Interesting article on trying to increase ticket sales & better fan relations at Iowa

[Seth53]

I'll try not to ramble, but this is a very interesting thread to me. I'll be 60 in October and been invested in the program for 50 years. I didn't renew this year for the first time in ten years.

Marketing the Iowa product went full force when HF introduced the TigerHawk and gave Iowa it's first true national identity. What have I seen since then?

Wins matter, but Kinnick was packed when we sucked. It's what got Fry up here from Texas. The common folk were adored. Iowa started winning and that changed.

A Sally Mason clamp-down on the fun. That even included the pestering of people paying thousands of dollars to park next to Kinnick.

Still no Wi-Fi worth a crap @ Kinnick. Even after the re-do, the men's bathrooms are almost nowhere to be seen. Crushing lines at the food vendors. A dog and a pop is $10.

Expanding the offerings for the high-rollers while the proles get herded into the same environment. I.e. the expansion of the north section of the stadium for luxury boxes.

A lame attempt to appease the crowd with the $10 food voucher after the disastrous 2014 season. Not per ticket mind you, per sets of tickets. How disingenuous is that? And surprise, surprise, that went away immediately after the 12-2 season.

The "excise tax" imposed on season ticket holders (what about ten years now) for the privilege of buying season tickets. Keeping up with the Jones' and all that I suppose. A pair of somewhat decent season tickets went from $800 to $1200 a year. And ticket prices will keep going up...and...the university didn't budge when the new tax laws came into effect, nullifying the donation to the athletic department.

Cajoling people into buying the crappy bowl tickets, where you sit in the bleeders. Seriously?

Northern Illinois and UNI, at home, this year. Miami of Ohio and Middle Tennessee State in 2019. UNI and NIU again in 2020. Bogus.

The FB marketing department does need help. But so does the leadership, scheduling, the overall Kinnick environment as compared to a nice at-home HDTV experience.

To be sure, I will still attend some games, but will cherry pick the best ones. And with the money I'm not spending watching Div-II teams, I'll take a nice road trip or two....which are fun and hearken back to the days of Kinnick past.

 

[Seth53]

I am a St. Louis Cardinals fan. For a long long time. With my daughter now a student @ SLU, I have purchased a total of five seats to two games in the past two years. Not a high roller to be sure.

Yet, I received an email *and* a personal phone call from the St. Louis ticket department, thanking me for past purchases and giving me a phone number to call for my future ticket needs.

Five tickets in the past two years and they are reaching out to folks like me. Wow. The Iowa marketing dept could learn a lesson here and reach out to the grassroots attendees.

 

[lightning1]

I am a St. Louis Cardinals fan. For a long long time. With my daughter now a student @ SLU, I have purchased a total of five seats to two games in the past two years. Not a high roller to be sure.

Yet, I received an email *and* a personal phone call from the St. Louis ticket department, thanking me for past purchases and giving me a phone number to call for my future ticket needs.

Five tickets in the past two years and they are reaching out to folks like me. Wow. The Iowa marketing dept could learn a lesson here and reach out to the grassroots attendees.

They'd have to be some what competent to learn anything.

 

[lightning1]

I'll try not to ramble, but this is a very interesting thread to me. I'll be 60 in October and been invested in the program for 50 years. I didn't renew this year for the first time in ten years.

Marketing the Iowa product went full force when HF introduced the TigerHawk and gave Iowa it's first true national identity. What have I seen since then?

Wins matter, but Kinnick was packed when we sucked. It's what got Fry up here from Texas. The common folk were adored. Iowa started winning and that changed.

A Sally Mason clamp-down on the fun. That even included the pestering of people paying thousands of dollars to park next to Kinnick.

Still no Wi-Fi worth a crap @ Kinnick. Even after the re-do, the men's bathrooms are almost nowhere to be seen. Crushing lines at the food vendors. A dog and a pop is $10.

Expanding the offerings for the high-rollers while the proles get herded into the same environment. I.e. the expansion of the north section of the stadium for luxury boxes.

A lame attempt to appease the crowd with the $10 food voucher after the disastrous 2014 season. Not per ticket mind you, per sets of tickets. How disingenuous is that? And surprise, surprise, that went away immediately after the 12-2 season.

The "excise tax" imposed on season ticket holders (what about ten years now) for the privilege of buying season tickets. Keeping up with the Jones' and all that I suppose. A pair of somewhat decent season tickets went from $800 to $1200 a year. And ticket prices will keep going up...and...the university didn't budge when the new tax laws came into effect, nullifying the donation to the athletic department.

Cajoling people into buying the crappy bowl tickets, where you sit in the bleeders. Seriously?

Northern Illinois and UNI, at home, this year. Miami of Ohio and Middle Tennessee State in 2019. UNI and NIU again in 2020. Bogus.

