The University of Minnesota men’s and women’s basketball teams open their seasons this week with home games. Data shows both programs have a lot of ticket availability for their games at 14,625 seat Williams Arena.
As of last week, the men’s program had sold 4,482 full season tickets including 242 to faculty and staff. That compared with 4,800 for the 2023-2024 season. There has been no significant pricing change for either men’s or women’s public season tickets. Ticket information was obtained from the U through the request process by Sports Headliners.
The women’s program had sold 2,309 full season tickets as of last week including 99 to faculty and staff. That compared with 2,424 tickets for the 2023-2024 season.
The women Gophers opened their season Monday night before an announced crowd of 2,647. Dawn Plitzuweit, entering her second season as coach, saw the Gophers defeat Central Connecticut State, 89-48.
Coach Ben Johnson’s team opens its season Wednesday night against Oral Roberts.
With their schedules just beginning, both the men’s and women’s programs may sell additional season tickets, but totals won’t change significantly.
The Gopher women averaged 4,483 fans per game last season. The men averaged 8,140.
Sellouts are rare for either program. The U is projecting over 12,000 for the men’s game with Wisconsin on March 5, with 10,000-plus for Purdue on January 2.
The U women are projected to draw more than 5,000 for the Iowa game February 6, with over 4,000 for the Wisconsin and Indiana games January 26 and February 9 respectively.
The U report said 3,168 single game tickets have been sold so far for women’s home games. Also, 120 tickets have been purchased as part of mini plan ticket packages, a 75 percent decline year-over-year.
Students are admitted free to women’s games, but they must purchase tickets to see the men. The student season ticket total is 2,600 and up from 2,056 for 2023-2024.
The U report said 246 tickets have been sold in mini plan ticket packages for the men’s program. This is up 58 percent year-over-year but down from last season’s final total of 575. Single game tickets sold for men’s games as of last week were 3,590.
Asked what reasons the public is giving for not buying women’s season tickets, the U report responded with the following: “general disinterest, change in life/event circumstances, (and) too many games.”
Regarding the men’s program: “change in life/event circumstances, unhappy with NIL changes, (and) general disinterest.”
The U said reasons cited for purchasing women’s season tickets are: “increased attention and interest in the WBB landscape as a whole, (and) more premium matchups with the expansion of the Big Ten.”
Reasons for purchasing men’s season tickets: “improvement in team performance during the 2023-2024 season, trust and confidence that coach Ben Johnson will continue to lead and grow the program, (and) more premiums matchups with the expansion of the Big Ten.”
The women’s team was 20-16 overall and 5-13 in the Big Ten last season. Only two teams, Northwestern and Rutgers, finished lower in the 14-team standings.
USA Today Sports Network’s prediction for the coming season is Minnesota will finish in a tie for ninth in the now 18-team conference. The order of finish was based on a vote by individuals who cover the conference.
The men’s team is projected to finish last in the Big Ten by many in the media. The Gophers were 9-11 in league games last season and 19-15 overall. Eight teams had better Big Ten records than Minnesota. The previous two seasons Minnesota finished last in the conference.
The women’s and men’s programs have ticket selling attractions in guard Mara Braun and power forward Dawson Garcia, both Minnesota natives.
Braun is on the 20-player watch list for the 2025 Ann Meyers-Drysdale Shooting Guard of the Year Award. Braun was named All Big Ten Honorable Mention by both the coaches and media last season, despite playing only 20 games due to an injury. She averaged a team leading 17 points per game and is the second-highest returning scorer in the Big Ten this season. Braun was second in the nation last season in free throw percentage at 94.8 percent.
Garcia is on the 2024-25 Jersey Mikes Naismith Trophy Men’s College Player of the Year Watch List. He was named a top 50 preseason pick by ESPN and CBS Sports in October. He averaged 17.6 points last season while being named second and third team All-Big Ten. He is the top returning scorer in the conference.
Minnesota men’s basketball was a national power in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Sellouts were commonplace, but interest has been declining for a long time. For example, the public season tickets total in 2009-2010 was 9,946 or about twice the final total for the 2023-2024 season. As recently as 2019-2020 public season tickets were at 6,820.
In 2019-2020 the average attendance was 10,232, the lowest figure since 1970-1971. Attendance has declined even more since then. Last season, Johnson’s third leading the Gophers, average home attendance had dipped about 20 percent since 2020.
Worth Noting
The St. Thomas women’s team earned a season opening 84-81 win at home last night in overtime over Milwaukee before an announced crowd of 538. Jade Hill set a school record in the Division I era by scoring 35 points.
The St. Thomas men also opened at home last night, playing after the women’s game before an announced crowd of 1,353. The Tommies defeated North Central, 96-71.
Former Minnesota Mr. Basketball Tyus Jones, from Apple Valley High School, is receiving praise in Phoenix. The veteran point guard, 28, signed with the Suns in the offseason and he’s provided playmaking the team didn’t have last season benefiting scorers like Bradley Beal and Devin Booker. In six games (five wins) he has just five turnovers and is averaging 6.6 assists per game.
Al Nuness, 78, the former Golden Gophers basketball captain, is working as a student supervisor at Chanhassen High School. A retired longtime executive at Jostens, Nuness started his post-college career teaching and coaching. Nuness is a cousin of Tyus Jones and his brother Tre Jones.
John Hynes, who took over as head coach of the Wild in late November of last year, has the team off to a fast start and will speak to the Capital Club breakfast group Thursday, November 14 at the Wild’s executive offices in downtown St. Paul. More information about the Capital Club is available from Patrick Klinger, patrick@agilemarketingco.com.
Chanhassen High School junior Andrew Ballou, who as a sophomore was one of four Minnesota prep golfers to qualify for the U.S. Junior Amateur Golf Championship, has made a college commitment to North Dakota State.