Ticket Sales dropping and the solution...???

[Seth53]

TV drives the major college FB revenues for the Power-5 schools.
You could almost (almost) just CGI the entire fan experience on TV.

Want to sell out?
#1--reduce or eliminate the excise tax donations
#2--sell beer inside Kinnick
#3--crank up the non-conf schedule. NIU, UNI, MidTennState, on and on, doesn't cut it for attendance.
#4--make one of the games a "Kids" game...1/2 price for kids under a certain age, etc. For a dog opponent, it might just sell out.

 

[SamBrownlee48]

Booze.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

They do need to do some promoting. The 2019 home football schedule is horrendous, games that as a 20 year season ticket holder, I really don't want to pay to see. The only reason that I am, is so that I can maintain my seats for 2020. For a whole lotta reasons Barta should be fired, but this may be the primary one for me.

This is much of the reason I don't really care to get season tickets anymore. It was fun when I was younger, but now, I'm fine with just going to a couple "selected" games a season. Actually what is intriguing now that I am older is maybe traveling to some different stadiums for a get-a-way. Otherwise, I'm content in my living room with the Big screen and bathroom 30 ft away.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

For lots of folks, focusing on anything, in person, for more than 5 minutes isn't going to happen that often. A 3 hour football game vs NE State? A round of golf, 4 hours? Going to the Mall for a couple of hours? Two hours in church? Grocery store? Just leave it at the front door, thanks.

Good point. It's a different mind frame now.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Ticket prices are way too high, for a start. Some individual games are ridiculously expensive--aren't ISU and Nebraska over $75 a ticket these days? One solution is to emphasize season tickets, to really discount those, and de-emphasize individual game tickets. Another is to deeply discount tickets for kids, because that's where your future fans come from. Also, better wi-fi! The under-30s won't come if their phones won't work.

I think the games are just plain unaffordable for a family of four to attend, compared to sitting at home watching for free on your big-screen.

I think fan-friendly promotions would help, like deeply discounted water and soda for those initial hot September games, and the same for coffee and hot chocolate for cold November games. Have someone sponsor stands around the stadium just for that purpose. Use your imagination, and come up with stuff that builds good will with the fans. Why don't we do Twitter photos that fans submit on the scoreboard? Why don't we have more giveaways of stuff people actually want: free tickets, or an upgrade to open Club Seats for a game, or a football autographed by Hawkeye legends, etc.

It's not rocket science. But I really think it starts with lowering prices, and making people think that season tickets are a must again.

I honestly think the bubble is bursting as you point out above. I think it's at the bar where families are deciding to allocate money elsewhere, especially families with children in a lot of different youth sports. There are just too many monthly charges/leases we all have now. Family phone bills are $200 plus a month, TV viewing can be expensive unless you find a streaming service, even typical utilities are much more it seems than 20 yrs ago.

If you have a family with children in youth sports, $1000.00's of dollars go to that. In addition, this means you are going to be out many of the Saturdays on game day, so there would be a schedule conflict. Not worth getting season tickets.

I agree. They have to really lower the season ticket packages to make it worth it and to fill the seats. Low enough that if a family can't make a game or sell their tickets they are fine eating a ticket. Also, drop the concession prices. Funny how they don't realize over the coarse of a season, they could make more in the long run with a couple changes.

 

[Ree4]

I think I could ramble/complain about this for hours. Long story short, it's all about the $$$. Ticket sales might be down (for Iowa, for specific sports, or leagues in general..), but that doesn't necessarily mean total revenue is down.

College FBall drives the college sports economy. The sport has been transformed from a live football/gameday experience... to a TV industry. Ticket sales and gameday stadium type revenues are not the driver anymore. It's all about television, advertising, telecom market reach, network access, etc.

This is NOT to say the athletic department doesn't care about ticket sales. We know that they still do. But the big money TV era has transformed the game into one that's better to watch from home (if you disagree, that's fair and we can discuss). A full length, network televised CFB game probably contains +1.5 hours worth of ads. That amount of time and structure of the viewing experience is better spent at home.

