CFT:Jim Harbaugh effect helping to turn around ticket sales at Michigan

Submitted by gmgoblue1205 on

 

College Football Talk did an article about Harbaugh effect helping to turn around tickets sales at Michigan. Enjoy

 

 

The hiring of Jim Harbaugh has without a doubt been one of the more buzzworthy coaching hires in recent years around college football, and the outlook for the Wolverines seems to have turned around 180-degrees back on track as a result. That could also mean Michigan will not have to resort to any Coca-Cola ticket promotions this fall as well.

Back in April during spring football season, Michigan’s spring attendance saw a massive jump from 15,000 fans in 2014 to aneager and interested turnout of 60,000 Michigan fans. At the time, Michigan’s athletics director Jim Hackett also said the school was seeing steady growth in season ticket sales that forced Michigan to have to start a wait list already 1,500 fans deep. Hackett also said all 81 luxury boxes in Michigan Stadium had been sold out for the 2015 season. The momentum seems to be continuing in Ann Arbor in the ticket sales office too.

In addressing the financial state of Michigan’s athletics department to the regents this week, Hackett outlined a loss of $7.9 million loss from the most recent fiscal year, but highlighted some of the reasons for optimism things will turn around rather quickly, with the football program playing a key role. Hackett says Michigan has sold 18,000 single-game tickets and Michigan is projecting an eight-year high in season ticket sales. If there was any doubt the importance or significance of Michigan bringing Harbaugh back to Ann Arbor for the first time since he played quarterback for Bo Schembechler, Hackett put it to rest.

“We had to get the revenue moving line back up,” Hackett said, according toMLive.com. “One of our core strategies was getting a special football coach.”

LSAClassOf2000

June 20th, 2015 at 9:53 AM ^

"We had to get the revenue moving line back up," Hackett said. "One of our core strategies was getting a special football coach."

If attendance at the spring game was an indication of how quickly this might be possible - and of course that was a free event - the revenue line might reach some rarified air in time. It does seem that, as far as the athletic department goes, through Harbaugh all things are possible.

DarkWolverine

June 20th, 2015 at 10:19 AM ^

Would Like To See Numbers, Not Directions on Sales
Hackett has been using management speak with his comments so hard to tell what is really happening. The numbers I want to know are the following. Student season tickets and actual season ticket waiting list. Students were at 14,000 last year, down from a peak of 21,000 or so. That was the problem that surprised Brandon and evaporated the waiting list and led to the need for the stupid promotions. Hope to see this number for this year with a great home schedule and hope it further increases next year when we have a poor home schedule. The drop in student tickets surprisingly happened after 3 years of Hoke being undefeated at home, except for the missed 2 point conversion against OSU. Hackett now should know the exact number of waiting list people.



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jmblue

June 20th, 2015 at 5:17 PM ^

The drop in student tickets surprisingly happened after 3 years of Hoke being undefeated at home, except for the missed 2 point conversion against OSU.

It shouldn't have been a surprise at all. Our 2014 home schedule was one of the worst in school history, with no home rivalry games and not much else of interest.  The closest thing to a marquee opponent was a .500 PSU team. 

Also, we lost to both Nebraska and OSU at home in 2013.

DarkWolverine

June 20th, 2015 at 7:03 PM ^

Not So Sure
If you are saying it is the schedule, then heck with students if they are going to pass on the 2016 schedule. We should revisit this discussion when we find out how many students bought tickets for Harbaugh/MSU/OSU. If it does not meet or exceed 2013 season tickets of 21,000 then it's a bigger problem then the schedule you claim.



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scottygonzalez

June 20th, 2015 at 10:16 AM ^

I think the same should be said for away games this year.  There will be considerable interest for alumni outside of Michigan to see Harbs and the team in action, plus the general public would be more inclined to see Michigan on the road because HARBAUGH.  Being married to a U of Utah alumnus, we've been planning on going to SLC for the opener, but tickets are outrageous on stubhub, etc.  My in-laws are pretty good friends with the president of their alumni association (aka Crimson Club), and they reached out to them for tickets, but they told them that there are so many requests and they can't accomodate anyone.  Needless to say, my wife's cousins who are season ticket holders, hooked us up!

lesgoblue

June 20th, 2015 at 11:02 AM ^

Bought airfare and hotel for this game, thinking tickets would be easy. StubHub prices outrageous, so donated $200 to the Crimson Club in HARBAUGH's honor in order to qualify for season tickets. Got a handwritten thank you note from Coach, but didn't rank high enough in Crimson Club for tickets. Expensive autograph and a cool story bro...