Football Tix Price Increase

Submitted by MGoShoe on

MGoBlue.com has posted the following AD release:

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan Athletic Department announced today (Monday, March 14) a variety of ticket offerings at varying pricing levels for the 2011 football season. In addition, U-M has a limited number of season tickets available to the general public from inventory that was held back over the past three years due to construction.

"We appreciate the commitment by our season ticket holders and Victors Club members who annually support our athletic department and football program," said director of athletics Dave Brandon. "Our goal is to provide our fans with a menu of ticket options and great game-day experiences this upcoming season. You are critical to our success at the Big House, and we value and thank you for your loyalty."

The eight-game home schedule, one of the strongest in school history, will cost $480 per ticket. It is the first time in seven years that Michigan has raised ticket prices, and the modest increase puts the Wolverines' season ticket price closer in line with its peers.

Individual game tickets will be priced at $70 per ticket for games against Western Michigan (Sept. 3), Eastern Michigan (Sept. 17), San Diego State (Sept. 24), Minnesota (Oct. 1) and Purdue (Oct. 29). The Notre Dame (Sept. 10), Nebraska (Nov. 19) and Ohio State (Nov. 26) games have been designated premium games, and tickets for those contests will be priced at $85 per seat.

The athletic department will also offer smaller ticket packs to accommodate fans interested in a partial season ticket package. Fans interested in learning more about the limited number of season tickets and being the first to know when partial plans and individual game tickets go on sale may fill out an online form to sign up for e-mail updates.

To better enhance the game day experience for fans, Michigan is installing new high-definition scoreboards in both end zones this season.

"We have one of the most exciting home schedules in our history and a new coach in Brady Hoke to lead our program," added Brandon. "The night game with Notre Dame, the battle for the Little Brown Jug with Minnesota, our first conference game with Nebraska, and 'The Game' with Ohio State highlight an exciting home schedule that our fans should really enjoy."

First-year head coach Brady Hoke takes over a team that returns 21 starters from last season, with nine starters returning on both sides of the ball and three specialists. The Wolverines have 57 lettermen returning from the 2010 squad.

Michigan has led the nation in attendance 13 straight seasons and 35 of the past 36 years. The Wolverines drew 782,776 fans for their seven-game home slate in 2010. The seven-game average of 111,825 fans last season broke Michigan's NCAA record of 111,025 fans per contest set during the 2004 season.

To purchase a wheelchair accessible football season ticket, please e-mail the ticket office at [email protected] or call (734) 764-0247 or (866) 296-MTIX (6849).

Media Contact: David Ablauf (734) 763-4423

Bando Calrissian

March 14th, 2011 at 3:26 PM ^

$70 for a ticket to see Western or Eastern Michigan is just flat-out highway robbery.

Doesn't mean I won't pay it, but the fact remains that's simply outrageously expensive.

robpollard

March 14th, 2011 at 8:58 PM ^

...but I won't pay that to see EMU or WMU, and probably not Purdue or Minn.  That's crazy.  It's far more likely I'll be able to scalp tickets for less than that.

Michigan has as loyal a fanbase as there is, which is obvious considering how many 100,000+ attendance games there have been in a row, but demand is not completely inelastic.

If Michigan gets off to a poor start (i.e., loses to Notre Dame, particularly in a bad way), there will be immediate grumbling, such as "Hell, at least RR got off to 5-0 starts and beat ND!" "Yeah, well Hoke has to coach all these mighty mite players!" "Yeah, well, blah blah".  Suddenly, spending $70 on Purdue is not an essential purchase.

I really hope that doesn't happen, and we'll still be 100,000+ next season unless (football) armageddon hits, but this pricing is aggressive to say the lesat.

JeepinBen

March 14th, 2011 at 3:30 PM ^

with no marquee home games next year, if they were gonna raise them soon, this was the year to do it. Can you think of any other price that has stayed constant since 2004? 

UM4ME

March 14th, 2011 at 3:44 PM ^

I have four seats and this commitment is our only real family entertainment from September - November. I hope this isn't the start of pricing out the normal everyday fan because I don't know if I can keep up. I'm sure someone will gladly step in, though, if I can't. Damn.

Purkinje

March 14th, 2011 at 4:40 PM ^

I've been an usher for the past three years, though I'm calling it quits so I can sit through the games instead of dealing with all the whines and gripes of freshman girls wanting the seat their ticket says and old people wanting me to get the whole section to sit down. What is your problem with us?

UAUM

March 14th, 2011 at 4:16 PM ^

Last year they were $380, this year they want $480, that's a 26% increase in price. 

