[NU Sports] Tipping Point Near ?

[John Labbe]

Just a few observations regarding the NU tickets:

The single-game conference tickets at Ryan Field have been $50 for the 
past several years (at least back to 2005).  However, for most games 
you can still get an endzone seat for $30.

In any event, season tickets at Ryan Field remain a great deal.  The 
price has hardly gone up over the past several years.  According to my 
records, a season ticket in 2002 was $170 (for 6 games) and for 2007 a 
season ticket is $206 (for 7 games).  That's a slight increase in 
price, but hardly any difference over five years and the difference is 
due mostly to the additional game.  Plus, it's almost $100 off the 
price of individual-game tickets.

Regarding whether the "average fan" is getting priced out of the game, 
I don't really buy it.  Clearly, Ohio State and others are continuing 
to sell out their stadiums.  I've been to a lot of college football 
games at a lot of different venues, and so far as I can tell, most 
people in attendance are alumni and their families.  It seems to me 
that's the average fan and somehow they're coming up with the money to 
buy the tickets.

Having said all that, I do wish we could pack a few more people into 
Ryan Field for our early season games.  But I just don't see that 
lowering the ticket prices is the way it's going to happen.  The 
non-conference tickets are already only $30 or $20 for the endzone.  
There are plenty of people who aren't attending who could afford that 
price point, but just don't have the interest.  Notably, some of our 
early season games back in the mid to late 90s were pretty well 
attended.  That shows what back to back Big Ten titles can do for 
attendance.


On May 8, 2007, at 12:34 AM, SjT (Stephen J. Truog) wrote:

>> $60 for the game at Ohio State.  Made me wonder if
>> the game might (someday) price itself out of reach
>> of many of its fans.  A columnist in Columbus seemed
>> to have similar thoughts:
>
> Excellent points, Chuck.
>
> Another thing to consider ... with the new 12th game,
> many teams have 7 or 8 home games, making season
> tickets more expensive this year than when there were
> 5 or 6. I'll admit that this year was a tough call on
> the season tix, knowing that I really didn't think I'd
> make it back for all those early non-Big Ten games.
>
> Granted, NU fans don't really have anything to
> complain about compared with fans in Columbus, Ann
> Arbor or State College. But then again, these places
> have demand and could sell 200,000 tickets to some
> games. Does NU really need to be hiking prices --
> especially for September games that don't fill half
> the stadium anyway?
>
> You mentioned the game sponsors in the Big XII, it'll
> be interesting to see how the new Big Ten Network
> (can't wait, btw!!!) factors in. Now that I'll pretty
> much be able to see the Cats in Arizona every week,
> will paying for 7-8 games a year (especially 3-4
> against the likes of NIU, Northeastern and EMU or so)
> really be worth it?
>
> It'd be a shame if the average fan became phased out
> of the college game. It's bad enough that luxury
> boxes, Wrigley Yuppies and seat licenses have made pro
> games out of reach for many. They have the bowl games
> already - can't they leave the regular season to the
> rest of us true fans? Ugh!
>
> GO CATS!!!
> -SjT
>
> * * * * * * * * *
> STEPHEN J. TRUOG
> sjtruog at yahoo.com
> GO CATS!!!
>
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