The FB marketing department does need help. But so does the leadership, scheduling, the overall Kinnick environment as compared to a nice at-home HDTV experience.

To be sure, I will still attend some games, but will cherry pick the best ones. And with the money I'm not spending watching Div-II teams, I'll take a nice road trip or two....which are fun and hearken back to the days of Kinnick past.

If I'm the AD and Sally Mason comes to me with that "crack down" Idea, I'm tendering my resignation and looking for work elsewhere. There's no way I am having any part of that. It's a short sighted, stupid ass idea that has long reaching consequences.
Priority seating is another dick brained idea. I'm glad I walked away before that went into effect. I'm sure it sounded like a great revenue idea at the time but it also has long tern negative effects. Nobody likes to be strong armed for their discretionary income.
There are so many reasons why I'll never be a season ticket holder again. Too many to list.

 

[Motigerhawk]

Another thing to this equation is the drop in HS football participation numbers. This is especially true in the B1G footprint. With less players to recruit in B1G country, wins will be harder to come by. Revenue streams will continue to fall.
Football is turning into a dinosaur. It will not be what it is today, in our life times.

The Southeast will continue to dominate. There will be a fundamental shift in how football is presented.

 

[4thngoal]

I never did understand the bowl seating thing. That's some sort of whacked I can't begin to comprehend.
As for Kinnick, fans are becoming entitled similar to Nebraska fans. If we lose to Wisconsin, the attendance will drop off after that. Why do you think they try to schedule the more important games later in the season?? They intentionally try to design the divisions so that the important games are later in the season thus maintaining interest throughout the entire season.
I'm no Brainiac but I can see through that stuff pretty easy.

 

[westender]

If I'm the AD and Sally Mason comes to me with that "crack down" Idea, I'm tendering my resignation and looking for work elsewhere. There's no way I am having any part of that. It's a short sighted, stupid ass idea that has long reaching consequences.
Priority seating is another dick brained idea. I'm glad I walked away before that went into effect. I'm sure it sounded like a great revenue idea at the time but it also has long tern negative effects. Nobody likes to be strong armed for their discretionary income.
There are so many reasons why I'll never be a season ticket holder again. Too many to list.

So just don't do what every other AD in the country of any program of notoriety is doing with seating and prices? Times change friends. We move with it or we get run over.

 

[westender]

This. End of discussion.

They could buy five north end zones and it won’t do anything to increase attendance as long as the season average floats between 6 and 7 wins.

The Metrodome was the biggest roach motel in all of sports, but when the Twins were winning they packed it. When they’d lose 95 games you couldn’t give away a ticket.

Barta can get as creative as he wants, but unless you either win consistently or drop ticket prices a ton you aren’t going to get more people through the gate. And we all know he’s not dropping prices.

Coach what will happen in about 5 years or so will be an expansion of the playoff which puts more teams in the mix late even with 2 or maybe even 3 losses. Like the NFL and every other sport that expanded playoffs. Makes the regular season more meaningful for more teams for a much longer period of time and the driver will be $$$$$$. Only one trophy matters. Once we have 1 or 2 losses now, then it just becomes what Florida bowl game are we going to now and interest wanes. A bowl game doesn't mean crap to me any more.

 

[westender]

I get what you're saying, but (feel free to correct me if my math is wrong, I'm not a season ticket holder), four of the cheapest season tickets in the grandstands will run just over $2,000 with donation on up past $4,000 as you move towards the middle. I think if people were to the point where they could realistically consider a major yearly expense like that, a couple hundred bucks wouldn't sway them one way or another. I know it's around 10% price wise, but I just don't see a couple with two kids saying, we can't spend $2,000, but we can do $1,720. The people buying season tickets generally have plenty of discretionary income to the point where that wouldn't be a make or break. You can't hardly take a family to Red Robin for much less than a hundo these days. Maybe I'm wrong.

This is why there are mini-packs and youth ticket games. That started with the recognition that not everyone can afford every game for a season.

 

[westender]

And again most of the same people on here bitching about everything, state we need the best of everything and then say they don't want to pay as much as is being asked.

 

[EstronHawkKing]

The fact that they want to hire an outside agency to help improve with everything mentioned in the article just proves how incompetent Barta and the marketing staff is at Iowa. Shouldn't it be their job to figure this stuff out?!??! But, like a lot of people here have said, it really comes down to wins and championships,something the Iowa sports teams have really failed at recently.

Here's an idea Gary, why don't you go ask Dan Gable! All he did at Iowa as a coach was win over and over again for many, many years. He obviously knew what he was doing, Gary obviously doesn't!