If CFB went to a less commercialized model (think soccer - fewer ads and more consistent flow of the game), ticket sales would skyrocket and overall revenues would decline. Obviously, this won't happen.

This will be changing though as well as fewer millennials have cable subscriptions than the previous generation and many others are cutting the cord (including me). There will be big changes in the current college football money making model in the next 10-15 years (if the sport is still around). But yes, you are correct - that is the current model.

 

[revkev73]

Good point. It's a different mind frame now.

The book, "Bowling Alone - The Collapse of Community" is an interesting book that explains and identifies, in part, so many paradigm shifts in society, to include the decline of big events like Iowa athletics, et. al..

For any organization to overlook the dynamics is a big mistake. I am sure our AD has his best people on it right now.

 

[skinnykilmer17]

The book, "Bowling Alone - The Collapse of Community" is an interesting book that explains and identifies, in part, so many paradigm shifts in society, to include the decline of big events like Iowa athletics, et. al..

For any organization to overlook the dynamics is a big mistake. I am sure our AD has his best people on it right now.

The last sentence made me chuckle. Well done. This would include Pancheros execs, the guy who tried changing the TigerHawk to a parrot, and the genius who handed out red pom poms for the Wisky game. Oh, and Leerfield Sports.

 

[oldhawk12]

For lots of folks, focusing on anything, in person, for more than 5 minutes isn't going to happen that often. A 3 hour football game vs NE State? A round of golf, 4 hours? Going to the Mall for a couple of hours? Two hours in church? Grocery store? Just leave it at the front door, thanks.

The tomato cans the nepotism family has run through their for yrs has been like going out for Casey’s pizza on sat night. Great at first, but over time. Been there, done that. Done with that

 

[oldhawk12]

Iowa doesn't dictate the B1G schedule. All teams play a pretty weak home non con. Look at the national champs they have Wofford and Charlotte next year. WOFFORD

Wrong. Not all do. Most don’t. A large majority don’t and even the ones that do, don’t do it every single year like we do

 

[Robowe]

Wrong. Not all do. Most don’t. A large majority don’t and even the ones that do, don’t do it every single year like we do

Here are the non-conference schedules in 2019:
- Iowa --> Miami (OH), Iowa State, Middle Tennessee
- Ohio State --> Florida Atlantic, Cincinnati, Miami (OH)
- Illinois --> Akron, UConn, Eastern Michigan
- Indiana --> Ball State, Eastern Illinois, UConn
- Maryland --> Howard, Syracuse, Temple
- Michigan State --> Tulsa, Western Michigan, Arizona State
- Michigan --> Middle Tennessee, Army, Notre Dame
- Minnesota --> South Dakota State, Fresno State, Georgia Southern
- Nebraska --> South Alabama, Colorado, Northern Illinois
- Northwestern --> Stanford, UNLV, UMass
- Penn State --> Idaho, Buffalo, Pitt
- Purdue --> Nevada, Vanderbilt, TCU
- Rutgers --> UMass, Boston College, Liberty
- Wisconsin --> South Florida, Central Michigan, Kent State

 

[oldhawk12]

Here are the non-conference schedules in 2019:
- Iowa --> Miami (OH), Iowa State, Middle Tennessee
- Ohio State --> Florida Atlantic, Cincinnati, Miami (OH)
- Illinois --> Akron, UConn, Eastern Michigan
- Indiana --> Ball State, Eastern Illinois, UConn
- Maryland --> Howard, Syracuse, Temple
- Michigan State --> Tulsa, Western Michigan, Arizona State
- Michigan --> Middle Tennessee, Army, Notre Dame
- Minnesota --> South Dakota State, Fresno State, Georgia Southern
- Nebraska --> South Alabama, Colorado, Northern Illinois
- Northwestern --> Stanford, UNLV, UMass
- Penn State --> Idaho, Buffalo, Pitt
- Purdue --> Nevada, Vanderbilt, TCU
- Rutgers --> UMass, Boston College, Liberty
- Wisconsin --> South Florida, Central Michigan, Kent State

Another pathetic Iowa schedule. I cannot fathom how the big money boosters don’t complain more about the only road trip in September ever...is every other year to L’ames. It has to be unprecedented amongst p5 schools

 

[pythagoras]

Another pathetic Iowa schedule. I cannot fathom how the big money boosters don’t complain more about the only road trip in September ever...is every other year to L’ames. It has to be unprecedented amongst p5 schools

I believe you can't fathom anything when presented with facts.

