What's it gonna take?

[Neighbor]

Re: What's it gonna take?

Honest question: the team wasn't having a hard time packing the McLeod Center last season, were they?

Yes, there were many empty seats. Primarily the big donors middle section first few rows.

I do not believe high attendance is a question of ticket prices. Many, many of those open seats are bought and paid for. People for what ever reason don't make a priority to attend and / or don't utilize the tix for their own marketing and give them away. Village Inn does a good job of marketing through UNI basketball.

[ronfitch]

Re: What's it gonna take?

Yes, there were many empty seats. Primarily the big donors middle section first few rows.
.

Similar issue at St. Paul Saints (low level minor league baseball) games this season.

Brand new - gorgous - stadium with excellent food and drink options, great site lines, located in the middle of a revived Lowertown district with walkable restaurants of great variey and bars that are busy. But look up into the donors boxes and they are mostly empty, though mostly sold out for the inagural season at CHS Field.

The Saints have taken hospitality and fan fun to a new level over the years, though some of the draw was closely aligned with the old Midway Stadium, a dump along railroad tracks that you would have sworn was a depression-era WPA stadium from the design and wear (but was only about 30 years old).

How to get donors to show up or use the seats is a great question to solve. It looks bad on tv.

[UNIdad]

Re: What's it gonna take?

Yes, there were many empty seats. Primarily the big donors middle section first few rows.

I do not believe high attendance is a question of ticket prices. Many, many of those open seats are bought and paid for. People for what ever reason don't make a priority to attend and / or don't utilize the tix for their own marketing and give them away. Village Inn does a good job of marketing through UNI basketball.

A few suggestions would include:

1. Having more amenities for those who pay premium prices. Even if it isn't much (like Johnny's at Hilton), people seem to love to get a free Coke and some popcorn in a "cool" and "exclusive" room.

2. Having sections for dedicated season ticket holders. Build up the Panther Club branding as related to the seats. Maybe have some poles and cords to section it off as such.

3. Work closely with the corporate donors to allow others to fill in their seats if they know they aren't using them. Especially since this is the side that will be on TV.

4. Sell partial season tickets in order to make sure that big games are packed. Or sell partial season tickets for weekend games only. And weekday games only.

5. Push, push, push to get students there.

[ubuntuCAT]

Re: What's it gonna take?

Honest question: the team wasn't having a hard time packing the McLeod Center last season, were they?

Wasn't until the 5th game of the year that they had a game with more than 4,000 paid attendance. Half of the home games had less than 5,000.

This is in UNI's best regular season ever.

[BCPanther]

Re: What's it gonna take?

Wasn't until the 5th game of the year that they had a game with more than 4,000 paid attendance. Half of the home games had less than 5,000.

This is in UNI's best regular season ever.

And this is why the McLeod Center was built at the perfect size.

[sivert]

Re: What's it gonna take?

I heard a radio ad this morning encouraging us to listen to the game vs Hawaii.

[MNpanthers]

Re: What's it gonna take?

As a student, it seems like there are simple things marketing could do better that could make a noticeable impact on student attendance. A few off the top of my head:

1) Advertisements around campus

Why can't they drop a few bucks each home game to put up a sign outside Maucker Union giving details for the upcoming game? This one is a no brainer...

2) Build a better Twitter following for UNI athletics

Wichita St has 42k follows to our 14k. A final four appearance helps, but that is still a huge margin. Encourage students to follow the account at freshman orientation, create more exciting content and giveaways, and tweet WAY more, I've seen many days without any tweets from them. Also marketing needs to change the font and style they use for graphics, looks boring and cheap as hell

3) lastly, probably controversial, but go back to selling student ticket packages, rather than include them in tuition

Am I the only one who has an issue with it being included in tuition?

Including them in tuition gives students 0 encouragement to go to games! With cheap packages, I guarantee most freshman will buy into it, and then they will have a sense of obligation to go to games, rather than just having it as an option for something to do that night. With the plan now, students don't feel bad missing games cause it costs them nothing... Was student attendance really bad when we used to do it that way?

[Username]

Re: What's it gonna take?

As a student, it seems like there are simple things marketing could do better that could make a noticeable impact on student attendance. A few off the top of my head:



3) lastly, probably controversial, but go back to selling student ticket packages, rather than include them in tuition

Am I the only one who has an issue with it being included in tuition?

Including them in tuition gives students 0 encouragement to go to games! With cheap packages, I guarantee most freshman will buy into it, and then they will have a sense of obligation to go to games, rather than just having it as an option for something to do that night. With the plan now, students don't feel bad missing games cause it costs them nothing... Was student attendance really bad when we used to do it that way?

I'd caution against this. It could also go the other way, and students wouldn't even attempt to buy tickets because they just aren't interested enough in basketball.

