Season Tickets

[Aksarben]

Today NU put about 2,000 season tickets up for sale for first time buyers or those who may have wanted to add to their collection of season tickets. In looking over the seats available (at 10:30 there were several all over the stadium) and their required donation I'd be surprised if they sold very many of these tickets.

Donations are running anywhere from $150 per seat to $2,000 per seat. If they couldn't find people to donate that kind of money before I'm not honestly sure where they're going to find them now. I guess we'll see how this turns out and what the spin is from Lincoln after a few days.

 

[litespeedhuskerfan]

Outside of retaining Bo after the Iowa game 2 years ago in Lincoln, stadium expansion is the dumbest thing Nebraska athletics has done in the last several years. Depending on how Erstad finishes out this season, retaining him for next season is starting to creep up the list as well....

 

[Huskers_Rule]

If they cared about fans they would reduce required donations as increased revenue from the B10 starts to come in.

 

[jay-cheese]

Don't you think that economic common sense would dictate if they want a sold out stadium, that they'd remove/lower the donation requirement?

1/3 of the stadium doesn't pay a donation (due to grandfathering...). Although I understand it, that's not exactly a fair policy. If you feel the urge to remind me that life isn't fair, I'll likely remind you that the stadium ISN'T sold out (and donations are likely a big factor).

GBR

 

[OmahaSker]

Outside of retaining Bo after the Iowa game 2 years ago in Lincoln, stadium expansion is the dumbest thing Nebraska athletics has done in the last several years. Depending on how Erstad finishes out this season, retaining him for next season is starting to creep up the list as well....

Erstad is not going anywhere for a long time. The BIG tourney was disappointing but he did make another regional and that's pretty dang good. NU just doesn't want to pay the big bucks to win in baseball. We had Van Horn who is one of the best in the country and look how much he is making now

 

[Soda Popinski]

Erstad is not going anywhere for a long time. The BIG tourney was disappointing but he did make another regional and that's pretty dang good. NU just doesn't want to pay the big bucks to win in baseball. We had Van Horn who is one of the best in the country and look how much he is making now

It's crazy that we had Rob Childress on staff and picked Mike Anderson when Van Horn left.

 

[huskerfan1414]

NU enjoys biting the hands that feed them.

 

[Pennsyhusker]

I disagree that stadium expansion was a bad idea. I understand that times have changed, and that with every game televised, and with in-home hi def TV, as well as tons of sports bars, that there is not the same desire/need to actually have your butt in a stadium seat.

However... There is NO substitute for the experiene of being at the game. And imho the biggest drag on ticket sales has been the product on the field. If and when we start playing championship caliber football again we will see pressure on ticket sales increase again. It has been since 2001 that we have been in contention for a national title. If we can return to that level the tickets will sell.

 

[anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi]

Don't you think that economic common sense would dictate if they want a sold out stadium, that they'd remove/lower the donation requirement?

1/3 of the stadium doesn't pay a donation (due to grandfathering...). Although I understand it, that's not exactly a fair policy. If you feel the urge to remind me that life isn't fair, I'll likely remind you that the stadium ISN'T sold out (and donations are likely a big factor).

GBR

It's an idiotic policy

 

[OmahaSker]

It's crazy that we had Rob Childress on staff and picked Mike Anderson when Van Horn left.

Totally slipped my mind. Good call

 

[jay-cheese]

Did this thread get mistakenly combined with another thread about baseball coaches? Or is this one of those secret message deals (like "I like Lamp" "Just had a cheeseburger for lunch, you?")?

 

[scarletred]

It's crazy that we had Rob Childress on staff and picked Mike Anderson when Van Horn left.

When Bill Byrne was here he knew actually who he was going to hire for Baseball when he was hired at Texas A$M and that is why we ended up with Mike Anderson.

 

[NikkiSixx]

That is the old Husker experience.. dealing with crappy traffic in and out of the city, high prices for food and beverage and parking, trying to fit my large american ass in a 12 inch space, sandwiched between two other large American asses, that haven't bathed recently, mix in some drunk idiots and the clever community urinal along with the product on the field and don't forget the the long single file drive home hoping you don't get pulled over.

The new Husker experience is to sit in your pajamas, not bathed, eating whatever you like in your own fridge, drinking your own booze with no risk of a DUI, while parking your fat American ass on any of a number of open spots in your cushy living room, watching your large 60 inch big screen, meanwhile using your own toilet to donate back to your city, and upon conclusion, you can immediately call in to big red over reaction and complain incoherently about how you are done with Nebraska football and blah blah blah and end it with a slurred go big red as you pass out on your living room floor with only your dog staring at you like you are some kind of idiot. The brilliance of this, is no one will know come Monday and you aren't out a lot of money either.

