No Second MSU Game At Yost This Year
We found out why the first Michigan State hockey series was "TBA" yesterday, when it was announced that the two teams would play an outdoor game in Chicago. There are about 50,000 reasons that's a questionable decision—as in the number of people who won't be at this who would if it was on either campus.
Michigan is due to get two home games against State this year, Michigan and MSU have a contract to play at the Joe annually, and the other MSU game is still ominously "TBA":
![image[10]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/images/Brandon-Screws-Hockey-Season-Ticket-Hold_A66D/image10.png "image[10]")
I just called the ticket office, and they said they were told that the January 30th game is at the Joe.
I, like a lot of season ticket holders, have already renewed my season tickets, and now I am informed that a game against Michigan's biggest rival is going to be in Chicago. This is how you lose people forever, Dave Brandon. But I'm sure the one-time benefit from playing in Chicago is more important than not making your season ticket holders feel like saps. Clueless. This athletic department is clueless.
August 12th, 2014 at 2:01 PM ^
College of engineering.
Out of curiosity, why?
August 12th, 2014 at 1:33 PM ^
August 12th, 2014 at 12:41 PM ^
"I'm not a hockey season ticket holder, I'm not a season ticket holder for anything, so maybe I just don't understand."
In the future, if you're questioning whether or not you understand, maybe you shouldn't write a 4 paragraph post telling us how much we're overreacting.
August 12th, 2014 at 1:13 PM ^
I think its healthy to understand both sides of any arguement. This whole thread is boiling down to a disagreement between the select season ticket holders and everyone else. Perhaps its worth weighing ones self importance vs the needs of the many?
August 12th, 2014 at 1:24 PM ^
Of course. How silly and selfish of us to assume that we would actually receive what we paid for. By all means, if this makes non-season ticket holders in Chicago happy, we should be perfectly fine with the bait-and-switch.
August 12th, 2014 at 1:34 PM ^
By my count, you paid for 17 home games including 1 at yost vs MSU. I dont think its fair per se to give 15% off and then remove a game, but i also dont think that 18th game accounts for 15% of the cost.
Now, if you buy season tickets, sell all of the "shit games" to cover cost and only go to the good ones then i completely understand your opinon.
I would suggest either way that you act on your opinions though, bitching about things on the internet rarely proves to be an effective means to change things. Dropping your season tickets would though. Or you could keep buying them as the status quo and become the sheep you are complaining the AD is making you out to be.
August 12th, 2014 at 1:51 PM ^
Is still a pig, just with lipstick. A bait and switch is a bait and switch, any way you try to dress it. Put in context with the history of the great Dave Brandon, it makes me want to rage kill my monitor, but I won't because it's a nice monitor.
August 12th, 2014 at 1:58 PM ^
I absolutely agree, if you bought season tickets only consisting of Michigan vs MSU games and 2 of them are now at different locations than Yost.
I think season ticket holders were baited in the first place. Now that people are realizing it and starting to grumble about it on the internet is a bit entertaining.
August 12th, 2014 at 3:28 PM ^
Well I'm glad you're entertained.
August 12th, 2014 at 3:33 PM ^
People realizing their own stupidity is the greatest catalist for change in our country today. I take pleasure in your expence at the hope of a better future.
August 12th, 2014 at 4:59 PM ^
I take pleasure in your lack of intelligence and social skills.
August 12th, 2014 at 9:08 PM ^
Yeah, I enjoyed doing the math and realizing season ticket actually increased on a per game basis ($1.62). The 15% Brandon threw out to sell ticket was complete bullshit like the majority of his marketing.
August 12th, 2014 at 1:34 PM ^
but I couldn't agree more with their stance if I tried. I don't need to try slitting my wrists to know it's a bad idea and I don't need to be a season ticket holder to feel the frustration they're feeling right now about this.
Forget the fact that it's season tickets for a minute and pretend it's any other purchse. Let's say you just went out and made a 500 dollar purchase, and it doesn't even have to be something you're overly passionate about. Now let's say that you get your purchase home, open the box and discover what you paid for isn't in the box. What would you think at that moment? Would you want a refund?
Now let's imagine you take it back to the store and they say "sorry, no refunds here". You plead your case that you didn't get what you paid for and 500 dollars is a lot to spend on something you didn't want and they say "sorry, them's the breaks kid".
You honestly (or anyone else agreeing that there isn't somthing wrong with this) expect me to believe that you wouldn't be pissed about that? Factor in the fact that the real situation involves peoples favorite college team and I honestly don't know how people can say there isn't anything to be angry about.
August 12th, 2014 at 1:47 PM ^
Fair enough. Personally i think the scheules are unknown enough that i wouldnt want to buy season tickets without knowing up front what i was getting in the first place. That said, i do understand that if i did get tickets i'd be some level of upset.
