Ticket demand for this weekend low

Submitted by crg on October 11th, 2018 at 8:53 PM

Is anyone else surprised how low demand seems to be for this week's game?  Prices on the secondary market have been low for a while - even considering a ranked matchup night game with Gameday on campus.

East German Judge

October 11th, 2018 at 9:23 PM ^

Couple of options:

  1. Buy a periscope for the kids
  2. Work on your triceps before big games
  3. Bring only tall kids to the game
  4. Get better seats, like in the 1st row
  5. Don't bring the kids, make some adult friends that are not short, OR
  6. Stay at home, but give your tickets to a Michigan fan.

FIFY!

BTW, your '97 8 year old is now 29, hopefully you still don't intend to hold them up for the whole game when the rest of us jerks stand up???

 

Section 1.8

October 13th, 2018 at 11:26 AM ^

Garbage.  All of you "Up in back!" assholes should man up, and get with the Athletic Department and arrange for certain sections to stand, if that is what you want.  And you should pay for it.  Pay a special PSD, for the trouble you will cause in relocating that many people.  Pay, the way that the people whom you are insulting have to pay.

I am 100% serious here.  You want a section, or two, that is just like the student sections, for 'student wannabees'?  You can make it happen; you need to pay and work at it for a few years.

Otherwise, all that I can imagine is that you want the whole Stadium audience to behave as you'd like.  You want everybody to stand up, so you will stand and force everybody behind you to stand, and a big "fuck you" to people who can't or don't want to stand, or who can' see when everybody is standing.

I am suggesting an alternative for you.  Make the arrangements with the Athletic Department.  You'll need to start with an organization of like-minded fans.  Then you will need to make it worth Warde Manuel's time to meet with you.  A major donation will help get that started.  It will take some serious work to get it going.  You will be relocating lots of season ticket holders.  You will need to equal that number of season ticket subscribers with your group, and more.  There may be ushering and insurance issues.  Lots of other issues.

So do it.  Man up and get it done.  Or STFU about "standing" where you are just insulting the people behind you.

 

Bando Calrissian

October 11th, 2018 at 11:18 PM ^

Until we were old enough to see over the people in front of us, the kids in our family had a longstanding pact with the nice people behind us that we could hop up on the bleachers in front of us if everyone stood up. No harm, no foul.

And this is why being nice, considerate, and understanding in the stadium is a good thing. It's also testament to the pre-StubHub age in which we sat amongst the same ticketholders for 30 years. People with no investment or relationship with the people around them (i.e., I'm never going to see you again, so why be nice?) aren't going to do that kind of stuff. And thus, why there are more problems in the stadium now.

sharklover

October 12th, 2018 at 1:38 AM ^

I had a dude that looked like he was 85 threaten to kick me in the head for standing (along with the rest of the crowd) during a first quarter Michigan touchdown in the '97 Michigan-Notre Dame game. I only stood for a moment as the player was running into the endzone with the ball, and only as the entire section in front of me was also taking to their feet to get a better view of the score. He was a Michigan fan. I was a Michigan fan. I can't believe that I was threatened with physical violence by someone that was rooting on the same side as me.

I stood throughout the entire '97 OSU game. I would have taken 10 kicks to the head, and no one would have gotten me to sit. I probably would have beaten the tar out of that old guy if he had been there, telling me to sit down during that game.

lmgoblue1

October 11th, 2018 at 9:53 PM ^

This whole conversation is kind of dumb.  For one, you will be one of us if you live long enough. Take care of yourself now and you won't have to worry about standing when you are 60 years old like me. Next year will be year number 50 in my seats (dad bought them in 1969-a good year to buy, and I had them transferred to me when they couldn't come anymore). I graduated UM in 1980....we were too drunk to stand in the stadium then.....for the most part.  Today, all my friends have mechanical parts or bad parts that aren't fixed.  You may too, if you live long enough.  What has NOT changed, we still yell like hell, we still know the words to The Yellow and Blue, and every year there are fewer of us and more of you, and guess what?  That is fine, it is great, the tradition carries on.  There will always be "old people" and you will be one too...if you are lucky enough. Me, I have a standing desk at work, and I will be standing Saturday night.  When some young punk yells at me to sit down, and I guarantee one will, I will remember this thread and tell him to get off his punk ass and start helping the team. You all do your part, or get the fuck off my lawn. Go Blue!!

umich1

October 12th, 2018 at 6:55 AM ^

“We don’t need them”

This is an unfortunate take.  WD, you know as well as any with your super guide that the only reason we have a  competitive team with a proud tradition to support today, is because of the generations before us. Generations that:

  • Invented the linebacker position
  • Invented the concept of the platoon system, which features using different players on offense and defense
  • Literally built Michigan Stadium
  • Won 11 national championships and 42 Big Ten Championships.
  • Contributed a lot of money to keep this empire going.

