Season Tickets

[Dooley]

I don't care if someone decides to cancel their season tickets. I choose to use my entertainment spending budget towards UConn football. I go to 3-5 basketball games a year when tickets are fairly priced and in a decent section/row, but I have never bought season ticket packages to XL or Gampel. I buy football season tickets for one simple reason: I like to watch football (two simple reasons if you include that I like to drink beer and eat food). I'm a Patriots fan but never go to Pats games because NFL football is better watched on TV these days than shelling out $100+ on 300 level nosebleed seats. I go to UConn games because I love the view from our seats and we are in the last row of the lower bowl so we get "free" chair backs, without having to pay chairback prices.

HFD, I think the reason why so many folks here are upset with your statements is because one of the reasons that we've all heard in CR as to why UConn has been snubbed so far is that we have a fickle fanbase. I'm not calling you fickle, please note. The "fickle" comes from our attendance decline in all money sports, our subpar showings in road stadiums, and the negative press we received from Fiesta ticket sales. I know you'll be at the Michigan game and you will probably find your way into the stadium for MD, RU and Ville too. I don't care if you do it by buying season tickets or buying from a scalper. But I think the hostility stems from your putting a face (although I'm not convinced that your avatar pic is you!! ) to the premise of declining attendance (i.e. - declining season ticket numbers). We all know you love UConn and hate Warde and that's fine. But, honestly, you have to expect some negative reaction when you post negative things. We all get a heavy dose of negative when we leave the Boneyard and go to national sites' message boards and discuss UConn, so I don't think we want much negativity here within our own fanbase. And yes, I have my UConn colored glasses firmly on!!

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Your a fair weather bozo. You shouldn't waste your time here. What a jerk you are. How dare you not give a lot of money to uconn without the product that you like in return.and 20 other insults, cheap shots. Some from high horses and some form crack heads....

You can do whatever you want with your money. But don't expect anybody here to lend you an ounce of credibility. You've been saying you're not buying season tix for months now (before you were banned). I'll be honest that's when I stopped taking you seriously. Others are now catching wind of this and I don't think you'll be left with many sympathizers.

There's a lot people on here who I disagree with often here but the main theme is that everyone supports the program, goes to games, and is emotionally invested. What you are doing is more damaging to the program than you even realize. For people who spend their hard earned money on tickets, it's tough to listen to a whiny b!tch who complains about EVERYTHING while sitting home on his couch. You think you're acting "big time" with this stupid protest (that will go nowhere, btw), but really, you're not. Not even close.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I'm not calling you fickle, please note. The "fickle" comes from our attendance decline in all money sports, our subpar showings in road stadiums, and the negative press we received from Fiesta ticket sales.

I wouldn't call him fickle either. That would be an insult to all the fickle fans out there.

 

[Husky25]

My family members give to uconn, I give to my alma not uconn. It's different. A lot of fans view there tickets as donations of a certain size. I don't. I view tickets as tickets to a sport I want to watch.

I get my tickets through a friend who built up his points. I donate the $100 or $150 because that is a prereq. for my 3 year package and the blue lot pass. By the way, I've never paid remotely close to $500 per seat, even with the donation and I split the cost for a 3rd ticket. I sit 5 rows from the field on the 30 yard line. I have no idea where you get $1000 for 2 tickets, unless you pay to be in the Blue Chairbacks or behind glass...But that's a different discussion.

I love ppl here think now. Never went to a game and need a hand out or something. To funny. I got season tix from 08 till last year in my group. The last year I ate a lot of them with school and in 2009 I had a couple weekend some major eating also on good games. Just how it was for me and what I had to do. I can afford tickets. Lets stop all the bs. I simply chose as of now not to buy.

Honest question, tell me why I should buy tickets? I know as a somewhat knowledgable fan that I can buy a Michigan ticket on line somewhere. And then I now Michigan fans are going to dump the rest of the season for cheap. I mean honestly, what stops me from buying a Michigan ticket and then walking around the stadium looking for yellow shirts and making them offers to buy the rest of there seasons tickets with some nice story about my friends needing them. Give them a cell number and email and bam. Cake.

You guys can rip all u want. But this happens. The stands will tell the story early on. Then based on what p does will dictate them the rest of the season.

