Concerns? Hawkeye ticket-buyers have a few

[eveningnewsteam]

I think this is my last year. Next year's schedule is atrocious. Top that with the other crap that has settled in to make going not much fun anymore. This is off topic a bit, but the free tuition thing was embarassing. Who ******* thought that was a good idea? Try lowering ticket prices for students instead of running some ******** promotion that once again makes Iowa look ridiculous.

 

[Eda]

I've seen commercials for MSU and Michigan trying to sell tickets. Don't they know you can just offer students a chance at free tuition if they just buy tickets? Duuuuh!

 

[pekurhawk]

Wifi would not be a great benefit to me- I kinda like to watch the game

 

[skinnykilmer17]

I think this is my last year. Next year's schedule is atrocious. Top that with the other crap that has settled in to make going not much fun anymore. This is off topic a bit, but the free tuition thing was embarassing. Who ******* thought that was a good idea? Try lowering ticket prices for students instead of running some ******** promotion that once again makes Iowa look ridiculous.

 

[skinnykilmer17]

Spot on. Just another example how this university/Barta view students. They could care less about them as fans. They are consumers. But mostly they are an inconvenience. Stick them in the corners at Kinnick and CHA. Take the fun out of being a college student at a football game. Take them for granted. Gouge them with huge ticket increases. Present them with a bland almost laughable game day experience while bombarding them with commercials. Call a press conference making abundantly clear your disdain for them (but dont take any responsibility for your failures) and then effectively summarize the state of college athletics - In almost the same breath proudly announce the skyboxes and club seating are all sold out.
We all know big-time college athletics are here to entertain the big donors and not the students. They aren't even part of the calculus. Not for some time. But he should be careful because the same ideology that has chased away the students could very well chase away the common fan. It appears this is what is happening. Anyone see this coming? In Iowa City? Does any of this fall on the head coach? At times It ALL feels stale quite honestly.
What is not debatable is the arms race in college sports, especially football, is alive and well and becoming increasingly intense. Gotta have that new football complex just to keep up. This means the pressure to secure newer and bigger funding sources will increase. And it is only a matter of time before athletic departments will be paying athletes creating even a bigger demand for increased revenue. Which means the student AND common fan will become increasingly irrelevant.
So go ahead and build more skyboxes and ribbon signs. The fans, i mean consumers, i mean suits in the boxes will support this business model. I will stay home and watch it on TV.
Increasingly higher television contracts will never be passed along to the home viewer.
Oh ****.
It would be so much easier to be a college baseball fan.

 

[smhawk]

I try to make a game each year, like the vast majority. Its about the experience. Vacations are very expensive too, so is a private golf membership, but we do it because...you spend money on what you love, when you can.

Most weeks...70 inches of HD magnificence, with 6 speaker Paradigm surround blasting Ed and Dolph, a few beers, a recliner....I can't wait.

Supply, demand, and corporate sales...not sure what the problem is.

Dang nice setup. How much did that set you back? Heard of a demo of paradigm once and they were incredible, but that was a movie.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

Too many Athletic Directors around the country are suits with short sighted goals. They look no further down the road than next years budget. They need to realize every year, they lose a number of the ticket buying fans. And to replace them, you need to grow your base. Keep your Sky Box and 50 yd line seats for the big donors, but cut the ticket prices of all of the others ... especially the students. Get them involved, form that relationship early. There will always be some attrition, but you are creating a loyal following that will, hopefully, last for years.

This is the essence of what has changed in society, not just at U of I.

20 years ago, a person would look at the sky boxes and "big donor" seats and aspire to attain those seats "some day". Now? They look at those seats and sky boxes and think, "Those rich corporate ba$tards OWE me season tickets!"

 

[okeefe4prez]

This is the essence of what has changed in society, not just at U of I.

20 years ago, a person would look at the sky boxes and "big donor" seats and aspire to attain those seats "some day". Now? They look at those seats and sky boxes and think, "Those rich corporate ba$tards OWE me season tickets!"

Nah. The thing that irritates me about the skyboxes is the fact that the cost of the skyboxes is borne in substantial part by the folks down in the stadium. They cost a ton to build, but the price at which they are sold is probably barely high enough to even cover the interest expense on the outlay to build them. I think even the club seats are too cheap and when you factor in the tax deduction on the "donation" part, there is a big federal subsidy sitting in Kinnick.