[ronfitch]

Re: What's it gonna take?

As a student, it seems like there are simple things marketing could do better that could make a noticeable impact on student attendance. A few off the top of my head:

1) Advertisements around campus

Why can't they drop a few bucks each home game to put up a sign outside Maucker Union giving details for the upcoming game? This one is a no brainer...

2) Build a better Twitter following for UNI athletics

Wichita St has 42k follows to our 14k. A final four appearance helps, but that is still a huge margin. Encourage students to follow the account at freshman orientation, create more exciting content and giveaways, and tweet WAY more, I've seen many days without any tweets from them. Also marketing needs to change the font and style they use for graphics, looks boring and cheap as hell

3) lastly, probably controversial, but go back to selling student ticket packages, rather than include them in tuition

Am I the only one who has an issue with it being included in tuition?

Including them in tuition gives students 0 encouragement to go to games! With cheap packages, I guarantee most freshman will buy into it, and then they will have a sense of obligation to go to games, rather than just having it as an option for something to do that night. With the plan now, students don't feel bad missing games cause it costs them nothing... Was student attendance really bad when we used to do it that way?

Good to hear a student's perspective.

Technically, it is not part of tuition but a separate fee. To a student there is not much if any difference and is part of your overall bill.

As a fee, it is levied on all students and stable revenue for the Athletic Department. And I believe fees are controlled by the University and do not require Regents approval to raise (again, I think).

Dropping that for an unstable ticket revenue in the form of ticket sales is unlikely to be considered, unless another stable source (donors, TV revenue, etc.) is found. The student fee is too big a part - and a stable part - of the stream.

Marketing is an issue, on-campus and off-campus.

[GonzoCat]

Re: What's it gonna take?

Was there a time when athletics wasn't part of a student fee and ticket packages were sold to students? Pretty sure it was that way when I was a student 40 years ago. Did they go to actual tickets for some period in the interim?

[UNIdad]

Re: What's it gonna take?

As a student, it seems like there are simple things marketing could do better that could make a noticeable impact on student attendance. A few off the top of my head:

1) Advertisements around campus

Why can't they drop a few bucks each home game to put up a sign outside Maucker Union giving details for the upcoming game? This one is a no brainer...

2) Build a better Twitter following for UNI athletics

Wichita St has 42k follows to our 14k. A final four appearance helps, but that is still a huge margin. Encourage students to follow the account at freshman orientation, create more exciting content and giveaways, and tweet WAY more, I've seen many days without any tweets from them. Also marketing needs to change the font and style they use for graphics, looks boring and cheap as hell

3) lastly, probably controversial, but go back to selling student ticket packages, rather than include them in tuition

Am I the only one who has an issue with it being included in tuition?

Including them in tuition gives students 0 encouragement to go to games! With cheap packages, I guarantee most freshman will buy into it, and then they will have a sense of obligation to go to games, rather than just having it as an option for something to do that night. With the plan now, students don't feel bad missing games cause it costs them nothing... Was student attendance really bad when we used to do it that way?

Glad to hear from a student. The ads on campus and better use of Twitter seem like no-brainers.

What do your friends think of this site?

It would be great to get more student perspective about the games and players . . . not just about student attendance.

[MNpanthers]

Re: What's it gonna take?

I found this site on my own and haven't ever mentioned it to friends. I assume almost no students even know it exists. I enjoy following along with the posts mostly.

I don't foresee students really getting into this site. The interest from most students in school athletics is frustratingly low, besides the occasional high profile games like UNC. I think a bigger marketing effort might be the only hope for that to change

[UNIdad]

Re: What's it gonna take?

I found this site on my own and haven't ever mentioned it to friends. I assume almost no students even know it exists. I enjoy following along with the posts mostly.

I don't foresee students really getting into this site. The interest from most students in school athletics is frustratingly low, besides the occasional high profile games like UNC. I think a bigger marketing effort might be the only hope for that to change

Well, I hope you stay involved. And use it to help support Panther sports among the students who do care. We tend to criticize the problems, but you are in a place to make a real difference with students you know. And keep it up as alumni.

What else could be done to this site to make it more interesting to students? What would make it a "go to" site, even if only occasionally?

[FOTY]

What's it gonna take?

Was there a time when athletics wasn't part of a student fee and ticket packages were sold to students? Pretty sure it was that way when I was a student 40 years ago. Did they go to actual tickets for some period in the interim?

The Panther Pass was the creation/result of work done by the NISG Administration during 99-00 and put in place in the fall of 2000. Prior to that, students had to buy reduced season or game tickets.

Then there was that two weeks in 97 that Chris Ritrievi tried to balance the budget by taking away the discount... Let's just say there was NO student section those first couple games and some PO'd students with a little influence.