Then just f'in say that!!! I could not care much less if you do buy seats directly from the school or not. That's not why people are b1tching. It's the song and dance behind it about not buying because of Warde Manuel. It's old and, worse, lacks merit.

The route you suggest above is a valid one...but it is also a 1t move. If you're going to boycott, then own it and follow through. Don't rip the athletic dept., spouting off that they don't get it and you can do better. But when push comes to shove, you end up watching through the knot hole in the fence. Put your name on it.

Here's the thing, Dan. It is 100% evident that this is not what you actually want to do. As a non-alum resident, you actually care about UConn Sports for whatever reason. You obviously have passion, but the way you convey that passion, is Little Boy Who Cied Wof-ish. People are tuning you out because its the same message every time in a forum where there are few, if any, real decision makers when it come to the Program. Know your audience.

Whaler tells it like it is always. Some times I argue with him but he's not wrong.

Father's Day promotion? Good. The freebie? Bad. Simple as that. I mean we have a new logo out right? What better that a new logo t shirt or hoodie or something as the freebie? Has the same value doesn't it? But one of them you wear around and pump your favorite school/team. The other you annoy friends about a school they have never heard when all they heard about was Michigan all off season anyway. Yea, that's really a good strategy.

No, it doesn't have the same value. A ticket and shirt may cost the fan the same, but the ticket costs the school next to nothing greater than what they are already obligated to do. The shirt manufacturer needs to recoup its costs and make a profit. Someone (either the fan or the school) has to pay for that. The school does not make a profit on a free ticket, to be sure, but the seat still exists and the ticket is still printed. Whether it is given away or it goes unused makes no difference. I don't think the school gets a cut of the concessions (They haven't in the past) so there is no real benefit other than to fill the stands for a less attractive game. Cost-Benefit wise this promotion is a no brainer, provided capacity is there...which it apparently is.

I don't understand the last sentence. You think no one has heard of UConn football within the state boarders of Connecticut?

 

[Husky25]

The point is, new fans are not going to buy watching p run it up the middle vs Towson as entertaining. Maybe they enjoy the tailgate? Ok, but they can drop there tailgate in there driveway and invite the neighborhood over and do the same thing.

Wait until you are married and have kids. Those of us who are know this is not an option.

 

[Dann]

I get my tickets through a friend who built up his points. I donate the $100 or $150 because that is a prereq. for my 3 year package and the blue lot pass. By the way, I've never paid remotely close to $500 per seat, even with the donation and I split the cost for a 3rd ticket. I sit 5 rows from the field on the 30 yard line. I have no idea where you get $1000 for 2 tickets, unless you pay to be in the Blue Chairbacks or behind glass...But that's a different discussion.
.


Then just f'in say that!!! I could not care much less if you do buy seats directly from the school or not. That's not why people are b1tching. It's the song and dance behind it about not buying because of Warde Manuel. It's old and, worse, lacks merit.

The route you suggest above is a valid one...but it is also a 1t move. If you're going to boycott, then own it and follow through. Don't rip the athletic dept., spouting off that they don't get it and you can do better. But when push comes to shove, you end up watching through the knot hole in the fence. Put your name on it.

Here's the thing, Dan. It is 100% evident that this is not what you actually want to do. As a non-alum resident, you actually care about UConn Sports for whatever reason. You obviously have passion, but the way you convey that passion, is Little Boy Who Cied Wof-ish. People are tuning you out because its the same message every time in a forum where there are few, if any, real decision makers when it come to the Program. Know your audience.



No, it doesn't have the same value. A ticket and shirt may cost the fan the same, but the ticket costs the school next to nothing greater than what they are already obligated to do. The shirt manufacturer needs to recoup its costs and make a profit. Someone (either the fan or the school) has to pay for that. The school does not make a profit on a free ticket, to be sure, but the seat still exists and the ticket is still printed. Whether it is given away or it goes unused makes no difference. I don't think the school gets a cut of the concessions (They haven't in the past) so there is no real benefit other than to fill the stands for a less attractive game. Cost-Benefit wise this promotion is a no brainer, provided capacity is there...which it apparently is.

I don't understand the last sentence. You think no one has heard of UConn football within the state boarders of Connecticut?