 

[taffaej]

To be honest by the time we donate to the university and then add in ticket and parking passes i'm $8k into the season before it starts. Then you add in gas, food cost regardless if you bring food or buy food there. So once you get there you have 4 fat Nazi's patrolling and bugging people who are trying just have a good time. I am not a big beer fan and but I am not allowed to drink my preferred whisky. The first few games are boring as all get out. 40 point blowouts are not fun, I want to see real competition. Growing up I would never miss a game, now I am okay missing out of conference games. In side the stadium i wait in line to take a leek, wait in line to dry my hands with the one hand dryer my donation has paid for over the last 15 years, wait in line for my $4 water, sit in my 6" metal seat' get inundated with poor sound quality, advertisement s galore and then a lack luster 6 win team. So I really dont see why the university would be surprised at the decline in season tickets.

 

[trj]

As I stated before short term I am not really worried.... Long term is a different matter you can't whiff on KF's successor people are looking for an excuse to bail you put a bad product on the field and people are gone in huge numbers.

 

[tksirius]

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.

The common fan donates 10k a year?

 

[tweeterhawk]

To be honest by the time we donate to the university and then add in ticket and parking passes i'm $8k into the season before it starts. Then you add in gas, food cost regardless if you bring food or buy food there. So once you get there you have 4 fat Nazi's patrolling and bugging people who are trying just have a good time. I am not a big beer fan and but I am not allowed to drink my preferred whisky. The first few games are boring as all get out. 40 point blowouts are not fun, I want to see real competition. Growing up I would never miss a game, now I am okay missing out of conference games. In side the stadium i wait in line to take a leek, wait in line to dry my hands with the one hand dryer my donation has paid for over the last 15 years, wait in line for my $4 water, sit in my 6" metal seat' get inundated with poor sound quality, advertisement s galore and then a lack luster 6 win team. So I really dont see why the university would be surprised at the decline in season tickets.

You want to know what's going on, read this. It's a good explanation from someone who is in for more than the average price of season tickets.

in addition, big time sports -- whether D1 or pro football, basketball, baseball -- are suffering a great ennui by the consumer. Fans really don't care enough to make the effort to drive to their team's stadium, arena or ballpark, at least not like used to. There are many reasons for this: high prices for just about everything at the event; just generally the hassle; boorish behavior by other fans. It's just not a value proposition for a growing number of people. They have other activities with family or friends. Plus most of them can now watch games on huge TVs at home, on notebooks and smartphones.

Haven't even touched on the generation of 20- and 30-somethings for whom there is little sense of affiliation with the school who issued their degree or an awareness of the world around them, and who largely grew up in a digital/internet era of video games, iPods, iPads and iPhones.

Iowa is not alone here. Many schools, teams and programs are feeling the same pinch.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

Nah. The thing that irritates me about the skyboxes is the fact that the cost of the skyboxes is borne in substantial part by the folks down in the stadium. They cost a ton to build, but the price at which they are sold is probably barely high enough to even cover the interest expense on the outlay to build them. I think even the club seats are too cheap and when you factor in the tax deduction on the "donation" part, there is a big federal subsidy sitting in Kinnick.

So, you hang with the proles down below? And, you missed my point (of course).

 

[uihawk82]

You want to know what's going on, read this. It's a good explanation from someone who is in for more than the average price of season tickets.

in addition, big time sports -- whether D1 or pro football, basketball, baseball -- are suffering a great ennui by .

Pro football doesnt seem to be having an attendance problem. Nascar is down, not sure about nba and baseball.

I think the hawk non-conf slate has just been getting worse and worse including the ISU game.

 

[lightning1]

Interesting comment from Bob Lee, concerning this topic from BobLeeSays.com:

"An upcoming column will discuss the very decided trend across the country to choose "my TV" over "going to the stadium" hassle and $$$"
"I've spoken to various ADs and none have the answer to this trend"

 

[uihawk82]

To be honest by the time we donate to the university and then add in ticket and parking passes i'm $8k into the season before it starts. Then you add in gas, food cost regardless if you bring food or buy food there..

Man, that is a lot of dough and you must have picked out very good seats to donate that much.

I have to say spending a total of $200 a seat for all expenditures for uni, ball st, and ISU seems a bit much especially if the hawks roll or even worse if they lose one of those games.