You are right, I just feel it comes with the teritory (for better or most of the time worse) much like buying a new car and losing 20% values driving it off the lot, or buying a new game for 60$ vs a year old one for 5. You know? I guess if that makes me an ass then so be it. Ill accept the negative repercussions of my opinion.
August 12th, 2014 at 2:53 PM ^
Those examples of losing money on a new car or buying an old game are not similar. Those are both relatively known at purchase. The fans who purchased the tickets were lead to believe that they were getting a product that they were not going to get. This is not an ethical way to run the AD.
If you are as furgal as you say you are, this should not be a difficult concept to understand.
August 12th, 2014 at 3:05 PM ^
The email very clearly stated pricew reduced 15% and 7FEB a home game with msu. no mention of neutral site or TBA.
August 12th, 2014 at 1:23 PM ^
One one of the most lucid voices we have..... I tend to take Brian's side on this one, but Space's points are well taken.
August 12th, 2014 at 1:30 PM ^
different people? Space Coyote may be a literary construct devised by Brian to create tension on the blog to increase readership.
August 12th, 2014 at 12:44 PM ^
As someone who has lived in Chicago and attended the Big Chill, I am completely fine with the idea of an MSU/UM game in Chicago. I am sure it will be well-attended, by many Chicagoland alums. That works for me.
But if I purchase something, and then sometime later, that person says:
"Oops, you know how you thought you were getting that event you REALLY care about as part of the package? Well, now you're not! But if you travel 5 hours (each way) and spend $250+ dollars, you can still get it!" -- that sucks. It is disrespectful to your most loyal customers, season ticket holders. Those folks deserve to know ahead of time -- figure out how to "negotiate" quicker or schedule the event the following year; that's why you get paid millions of dollars
And if you're saying people shouldn't be outraged (or even, at less passionate level, care) about this switch, that doesn't make sense to me from the AD perspective -- UM fans shouldn't care if they get to go see a big rival game or not? If they feel someone put something over on them? If that's what the AD is relying on, he seems to be relying on an indifferent fan base, who just cares about "events" not about Michigan. Not a recipe for long-term success. It is "clueless."
August 12th, 2014 at 12:45 PM ^
"Outrage" is a loaded term. I think a better one is "Frustration".
Keep in mind that the season ticket renewal deadline was August 6, and the move of the game from Yost to Chicago, Illinois, was publicly announced on August 11. That feels like a bait and switch, whether or not it was one, and I'm sure you can understand why it does feel that way to me and to other season ticket holders.
Yes, I found it very frustrating when it was announced, and I still do 24 hours later.
August 12th, 2014 at 2:12 PM ^
August 12th, 2014 at 12:09 PM ^
August 12th, 2014 at 12:15 PM ^
Chicago is between the two campuses. But that would make too much sense. (Though Wisco may not be interested in playing there again, as they played Minnesota in Soldier Field last year...I went to it, and it was a pretty miserably dull experience)
August 12th, 2014 at 12:09 PM ^
the announcement next summer: Michigan/Ohio State 2015 to be played in MetLife Stadium.
August 12th, 2014 at 1:25 PM ^
Do you know how many alumni of both schools are in that area?... It will be awesome!
August 12th, 2014 at 10:14 PM ^
August 12th, 2014 at 12:11 PM ^
Might be tolerable if the game is played at another in-state location like GR. With apologies to Chicagoland alumni, these are the biggest public schools in the State of Michigan.
August 12th, 2014 at 12:33 PM ^
"these are the biggest public schools in the State of Michigan."
SAY WHAT??
August 12th, 2014 at 12:43 PM ^
Well, they are.
August 12th, 2014 at 4:16 PM ^
recognition of sarcastic indignation clearly not a core competency of this board...
August 13th, 2014 at 10:11 AM ^
Recognition that sarcasm is often downvoted because it's annoying and doesn't contribute anything, not because "we didn't get it" is clearly not a core competency of sarcastic people...
August 12th, 2014 at 12:16 PM ^
As Canadian stated last night in his post - the Hockey season tickets were marketed as a 15% reduction in price which, when you take the number of games into the equation, is simply not true. He justifiably, IMO, felt like he was tricked by our AD and was and is as pissed about this as Brian seems to be. I don't blame them.
Our Athletic department treats season ticket holders in ALL sports horribly IMO. From the ridiculously high annual PSLs in football, to the moving of long-time season ticket holders in basketball and now the "bait & switch" of home games to the Hockey season ticket-holders. Brandon seems to think that these hard-core fans have no breaking point, no limit at which they simply say ENOUGH and give up. I think he's very wrong and I think we're all going to see the fruits of his scorched earth policy in the forms of swaths of empty seats sooner rather than later. And when that happens he'll blame the students for their apathy, people like me for not fickle (even though i wasn't fickle for over 30 years) and others for simply being fair weather fans. In short he'll blame everybody but himself for the problem and will undoubtably try to market his way out of the mess via cheesy and repetitive emails and other media blasts. It's embarrassing and it's sad.