 

[oldhawk12]

I believe you can't fathom anything when presented with facts.

Touche. You read what you want to read. Iowa fans never leave the state in September under ferentz. That’s a fact and that’s wierd. And ferentz is a pussy

 

[westender]

Get rid of the crappy non conference schedule and it will help. It is also a problem all over the nation. The development in technology has many people staying at home to watch a game on an HD TV with their own bathroom, snacks, etc. To go to a game anymore especially with a family it is a pretty big investment. With streaming services and DVR people no longer have to schedule their lives around games. I am not sure if there is anything that is going to be done that will solve the problem.

We may complain about Iowas product on the field but if it was worse the attendance would really be bad because there are many other options to watch the games.

We get a crappy conference home schedule like this current year.

 

[westender]

call off the gestapo tactics outside the stadium and sell beer on the inside. done, that wasn't so hard.

There is no such tactics and 15 seconds after they start selling beer inside, the bitching about said price of beer will commence and how terrible it is.

 

[westender]

Ticket prices are way too high, for a start. Some individual games are ridiculously expensive--aren't ISU and Nebraska over $75 a ticket these days? One solution is to emphasize season tickets, to really discount those, and de-emphasize individual game tickets. Another is to deeply discount tickets for kids, because that's where your future fans come from. Also, better wi-fi! The under-30s won't come if their phones won't work.

I think the games are just plain unaffordable for a family of four to attend, compared to sitting at home watching for free on your big-screen.

I think fan-friendly promotions would help, like deeply discounted water and soda for those initial hot September games, and the same for coffee and hot chocolate for cold November games. Have someone sponsor stands around the stadium just for that purpose. Use your imagination, and come up with stuff that builds good will with the fans. Why don't we do Twitter photos that fans submit on the scoreboard? Why don't we have more giveaways of stuff people actually want: free tickets, or an upgrade to open Club Seats for a game, or a football autographed by Hawkeye legends, etc.

It's not rocket science. But I really think it starts with lowering prices, and making people think that season tickets are a must again.

They already do have youth games. $20 a seat. Not for the "big" games but they do and the Nebraska game at home is always one since on Friday after Thanksgiving.

Also park on a street somewhere, it is free.

Take in some prepackaged food as they let in what you can put in a gallon zip lock bag per adult. You can't take in a McDonalds burger but we haven't had any issue with just prepackaged stuff.

And $75 for a game like ISU or Nebraska these days is not overpriced. Look around at what other schools charge.

 

[guffus]

I believe the Big Ten seriously needs to consider getting rid of divisions and going with a schedule where each team has 3-5 permanent rivals and plays everybody else at least 50% of the time. Iowa should have a schedule where it gets 1 game at home each year against either OSU, MSU, Mich or MSU.

 

[kicker22]

If tickets continue to increase and attendance continues to decline then it only makes perfect sense to hire a digital marketing firm. Let's shell out money to figure out what decreasing ticket costs and, I don't know, maybe schedule better OOC games to justify ticket costs.

Ultimately the value of the dollar and the investment of time is the driving force. You may not be able to rearrange a person's priorities, but by decreasing the cost you may be able to find more people willing to attend games that otherwise may have nothing that conflicts or anything better to do with their time or money.

 

[kicker22]

I believe the Big Ten seriously needs to consider getting rid of divisions and going with a schedule where each team has 3-5 permanent rivals and plays everybody else at least 50% of the time. Iowa should have a schedule where it gets 1 game at home each year against either OSU, MSU, Mich or MSU.

Does this mean we can play MSU twice at home some seasons? just kidding I couldn't resist.