Concerns? Hawkeye ticket-buyers have a few

NCHawker said:
and this from 1899

We ventured out via motor car along the newly competed US highway 6 toward our ultimate destination, Iowa City. Upon arrival we matriculated through the crowd and found a tall slender gentleman with a long mustache who was serving spirits from behind his wagon. We imbibed again and again. Soon we were delirious with joy and began our jagged and indirect journey toward the football arena. A dreadful thick bearded man sat next to us. The smoke from his cigar was fair but his breath was as a two day old corpse. Soon old corpse breath produced a flat bottle of some sort of brown spirit. I dare say it was a brief moment before he was shoving it in my chest.
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I really liked where this was going is there any more to the story...seems like it got cut off. Any chance by the third quarter the dreadful thick bearded man had her knickers down around her ankles? You know, kind of a "Fifty Shades of Black and Gold"?
 
okeefe4prez said:
Meh, I disagree. The AD listens to the fans. Last year, me and my buddy went to a game and we took my buddy's elderly dad. My buddy has a KC pass, but bince we had to go to Cedar Rapids first and pick up his dad, we didn't get to Kinnick until about 10:30. This fella drops a $10k donation per year. Lo and behold, when we pulled into the KC lot, they told us there were no spots available. My buddy got salty and drove in anyway and parked in sort of a non-spot not blocking anyone. He got some janky parking ticket from the U of I parking police or whatever. He emailed the athletic department with a rather curt tone and they got rid of the ticket and apologized profusely. Then, this year they implemented a new policy where you can't have tents in the KC lot unless you have one of the baller reserved spaces with a number on it. That is a win-win for me because my (now former - Thanks Barta) seat neighbor has one of those and when we show up at 10:30 we'll actually be able to park in the KC lot because no moron with a tent will be blocking our passage or taking up an extra spot. Moral of the story, they do listen to the common fan.
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I thought you quit hanging out with Happy Chef
 
Its a nationwide problem, not just at Iowa. I dont like some of the things they've done, but thats not the main cause. Dont understand why advertising bothers that many people. Doesnt me....the tailgating rules and bathroom lines are the two biggest problems to me. Its still a great place.
 
The commercialization within Kinnick stadium is ridiculous. I've had tickets for over a decade now, and there are times I wish we still had the little tiny video board from before they rebuilt the south end zone, because at least it was only used to show replays and statistics.

For those who do not come to the games, do you know that they show us real TV commercials on the Big Video board during TV timeouts? I always thought that one of the perks of coming to the game was to avoid commercials. NOPE, not anymore!

As for the students and their attendance.....

The new tailgating rules have affected them more than any other group. They want to party and have fun, and now if they take one step "out of bounds" they could be facing an open container ticket. It's ridiculous. They are deterred from tailgating plain and simple.
The over abundance of 11 am games is not helping either, because the students don't get up that early. They never have. In all the years I've been going to Kinnick, the 11am games are always the ones where the student section is less full.

Lastly, the cell phone reception at Kinnick completely sucks. Actually, saying it sucks might be giving it a compliment. These younger kids cannot tolerate being electronically disconnected from the the world for 3 hours. Providing FREE wifi inside the stadium would be a great benefit to everyone, especially the students.
 
INTIMIDATORHawk said:
The commercialization within Kinnick stadium is ridiculous. I've had tickets for over a decade now, and there are times I wish we still had the little tiny video board from before they rebuilt the south end zone, because at least it was only used to show replays and statistics.

For those who do not come to the games, do you know that they show us real TV commercials on the Big Video board during TV timeouts? I always thought that one of the perks of coming to the game was to avoid commercials. NOPE, not anymore!

As for the students and their attendance.....

The new tailgating rules have affected them more than any other group. They want to party and have fun, and now if they take one step "out of bounds" they could be facing an open container ticket. It's ridiculous. They are deterred from tailgating plain and simple.
The over abundance of 11 am games is not helping either, because the students don't get up that early. They never have. In all the years I've been going to Kinnick, the 11am games are always the ones where the student section is less full.

Lastly, the cell phone reception at Kinnick completely sucks. Actually, saying it sucks might be giving it a compliment. These younger kids cannot tolerate being electronically disconnected from the the world for 3 hours. Providing FREE wifi inside the stadium would be a great benefit to everyone, especially the students.
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Those are all great points.

After nearly 35 years of solid season ticket purchases and and many more years of going to multiple games I am probably not renewing next year but instead I will probably come up to the best big 10 games. The reasons are:

1- My son who just moved back to Des Moines area last year and went to games with me like the old days is moving again to north of Detroit for at least 4 years. When he was in Boston area for 2011 and 2012 seasons I just had trouble even giving away my extra ticket sometimes, which is sad unto itself. Before my kids were old enough to go I took my dad to a lot of games because he took me to games starting in 1957-58. All I need now is to scrounge up 1 ticket for a few choice big 10 games.

