide a chance for many Michigan fans who don't have tickets to go to games. Come on. This is the record company logic that killed them. Should we cut back on the internets?
I
yes! No more internets!
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if we get hotter cheerleaders there wouldnt be an empty seat in the house, and the old geezers would cheer
That once the new boxes are in the really rich alumnus will be up there. I have nothing against them not cheering because their old, I'm sure I won't want to when I'm old either. I think it is a win win for everyone. Not only that but the boxes make the sound stay in the stadium. As far as the cheerleaders go, I don't think anyone comes or doesn't come to the game because of our cheerleaders. I just want to see Michigan fans keep their ticket within the Michigan family. I'm getting tired of OSU and MSU fans taking over the stadium late in the 4th.
I spoke with the ticketing department last week and they said outside of single tickets, they are sold out.
The economy will definitely keep some long distance season ticket holders or graduates living in other parts of the country from getting to the same number of games as in previous years (myself included).
To say what everyone else is saying, we won't be affected at all by the economy.
True, there are thousands of middle class people who would love to go to a game. But they don't go necessarily because they don't have the money. Of course they don't want to pay $200 a ticket online, but if they are available then they will buy the tickets.
Exactly.
I think we'd be affected more by the 3-9 record than the economy. Either way, I think we'll be fine. The athletic department will find a way to sell every ticket.
will be for the ticket scalpers. season ticket sales probably will be fine. but resellers are going to have a hard time.
As others have said, I don't foresee a major effect on ticket sales, though if the team goes through another 3-9-type campaign, you'll see more opposition fans flooding the arena. I think it is telling that the Tigers, even in this dire economic situation, continue to be a pretty solid draw the whole season.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance.
What you may see will be a drop in the number of non-students who attend games against the lower-profile teams. I wouldn't be surprised to see a larger number of empty spaces for the EMUs and Indianas of the world than in past years.
The Tigers actually are still considerably off last season's pace. Last year they averaged 39,538 per game. This year, they're at 31,045 per game - a decrease of 21%. Thankfully for them, they're in first place, so they're now starting to get some sellouts. If they were having as bad a year as they did last season, they'd probably be around 25K a game.
Yup, yup. Wings and Pistons have been hurt, too. The Pistons more than the Wings, though.
The Tigers are also doing a bunch of assorted package discount deals (2 for __ deals and such), and still aren't drawing as much as last year. I don't remember them doing this last year. A lot of other teams are doing it too -- the economy has hit a pretty substantial number of teams.
Back in May, while addressing the Regents regarding the Athletic Department budget (and resultant profitability), Bill Martin indicated only a 3% or 5% falloff in renewals (not including students, of course). I think he even noted that this wasn't historically significant.
Oh yeah. A $9M profit in 2008, on ~$75(?)M in revenues. Expect similar in '09.
Edit: 2008 revenues were $90M, per the other m.go.licious link.
(Apologize for the double post. Posting from the cell, awesome though my Samsung Instinct may be...)
Back in May, while addressing the Regents regarding the Athletic Department budget (and resultant profitability), Bill Martin indicated only a 3% or 5% falloff in renewals (not including students, of course). I think he even noted that this wasn't historically significant.
Oh yeah. A $9M profit in 2008, on ~$75(?)M in revenues. Expect similar in '09.
The number of people looking for tickets (to actually attend the game) will be going up and the number of those guys buying/selling a large number of tickets will go down, both for the same reason - the economy will dictate a much lower resell price.
For season ticket purposes -- this year's home schedule sells itself.
Next year will be interesting if we have 6 or 7 wins during the 2009 season.
I think we'll win 8 or 9.
I do my part to make sure I'm part of the largest audience to see a game, anywhere, on Saturday. Even with the turd that is Michigan's economy, I expect sell outs.
But...
The athletic administration must be punished for trying to kill the golden goose. I realize the asses in the seats at Michigan Stadium pays for everything else in the athletic dept and so they must maximize said asses.
But we are not asses. Do not take advantage of us. After this season, I am not suggesting a boycott but perhaps showing up an hour late for any more Delaware equivalents.
Long-term, Michigan football is better served with a 1-1 against a non Pop Warner team (e.g. Boise State) than by trying to get a bit more blood from us stones. (yes, that's the most ever number of mixed metaphors I've written)
Oh, and I now got 8 points.
UM is doing pretty much the same thing that OSU does. They have one tough game (ND, though they "aren't ND anymore," is still a rivalry game, and therefore qualifies as "tough") and fill the rest of the non-con schedule with cupcakes.
Under the current system, OSU has made it to three NC games doing this. Until that system is changed, why would it not benefit UM to schedule the same way?
Another thing OSU does is schedule in state MAC teams. That will work in our favor this year in terms of ticket sales. I imagine there are a lot of Western alums in Southeastern Michigan who would love to see their team play and we're providing them the chance.
Does anyone know what Michigan State did before the movie 300 came out? At the game in 2007 they played some stupid quotes from that movie on the video board about 100000 times. IT was cool at first, but then just got old. If anyone knows what they did before the movie....it woudl be entertaining to see