 

[TheBeav815]

You guys are spoiled. Anyone who whines about "traffic" in Lincoln should be instantly teleported to LA or Houston or some city with real traffic. Start going to some venues around the country and you can be reminded that Memorial Stadium is in the top tier of game day experiences, period. If you think it's not, you're objectively wrong.

You wanna see shitty traffic and a miserable excuse for a stadium, come see the Bears play at *historic* Soldier Field. Just plan out which quarter you're gonna miss if you want a piss and a hot dog, you'll spend all of halftime in line plus a bunch of the game. Who here has been to Jack Trice? How about that sorry excuse for a football field in Lawrence? Or perhaps you'd prefer the Manhattan experience? No, no, I'm sorry, Evanston really does it up perfectly on Saturdays, what a hallowed house of football that is.

I went to pretty much every home game from about 92 - 2007. If you can't get to the stadium on time, that's your fault for either not leaving soon enough or taking the wrong roads. I could park in the Haymarket, work a shift at Lazlos, cash out, and make it up to the stadium for the game. I also could park for free at about 23rd and R and walk to the stadium in plenty of time to get food, pop, and watch the band.

Game day in Lincoln is VERY well-managed. You can't pack 90,000 people into the same block without having some lines someplace. The upgrades they've made to concession and restroom availability are fantastic, and oh by the way you can watch everything on TV should you happen to be in line for food while the game is going on.

 

[huskerfan1414]

This is why it's amazing to me they are stil having this donation crap. If the seats are worth 60 a game, it shouldbe 60 a game for season tickets and no more. Our athletic department is not taking the big screen/leather couch/ man cave with friends where wecan also watch other games thing seriously enough. Once you lose these people you wont get them back except for 1 or 2 games a year. why would they pay a donation?

 

[TheBeav815]

...as for the donations and the cost of tickets, you all are sounding an awful lot like a bunch of damned dirty socialists, wanting the University who puts all the hard work into owning the stadium and running the team to give you cheap tickets because it's *not fair* for them to charge as much as they can get people to pay for tickets.

It's my understanding that the appropriate response to that is, "Guess you should have thought of that before you decided not to be rich."

Have you not heard how this works? See also: Prices, gasoline. People don't charge what's fair for things, they charge as much as they can to make the most money. If the ticket's don't sell, they will lower the donation. So far, they don't have to.

 

[huskerfan1414]

...as for the donations and the cost of tickets, you all are sounding an awful lot like a bunch of damned dirty socialists, wanting the University who puts all the hard work into owning the stadium and running the team to give you cheap tickets because it's *not fair* for them to charge as much as they can get people to pay for tickets.

It's my understanding that the appropriate response to that is, "Guess you should have thought of that before you decided not to be rich."

Have you not heard how this works? See also: Prices, gasoline. People don't charge what's fair for things, they charge as much as they can to make the most money. If the ticket's don't sell, they will lower the donation. So far, they don't have to.

Have you read the posts here? The university is struggling to sell them and is relying more and more on corporate partners to by seats to keep the sellout while sections of the stadium sit open on gameday. Youd be right if this was efficient but it is not and is not profitable in the long term. They do have a right to charge whatever but joe schmo with the bigscreen has a right to stay home.

As for your witty and childish "appropriate response", no one has ever said that you sarcastic prick.
You know how I know you are constantly wrong about everything political? You have to rely on putting words into people's mouths to have an argument, even though they've never been said. Typical of your ilk.

 

[Soda Popinski]

Stadium seating everywhere please.

 

[nwualum]

Remember the football program fund about 20 sports. That's why they need donations. They're not getting them for the women's soccer team, etc. Take away Title IX and it's a different ball game, although I do support Title IX.

 

[brandon2589]

I always get a kick out of the forced "donation" to purchase tickets.

Also I know theres been talk that we haven't truly been sold out for years, but have they always made this kind of a push each summer? Perhaps I just don't remember them pushing it as much.

 

[TheBeav815]

Have you read the posts here? The university is struggling to sell them and is relying more and more on corporate partners to by seats to keep the sellout while sections of the stadium sit open on gameday. Youd be right if this was efficient but it is not and is not profitable in the long term. They do have a right to charge whatever but joe schmo with the bigscreen has a right to stay home.

As for your witty and childish "appropriate response", no one has ever said that you sarcastic prick.
You know how I know you are constantly wrong about everything political? You have to rely on putting words into people's mouths to have an argument, even though they've never been said. Typical of your ilk.

