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Oh no doubt.I think if it was in Omaha again, attendance would have been much higher than the 2K.
I think you're right about this. If Minnesota had qualified, yesterday's attendance would have been boosted significantly. Probably by 25% (to 2,735 fans).Not having the Gophers even in the tournament has to be a huge hit to the attendance numbers.
Oh no doubt.
Exciting game for your Hawkeyes yesterday! I was impressed with the fan support that came up from Iowa, rivaled the size of the Nebraska contingent last night.
To give a comparison between last year and this year...Do things to get people into the stands.
The tournament is run by the host school. Minnesota probably managed it properly because not too many folks are going to buy all session passes when they can walk up, buy a ticket and sit behind home plate. Sorry, you're the exception.To give a comparison between last year and this year...
Last year, tickets went on sale in mid-February (first or second week of the season) for pre-sale orders. I was a day late on the news of that, ended up with aisle seats slightly left of home plate, just under the overhang. It was the the closest I could find 4 seats together. I recall there was some advertising (a couple billboards, newspaper ads, radio spots), but nothing out of the ordinary. All reserved seating ticket sales as far as I know, but not sure what they did on the overflow crowd on championship Sunday when they had to upen up the outfield bleachers. All-session passes were $45 for the lower bowl and $55 for upper deck. I think single-session (single day) passes were either $10 or $12 for lower bowl or upper deck, respectively. Day 1 last year was an absolute mess, they didn't expect a very large crowd (and after seeing the attendance in Minneapolis the previous year, I don't blame them). Only 1 or two concessions stands were open Day 1: during the NU-OSU (1pm) game 2, patrons were in line for 3-4 innings. That got corrected the next day, and by Sunday all but the outfield concessions stands were open.
This year, I checked tickets online on TicketMaster, the Big Ten site, and the Twins website every couple weeks throughout the season. Nothing. It wasn't until the Creighton-NU game the last Tuesday in April (22 days before the start of the tourney) that I read the Big Ten website press release announcing the sale of tickets. Tickets weren't available on the Big Ten site, the Twins site, nor TicketMaster. You had to call the ticket office. When I called the next day, I had to be put on hold so the ticket office employee could grab a binder with the procedure to process the ticket order. She said they anticipated so few ticket sales that they weren't bothering putting it online. Not sure if she was supposed to tell me that or not, but it is what it is. I was astoniished by it. All-session passes were $30, not sure what single session tickets are. No reserved seats, all are GA. Only the lower bowl is open, not the upper decks or outfield.
Fully agree, last year was definitely an anomaly.I don't know, 2200 seems like a pretty good number for a B1G tournament opening day. I liked the number and think it's a good sign of increased fan involvement.
Big Ten tournaments are typically a friends and family event. This one looks to have more fan interest. Wouldn't be surprised to see this year finish second in attendance by a huge margin. We'll see.
And, no, it has zero chance of catching last year's numbers. Husker fans at TD Ameritrade is just special. Can't be matched anywhere.
I don't disagree with that. I guess I let my frustrations show in typing that. When I went into that post, I started as just trying to point out the differences between last year and this year, and it obviously devolved from there. I'm going to blame it on the heat Time to go sit in the shade for a little while before the Huskers play.The tournament is run by the host school. Minnesota probably managed it properly because not too many folks are going to buy all session passes when they can walk up, buy a ticket and sit behind home plate. Sorry, you're the exception.
Nebraska managed ticketing properly last year because they knew Nebraska fans would turn out for it. And because they <gasp> promoted it in the community.