Season ticket sales are way down from last year?

[Letsgohuskies11]

ive been out for a few years now and always assumed it was impossible to get season tickets unless u donated money. I have gone to a bunch of games the past few seasons just buying tickets on stubhub or showing up to the game. I think another problem is the type of people that have been going to the games, generally the older fans who wont get up and cheer and then yell at you if your standing supporting the team. Not to mention the thousands of fans that leave the games early which I understand do to traffic but. Hell i even go to the preseason games just cause im a huge fan and dont care if Uconn wins by 80 points.

 

[BlueMAB]

20 years ago a game against Arkansas would fill the house to the rafters and would be highly anticipated. It still should be.

20 years ago season tickets were a lot more affordable, and still landed you decent seats. Arkansas also Nolan Richardson and was coming off a final four loss to Duke. They aren't the same draw.

 

[craig]

The gampel value package is 120 which equals $15 a game. Even if you miss some of those games, its still an excellent value. I don't know how anyone wouldn't take advantage of that deal.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

I'll buy 2-3 games this year at Gampel for each basketball team. I just wish I could package that up someway.

 

[RickyMoore21]

why can't we see specific seats when buying season tickets or single game tickets? It certainly discourages me from purchasing tickets. I dont like going in blind like that

 

[Waquoit]

why can't we see specific seats when buying season tickets or single game tickets? It certainly discourages me from purchasing tickets. I dont like going in blind like that

That's always been the system, rank the ticket apps by points and start assigning seats based on their seat location model. Perhaps the consumer is speaking.

 

[ctchamps]

That's always been the system, rank the ticket apps by points and start assigning seats based on their seat location model. Perhaps the consumer is speaking.

Is this true? I thought this started in Perkins tenure.

 

[Excalibur]

Is this true? I thought this started in Perkins tenure.

It was the system I believe even prior to Perkins, but Perkins restructured how points are awarded to further favor new donors who donate more current money.

 

[Ts5034]

Now how do tickets for the Big East Tournament work? I know the schools deal with them now but who gets the first shot at them?

 

[Chief00]

As of a few months ago Michigan and CT were the only states with negative job growth in the last 20 years. We have less people employed than we did 20 years ago. Having said that, Jeff did a very poor job marketing the team and thinking creatively. With 8,000 students in the lottery and only about 2500 getting tixs, that could be a well to tap if we can't sell tickets at the usual prices.
Again price segmentation is key. UConn could do a much better job marketing the cheap XL seats to youth groups.
I know UC would rather get $25 or $30 a seat but these are options for filling the house.

 

[imno1]

First they should offer more tickets to the students. Many would love to go but got shut out of the lottery. As far as myself, I would scalp tickets or watch on TV rather than buy a package at the XL where my seats will be so high up I get dizzy.

 

[Huskyhoops25]

I bought the Gampel Value package, 3 tickets at $120. each. I expect to be in the last row but there are no bad seats at Gampel.

 

[Uconn77Duke74]

If the school was smart then no Student should ever have to enter a "lottery" to have a chance at seeing their school team. The students are the way to build your fan base.
They should have all interested students enter their names then re-allocate season tickets in some fashion so that everyone interested can then see X number of games. Distribute the good games similar to the mini packages they implement on ticketmaster.

 

[Waquoit]

Is this true? I thought this started in Perkins tenure.

It started way before Perkins. Perkins changed it to make it more of a cash deal. Perkins also perfected the fan-unfriendly, what have you done for me lately attitude from the athletic department that drove away the long-time ticket buying fan.

 

[suzyq]

I bought the Gampel Value package, 3 tickets at $120. each. I expect to be in the last row but there are no bad seats at Gampel.

There are no bad seats for your eyes , but those bleacher seats way up aren't so good for the rest of the anatomy...

 

[Northbound]

It started way before Perkins. Perkins changed it to make it more of a cash deal. Perkins also perfected the fan-unfriendly, what have you done for me lately attitude from the athletic department that drove away the long-time ticket buying fan.

I think it was that insightful policy that pushed uconn out of my father's will, now all that was marked for uconn is going to another family members alma mater. He was and still is a season ticket holder, but hasn't been to a game forever, he was always in good seats and something happened and it pushed him to the top tier of the area. It also, pushed a donation in the 7 figures out of uconn's coffers, unfortunate for uconn, great for the other school.

 

[Waquoit]

I bought the Gampel Value package, 3 tickets at $120. each. I expect to be in the last row but there are no bad seats at Gampel.

Probably be in the corner like Section 14.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The "Value Packages" form Gampel and XL are more than fairly priced. I believe it ended up costing me less than $300 for the whole season.

Agreed about the OOC schedule this year though. It really, really sucks. I can't believe another big game wasn't added.

 

[husky8273]

The AD is aware of these concerns and is thinking of tweaking the point system to address some of them - tiered opponent pricing; tiered seat location pricing, etc. Current year donations only give you a preference for post season tickets; total points governs the season ticket location.

 

[ctchamps]

Some of the comments here support my suspicions. With the knowledge that I will draw Fishy's scorn I will resurrect a post I wrote commenting on this situation. I first wrote it on the realignment board, and posted it here couple of weeks ago.

http://www.the-boneyard.com/threads...must-take-into-consideration-about-fans.3298/

 

[Excalibur]

Some of the comments here support my suspicions. With the knowledge that I will draw Fishy's scorn I will resurrect a post I wrote commenting on this situation. I first wrote it on the realignment board, and posted it here couple of weeks ago.

http://www.the-boneyard.com/threads...must-take-into-consideration-about-fans.3298/

The solution seems to be right in line with what Fishy said, as much as I hate to agree with him so openly. Lower ticket prices, win some more, and things will take care of themselves.

 

[ctchamps]

The solution seems to be right in line with what Fishy said, as much as I hate to agree with him so openly. Lower ticket prices, win some more, and things will take care of themselves.

The op questions this. UConn just won a national championship. They have an exciting recruiting class and are pre season top five with a legitimate chance of repeating. They have won three NC's which is better than any other school during that time period. And the women have been more dominant with winning and are having trouble with filling seats. What do you mean by win some more?

Furthermore they lowered ticket prices significantly this season. That hasn't helped either.

The schedule against inferior opponents is the only legitimate argument remaining. But I maintain, the passionate fan base would attend these games as well as the higher profile games. The level of play at high school games is no where's near the level of play at the college level even for these supposed weak games. But fans will show up and be vocal. UConn is paying the price for a policy it implemented beginning with Perkins. It was the predictable long term consequence for a policy that did not take into consideration its flaws.

The corporate people are willing to donate huge sums of money so they can be guaranteed good seats for the 8-10 sexy games a season in which they can bring their clients. This group only cares about bragging they attended the game. They could care less about outcomes for UConn.

Meanwhile a lot of people who choose to eat and drink husky bb, who attended games for years, even when those years were unproductive, watched these interlopers take away their seats and saw themselves being pushed further and further away from the court side. And this process not only impacted the passionate fan who had a history with the program, it impacted the passionate fan who wanted to start a history. This fan knew he had no opportunity to get decent seats from UConn, so he chose the direction you read on this board. He went to scalpers.

The majority of fans are not wealthy. And this majority has been resentful regarding this entire process. It has to be changed and I believe President Herbst is well aware of this and will change things. They will go to a hybrid of the old system (prior to Perkins) and the system he implemented. It will take a number of years but it should right the ship.

 

[MrShuttlesworth]

I've heard that the men's ticket sales are on pace where they were last year or slight growth. However,the women's are way down.