The University of Minnesota athletic department is flat-lining in the sale of season tickets for 2022 home football games and it appears average attendance could be less than last year’s figure of 46,140.
Through a public records request by Sports Headliners, the U disclosed ticket totals from 2022 and 2021. As of a week ago last Friday, 23,443 public season tickets had been sold, compared with a final total of 24,794 in 2021. The respective number of accounts for these tickets: 7,138 and 7,541.
The U reported 5,549 student season tickets sold so far for 2022. The final total last year was 7,396.
While totals for both public and student season tickets will increase in the immediate days ahead, the sales window is closing fast with the first home game of the year less than two weeks out. The U reported no increase in the price of season tickets from 2021 and said a common explanation for discontinuing tickets was a change “in life circumstances or life event.”
Single game tickets have been on sale since July. The U predicted home games with Purdue and Iowa “are expected to sell out or come very close thereto.”
Average attendance will likely be similar and perhaps less than a year ago when the Gophers had a more attractive home schedule facing Ohio State, Nebraska and Wisconsin. The Ohio State game was the lone sellout at 50,805 seat Huntington Bank Stadium. Interestingly, average home attendance of 46,140 last year was almost identical to the 46,190 average in 2019.
What to make of the ticket buying habits for Gophers football games? On the upbeat side, the Gophers are coming off a 9-4 year that included a second win in the last four seasons against border rival Wisconsin and bowl victory over West Virginia. In the last three seasons coach P.J. Fleck’s record is an impressive 23-10 and the Gophers are expected to be a dark horse in the race for a Big Ten West Division title. The U noted in its report to Sports Headliners the public and students are buying season tickets because of improvement in the team and “general optimism” about the future.
On the flip side, Minnesota hasn’t won a Big Ten title since 1967 and while the program has flirted with winning a championship in the recent past it hasn’t delivered. Nor have the Gophers established themselves as a consistent top 25 team that certainly would deliver more ticket buyers for home games.
The Gophers have plenty of company in their challenge to sell tickets. Programs in the Big Ten and throughout the country are struggling. A college football TV viewer sees sections and sections of empty seats at stadiums all over, from Syracuse to UCLA, from Miami to Northwestern. Wisconsin, a college football power for three decades, plays its home games in 80,000 seat Camp Randall where last season the average number of tickets scanned was 57,548, per a story last January from Madison.com.
Season tickets are a major commitment in money and time for fans. The Gophers offer a budget-conscious $249 ticket, with a high end tab of $1,550 to watch games from Club Cambria.
Games typically last more than three hours. Add on a 30 minute or more commute to and from the stadium, traffic and parking hassles, the cost of parking, tickets, food and beverages, and the sum is a big investment in time and money.
This is why a lot of fans opt to stay home and watch games on ultra-high-definition television. And why the Big Ten has just scored a reported $7 to $8 million media rights deal that starts in 2023 and runs through the 2029-2030 basketball season. The agreement with Fox Sports, CBS and NBC is expected to annually deliver between $80 and $100 million to each Big Ten school including Minnesota.
That payday makes up for a lot of unsold tickets at football games. TV revenue is vital to Minnesota’s financially self-supporting athletic department (U central administration has provided loans). Football is by far the largest revenue stream for the 21 sports at the U, with most of the programs operating at a deficit.
In addition to Purdue and Iowa, Minnesota has home games this year with New Mexico State, Western Illinois, Colorado, Rutgers and Northwestern. Only Iowa is nationally ranked and overall this is far from a glitzy lineup of opponents.
The New Mexico State game is the home opener on Thursday, September 1 and it features the return of former Gophers coach Jerry Kill now starting his first season leading the Aggies. The U projects attendance for the game will be 41,741. Whatever the total, it will include free tickets given to first-year U students.
Tickets start at $30 for the opener with the Aggies, while prices begin at $25 for the September 10 game versus FCS Western Illinois. The athletic department is continuing its past policy of peaks and valleys single game ticket pricing, depending on the marquee value of opponents. Purdue tickets range from $65 to $250, Iowa from $90 to $355.
The Gophers opened their home campus stadium in 2009. The honeymoon effect of the new facility resulted in a sold out stadium for every game that year, and almost for the next when the average was 49,413 in 2010.
Stadium capacity was temporarily increased with more bleacher seating in 2014 and 2015 when the Vikings played on campus. In 2015 the Gophers (under Kill) had a new stadium record single game crowd of 54,147 and season average of 52,355.
IMHO if you want to jack up sales, get, at least, a competitive non-conference schedule. At best, a top 15 foe for the home opener. But here’s a question. Given the the estimated $100M coming into the athletic dept. from the new TV deal, just how important is attendance?
Considering the dollar figures being given out for college athletic budgets and television rights, I’m still unable to understand how mr. Mark Coyle could cut the Mens Tennis Program! It’s almost criminal!