The money was tickets, drinks, food, gas the overall cost ballpark for me for the season compared to staying home. Was not just tickets. My point in all of this is that this decision is what a lot of fair weather casual fans are weighing that ppl here don't understand and continue to ignore or just come right out and say to which is the funniest and dumbest thing to date I have seen here. Hey your casual, f your mother and don't ever come to a uconn game ever. Great. Just great. I bet your invite to a non league is coming 2moro you clown.

I was a none and I became a diehard over time. I started to care and follow what other fanbases were doing. I wanted that for uconn. I wanted the stadium rocking between the 3rd and 4th to sandstorm up 3 vs a ranked team on ESPN at 10pm. I wanted to be drunk off my asz in the parking lot playing pong having a good time. I want the best pulled pork possible off the grill. I was hooked. But the past couple years slowly let me fall off because I am no longer hooked. The product is stale from the environment in the parking lot to the product on the field. It's obvious and ppl here for some reason defend it. I want to love uconn again sports wise. But why should I right now? We split our home bball area and each has a diet fault to it. Our fball stadium is away from campus so as a non alum for me I view it as never really getting to see where my parents went to school and just like going to a giants game. Just some stadium offa highway exit with nothing around it game day wise. Uconn is slowly letting me off the hook. Bottom line. I was a lot more hooked then many others because I came here and engaged with all of u and enjoyed recruiting.

The shirt is worth more than the ticket to townson. The ticket shows a new fan a crappy ball game. That won't hook them. A better game would. The shirt gets worn and that advertising pays for the life of the shirt back to uconn.

The last sentence. I think most have heard of uconn football. What I'm saying is most also have not bought into it. So what they heard all off season is can p turn the ship around and hey Michigan is visiting. Big time. Blah blah. So as a non follower when you hear Michigan is visiting that gets your ears for a second. Then your friend invites you to the Towson game. Who is Towson?

 

[Carl Spackler]

Free tickets are a dangerous route, because offering free tickets to a sporting event, is going to attract the kind of new buyer, that's unlikely to become a regular buyer. It's not the best route to go in generating motivation to be tickets.

Call me crazy - but I'd be happy to see the "free" ticket motivation disappear and be replaced by something with value.

The first thing always though, is to figure out what target population of ticket buyers you're going for. That's the only fault I have with this promotion - I'm not really sure who they're after. It seems like an ad going for new buyers, but it seems like it was targeted to return buyers, or worse - buyers that have already purchased tickets.

If I'm going for return buyers, (people that have purchased at some point in the past, and are on an existing email / mail list) - but have not yet bought any tickets this year?

An offer of an on field pass, is a great idea. I guarantee that if I had not renewed yet, and I planned to, and I got the email for an on-field pass if I renew - in the next week - I'm probably doing it.

But the free tickets thing? New buyers? Offering free tickets and things like that to new buyers always makes me nervous, and I agree 100% with whaler on it - I'd like to see that go away, it devalues the ticket. SUch things should only be geared to new buyers anyway - you don't want return buyers paying less than what they've been willing to pay in the past. It's bad business.

How about buy 2 season tickets before date, and have the option of purchasing two more at 50% discount. That might be get people to think about adding more to their existing Whatever. Attach some kind of value to every ticket. If admission to the venue were free, there wouldn't be a dollar amount printed on the tickets.

ANd again, I get annoyed, because I don't get paid to do this for UCONN, adn I know there are people in place that earn salaries, that should have this basic kind of knowledge when it comes to sales.

 

[Carl Spackler]

god damn it - it's like godfather 3 - I thought i was out - but I got pulled in again.

I hope everybody that has read this promotional offer, and/or has received the actual email - forwards it - NOW - to as many moms, dads, kids, etc that they can think of, that don't already have tickets for the 2013 season.

That's it. Mistakes pointed out. Lessons learned, hpefully not to be repeated. Solution presented, and acted on. DIscussion over. Next issue.

 

[huskymedic]

The first thing always though, is to figure out what target population of ticket buyers you're going for. That's the only fault I have with this promotion - I'm not really sure who they're after. It seems like an ad going for new buyers, but it seems like it was targeted to return buyers, or worse - buyers that have already purchased tickets.