My goodness! The lady doth protest too much, methinks. If I didn't know better, I'd say something in my post set off some cognitive dissonance and rather than reconcile your own competing set of ideals, you decided it would be easier to call me a prick.

Corporate partners having a bunch of tickets is standard pretty much everywhere. If you understood what you're talking about, you actually have a better shot to get some cheap tickets if, in fact, the AD needs a bunch of partners to prop up the sellout streak with tickets they don't really use. That means some company is buying up tickets and then dumping them into the secondary market by giving them free to employees and/or selling them for their true market value...which must be below what the AD is actually asking since all those seats are allegedly empty. If the demand is truly so slack for tickets, they'll sell for face value or less on the secondary market.

So if, in fact, there are so many empty seats on game day...the solution is you don't buy season tickets. You take advantage of the weak demand and the big ruse that those darned corporations are perpetuating, and you get them cheaper from scalpers. Because you know those guys aren't paying full price to get the tickets they're hawking at 10th and Q. So if it's about kickoff and he's still stuck with a handful of tickets, guess who has the negotiating power?

Like I said, if a day comes that they can't get the tickets sold, the prices will come down in terms of face, donation, or both. Until then, I suggest you all make a decision about which you are more in love with: The sellout streak, or cheap tickets.

But the fact that so many of you are butthurt about it is the perfect case-in-point for why it's a bunch of BS that people would rather stay home and watch on TV than be at the game.

 

[Soda Popinski]

My goodness! The lady doth protest too much, methinks. If I didn't know better, I'd say something in my post set off some cognitive dissonance and rather than reconcile your own competing set of ideals, you decided it would be easier to call me a prick.

Corporate partners having a bunch of tickets is standard pretty much everywhere. If you understood what you're talking about, you actually have a better shot to get some cheap tickets if, in fact, the AD needs a bunch of partners to prop up the sellout streak with tickets they don't really use. That means some company is buying up tickets and then dumping them into the secondary market by giving them free to employees and/or selling them for their true market value...which must be below what the AD is actually asking since all those seats are allegedly empty. If the demand is truly so slack for tickets, they'll sell for face value or less on the secondary market.

So if, in fact, there are so many empty seats on game day...the solution is you don't buy season tickets. You take advantage of the weak demand and the big ruse that those darned corporations are perpetuating, and you get them cheaper from scalpers. Because you know those guys aren't paying full price to get the tickets they're hawking at 10th and Q. So if it's about kickoff and he's still stuck with a handful of tickets, guess who has the negotiating power?

Like I said, if a day comes that they can't get the tickets sold, the prices will come down in terms of face, donation, or both. Until then, I suggest you all make a decision about which you are more in love with: The sellout streak, or cheap tickets.

But the fact that so many of you are butthurt about it is the perfect case-in-point for why it's a bunch of BS that people would rather stay home and watch on TV than be at the game.

Typical Keyensian economics. You're so ilky.

 

[leodisflowers]

You guys are spoiled. Anyone who whines about "traffic" in Lincoln should be instantly teleported to LA or Houston or some city with real traffic. Start going to some venues around the country and you can be reminded that Memorial Stadium is in the top tier of game day experiences, period. If you think it's not, you're objectively wrong.

You wanna see shitty traffic and a miserable excuse for a stadium, come see the Bears play at *historic* Soldier Field. Just plan out which quarter you're gonna miss if you want a piss and a hot dog, you'll spend all of halftime in line plus a bunch of the game. Who here has been to Jack Trice? How about that sorry excuse for a football field in Lawrence? Or perhaps you'd prefer the Manhattan experience? No, no, I'm sorry, Evanston really does it up perfectly on Saturdays, what a hallowed house of football that is.

I went to pretty much every home game from about 92 - 2007. If you can't get to the stadium on time, that's your fault for either not leaving soon enough or taking the wrong roads. I could park in the Haymarket, work a shift at Lazlos, cash out, and make it up to the stadium for the game. I also could park for free at about 23rd and R and walk to the stadium in plenty of time to get food, pop, and watch the band.

Game day in Lincoln is VERY well-managed. You can't pack 90,000 people into the same block without having some lines someplace. The upgrades they've made to concession and restroom availability are fantastic, and oh by the way you can watch everything on TV should you happen to be in line for food while the game is going on.

FOR THE WIN! Excellent post, and living in San Diego, LA, San Fran, and now Houston for the last 10 years.... Calling gameday cars on the roadways traffic is great!!!

 

[huskerfan1414]

My goodness! The lady doth protest too much, methinks. If I didn't know better, I'd say something in my post set off some cognitive dissonance and rather than reconcile your own competing set of ideals, you decided it would be easier to call me a prick.

