The topic of Season Ticket Sales has always intrigued me, so I have kept what was sent to me in years past from Desmond Conner.
2011 - - 25,000 (From an earlier post)
2010 -- Never got this number
2009 -- 26,500 (As of 09.02.09).
2008 -- 28,000
2007 -- 27,000
2006 -- 30,000
2005 -- 32,000
2004 -- 28,000
2003 -- 24,000
As you can see, while only July, 19,000 Season Tickets sold is atrocious. I completely understand that I am posting this information to all the Die Hard Fans on here. It seems that the "newness" of the UConn Football product seems to be wearing off. I find it interesting that in 2006 we had 30,000 Season Tix sold, which was a first year of the 2nd 3 Year Ticket Plan and was coming off the losing season during the Bones Era. Our high water mark of 32,000 in 2005 was coming at the end of a 3 year plan and after the Dan O. Years in which we went 9-3 and 8-4.
I think a combination of an upgraded schedule, winning record and better marketing will go a long way to getting these numbers back in the 30,000s. Going into the this season, I actually feel very optimistic on all three of these fronts that by the close of 2012, the football program will be trending upwards.
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19,000 is what it is, it's about a 25% decrease from a year or two ago at this time. Ticket sales for sporting events of all kinds, are struggling in a wide spectrum, for many reasons.
As for UConn football, Multiple factors at play, but the common denominator is the complete failure of the athletic department to capitalize on the momentum that the "newness" of the football program generated in 2003, combined with the success on the field through 2005. THat, thankfully has changed, (managment/leadership in the AD) but we've got an uphill battle to face, to get that season ticket buyer number back up to where it was 7 years ago.
It's also important to look at overall attendance in the same time frame. What you'd see there, is that attendance is also on a downswing, but the attendance figures also tell more of the story. People are still buying tickets, they're just not buying season ticket packages as much.
That newness is long gone, and the athletic department, marketing, ticketing, did ZERO to generate new buyers for several years, and let all those multiple package repeat and new buyers from 2005, turn into single game buyers.
Combine that, with the evenst of the past 18 months or so, with the fact that now, the ticketing department is actively marketing mini-plans, and discounted packages to go with the regular full season ticket packages......The Jan. 1, 2011, primetime, new year's day blowout, which very well was the first time that hundreeds of thousands of potential ticket buyers saw UConn football play, and the swirl of controversy about how an 8-4 team could be there, the head coach leaving for maryland about a 1/2 hour after the final whistle, a first year head coach, a losing season, and no bowl game for the first time in years,
...and at the same time all that is happening to our program, and it's fans.......the loss of the Syracuse, Pitt, and WVU from the conference, and an entirely new conference for football with entirely new traditions to build up?
I think that if you step back, while 19,000 represents what it does statistically, a 25% drop in season ticket package sales ....... its also pretty good, that with all the factors at play, a 25% decrease in season tix sales as of july 2012, could be a hell of a lot worse.
I would expect that attendance to the early season games, UMass, Buffalo, is going to be poor. If the team gets on a roll, though, and manages to get through to conference play with a decent record and competing for top 25 recognition/ranking?
The attendance come conference play will be just fine, and it will be up to the marketing and ticketing people, to turn those single game buyers in to multiple package buyers.
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