UConnHuskies 10:09am via HootSuite
Does your #Dad deserve more than a tie for #FathersDay? OFFER: ow.ly/i/2mnJw ORDER: ow.ly/m2bfA #UConn #BleedBlue

I think they are clearly looking for new season ticket buyers... not return buyers.

I completely agree with the mindset they can reinforce among current season ticket holders that if I wait till the last minute to renew/buy I might get a better deal or a freebie.

 

[Husky25]

The money was tickets, drinks, food, gas the overall cost ballpark for me for the season compared to staying home. Was not just tickets. My point in all of this is that this decision is what a lot of fair weather casual fans are weighing that ppl here don't understand and continue to ignore or just come right out and say to which is the funniest and dumbest thing to date I have seen here. Hey your casual, f your mother and don't ever come to a uconn game ever. Great. Just great. I bet your invite to a non ty league is coming 2moro you clown.

If nothing else you certainly have passion...

I, for one, do not include food, drinks and gas in the cost of the games. If you were not at the game tailgating, would you not have breakfast or lunch? Would you not have a few beers if you watched the game from your sofa? Purchasing overpriced concessions is your own choice. but the tailgate is only a venue for activity you already planned on doing. You may not drive to the stadium, but are you a hermit? The gasoline gets used...trust me. It's all sunk cost. The only true variable is the cost of the ticket and potential donation.

I was a none and I became a diehard over time. I started to care and follow what other fanbases were doing. I wanted that for uconn. I wanted the stadium rocking between the 3rd and 4th to sandstorm up 3 vs a ranked team on ESPN at 10pm. I wanted to be drunk off my asz in the parking lot playing pong having a good time. I want the best pulled pork possible off the grill. I was hooked. But the past couple years slowly let me fall off because I am no longer hooked. The product is stale from the environment in the parking lot to the product on the field. It's obvious and ppl here for some reason defend it.

Where were you all season last year? Many, if not most, got fed up with Coach Pasqualoni....I don't know what you do in the parking lot. That's your business, so it is also up to you to change your own environment. It's your tailgate.

I want to love uconn again sports wise. But why should I right now? We split our home bball area and each has a diet fault to it. Our fball stadium is away from campus so as a non alum for me I view it as never really getting to see where my parents went to school and just like going to a giants game. Just some stadium offa highway exit with nothing around it game day wise. Uconn is slowly letting me off the hook. Bottom line. I was a lot more hooked then many others because I came here and engaged with all of u and enjoyed recruiting.

That's a cop out and you know it. First, the basketball environment is completely different and we're not talking about basketball. Second UConn is an open campus. Its not a gated community. Take the initiative and go up there. You talk about an on campus stadium where people are walking around and taking tours and reminicing. I wouldn't mind it, but the infrastructure is not in place and would take the $15 billion just awarded UConn to build it. That money is going to the acedemic side to achieve AAU status to be more appealing to the Big Ten. Isn't that what the goal should be? Shouldn't that trump the short term dumpster fire of 2013-2014? Besides that, how many tours do you think people will take? How often? One per year? maybe one every two years? Be honest...

The shirt is worth more than the ticket to townson. The ticket shows a new fan a crappy ball game. That won't hook them. A better game would. The shirt gets worn and that advertising pays for the life of the shirt back to uconn.

I've already agreed that the shirt is worth more to the fan...But the ticket doesn't cost the school anything. It's a no-brainer. Don't mistake cost for value. I don't think anyone disagrees that the in stadium experience needs work, including the product on the field. I have no choice but to take Warde Manuel at his word and changes will be made if this team is not successful this year.

The last sentence. I think most have heard of uconn football. What I'm saying is most also have not bought into it. So what they heard all off season is can p turn the ship around and hey Michigan is visiting. Big time. Blah blah. So as a non follower when you hear Michigan is visiting that gets your ears for a second. Then your friend invites you to the Towson game. Who is Towson?

