[NU Sports] Tipping Point Near ?

Tue May 8 10:37:50 CDT 2007

Along those lines they could definitely open tickets up to an auction like
selling method, basically a way of offering many pricing tiers as governed
by demand - plus they may get more fans in the seats (untaken seats would be
available at a good price, meanwhile popular games would see prices increase
and they could make up the revenue).  While the cheap end zone seats are
nice they still don't draw a ton of fans to the game - mostly because the
seats are just bad (not only are the end zone seats but are set back from
the field a good ways).  Nonconference games are less expensive than BT
games but the price is still not good enough to entice someone to bring the
whole family to the game.

I don't think seat prices should be capped - if people are willing to pay
then let them pay - but on the flipside don't jack up the prices just to end
up with a half or mostly empty stadium.  What's on the field has some to do
with it but so does high ticket prices (and poor marketing, for that
matter).

Jonathan

On 5/8/07, Abrahamson, Alan (NBC Universal) <alan.abrahamson at nbcuni.com>
wrote:
>
>
> 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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-- 
Jonathan W. Hodges
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