A little steep, I think. 

This lends to my theory that DB is turning the athletic department into a for profit business, and concerns me about his integrity.  There better NEVER be advertising in the Big House.

Boooo

jcgary

March 14th, 2011 at 4:21 PM ^

I don't know if you took into account that last season had 7 home games and this season has 8.  The increase might not be as bad as you think.  

 

Mr. Robot

March 14th, 2011 at 9:28 PM ^

The number of home games didn't change the cost of tickets for 2008 and 2009. We had 7 in 2008 (My freshman year) and 8 in 2009, and at least for students, the prices stayed the same.

Football and hockey were a tick more expensive this last year than before, but I assume that was for The Big Chill. This spike in prices for both hurts pretty bad, no matter what the reason. The hockey increase seemed pretty silly to add on top of all that when basketball didn't move a single Washington. We better at least have an awesome non-conference at home next year to justify that extra $15, because we haven't had one since I've been here, not including the Showcase since those aren't included in our packages (And neither are any games over Spring Break or the third game of a playoff series if it were necessary, the latter of which is complete garbage and would have me furious if we ever needed it).

I would also like to point out that nobody seems to charge their students more than we do for either of those two sports, including the ones that let any and all student applicants have tickets. Basketball is cheap, but at the rate the team is improving as well as the impending practice facility and renovations, I'm going to bet that's going to be changing pretty soon too.

lexus larry

March 14th, 2011 at 4:43 PM ^

Correct you are...

And so many thought it was only Bill Martin who was all about the Benjamins...

As stated above, this is an effort for 2012, but more, to keep the revenue stream coming...because with a home slate of only 6 games, and only MSU being anything close to "worth the price of admission," the Athletic Department saw that they were going to have to do something for revenue balance, after glomming onto Jerry Jones money in September 2012.

The PSD on top of this per-game price is making these tomato cans quite a pricey weekend event.

aaamichfan

March 14th, 2011 at 4:20 PM ^

$10 extra per ticket doesn't seem too bad. I would gladly pay that for the extra couple inches of seating space. Combined with the HD scoreboards, I get the feeling that the experience at Michigan Stadium should be a lot more pleasant than it has been in a while.

Feaster18

March 14th, 2011 at 4:41 PM ^

Remember though that Bill Martin promised that one of the main benefits of adding premium seating was that it would allow them to stop any ticket price increases for those of us in the non-premium seating?  That pleadge lasted all of one year. 

bluebyyou

March 14th, 2011 at 4:41 PM ^

Add the mandatory donation to the ticket cost and these are definitely not cheap seats.  Close to 1K per seat for much of the mid-field seats.

Bosch

March 14th, 2011 at 4:52 PM ^

We have one of the most exciting home schedules in our history

Does this mean we can expect prices to fall for our craptastic 2012 schedule?

SaginawDan

March 14th, 2011 at 7:31 PM ^

great. It's already going to cost me a small fortune in gas this fall to drive down from Saginaw, and now tickets are going up! Guess i gotta tell the wife to switch the babies diapers to the generic brand.

Bando Calrissian

March 14th, 2011 at 9:53 PM ^

If you're paying 50 bucks to park your car, that's a conscious choice and not a fixed charge.  You can park plenty of places in the city for free or $5-10  if you don't mind walking, you can take the shuttle in from Briarwood, you could even park in a front yard in the student neighborhoods for $20-30.  There's no reason you -have- to pay $50 to park your car at a Michigan football game.  And there's no reason why you should, either.

UMMAN83

March 14th, 2011 at 8:13 PM ^

 if have to unload the lower end games for far less than $70 when I extra tickets.

Who is going to to drop this much for an individual game ticket ?  I pay for my 8 season tickets but selling extras to lesser games will be interesting.

OSUMC Wolverine

March 14th, 2011 at 9:00 PM ^

That just stinks, that means to come to each game, gas for the 500mi each week, and eating...its going to set me back $400+ a game to bring the kid up this year.  Ouch.  Gonna have to trim the budget somewhere else...going back to feeding the kids every other day will probably do it.

will

March 14th, 2011 at 11:58 PM ^

I know its crazy early, and highly unlikely - but I will be looking for a pair of tickets to all 3 of these games.

Or -  If anyone knows someone who wont be buying season tickets (especially student tix) I'd be interested.

I'll be updating the ticket spreadsheet soon.. but this thread got me thinking.. With no UM official ties - MGoBlog is my best bet at tickets without the need for vaseline.