Corporate partners having a bunch of tickets is standard pretty much everywhere. If you understood what you're talking about, you actually have a better shot to get some cheap tickets if, in fact, the AD needs a bunch of partners to prop up the sellout streak with tickets they don't really use. That means some company is buying up tickets and then dumping them into the secondary market by giving them free to employees and/or selling them for their true market value...which must be below what the AD is actually asking since all those seats are allegedly empty. If the demand is truly so slack for tickets, they'll sell for face value or less on the secondary market.

So if, in fact, there are so many empty seats on game day...the solution is you don't buy season tickets. You take advantage of the weak demand and the big ruse that those darned corporations are perpetuating, and you get them cheaper from scalpers. Because you know those guys aren't paying full price to get the tickets they're hawking at 10th and Q. So if it's about kickoff and he's still stuck with a handful of tickets, guess who has the negotiating power?

Like I said, if a day comes that they can't get the tickets sold, the prices will come down in terms of face, donation, or both. Until then, I suggest you all make a decision about which you are more in love with: The sellout streak, or cheap tickets.

But the fact that so many of you are butthurt about it is the perfect case-in-point for why it's a bunch of BS that people would rather stay home and watch on TV than be at the game.

No, it's easy to call you a prick because you are one. Nice side-stepping. You stepped in it with your drivel and were called out accordingly.

Of course they currently need the corporate partners--not enough people want to buy season tickets. If they got rid of the donation I bet more would buy them, and go sit down in the stadium and buy things.

And I never said people would rather stay home and watch on tv than be at the game. I am saying that many people would rather sit at home and watch the game on tv than buy season tickets that charge a "donation". So instead of going to them all they'll go to one or two a year and scalp as you said.

 

[4norsemen]

It's funny to hear people in distress over the crowds on game day. In the seventies and eighties there were a few less seats but parking was an act of brilliance. More people talked about how and where they parked then than the game. Of course the score was 56-0 every game but parking was a skill.

 

[JohnRossEwing]

How is parking a problem? I have never not found a spot

 

[GeauxBigRed]

Try getting in, parking, and leaving Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. You will never complain about Husker games again.

 

[hddude55]

The Ticket Office should target a few of the Jayskers who hang out here. They should have some extra pocket change that was planned for postseason Creighton baseball tickets.

 

[jflores]

TV is a real threat. Attendance is down across CFB apparently. Having lived in LA and DC for some time, I can say that no, Lincoln is not the commuting experience that say Redskin gameday is, but everything is relative. I can watch the Huskers at home, and immediately switch to one of several other games afterwards. Unless I lived a handful of minutes walk from the stadium, there's almost nothing that the Administration could do to equalize the logistics there (even being piddly Lincoln) unless I was just bound and determined to sit with my drunk friends at a tailgate and watch on a portable tv.

I did the whole "give up a large chunk of your day to attending a football game" thing. I kinda prefer this "instant on" "instant off" thing modern HD america has going on right now.

Edit: And as a resident of Nebraska for many years, I have never paid to actually attend a football game. Usually someone knows a guy who knows a guy and wants to get rid of a couple to his buddies. Or maybe my mom or dad's work has seats available, or a buddy of mine is a booster and doesn't always use his, or whatever the situation is. Free is cool and readily available to many Husker fans who aren't particularly picky. Why you'd pay $2k for the priviledge of paying $80 a seat is a little beyond me.

 

[TheLiberalHunter]

No, it's easy to call you a prick because you are one. Nice side-stepping. You stepped in it with your drivel and were called out accordingly.

Of course they currently need the corporate partners--not enough people want to buy season tickets. If they got rid of the donation I bet more would buy them, and go sit down in the stadium and buy things.

And I never said people would rather stay home and watch on tv than be at the game. I am saying that many people would rather sit at home and watch the game on tv than buy season tickets that charge a "donation". So instead of going to them all they'll go to one or two a year and scalp as you said.

Stop! Go to a neutral corner while I start the standing 8 count.

 

[jflores]

The donation thing has to be real. I have a friend, he was the girls VB coach at Bell West for a while, he's a die hard Husker fan. He's had VB tix since forever, and his brother is a B1G VB ref. They are big time fans of the sport.

He doesn't like all the shenanigans with donations and so forth, and he's seriously considered giving up his uber excellent seats over them.

Now, considering his seats and the overall success of the team at this time, they will probably be snapped up unnoticed. But that would miss the point, this man almost defines his being by the sport of VB. If you are able to start turning guys like that away, you can't be more than a lax season or two away from losing your magical AD ability to print money via seat license.

