Football attendance

westender said:
And that is your opinion. I have issues with people who give him no credit for anything. Pretty nice facilities going up I'd say.
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So the "pretty nice facilities" are because of Barta? No other AD would spend money on new facilities? Other schools just sit around with crappy buildings but Gary Barta at Iowa gets shit done?
westender said:
Most major sports heading in the right direction.
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Uhh...hate to break it to you, but there're only two "major" sports at Iowa. Basketball and football generate 98% of all AD revenue.

One of those major sports is in the middle of what might end up being the worst season in the last 30 years, and the other one is exactly where it's been since 1999--barely above .500. If that's "heading in the right direction" then I'd hate to see what our version of the wrong direction is.
westender said:
men's basketball needs another year or so and it will turn.
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I don't even know what to say to that.
westender said:
Then you all can change your usernames...
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Won't happen.
 
westender said:
On board with that. It's the memories as much as anything. I'll never say to someone, "remember that time we watched that game on tv together?". My nephew and myself went to the 7 got 6 game. Neither will ever forget it.
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As much as I love going to games (2-3 per year), I'll never forget watching the 7 got 6 game with 20 people or the Capital One Bowl on TV at home. My favorite game I've attended had to be when I had club seats for the 2010 MSU game.
 
hawkinn3 said:
It only took 2 responses for somebody to blame millennials, impressive.
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Well, it's true. Look, I get it, everybody bags on the next generation, blah blah blah. I readily concede that I am far softer than my grandfathers, who grew up without a lot of modern conveniences we take for granted and had to fight and otherwise contribute to existential and proxy wars in Europe and Asia. But the universities are pushing a full on frontal attack on masculinity and a startling number of the young men today took the steady trend of softening in men and dropped it off a cliff like Wile E. Coyote holding an ACME brand anvil. It cuts across all schools.

Iowa didn't help its cause for a strong student section because they moved the student section from pretty decent seats to absolutely terrible seats, but after seeing the general trend across all schools, that actually turned out to be a smart move.
 
westender said:
Yet they have youth games where you can get a kid in for like $25 and you can get those in premium seat areas once singles go on sale. I am sure any hotel nearby jack the price up on home weekends. If the kid likes camping I'd seriously find a camp ground and pitch a tent. They will love it.
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After the Michigan game in 2010, Happy Chef locked the keys in his sick RV and had to break a window to get in. We didn't have enough gas to idle all night to keep the heater on. It was in the 20's and that was an early or mid-October game. I would not suggest camping in that sort of weather if you like to drink because your core body temperature will drop and you will have a hangover times 10 in the morning.
 
okeefe4prez said:
After the Michigan game in 2010, Happy Chef locked the keys in his sick RV and had to break a window to get in. We didn't have enough gas to idle all night to keep the heater on. It was in the 20's and that was an early or mid-October game. I would not suggest camping in that sort of weather if you like to drink because your core body temperature will drop and you will have a hangover times 10 in the morning.
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September games should be doable. And if you have proper gear still possible to camp outdoors when cold. Not nearly as enjoyable, but possible without dying. I don't know a single kid that does not love to go camping, even electronics addicted ones.
 
Fryowa said:
So the "pretty nice facilities" are because of Barta? No other AD would spend money on new facilities? Other schools just sit around with crappy buildings but Gary Barta at Iowa gets shit done?
Uhh...hate to break it to you, but there're only two "major" sports at Iowa. Basketball and football generate 98% of all AD revenue.

One of those major sports is in the middle of what might end up being the worst season in the last 30 years, and the other one is exactly where it's been since 1999--barely above .500. If that's "heading in the right direction" then I'd hate to see what our version of the wrong direction is.
I don't even know what to say to that.

Won't happen.
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Always somebody better out there huh. You only been married once????
 
westender said:
Always somebody better out there huh. You only been married once????
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Also, I don't know why I forgot to mention it earlier, but your pal Barta cost the U $6.5 million dollars by not keeping so much as a post it note record of any meeting or conversation he had with Meyer or Greasebomb, and his ineptitude cost Rick Heller from getting the changes he wanted to the baseball field when it was being renovated. Changes he wanted for recruiting purposes.

But I guess you must go to his donor cookouts and get to ride along in his golf cart when he makes his weekly trip to the registrar's office to check graduation rates.
 
Seth53 said:
And wins. Wins put butts in seats.
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This.

Iowa fans have become used to winning...winning 7 or 8 games a year and going to bowls. Iowa fans were delirious in the mid 80's. Winning football, national ranking .. new air.

To become as excited as then, Iowa fans will require lot more ... seeing consistent 8-11 wins a year might do that.
 
okeefe4prez said:
That might put more fans in the seats, but it will crush revenue. You're better off with 60k in the stadium at an average price of $100 per ticket than 70k at $60 a ticket. If you buy individual game tickets from the school after the season ticket sales are over, they're not too expensive.
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It's really simple. Decrease ticket sales in order to ensure sold out stadiums now. That leads to keeping the tradition alive for future generations. Invest now = have customers in the future.
Or, you can keep pricing the avg fan out of the experience. They'll stay home and their children will have no reason to show up.
The median income of the avg Iowan has not even come close to increasing at the rate that football tickets have, over the past 20 years. The costs will continue to outpace the avg Iowa fan. That means attendance will continue to decline.
The Gutless Gary business plan might be working out fine right now. But it's going to be an unmitigated disaster for Iowa athletics in the future. Add to that the decreasing number of Iowa high school kids that are playing football, due to the concussion fears and that will take a toll as well.
 
