roetbombaaa
Well-Known Member
The tailgating is cool now. Cops roll around shootin' the breeze with people. Unless they're acting like a-holes or flying drones.
Lets say you buy 2 season tickets at $350 a pop, and you donate $1000 a year to get better seats. Then you spend $700 a year to get a parking spot, and you spend money on beer and food, and you spend a whole day traveling to Iowa City and back for a game. All in you are talking upwards of $2500-$3000 investment to go watch Iowa play 7 home games. Just imagine how foolish you have to be to drive these people away from this. It wasn't about the W/L as much as it was about Sally Mason and her idiotic attitude toward the game day atmosphere in Iowa City. It isn't an accident that as soon as Sally announced she was leaving that the athletic department started taking drastic steps to improve it's relationship with the fans.
Now the problem is you have lost thousands and thousand of people who were willing to pay $3000 + a year to consume your product. What they found out is they could pay $200 to go to a single game in Kinnick if they weren't a season ticket holder. They also found out they can watch and cheer on the Hawks in their homes, their neighbor's homes, at the bar just as easy. They can get tons of stuff done before and after the game, while still cheering on the Hawks.
I wouldn't call anyone a bad fan if they don't go to the games. I would call it incompetency on an enormous scale to drive away your fan base by being tone deaf, and stupid. Good riddance Sally Mason. Why couldn't you just do your job and let the AD do his? Instead you have show your complete and utter disdain for athletics, and try to tear it down the best you could.....just utter incompetence really.
lol
You're the worst kind of fan.
So you only really care if we support them if they are good, got it.
I am betting after Iowa wins this weekend, it becomes a sell out. If you look on the Hawkeyes website, it's not like there are tens of thousands of tickets left....Maybe a few thousand, if that.
But hey, you keep scolding us for not going to games, when you have never even been to a game.
lol
You're the worst kind of fan.
So you only really care if we support them if they are good, got it.
I am betting after Iowa wins this weekend, it becomes a sell out. If you look on the Hawkeyes website, it's not like there are tens of thousands of tickets left....Maybe a few thousand, if that.
But hey, you keep scolding us for not going to games, when you have never even been to a game.
Vegas is boring, and probably not cheaper by the time you leave.
If you think Vegas is boring you aren't doing it right or you're Mormon.
4 years of below average football cannot be cured with one good season. String a couple decent seasons together and the stadium will be full again. Maybe not with season ticket holders, but average blue collar working fans wanting to bring their kids a couple times a year.
I haven't heard anybody talking about walking down Melrose with a big *** turkey leg for quite awhile.The tailgating crackdown ended several seasons back. I believe it was 2010 after the Iowa state game that they finally relaxed the rules. It was really bad for awhile though. We had some cops get really ****** off at us because we had music playing. Like so mad I thought he was going to arrest someone. Those were dark days for tailgating in Iowa city. But then after much protest by fans they literally flipped a switch after isu in 2010 and tailgating has been great again ever since. Unfortunately by then many people were turned off and some haven't come back. If you want to make it to games for cheap, you can get a ticket for $30 or less for most games. I couldn't even give away a free ticket to Michigan in 2013. So if you don't care where you sit and you be a little patient you can get really cheap seats. I'll always be a season ticket holder regardless of our record though
The problem started roughly around the same time the bars switched to 21 in Iowa City, I think it was 2009-2010. Instead of the police keeping the peace during tailgating, they started actively looking to get people in trouble. They realized writing PAULA tickets and Public Intox tickets can been a huge cash cow for the city, and of course Our Fearless Leader Mason was on board with anything that distanced Iowa from the party school reputation.
I have a friend who attended the Ole Miss/Alabama game last year. He said he saw two guys fighting, and the police came, took them each back to their tailgates, and told them to knock it off. In Iowa City, they would have been tazed and taken to jail.
The police state during tailgating is a major problem, that is slowly changing for the better, but we're nowhere near goal state. The next thing they need to address is what someone else mentioned. People who cancelled their season tickets are realizing the experience at home is better than the one at Kinnick. Play some up-to-date music. Play more night games. Get some more flash into Kinnick, something that makes the experience more memorable than it is right now, because honestly, it's bland. You hear the same songs played in the same order at every game!
Traditionalists are killing the experience. Not to say we need to change everything, but hearing some rap isn't going to kill Verne and Gertrude while they sit in their 50 yard line seats they've had for 30 years. But you know what, not staying up to date will kill any chance of Iowa gaining new fans! We already have nearly 50% of our students coming from IL, and with that, comes they typical Chicago Cubs fan attitude: "I'm here for the party, the game is just a reason to party." That needs to change. You need to get the students excited about the game experience, excited about THE GAME, not about the party.
Then, you can start filling those seats when those students graduate. This POV is coming from a 2012 graduate living in Des Moines who has attended 10+ games since graduation. I have been disappointed in experience from all of them except the Pitt game this year.