Concerns? Hawkeye ticket-buyers have a few

I haven't been to a game in three years; it's just too much of a pain in the *** in my opinion not to mention the cost. Parking, traffic, bathroom lines, drunken idiots etc. The game day atmosphere inside the stadium is always fun and exciting and I miss that but putting up with all of the other crap isn't worth it for me personally. I get a better view of the game on TV anyway.
 
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.
 
The **live experience** of being there on game day grows less and less interesting all the time.
(1) Season ticket prices are getting too rich for my blood. Everybody has their breaking point. I'm there now.
(2) Pre-game tailgate time isn't what it used to be.. the clamp-down has left it as lukewarm as old dish water. Boring.
(3) I am less than thrilled with the 'new' Big Ten. When we don't play Ohio St., Penn St., Michigan St. & Michigan
during a regular season as we did years ago, the glamour, the vitality, the amazing power and excitement of the
old classic BIG TEN is gone.. I hate this 'Divisions' thing now. Feels all watered down anymore. Less impact. Like you've
lost something that you know you're not going to get back, and so you find you're not quite so rabid about it all anymore..........
I'm not at all surprised that ticket sales are down significantly. I'm old enough to feel they've sort of ruined a great deal of the Golden Days of Big Ten Football. It just ain't what it used to be for a lot of us, and we were many of those who held season tickets.
 
The **live experience** of being there on game day grows less and less interesting all the time.
(1) Season ticket prices are getting too rich for my blood. Everybody has their breaking point. I'm there now.
(2) Pre-game tailgate time isn't what it used to be.. the clamp-down has left it as lukewarm as old dish water. Boring.
(3) I am less than thrilled with the 'new' Big Ten. When we don't play Ohio St., Penn St., Michigan St. & Michigan
during a regular season as we did years ago, the glamour, the vitality, the amazing power and excitement of the
old classic BIG TEN is gone.. I hate this 'Divisions' thing now. Feels all watered down anymore. Less impact. Like you've
lost something that you know you're not going to get back, and so you find you're not quite so rabid about it all anymore..........
I'm not at all surprised that ticket sales are down significantly. I'm old enough to feel they've sort of ruined a great deal of the Golden Days of Big Ten Football. It just ain't what it used to be for a lot of us, and we were many of those who held season tickets.

I do like the addition of Nebraska - great potential border rivalry for us. The only other positive is that we finally play Illinois again. We haven't played them bince '08. But you're right, a Big Ten schedule that is missing OSU, MSU and Michigan just don't feel right.
 
I do like the addition of Nebraska - great potential border rivalry for us. The only other positive is that we finally play Illinois again. We haven't played them bince '08. But you're right, a Big Ten schedule that is missing OSU, MSU and Michigan just don't feel right.

Yeah, Nebraska will be fun. They are still *good*... I know they are a shadow of their former Tom Osborne days of the 80's and 90's, but the shadow is still good enough to fight some good fights and make a fun boarder rivalry for us. They are trying to whip that feeling up in the fans heads, anyway. Sometimes those rivalry things can't be forced upon fans though. That feeling of real intense rivalry either develops or it doesn't especially. Sometimes it's just... meh.
 
Yeah, Nebraska will be fun. They are still *good*... I know they are a shadow of their former Tom Osborne days of the 80's and 90's, but the shadow is still good enough to fight some good fights and make a fun boarder rivalry for us. They are trying to whip that feeling up in the fans heads, anyway. Sometimes those rivalry things can't be forced upon fans though. That feeling of real intense rivalry either develops or it doesn't especially. Sometimes it's just... meh.

C'mon man, the PSU-MUS rivalry is great and has a great trophy.

land-grant-trophy.jpg
 
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.
 
