UM/OSU -Big House question
Prior to the BTN network broadcast on M last night I watched the 1969 M/OSU game. I noticed that every time the camera focused on the crowd it seemed it was a majority RED. At the game last year my tailgating was right at the corner of Stadium and Main.
As I partied and watched fans come into the House it seemed there was also a ton of RED. In droves. Inside the game it became rather obvious that was the case.
How the hell do OSU fans get ahold of so many tickets? Just doesn't make sense.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:49 AM ^
they buy them secondhand from people expecting a blowout and looking for cash.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:50 AM ^
Does ticket scalping account for some of it?
August 20th, 2010 at 11:34 AM ^
the game is almost always on thanksgiving weekend. I think there are a lot of out-of-state students who are no longer in town. They know they can make a few hundred $$ by selling their tickets.
August 20th, 2010 at 12:03 PM ^
August 20th, 2010 at 1:15 PM ^
Bo always wanted to keep the game the weekend before thanksgiving so that the boys could go home to their families for it.
If it does stay on thanksgiving weekend like it is going to start this year, I have serious doubts about being able to set attendance records again. A lot of people will be out of town.
August 20th, 2010 at 12:06 PM ^
Most of the red shows up on the east and south sides of the stadium. Students are required to sit in sections 25-31, in the northwest corner.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:53 AM ^
I think it has a lot to do with the weather too -- shitty weather? Easy call -- sell tickets for cash and sit in a warm house and watch it. Not that I condone this but it's just human nature.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:52 AM ^
AD Canham encouraged this. After several down years in the 60's he was very innovative in finding ways to fill the stadium at all costs.
Sadly, I recall a lot of red last year. Lets beat the team down south this year and not have that problem again in my life time!
August 20th, 2010 at 11:32 AM ^
There were apparently radio ads in Columbus telling people that there were tickets available. They may have even sold them there. If you look at the attendence from that year, the non-OSU games were pretty poorly attended, ie 49,000 for an early season game against Washington. OSU was the only game that drew more than 81,000.
Here are the attendance figures from the Bentley...
| Opponent | Rank | Date | Site | Result | Attend. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vanderbilt | -/- | 09/20 | H | W | 42-14 | 70,183 |
| Washington | 20/- | 09/27 | H | W | 45-7 | 49,684 |
| Missouri | 13/9 | 10/04 | H | L | 17-40 | 64,476 |
| Purdue | -/9 | 10/11 | H | W | 31-20 | 80,411 |
| Michigan State | 13/- | 10/18 | A | L | 12-23 | 79,368 |
| Minnesota | -/- | 10/25 | A | W | 35-9 | 44,028 |
| Wisconsin (HC) | 20/- | 11/01 | H | W | 35-7 | 60,438 |
| Illinois | 18/- | 11/08 | A | W | 57-0 | 35,270 |
| Iowa | 14/- | 11/15 | A | W | 51-6 | 45,981 |
| Ohio State | 12/1 | 11/22 | H | W | 24-12 | 103,588 |
| USC | 7/5 | 01/01 | 1 | L | 3-10 | 103,878 |
http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/football/fbteam/1969fbt.htm
August 20th, 2010 at 12:47 PM ^
I was curious, so I checked. UM didn't start regularly selling out the Big House until 1976. Of course, when you look at the rankings, you realize how bad the rest of the Big 10 was in the early 70s. In '70, '73, '74, & '76, we didn't play a ranked team until we met OSU.
I love the Bentley.
August 20th, 2010 at 12:38 PM ^
And they were rubbing our noses in it. It made all the Ohio newspapers that OSU fans had taken over the Big House.
Made me sick.
Never again!
August 20th, 2010 at 11:04 AM ^
I was watching the 1988 game this morning. Made me late for work. That team was awesome. Watching Hoard and Bunch was a pleasure.
August 20th, 2010 at 11:17 AM ^
I recall the 1993 game -- a 28-0 M blowout. It was a thing of beauty to see all the red leave the stadium in the 3rd quarter. Even the OSU band marched out before the game ended. It was a spendid thing.
I want to see the same thing happen at the 2011 game in the Big House!
An aside -- I wonder if FA's Inferno Canto will deal with the season ticket holders who sell for the OSU game? Perhaps the innermost circle?