Do you think the Wistert brothers, as an example, have the ability to stand the entire game?

My personal preference is to stand because the seats are so damn small, but if I have elderly folks behind me, you are damn sure I’m talking with them first and being courteous towards their ability to see the game.

Noise impacts the game.  Whether or not somebody is standing in row 40 doesn’t.  Choose your battles folks.

Wolverine Devotee

October 12th, 2018 at 10:15 AM ^

That's all fine and well, except for the fact that I'm not stand up guy.

Be loud. There's a difference between being a fan and being a supporter. There's a reason Euro soccer supporters are called supporters. They're into the game the entire time.

Not talking about nonsense to the people around them, not giving people who are supporters the side eye when they're yelling on defense.

The Team, The Team, The Team. You can go be a spectator at an opera. You help out at Michigan games in any way. 

Being old isn't an excuse. You can still be loud sitting down. If your vocal chords can't go for 60 minutes of game play, clap instead before the play on defense! 

Synful

October 12th, 2018 at 10:09 AM ^

Preach.  There are video scoreboards that if you want to stay seated you can and still see the action.  Be flexible.  The rest of us who want to stand?  We will.  We will stand, we will cheer, we will curse, we will support the team with every ounce of our being.

sharklover

October 12th, 2018 at 1:45 AM ^

Pretty simple. Big house crowds are notoriously quiet. The place has not atmosphere because so many of the fans suck. Raucous and deafening crowds create an atmosphere of intimidation that gives teams a huge advantage. Michigan fans don't seem to be capable of generating that level of noise, despite the massive crowd size.

I know you're not new. You must have heard this one before.

Alton

October 12th, 2018 at 8:52 AM ^

Every actual piece of evidence says that Michigan has a huge home field advantage.  Look at how well Michigan plays at home compared with how well Michigan plays on the road.  There is, you have to admit, a very large difference between the two--bigger than almost any other team I can think of.

Or...how would you suggest measuring home field advantage other than (performance at home) minus (performance on the road)?

 

Alton

October 12th, 2018 at 9:15 AM ^

No, it would give a result half the size.

So...let's say hypothetically that home field in a loud stadium is worth 5 points.  Every "loud stadium" team would do 10 points better at home than on the road.  But "quiet stadium" teams would only do 5 points better at home than on the road.

So my metric is not flawed.  "Quiet Stadium" teams, if you buy the Loud Stadium Theory of home field advantage, would have a smaller difference between home and road performance than "Loud Stadium" teams would have.

backusduo

October 12th, 2018 at 9:44 AM ^

I think the flaw in that logic is you have to figure it against the spread too, because we always have the 2-3 home games, against directional schools and the like, that inflate those numbers. You also could just look at our home vs. away differential within the Big Ten, to make a more convincing number.

That said, what are we arguing about? We’ve all been to home games at Michigan and other places, and I think common sense can tell us that we are a little bit more on the laid back side when it comes to getting loud, specifically when our team is on Def and needs us to provide an obstruction to communication for the away team. There are teams whose fans are superior to us. 

Great to have heritage. Wish we had fans/friends that helped do their part a little more. It’s an advantage.

The Maizer

October 12th, 2018 at 10:16 AM ^

But your numbers here are completely arbitrary. It also doesn't take into account that maybe we are just really bad on the road whereas some teams might be relatively immune to others' home field advantages. You're introducing irrelevant variables by including road performance when evaluating home field advantage.

A more robust approach would be to look at opponent performance at the Big House vs. other stadiums of teams that are a similar quality to Michigan (especially on defense). Football performance has a high degree of variance, so a proper analysis would need a very large sample of games, likely spanning at least a couple decades.

Midukman

October 12th, 2018 at 7:05 AM ^

I gotta believe so. Add in totally screwing up the afternoon nap and the chilly temps and you have a surge in available tickets. Luckily I set in section 9, first ten rows, so the blue hairs who occasionally show up don’t even try their routine because it just won’t happen. I’m 45 with a bionic knee from being a catcher for way to many years. Nothing short of amputating my leg will keep my ass in that seat. 

Leaders And Best

October 11th, 2018 at 9:08 PM ^

Not really. I wouldn't pay over face for this week's game. It's not a rivalry game, and Wisconsin isn't the same draw after losing to BYU.

I don't think night game or Gameday would have much of an effect on the ticket price. In fact, night game may actually hurt the value of the ticket.

Leaders And Best

October 12th, 2018 at 12:33 AM ^

I'm not sure why the sub-40 degree low matters unless you are planning on camping outdoors overnight after the game.

The forecast is 47 degrees at kickoff and 41 degrees at 11pm. It will be colder than average, but that is around the temperatures you would see in a November Michigan-OSU game. Not sure why it would be such a big deal here. It looks like there will be no wind and no rain, so I think the conditions are not going to be that bad.