One has nothing to do with the other. Look at it this way, You show your friend a good time at the Towson game with the things you can control. (You can't control the product on the field). He/she has a good time playing beer pong and eating the best Po' Boy this side of the Mississippi (as you say you do). When they ask about Michigan, you tell him/her, that the Michigan game is a special circumstance and you don't have an extra ticket. You'll work on it, but can't make promises. You cannot force other people to spend their money. Ergo, I couldn't care less if you buy season tickets or not, but you are doing it (or not doing it as the case may be) as a sign of protest. I only ask that you own it and follow through...That also means you can't watch the TV broadcast either, because UConn gets a portion, the a pittance that it is, of the TV revenue too.

 

[Carl Spackler]

UConnHuskies 10:09am via HootSuite
Does your #Dad deserve more than a tie for #FathersDay? OFFER: ow.ly/i/2mnJw ORDER: ow.ly/m2bfA #UConn #BleedBlue

I think they are clearly looking for new season ticket buyers... not return buyers.

I completely agree with the mindset they can reinforce among current season ticket holders that if I wait till the last minute to renew/buy I might get a better deal or a freebie.

I agree - to me - it's clearly a promotional move geared toward generating first time buyers - and for that - I think it's a pretty darn good move. I hope it generates buyers.

I actually received the email a while ago, at least a week ago, probably longer. I forwarded it to people that might be interested, because I bought my own tickets 3 months ago, and then didnt' think about it again. - and that's a problem, that I really didn't think about. It was reflex. But I'm kind of annoyed about it now.

Because why did I get the ad? That's the issue that whaler hit on, and I agree with. Who are they really marketing too? Why?

I'm guilty of the same mindset and not thinking about what they're doing either. There's no reason why a regular season ticket holder, that already has purchased season tickets - to be hit with a marketing ad - like this, unless it was a calculated shotgun approach ad, across all potential and existing buyers.

I reflexively passed it on, becuase like Pavlov's dog, it's what I"ve been conditioned to do.

Much better to actually make a promotion that's for a specific ticket buying population, and then actually deliver the promotion to that target audience - but it costs money.

All said - having stuff like this happening regularly, is much better than nothing - it only becomes a problem is you don't learn from what you're doing, and you're not compiling a very detailed database of your ticket buying population.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Where are they supposed to get the email addresses from? You send it to the people that you've collected said info from. This includes season ticket holders.

Unless we hire Eric Holder as the new AD, we will not have access to private email addresses of the entire state of CT.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Where are they supposed to get the email addresses from? You send it to the people that you've collected said info from. This includes season ticket holders.

Unless we hire Eric Holder as the new AD, we will not have access to private email addresses of the entire state of CT.

There are plenty of ways to access public info. The athletic department has a budget, and some of that budget is going to go to athletic ticket marketing. How much that is, I don't know, but you can pay a fee, not too high, and get teh names and street addresses of everyone in the state that has purchased a new home within the past year - 2 years - etc. pretty easily.

Since we're going to beat this horse until it resurrects from the dead, and I know I"ve suggested this before, I would take a portion of the budget for marketing, and every year, send out regular mailers, periodic ads for ticket sales, to every single real address that pops up as a new home buyer in the state of CT. That's basics for targeting a new popultian of potential new ticket buyers. Will you get cross over, of people that already buy tickets? Rarely.

To me - that kind of audience is what this kind of marketing scheme should have gone too - with just the freebie tickets involved as a kicker.

I would hope that the department has a database that can query the email addresses of past ticket buyers, and sort through current ticket year purchases, vs. those that haven't bought tickets for the current year. I really don't know if that exists - if that digital data compiling and sorting capability doesn't exist in our ticket office, it should get in place now.

When somebody renews their season tickets, or buys season tickets for the first time, they should drop out of the rotation of advertisements like this, for that year.

The data manipulation systems that I'm talking about exist, and if we don't have one, we need one, and we need people that know how to use it properly, to generate powerful, and specifically directed advertising campaigns at specific populations.

ANd to answer your question jimmy, the way you start compiling email addresses, is that whenever anyone goes to the website, you require a valid email to be entered to browse for tickets.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

ANd to answer your question jimmy, the way you start compiling email addresses, is that whenever anyone goes to the website, you require a valid email to be entered to browse for tickets.

So you want people to be required to ENTER a valid email address to even BROWSE for UConn football tickets. Am I understanding that correctly?

 

[Husky25]

Where are they supposed to get the email addresses from? You send it to the people that you've collected said info from. This includes season ticket holders.