 

[CameronKrazie86]

Aside from Oregon, there's not a home game I really want/need to see this season in person. The home schedule is really lackluster so that limits my initial interest in purchasing season tickets right off the bat. Now throw in the donation on top of that and it becomes a much more difficult sell. I suppose a lot for me depends on just how good of seats I could get without spending a lot on the donation.

If I had to spend $150 per ticket just on donations, I'd rather take that money and just get a way better ticket to the Oregon game since it's the only one that really interests me.

 

[Blackshirt316]

Do people not know that generally Nebraska always has around a 94% season ticket retention rate and thus about 2,000 tickets always go out at about this time every year?

Last year at this time we had around the same number of tickets come up for sale and they sold out in two days. These will be sold within a week.

 

[Aksarben]

Well according to this morning's OWH they've only sold about 500 of the 2,000 season tickets available. Last year all 1,500 were gone in about 30 hours (that was only because of the new coaching staff etc). We've gone 48 now and they still have 1,500. Of course the spokes babe for the AD is trying to put "lipstick on a pig" to tell us she expects them to move quickly because we have the "greatest fans in college football". Truth is we have the greatest fans in college football who want to see a winning product and if they don't see it pretty soon the AD will more to worry about than just 2,000 season tickets.

 

[anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi]

Well according to this morning's OWH they've only sold about 500 of the 2,000 season tickets available. Last year all 1,500 were gone in about 30 hours (that was only because of the new coaching staff etc). We've gone 48 now and they still have 1,500. Of course the spokes babe for the AD is trying to put "lipstick on a pig" to tell us she expects them to move quickly because we have the "greatest fans in college football". Truth is we have the greatest fans in college football who want to see a winning product and if they don't see it pretty soon the AD will more to worry about than just 2,000 season tickets.

They should then cull the non-donaters with prime seats. The ones with their parents tickets who demand things.

 

[NikkiSixx]

If you re-configured the seating in Memorial stadium to stadium seating throughout, I'm curious what that would bring the number down to. Would a percentage give a rough estimate, something like 72% (just taking a guess).

Saw this image and thought this is how it should be done. They could probably justify keeping the donations if seating was changed to this style.

 

[leodisflowers]

If you re-configured the seating in Memorial stadium to stadium seating throughout, I'm curious what that would bring the number down to. Would a percentage give a rough estimate, something like 72% (just taking a guess).

Saw this image and thought this is how it should be done. They could probably justify keeping the donations if seating was changed to this style.

This actually might not be a bad idea. If anything leave the student sections bench seating, as well as maybe the visitor sections and then do this for the rest. I'd also like to see them enclose the rest of the open spaces in Memorial Stadium. Don't add any seats, but enclose it to amplify the noise.

 

[TheBeav815]

No, it's easy to call you a prick because you are one. Nice side-stepping. You stepped in it with your drivel and were called out accordingly.

Of course they currently need the corporate partners--not enough people want to buy season tickets. If they got rid of the donation I bet more would buy them, and go sit down in the stadium and buy things.

And I never said people would rather stay home and watch on tv than be at the game. I am saying that many people would rather sit at home and watch the game on tv than buy season tickets that charge a "donation". So instead of going to them all they'll go to one or two a year and scalp as you said.

So basically you don't have a point that doesn't agree with what I said, but I'm still a prick? Good talk. Thanks for your bang-up contribution.

 

[TheBeav815]

They should then cull the non-donaters with prime seats. The ones with their parents tickets who demand things.

I'm not following how one gets prime seats without donating. Are their people who make a fat, one-time donation who have seats for life? With my dad's seats, he still has to donate annually.

 

[TheBeav815]

Well according to this morning's OWH they've only sold about 500 of the 2,000 season tickets available. Last year all 1,500 were gone in about 30 hours (that was only because of the new coaching staff etc). We've gone 48 now and they still have 1,500. Of course the spokes babe for the AD is trying to put "lipstick on a pig" to tell us she expects them to move quickly because we have the "greatest fans in college football". Truth is we have the greatest fans in college football who want to see a winning product and if they don't see it pretty soon the AD will more to worry about than just 2,000 season tickets.

Ultimately that's what it comes down to. They need a 10+ win team out on that field, and the tickets will be gone before you can blink because people will spend the money if they think they're seeing something special. Right now, the team is not special, it's about "I think we probably can win the west if things go well" caliber.

No team is immune to fan apathy if they suck. No coincidence that Billy C was gone after the higher-ups looked over a half-empty Memorial Stadium in the second half of that OkieState game. They've bought themselves some time by changing coaches, but the fans will get tired of that, too.