[NU Sports] Tipping Point Near ?

Tue May 8 14:00:36 CDT 2007

I agree with Jonathan's point on this.  I am all for charging Iowa and Michigan fans $50 for their games (I'd probably vote for $60) IF we had some discounted presale to NU fans/alums/Evanston people (but proving that status ?  and would they just give the tickets to their Wolverine friends ?).

We need to address last year's problem, when OSU fans were (often obnoxiously) everywhere, including our boxes right below the press box.  It made for a rather unpleasant atmosphere.

But what kind of crowd are we going to get for the Minnesota and Indiana games ?  Neither team ever travels anyway, there seems to be little Chicago interest, and the 'old' notion of a great walk-up crowd, due to either great weather or a bowl-bound team, seems less likely in the era of $50 tickets.  What does it help to have 18,000 in attendance for those games ?

I think it is most unfortunate that the days of a parent (without NU connections) taking a few kids to the game (maybe even dragging along a few friends) just because it is a nice day, and college football is such a great game, is probably becoming a thing of the past.

Chuck Herron   Tech '85

-----Original Message-----
From: jonathanwhodges at gmail.com
To: alan.abrahamson at nbcuni.com
Cc: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Sent: Tue, 8 May 2007 10:37 AM
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Tipping Point Near ?

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 
829 Foster St Apt 401 
Evanston, IL 60201-3259 
(847) 736-2449 
jonathanwhodges at gmail.com 
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