westender said:
And that is your opinion. I have issues with people who give him no credit for anything. Pretty nice facilities going up I'd say. Most major sports heading in the right direction. men's basketball needs another year or so and it will turn. Then you all can change your usernames and post how great things are.
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"major sports heading in the right direction"? No. No they aren't. The football program under KF is about as fresh as a popcorn fart. The offense under BF is so close to dead last in all of D-1, that it might as well be. The basketball program is a Lickliter level JOKE! While we're on the subject of Lickliter....Gutless Gary hired him too! Iowa Athletics routinely rank last or next to last in BIG conference sports. Iowa has yet to win a BIG title in any sport where Gutless Gary hired the head coach. On top of all of that, Gutless Gary tells more lies than a DC politician. Good grief. Spare us your propaganda, Herr Goebbels.
 
lightning1 said:
It's really simple. Decrease ticket sales in order to ensure sold out stadiums now. That leads to keeping the tradition alive for future generations. Invest now = have customers in the future.
Or, you can keep pricing the avg fan out of the experience. They'll stay home and their children will have no reason to show up.
The median income of the avg Iowan has not even come close to increasing at the rate that football tickets have, over the past 20 years. The costs will continue to outpace the avg Iowa fan. That means attendance will continue to decline.
The Gutless Gary business plan might be working out fine right now. But it's going to be an unmitigated disaster for Iowa athletics in the future. Add to that the decreasing number of Iowa high school kids that are playing football, due to the concussion fears and that will take a toll as well.
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I don't think Iowa tickets are too unreasonable if you just buy single game tickets for the lower tier games. But then you lose the mojo of having season tickets. We got rid of our tickets after that reseating a few years ago and aren't looking back. I went to the 2015 game in Lincoln, had a chance to go to the Michigan game in 2016 for free and went to the OSU game in 2017 for free. I've seen the games that I really wanted to see but I'm done paying those prices.

They don't want average people at the games. I think it's over a grand for a season ticket between the 40s. Nope.
 
okeefe4prez said:
I don't think Iowa tickets are too unreasonable if you just buy single game tickets for the lower tier games. But then you lose the mojo of having season tickets. We got rid of our tickets after that reseating a few years ago and aren't looking back. I went to the 2015 game in Lincoln, had a chance to go to the Michigan game in 2016 for free and went to the OSU game in 2017 for free. I've seen the games that I really wanted to see but I'm done paying those prices.

They don't want average people at the games. I think it's over a grand for a season ticket between the 40s. Nope.
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Then they can real what they sow.
 
lightning1 said:
Then they can real what they sow.
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I think football in the north is going to look a lot different in 20 years. The average IQ across Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, the Chicago Burbs that churn out most of the Illinois talent, Indiana, etc. is just a lot higher than it is in the football factories in the south and Texas and the number of kids playing the game is going to absolutely plummet. I know it has started to drop, but it will fall off a cliff soon. The school is probably smart for milking it for all they can right now because it probably isn't going to get better.
 
okeefe4prez said:
I think football in the north is going to look a lot different in 20 years. The average IQ across Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, the Chicago Burbs that churn out most of the Illinois talent, Indiana, etc. is just a lot higher than it is in the football factories in the south and Texas and the number of kids playing the game is going to absolutely plummet. I know it has started to drop, but it will fall off a cliff soon. The school is probably smart for milking it for all they can right now because it probably isn't going to get better.
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You're absolutely right and it already has fallen off in some parts of Iowa.
 
mopkins said:
Its an interesting article, which is surprising coming from Dennis Dodd. Couple things I thought about...

5) Its 2018 and Kinnick still doesn't have wifi.
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Obviously gadget networking is not your primary area of expertise. Attempting to add wifi to Kinnick Stadium would be a disaster. How may outdoor access points do you think it would take to accommodate an audience of 70,000? How many Fiber Lines would you need? Then there are the other equipment pieces like switches and poe's. The expense for 7 Saturdays per year isn't warranted. If people have a smartphone with a data plan they can use it.
 
okeefe4prez said:
That might put more fans in the seats, but it will crush revenue. You're better off with 60k in the stadium at an average price of $100 per ticket than 70k at $60 a ticket. If you buy individual game tickets from the school after the season ticket sales are over, they're not too expensive.
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Spot on. We don't want to become ISU/Illinois/Purdue or other schools that sell tickets for dirt cheap. There is a reason Iowa is a top 20 revenue producing school, and it ain't because they do business like the ISU/Illinois/Purdues's of the world.
 
lightning1 said:
"major sports heading in the right direction"? No. No they aren't. The football program under KF is about as fresh as a popcorn fart. The offense under BF is so close to dead last in all of D-1, that it might as well be. The basketball program is a Lickliter level JOKE! While we're on the subject of Lickliter....Gutless Gary hired him too! Iowa Athletics routinely rank last or next to last in BIG conference sports. Iowa has yet to win a BIG title in any sport where Gutless Gary hired the head coach. On top of all of that, Gutless Gary tells more lies than a DC politician. Good grief. Spare us your propaganda, Herr Goebbels.
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Awe...... someone needs some diaper cream.
 
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