 

[4thngoal]

Coach what will happen in about 5 years or so will be an expansion of the playoff which puts more teams in the mix late even with 2 or maybe even 3 losses. Like the NFL and every other sport that expanded playoffs. Makes the regular season more meaningful for more teams for a much longer period of time and the driver will be $$$$$$. Only one trophy matters. Once we have 1 or 2 losses now, then it just becomes what Florida bowl game are we going to now and interest wanes. A bowl game doesn't mean crap to me any more.

If that were true nobody would have been exited about going to the Rose Bowl and people would have had equal interest in going toPinstripe Bowl.

 

[Fryowa]

Coach what will happen in about 5 years or so will be an expansion of the playoff which puts more teams in the mix late even with 2 or maybe even 3 losses. Like the NFL and every other sport that expanded playoffs. Makes the regular season more meaningful for more teams for a much longer period of time and the driver will be $$$$$$. Only one trophy matters. Once we have 1 or 2 losses now, then it just becomes what Florida bowl game are we going to now and interest wanes. A bowl game doesn't mean crap to me any more.

You booze in the morning too? You’re starting to sound like @earlkoppelman . Which is really, really unsettling.

Your post has nothing to do at all with filling seats in Kinnick. Zip.

Even if I were to assume your ramble meant that with an expanded playoff people would be more interested in attending games, you’re wrong. An expanded 8 team playoff would most likely require Iowa to win the conference to get in, and that ain’t happening anytime soon. The big 5 teams have that wrapped up. The other 9 schools just play for sloppy seconds and “division championships.” Sad? Yep. But true.

 

[Fryowa]

If that were true nobody would have been exited about going to the Rose Bowl and people would have had equal interest in going toPinstripe Bowl.

People who go to bowl games aren’t price-sensitive people who would hem haw over a couple hundres bucks for a season ticket. They’re the ones already in the stands. The challenge is getting new people to buy tickets, and unless the Hawks start being consistent contenders (i.e. winning) or tickets get a whole lot cheaper, it probably won’t happen.

 

[lightning1]

So just don't do what every other AD in the country of any program of notoriety is doing with seating and prices? Times change friends. We move with it or we get run over.

I was speaking of the crack down.

 

[Hawk90]

I disagree with the win/loss factor being the primary component to filling the stadium. I keep my season tickets because I am a lifelong Hawk fan. I like the tradition, the game day atmosphere, the crowd and even as bad as they suck; the band. There will be good seasons and bad....I get that. But the reason I would give up my tickets is if the athletic administration does not continue to improve the product. More bathrooms, more concessions, cut the corny corporate ads, continue to improve the atmosphere.

They are missing out on the next generation of money donating, season ticket holding fans. Cater to the students Barta, your big money donors are dinosaurs and won't be around 20 years from now.

And speaking of the band....if they play Hey Jude, or any Beatles songs, or pedophile Michael Jackson songs again, the band director should be fired on the spot. Music didn't start with the Beatles and end with Jackson. Step into this century. Find a band director under 70.

End of rant

 

[westender]

I was speaking of the crack down.

That whole crack down thing was Sally Mason and Barta could do nothing about that.

I just saw also a tweet from a recent former Hawk mentioning the friendly University Heights traffic police. Nothing Barta can do there either.

 

[westender]

I disagree with the win/loss factor being the primary component to filling the stadium. I keep my season tickets because I am a lifelong Hawk fan. I like the tradition, the game day atmosphere, the crowd and even as bad as they suck; the band. There will be good seasons and bad....I get that. But the reason I would give up my tickets is if the athletic administration does not continue to improve the product. More bathrooms, more concessions, cut the corny corporate ads, continue to improve the the atmosphere.

They are missing out on the next generation of money donating, season ticket holding fans. Cater to the students Barta, your big money donors are dinosaurs and won't be around 20 years from now.

And speaking of the band....if they play Hey Jude, or any Beatles songs, or pedophile Michael Jackson songs again, the band director should be fired on the spot. Music didn't start with the Beatles and end with Jackson. Step into this century. Find a band director under 70.

End of rant

Agree on the band thing. Maybe one or two classics, okay, but same stuff for a decade, not so good. Love the band though. Great to watch.

 

[HAman]

Live 5 hours away. Go to 1-2 games per year. Gave up my tickets when the seating rights started. When I would go to sell my tickets, no one wanted to help pay for the seating rights. They wanted to pay face value, and less for the dog games of early Sept. I found it cheaper to scalp tickets for games I wanted to go to. I had bought tickets for 20+ years and didn't want endzone seats.

 

[lightning1]

That whole crack down thing was Sally Mason and Barta could do nothing about that.

I just saw also a tweet from a recent former Hawk mentioning the friendly University Heights traffic police. Nothing Barta can do there either.

As I said, I'd have submitted my resignation first. Publicly.