Unless we hire Eric Holder as the new AD, we will not have access to private email addresses of the entire state of CT.

With all due respect, Jimmy. That's a poor attempt to fit politics where it don't belong. E-mail addresses are probably categorized between commercial and personal, but they are not necessarily private, per se. There are companies that drum up leads all the time for specific purposes and I'm sure UConn has alumni lists where some people have left an e-mail address. The proof is in your spam box. Some get through, some don't.

Be that as it may, there is no stopping the School from doing an old fashion mass mailing either.

 

[J187Money]

Lots of ways to do online marketing. You just need to know how. They don't.

 

[SubbaBub]

The idea behind the promotional ticket to a crappy game is to sell the experience (tailgate, band, game, crowd) Obviously there are some flaws in the thinking here. It also pumps attendence to a poorly attended game ($ grab). HFD is certainly correct about this being no great shakes.

The T-shirt thing (or lack of it) is puzzling. Hand out enough blue/white t-shirts (even one game a year) and eventually make the crowd to look better in the stadium. Not to mention a free t-shirt.

The stated goal of all this is to sell more season ticket packages as that is the requirement. I doubt how many people will buy a season ticket just to get an extra for Towson.

 

[Dooley]

The T-shirt thing (or lack of it) is puzzling. Hand out enough blue/white t-shirts (even one game a year) and eventually make the crowd to look better in the stadium. Not to mention a free t-shirt.

I have no idea why UConn hasn't done this in the past and would be more baffled if they didn't now, considering the new logo and branding. You put blue t-shirts at every seat location (they do this all over the sports world) with the new logo and colors to encourage people to wear the correct colors to future games AND UConn gets a shot of free marketing. I don't care if they pull a sponsorship deal with a local company to cut down on costs. UConn logo on the front, sponsored by Better Bedding scoreboard '80s bloopers on the back. Blue shirt, white writing. Easy, cheap, gets the point across.

 

[BoatShow]

I have no idea why UConn hasn't done this in the past and would be more baffled if they didn't now, considering the new logo and branding. You put blue t-shirts at every seat location (they do this all over the sports world) with the new logo and colors to encourage people to wear the correct colors to future games AND UConn gets a shot of free marketing. I don't care if they pull a sponsorship deal with a local company to cut down on costs. UConn logo on the front, sponsored by Better Bedding scoreboard '80s bloopers on the back. Blue shirt, white writing. Easy, cheap, gets the point across.

I'd love it but I'd bet 20,000 of those shirts would be dropped off at the Salvation Army the next day.

 

[SubbaBub]

I have no idea why UConn hasn't done this in the past and would be more baffled if they didn't now, considering the new logo and branding. You put blue t-shirts at every seat location (they do this all over the sports world) with the new logo and colors to encourage people to wear the correct colors to future games AND UConn gets a shot of free marketing. I don't care if they pull a sponsorship deal with a local company to cut down on costs. UConn logo on the front, sponsored by Better Bedding scoreboard '80s bloopers on the back. Blue shirt, white writing. Easy, cheap, gets the point across.

Also gets people in the stadium early. First 10,000...etc. etc.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

 

[whaler11]

I'd love it but I'd bet 20,000 of those shirts would be dropped off at the Salvation Army the next day.

That's actually pretty funny because it's true.

We don't need to get cute. We just need to get people to show up to start. Baby steps. They can all friggin wear orange or gold as long as they come in the building. Once they are there we can go to the 200 level classes.

 

[formerlurker]

Just win.

 

[whaler11]

I am watching WVIT news at 11. They brought in helicopters to help dry the Meadows. This because Rascal Flats sold 24k tickets for tomorrow.

Might be time to throw in the towel. It seems impossible people will pay twice as much to see Rascal Flats but I guess I'm just that far out of touch.

 

[Srqhusky]

I'd love it but I'd bet 20,000 of those shirts would be dropped off at the Salvation Army the next day.

What is your rational behind that thought. Who wouldn't like a free husky shirt? I don't know of any free t shirt I have to charity

 

[whaler11]

What is your rational behind that thought. Who wouldn't like a free husky shirt? I don't know of any free t shirt I have to charity

You live in Florida. You wouldn't understand.