Future Attendence

chicagomod11

chicagomod11

Active Member
With or without a strong finish this season, it could get ugly for home ticket sales for the next season for several reasons.

First, the home schedule for next year is the poor.

2015 Iowa Football Schedule:
Sept. 5 Illinois State
Sept. 19 Pittsburgh
Sept. 26 North Texas
Oct. 10 Illinois*
Oct. 31 Maryland
Nov. 14 Minnesota*
Nov. 21 Purdue*

There is not one thrilling game in the group. In recent HN podcasts, it has been mentioned about the competition for fans time on Saturday. Numerous young families buy season tickets with the intention of not attending all of the games. The key for those season ticket holders is the ability to sell the non attending game tickets on the market and cover costs. Next year will not be a year where that will happen due to the poor games and visiting fan bases. In addition, plenty of seats will be available to buy at costs or less on game days so the motivation for buying season tickets will not be there.

Second, the lack of younger alumuni buying tickets.

The decreasing student ticket sales and enthusiasm is impacting ticket sales. Newer graduates of Iowa do not have the memories of great game experiences to encourage future sales. The student seat placements have become less desirable over the years. Students from the 80s and 90s enjoyed games from great seats and a better game day experience. The new seat placements may have brought short term revenue at the expense of long term. Current students are not excited about the program. I have a freshman daughter who grew up attending games and the majority of her classmates do not go out of their way to attend games.

Third, the stagnation of the program and the pedestrian game day experience is not keeping up with competition.

The fan has many demands on their time and money. Iowa game day football is not challenging that demand. It is not "must see" games especially next year. The excitement has passed and not rekindled.

I know that this note is without answers similar to sports talk radio, but I was curious how others felt about future sales. Many businesses fail due to arrogance and a lack of awareness of current states. Here is to hoping that Iowa addresses the apathy and we have many years of exciting football weekends.
 
Right now I'm leaning on not renewing my tickets. I can just buy seats to a game or two I want to go to and not be on the hook for the others. Hard to get rid of them right now.
 
I, for yrs, have been secretly hoping for gameday attendance to plummet, which would, in turn, lead ppl to question, financially, the state of program. (which could, hopefully, help precipitate a change at the top). That being said, I have still wanted the Hawks to win every game.
 
bogeyman said:
Right now I'm leaning on not renewing my tickets. I can just buy seats to a game or two I want to go to and not be on the hook for the others. Hard to get rid of them right now.
Click to expand...

This is exactly the way I'm leaning right now. I will say if we win our last 3 games this changes, but even if we win 2 out of 3 and finish 8-4 I'm not getting season tickets next year. Poor schedule, expensive entertainment, long day driving there and back.....but the most important reason is I will have lost faith in the head coach and his ability to ever make this team better than just being average in a below average conference.
 
Students are not near as loyal as they used to be. But I think the general population is going to show up. They have been my entire lifetime win or lose. That may change as the younger generation grows older. But for now I don't see us falling off to much
 
I hadn't looked at next seasons home schedule... that is BRUTAL.

I don't understand the whole seating situation but I'm guessing the longevity of your holding of the tickets plays at least somewhat into the quality of your seating assignments so the only benefit to keeping season tickets would be in hopes that you could improve seating as I would anticipate many do not renew.
 
I think they need to get serious about plans to add an upper deck on the west side. This maybe the best chance to add another 20,000 seats.
 
chicagomod11 said:
With or without a strong finish this season, it could get ugly for home ticket sales for the next season for several reasons.

First, the home schedule for next year is the poor.

2015 Iowa Football Schedule:
Sept. 5 Illinois State
Sept. 19 Pittsburgh
Sept. 26 North Texas
Oct. 10 Illinois*
Oct. 31 Maryland
Nov. 14 Minnesota*
Nov. 21 Purdue*
Click to expand...

Is it any wonder that Iowa comes out in midsummer form on opening day? And they do it year after year. The players are only excited because its football season. There is an extra level of intensity and urgency that comes with preparing for a top team (e.g. Wisconsin playing LSU ).

Is it any wonder that recruiting suffers?

What does this say about the AD's philosophy?

Nothing says, kill the clock and be thrilled with a win like this.
 
I've had 8 season tickets since 1997 and I won't be renewing next season. I can't support this brand of football anymore.
 
I used to get season tickets when I was single & was not an issue. But things really change when you add a couple kids along with your wife. You're looking at least $300 per game by the time you travel there & get goodies or tailgate. The games are outpricing the consumers and now the boys are getting the age where some Saturdays will be for activities and I'm not about to try to find a home for 4 tickets a game, not when there's DVR & an HD at home.

I like to go to games. Don't get me wrong, but right now is not feasible. Wish it was but it just is not.
 