I've never said it before but I'm saying it now. Brandon's got to go.
August 12th, 2014 at 12:28 PM ^
Beyond giving away one of the biggest home games of the year, they sold season ticket holders a bill of goods.
"Six-packs of Oberon are 15% off!"
/Buys six pack, gets home, one of the bottles is empty, with a note saying "your sixth beer will be waiting for you in Chicago. We'll let you know how much it'll cost"
August 12th, 2014 at 12:32 PM ^
Heaven forbid you be upset about your empty beer bottle though. That's just being negative.
August 12th, 2014 at 1:36 PM ^
Empty beer bottles are the future, man. /DB
August 12th, 2014 at 4:33 PM ^
Empty bottles are for TERRORISTS. Real patriots pay $4 for bottled water at a designated concession stand, brought to you by Absopure.
August 12th, 2014 at 1:17 PM ^
Of all the arguments, this is the cleanest comparison I've seen so far.
I am not a season ticket holder, of any sport, and I completely see how this is pissing people off. Not to repeat what everyone else has said, I tend to feel this is more than just an Athletic Department problem, it has become a University of Michigan problem.
I graduated in 2006, but my Dad graduated in 1972. What is pissing my dad off is that he gets weekly mail pieces from Michigan asking for donations. Now, this in itself is not a problem, everyone does this, but the problem is that it's not a letter. It's a fancy portfolio of sorts. The piece of mail that is sent looks expensive to reproduce and unnecessary and he gets them almost weekly, not every once in a while or once a quarter. Asking for money, while wasting a lot of money, doesn't come off in a good way.
The connection here is that the university and the AD are becoming a money grab that seem to give no shits about its alumni, the focus is on the alumni's wallet. I went to michigan and owe all my fandom to my parents and watching football with them as a youngin. It's crazy to see people, who once were exploding with so much passion for Michigan it was contagious, now hardly say a positive thing about the school.
August 12th, 2014 at 1:28 PM ^
you would actually drive past kalamazoo to chicago just to get one bottle of oberon?
August 12th, 2014 at 3:01 PM ^
So I don't fully understand why you would be mad about missing the 6th bottle. I mean, think of how much more Oberon will be available to the people in Chicago now, who drink way more beer than where you drink beer. I mean, this makes sense for Oberon since they will make more money, plus it gives people in Chicago (a larger a market) a chance to drink more of the product. I mean what are you going to do, STOP buying more Oberon and drink a different beer or maybe another liquor? HA, you are just mad to be mad.
August 12th, 2014 at 1:51 PM ^
I actually still have the e-mail the U of M Ticket Office sent out back on June 20th informing season ticket-holders of the change in the ticket price. This is the e-mail verbatim:
Season Ticket Prices Lowered
New Season Ticket Holder Benefits
Season ticket prices for the 2014-15 season have been lowered; this coming season, endzone locations have dropped by 15% ($400 vs $340), sideline/mid-endzone by 12% ($450 vs. $395), and center ice by 10% ($525 vs $475).
In addition, new Season Ticket holder benefits will be rolled out including....etc, etc.
So rolling that news out under the title of "Benefits" was a bit misleading and I can think of half a dozen other ways that the AD could've described what was going on that would've been a bit more honest.
Brian is correct, these guys are clueless.
August 12th, 2014 at 2:41 PM ^
Maybe DB will all drive us to Chicago as the new "Season Ticket holder benifit"...
August 12th, 2014 at 9:17 PM ^
If it is party bus loaded up with Oberon, then I will stop my complaining against Dave Brandon.
August 13th, 2014 at 7:48 AM ^
You think the man who wouldn't spring to send the MMB to Texas for the Alabama / Michigan game is going to spring for Oberon on the Hockey Party Bus?
You'll get Milwaukee's Best my friend and like it.
August 12th, 2014 at 12:31 PM ^
August 12th, 2014 at 12:31 PM ^
As a Chicago resident I'll enjoy going to the game, but to do this after season ticket renewals is pretty terrible form.
And with any luck the weather will be better than last year's February 7, when it was a balmy 4 degrees for the high and wind chills well below zero.
August 12th, 2014 at 12:32 PM ^
August 12th, 2014 at 12:35 PM ^
August 12th, 2014 at 1:31 PM ^
i really hope a lot of you do this to make a point. then, maybe just go to some of the games via stubhub.
August 12th, 2014 at 12:36 PM ^
is not to maximize profits. I have no idea why our AD has such an incredibly difficult time understanding this.
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