August 20th, 2010 at 11:17 AM ^
Depends on how the teams are doing in each perspective year. For example in 2003 there wasnt very much red except for the normal opposing team section. http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/chstuff_2117_1706850590
Also keep in mind that red sticks out in a crowd better than any other color so perspective can be thrown off a little.
August 20th, 2010 at 11:36 AM ^
in 2003 we beat OSU to go to Rose Bowl to get romped by USC, correct?
I was at the OSU game... only time ive ever rushed the field at the big house.
August 20th, 2010 at 11:54 AM ^
Yes that is correct, Michigan won the 2003 game 35-21. Chris Perry and Braylon Edwards both had awesome games. I actually think that was the last time the field has been rushed, I dont remember it happening since, granted it was also the last time we beat osu.
August 20th, 2010 at 11:34 AM ^
especially in The Game is treason. What kind of "fan" does that? I won't sell my tickets to another Buckeye let alone a UM fan. Anyone that sold their season tickets in 06 was a true sell out. Tickets were going for a good amount of dough, like 6 or 7 hundred a pop IIRC. I had friends that said "oh I bought this great 720p 42 inch TV with the money I got, HIGH DEF MAN" (it was 2006) all I did was shake my head. If you sell your tickets to The Game, there is no reason to have season tickets in the first place.
August 20th, 2010 at 12:18 PM ^
I have sold tickets to "Michigan fans" before only to have opposing team fans sitting beside me for the game.
How does that happen?
The "Michigan fans" were scalpers dressed in Michigan gear, posing as fans to get a better price. They don't care who they sell to (just business - I get it), and the next thing I know - Badger fans are sitting next to me.
I also give tickets to clients - and they might invite opposing team peeps.
So even the most diehard fan might be inadvertently contributing to this problem.
Also be aware that OSU fans are a LOT more passionate about flooding the Big House. They feel invincible right now.
It will suck to be them once we have turned the tables.
August 20th, 2010 at 12:26 PM ^
I agree. It was miserable in the student section last year because of all the asshat OSU fans. I couldn't stand when they started the O-H N-O chant across the Big House.
August 20th, 2010 at 12:35 PM ^
The sad fact is, there are plenty of "fans" who are happy to recoup the cost of their entire season tickets by scalping this one game.
August 20th, 2010 at 2:38 PM ^
1969 ~ I was not there. I was 13. I did go to some other games that year, and had gone to games in '66, '67 and '68. First thing; about student and opposing-team tickets -- we had a long history of supplying a LOT of visting-team tickets. It is true; Canham wanted a full house, no matter what. And so we sold a lot of visitors' tickets.
But the other thing is the way people dressed back then. It was mostly dark overcoats. I recall my grandfather wearing a sport coat and tie to almost every game. Although not all men did, most that I know did, until into the early 1970's.
And so red really stood out. As it still does.
2009 ~ I was there. And this has been stated before, by me, and confirmed by others. You all need to understand that for about five years, the Athletic Department has been "banking" unrenewed season tickets. When season ticket holders die, lose interest, move away, whatever -- those unrenewed season tickets are not renewed as season tickets, to other, new season ticket holders. Instead, they have gone into these three-game package sets. Those people are not season ticket holders, and will not be able to renew them. And, those tickets (which might now get sold to OSU fanatics who don't care about the other two games such as Delaware State, Eastern, etc.) will not be renewed, and, in the future, won't even be sold as packages. Because when the interior-bowl seatting is shuffled to make way for better aisles, handrails, more generous seat-room, etc., many of those seats will be lost. A net subtraction.
I can pretty much guarantee that there will never again be that kind of OSU presence at The Game.
So don't blame 'unfaithful' season-ticket holders. Blame the people who DON'T have season tickets, and who failed to jump on the chance to see The Game from seats that they might never again be able to get.*
*I almost forgot to add -- there is a clear reason why somebody would act as a channel, for Michigan three-game package seats to go, in the form of OSU game tickets, to Columbus: Ticket Brokers. You buy a three-game package for Delaware State, Purdue and OSU. (I forget what it actually was, but whatever.) You take the Delaware State seats, and sell them at a loss for $20 ea. You sell the Purdue seats for face value. And you sell the OSU seats, at a brokerage in Columbus, for quadruple. Not a lot of fans will bother with that. A ticket broker will.