I mentioned on another thread having four season tickets for 16 years, but I will not buy them next year. I think it would be justice for this administration to have the only full capacity area the box/club seats, with the tailgating area reserved for the big donor's RVs'. I'm not a class warrior, but the "improvements" to Kinnick and the decline of the game day experience have come at the expense of the students, and average season ticket holders.....IMO
 
I was a freshman in 2002 and got to enjoy the game day experience to its fullest potential in Kinnick Stadium during my tenure in Iowa City. We had Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Penn State, Arizona State, etc...coming through Iowa City on a yearly basis. It was always a great slate year in and year out...and the Hawks always won! (Especially against ALL MAC bottom-feeders, and I think the worst loss I witnessed my entire time in Iowa City was in 2002 against Iowa State, but I digress) The tailgating was incredible, Kinnick was electric, and people were excited to go to the games. In my time there, I hardly ever, IF EVER, saw an empty seat. But it's really a shame to see the apathy growing in this fan base due to the game day product. The overall atmosphere seems very...hollow and overly commercialized are the best words I can use to describe it. It's as if I can look at this beautiful black and gold gift, but don't touch it! And the over abundence of losses to MAC teams, lack of bowl wins, bad home losses, etc...I'd rather record the game, do whatever I want to do on Saturdays, find out if the Hawks won or lost, and watch or delete the game depending on the outcome. I used to give up my entire Saturday, every Saturday to watch the Iowa game. Now, it's just...meh.
 
chicagomod11 said:
With or without a strong finish this season, it could get ugly for home ticket sales for the next season for several reasons.

First, the home schedule for next year is the poor.

2015 Iowa Football Schedule:
Sept. 5 Illinois State
Sept. 19 Pittsburgh
Sept. 26 North Texas
Oct. 10 Illinois*
Oct. 31 Maryland
Nov. 14 Minnesota*
Nov. 21 Purdue*

There is not one thrilling game in the group.
Click to expand...

I think the finish to our season will be key as well but your schedule observation is good. It's also telling from the perspective of which BIG schools are still trying to eek out any victory they can in non-conference play these days. Those that are thinking bigger these days might include...............

2015 NON-CONF SCHEDULE FOR OTHER BIGs

NW - Stanford, Duke
Purdue - Virginia Tech, Marshall
WI - Alabama
NE - BYU, Miami
MN - TCU
IL - North Carolina
MI - Utah, BYU
MD - West Virginia
OSU - Virginia Tech
MSU - Oregon, Air Force

All of Iowa's non conference opponents in 2015 have losing records to date this year outside of Illinois State which is an FCS level program.
 
ohhawk said:
I think the finish to our season will be key as well but your schedule observation is good. It's also telling from the perspective of which BIG schools are still trying to eek out any victory they can in non-conference play these days. Those that are thinking bigger these days might include...............

2015 NON-CONF SCHEDULE FOR OTHER BIGs

NW - Stanford, Duke
Purdue - Virginia Tech, Marshall
WI - Alabama
NE - BYU, Miami
MN - TCU
IL - North Carolina
MI - Utah, BYU
MD - West Virginia
OSU - Virginia Tech
MSU - Oregon, Air Force

All of Iowa's non conference opponents in 2015 have losing records to date this year outside of Illinois State which is an FCS level program.
Click to expand...

Pitt and ISU still give us two Power 5 opponents, which is as many or more than most Big Ten schools. On that list only NW has two power 5 opponents.

I do not begrudge anyone bailing, as life does intervene. Maybe a slight dip in attendance will prove to be a wakeup call for Barta and co.
 
Save your money on the season tickets and go the road games. At Wisconsin, At NW, At Nebraska, etc.........That home schedule is a travesty
 
Wow, that's eye opening, and a fair observation by the OP as well as the other comments. I concur, as much as I love Iowa City, and want that for my family, I do not go out of my way to get there with them more than one game a year.

Further, for me, several of my sources for utilizing unused tickets has diminished already, due to several friends and acquaintances already having dropped their renewals or cut back the number of seats. I am also hearing that the same is true for at least two others already for next year.

For many reasons, I'm not so sure I can blame them already. Now seeing that home slate for next year, I'm not so sure I can circle more than one game to get excited about anyhow.....looks like the Marketing department may have their work cut out for them. Hope it doesn't get to the point like the BBall team needed with free pizza or hot dogs, etc to entice students (yet alone everyone else)!
 
ColoradoHAWKEYE said:
Wow, that's eye opening, and a fair observation by the OP as well as the other comments. I concur, as much as I love Iowa City, and want that for my family, I do not go out of my way to get there with them more than one game a year.Further, for me, several of my sources for utilizing unused tickets has diminished already, due to several friends and acquaintances already having dropped their renewals or cut back the number of seats. I am also hearing that the same is true for at least two others already for next year.For many reasons, I'm not so sure I can blame them already. Now seeing that home slate for next year, I'm not so sure I can circle more than one game to get excited about anyhow.....looks like the Marketing department may have their work cut out for them. Hope it doesn't get to the point like the BBall team needed with free pizza or hot dogs, etc to entice students (yet alone everyone else)!
Click to expand...
Really good thoughts in this thread. Wow, that home schedule is brutal. I'm leaning towards not renewing my season tickets as well, which is something I never thought I'd say.
 
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