The **live experience** of being there on game day grows less and less interesting all the time.
(1) Season ticket prices are getting too rich for my blood. Everybody has their breaking point. I'm there now.
(2) Pre-game tailgate time isn't what it used to be.. the clamp-down has left it as lukewarm as old dish water. Boring.
(3) I am less than thrilled with the 'new' Big Ten. When we don't play Ohio St., Penn St., Michigan St. & Michigan
during a regular season as we did years ago, the glamour, the vitality, the amazing power and excitement of the
old classic BIG TEN is gone.. I hate this 'Divisions' thing now. Feels all watered down anymore. Less impact. Like you've
lost something that you know you're not going to get back, and so you find you're not quite so rabid about it all anymore..........
I'm not at all surprised that ticket sales are down significantly. I'm old enough to feel they've sort of ruined a great deal of the Golden Days of Big Ten Football. It just ain't what it used to be for a lot of us, and we were many of those who held season tickets.

Nailed it. Old Big Ten > New Big Ten.

Maryland and Rutgers. It is going to take awhile to get used to those two.

This is all messed up.
 
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.

Example #1 in the difficulty of rebuilding a fan base = Carver Hawkeye Arena.
 
Iowa got too comfy living off the glory days from 2002 ... Kinnick had been full every Saturday since ... So Barta and Co., could pretty much do whatever they wanted... And now ... fans are starting to stay home. For many of the same reasons listed in the article I gave up my 2 season tickets after spending about 15 years of Saturdays at Kinnick. Barta did not plan ahead ... they did not adapt ... and now they are coming up with lame marketing ideas (i.e. gas cards with Hy-Vee) to get fans. Once the train gets rolling it's hard to stop ... Once students start staying away; once you start losing season ticket holders ... it's hard to get them back. Barta and U of I marketing has its work cut out ... This is on Barta and the U ... Too complacent ... Reseating of the stadium ... crackdown on tailgating ... ticket prices ... in-stadium experience and the God awful commercials ... ALL of it contributes to the experience ... It's simply not as fun as it used to be ... and fans are starting to say "no more."
 
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I have seen a number of reasons that fans are perturbed with the game-day experience: commercialization, re-seating, ticket prices, tailgating restrictions, staleness, etc.

I live roughly 1,000 miles from Kinnick, so I have only been to a few games over the past decade, and am (obviously) not a season ticket holder.

For those of you regulars or former regulars out there, what is the order of importance of the perturberances? If you get a free moment, please rank the order of importance in your mind.

Much appreciated.
 
I have seen a number of reasons that fans are perturbed with the game-day experience: commercialization, re-seating, ticket prices, tailgating restrictions, staleness, etc.

I live roughly 1,000 miles from Kinnick, so I have only been to a few games over the past decade, and am (obviously) not a season ticket holder.

For those of you regulars or former regulars out there, what is the order of importance of the perturberances? If you get a free moment, please rank the order of importance in your mind.

Much appreciated.

1) Not giving my tickets to some baby boomer who has more "points" than me because they have had season tickets longer than I have

2) Don't give me turd sandwich games where we lose to MAC teams - I don't care if we're 6-6, just don't lose to a directional school

3) Don't crimp everyone's style on tailgating
 
"Barta and U of I marketing has its work cut out..." Iowa and Marketing. HAHAHAHAHA! They couldn't sell water to a man dying of thirst. They need to clean house in the Athletic Dept and get some ideas from this century.
 
someone posted the ticket prices in 2000 and now and they have gone up an average of 18% a year.

That is ludicrous and insane.

This is probably my last year as a season ticket holder. Hard to sell my tickets when I dont go or dont use my second one. Just as easy to go to 3-4 big 10 games at Kinnick a year.

It is not the weather because I was fine at that cold Mich game last year.
 
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.

LOL. soooooo, know this!
 
It's not only the ticket prices; it's the seating. Being shoe horned into a seat that sized for a 8 year old is a joke. The AD's and other officials like to talk up the family atmosphere which is good, but long restroom lines, over officious security, lazy security, high food prices for bad food all detract from that. Not to mention that most families are getting priced out of attending a game.
 
".....It's not only the ticket prices; it's the seating. Being shoe horned into a seat that sized for a 8 year old is a joke....."


This ^ ^ ^ only made even worse once cold weather arrives and everyone is in COATS besides... :mad:
 
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