[NU Sports] Tipping Point Near ?

Tue May 8 10:29:16 CDT 2007

 Personally, everyone, I think ticket offices around the country could
charge way, way more for college ball and people would still come.
 Some day, some brilliant marketer is going to say that college fb,
which is exploding in popularity and is one of the most vivid
expressions of American culture in our time, ought to be sold the way,
say, Celine Dion or Cirque du Soleil are sold in Vegas.
 You wanna go? OK, it's $250/seat between the 40-yard-lines.
Field-level? $450. Or whatever.
 People might grumble initially. But I bet they'd pay.
 Caveat: they'd pay at Northwestern only if the Wildcats were winning.
 But Ohio State? Michigan? Florida? Nebraska? USC? Etc., etc., etc.?
They'd pay.

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com]
On Behalf Of Joe Thiegs
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 8:16 AM
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: RE: [NU Sports] Tipping Point Near ?

Well, we make a pilgrimage once a year to Evanston to take in a Big Ten
game and visit campus, and since I left private practice to jump into
the non-profit world two years ago, I admit I've been cringing a little
at the conference single-game ticket prices.  We try to do our Chicago
trip on something of a shoestring budget, driving down and staying with
NU friends, which is both less expensive and more fun than staying in a
hotel.  Last year my wife and I left the kids at home and spent a little
more for a Reunion Weekend at Homecoming--where it was great to run into
listmates Alan Wolfson, Jim Bendat, and Ryan Farney (Ryan and I
graduated the same year)--but generally we bring the kids, which doubles
the ticket cost.  Two years ago we opted to leave our year-old daughter
with my sister rather than take her to the game, despite the fact that
we would have liked to have brought her and the fact that she had a
very, very cute NU cheerleader outfit and hair ribbons, because I simply
couldn't justify spending $50 for a kid that young when she wouldn't
even remember the game.  We did end up shelling out $50 for a ticket for
our then 3-year-old son, who I'm sure won't remember the game either.
That was the 51-48 Wisconsin thriller, so at least I can't say we didn't
get our money's worth.  

Of course, the ticket price being $50 rather than, say, $35 won't make a
difference to me in determining whether I go, but I'm not just a casual
fan.
I think the subject line raises a valid concern although I don't know
what that tipping point is.  If we're selling out every game it's a lot
easier to justify.  Since we aren't selling out regularly, I'd prefer
that the Ticket Office provide additional incentives for more
NU-affiliated people to attend than to simply price all single-game
tickets higher.  Minnesota did something new and interesting last year
for the Iowa game.  Ticket sales for that game (maybe others too) were
only open to alumni and alumni association members until a certain
date--in mid- or late-August, I think--at a price that was a decent
deal.  Then, after that date, tickets went on sale to anyone, but if you
bought a ticket to the Iowa game it was $65 and you got a ticket to the
North Dakota State game too.  Not a bad idea, I think, and I'll be
interested to see if they do the same thing again this year for the
Wisconsin game.

If NU doesn't do something like that, I wish the Ticket Office would
offer a 15% or 10% discount on single-game tickets to alumni or NAA
members (what do you think, Alan?), which shouldn't cut too deeply into
season tickets (a 29%
discount) and should lead to more purple in the stands as opposed to
cardinal, scarlet, gold, blue, green, white, or what-have-you.  The NU
family package is a fantastic deal but didn't make sense for us given
that we only can go to one game each year.  It will get even more
expensive for us when child number three comes along (in September) . .
. .  :)

-Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com]
On Behalf Of mlinhardt at netzero.net
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 5:56 AM
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Cc: maureen.linhardt at plexus.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Tipping Point Near ?

We should keep raising prices as given the fact students are free and
the dedicated fans buy season tickets the single game purchasers are by
majority opposing fans.  If you want to make sure no NU fans have to pay
more offer more multi-game packs where the overall game price is highly
discounted.

I would say Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Iowa should
command the super-premium prices -- maybe not $60, but next year at
least $55 while the rest should be the average of the away tickets at
the other schools somewhere around $44 based on the 3 non- tOSU big ten
away games.

If you keep single game prices artificially low it only benefits
opposing fans and there is clearly no reciprocity offered either by
price or equivalent seats.  I have yet to have any NU-bought away ticket
in the equivalent sections we offer the visitors at Dyche.

-- John Labbe <johnl at mac.com> wrote:
<snip>
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.

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