2- Cost. $1200 plus with seat donation for 2 tickets (and $400 for travel/food to games) when I cant hardly use both tickets is not workable especially as I get very close to semi-retirement.

I will say the game day experience is ok as I dont drink before and during games and barely arrive before the game and leave soon after (rather have a few beers back in DSM).

Being in Kinnick is still better than watching on TV (although I hate the over-commercialization, TV commericials on the big screen, and not letting the band play a lot more pep music and songs).
 
Just for fun I did a little research, with the help of the ticket office.

Student season tickets were $60 in 2000, They're $175 today. a 291% increase
Public season tickets were $150 in 2000, They're $375 today. a 250% increase

While both are significant, I'd suggest students are less able to shoulder the $115 increase than adults buying public tickets who pay $225 more.
 
I just sold my ISU tickets for 100 bucks apiece, north end zone so no donation required. There is 1/4 of my season ticket cost taken care of.

CSB, right?
 
HawkIPA said:
I just sold my ISU tickets for 100 bucks apiece, north end zone so no donation required. There is 1/4 of my season ticket cost taken care of.

CSB, right?
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I usually make 4-5 of the home games. (it's 610 miles round trip) and sell the rest. It sometimes yields a nice profit.
 
You can't beat game day atmosphere at Kinnick but for a lot of people the minus's outweigh the positives.

The administration has gouged the fans every chance they have gotten. I love the Hawks as most of us do, but there is a point where it is not a positive experience going to a live game.
I can't imagine how it is for a family of four. Even with nose bleed seats the cost is several hundred dollars per game.

These experiences are not unique to Iowa. It is a trend throughout professional and college sporting events. High cost. Unruly fans. Over zealous police. Long lines. It is much easier to support your local high school athletic team.
 
hawkdrummer1 said:
Just for fun I did a little research, with the help of the ticket office.

Student season tickets were $60 in 2000, They're $175 today. a 291% increase
Public season tickets were $150 in 2000, They're $375 today. a 250% increase

While both are significant, I'd suggest students are less able to shoulder the $115 increase than adults buying public tickets who pay $225 more.
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The first tickets I bought in 2001 were $27 apiece. Now it's $70+
 
hawkdrummer1 said:
Just for fun I did a little research, with the help of the ticket office.

Student season tickets were $60 in 2000, They're $175 today. a 291% increase
Public season tickets were $150 in 2000, They're $375 today. a 250% increase

While both are significant, I'd suggest students are less able to shoulder the $115 increase than adults buying public tickets who pay $225 more.
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The ticket increase for adults is far more than $225 for most folks - the mandatory "donations" came into effect in 2005 and so for tix out to the 20s, you gotta add $200 a seat, 20s to 40s, add $400 and between the 40s add $600. Furthermore, comparing pure price doesn't do justice to what has happened to the student section - it used to have some pretty good seats and now it is in the endzone and corner of the endzone. They are awful seats and I'm not surprised kids don't want to sit in them.
 
hawkdrummer1 said:
I usually make 4-5 of the home games. (it's 610 miles round trip) and sell the rest. It sometimes yields a nice profit.
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I do this same thing. Im up in the Twin Cities so I sell a few of the games. We've always made face value, most of the time we make a nice profit
 
okeefe4prez said:
The ticket increase for adults is far more than $225 for most folks - the mandatory "donations" came into effect in 2005 and so for tix out to the 20s, you gotta add $200 a seat, 20s to 40s, add $400 and between the 40s add $600. Furthermore, comparing pure price doesn't do justice to what has happened to the student section - it used to have some pretty good seats and now it is in the endzone and corner of the endzone. They are awful seats and I'm not surprised kids don't want to sit in them.
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Yeah the new student section is terrible. I used to love the student seats when I was in college, behind the iowa bench where it should be. I'd be ****** if my student section seats were where they are now...that corner of nowhere.
 
Barta and Pollard are in a contest to out-corporate each other. For someone like me who can spot BS and manipulation a million miles away, the spectacle is darkly hilarious. These @$$-kisser ADs are essentially conducting a sociological experiment upon their fan based.
 
What is that guy talking about when he says 50% of the scoreboard is covered with ads? It's only like 40%.

IMG_8857-1024x768.jpg
 
Hawkfnntn said:
It makes me sad.... I really hope there are some changes soon. However with the big big tv money and commecialization of everything that's who Barta has to keep happy. The little people who buy the tickets voices aren't as important to listen to now. Only way they'll make the correct changes is if they either get a heart or they get hit in the pocket book. I lean towards the latter having to happen...
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Eventually enough fans will turn away that it will hit them in the pocket book. I have a feeling that by 2020 there will be 15K empty seats on a regular basis. You just can't take a dump on your customers and expect them to keep coming back.
 
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