Poor ticket sales

[THEsocalledfan]

I think this deserves its own thread. All kinds of tickets still to be had, even UNI. Is it over? Do people simply not care anymore?

Discuss.

[Professor Chaos]

This has been building for a while if you've been paying attention. I think it's a culmination of a few factors. The games are easier than ever to stream/watch. Tickets are more expensive than ever. The home schedule this year is ugly (really wish the conference would've had SDSU and UND at home in alternating years instead of both at home every other year). Less people are going to live sports (Notre Dame had their 270 game/46 year sellout streak end in 2019). Student attendance is really waning (looks like from tickets available for sale for the last 3 home games after homecoming they're only reserving about 1400 seats for students I think). Then there's the oft mentioned complacency factor in that we have a spoiled fan base that has watched our team be dominant for so long they've lost the desire to drop any cash to see it in person since they're bored with it.

[bisonaudit]

Global pandemic.

[HerdBot]

I forgot they went on sale today. I'm so used to Aug 1st. Just checked a few games it doesn't look like a ton left but others look slow. But there is plenty of time

We sold 13,000 season tickets

A few reasons in no particular order

1) Covid. Some people lost faith after last year. Maybe they think the games will be cancelled, they will have to wear a mask or tailgating will be cancelled. The team just hit 85% vaccination so we won't be tested

2) spring season may have cut into people's budget and covid hasn't been good for the economy

3) lots of people who are still not vaccinated. Maybe they are scared to go out in public due to the delta varient

4) it's kind of a weak home schedule outside of UNI. Yeah I know Missouri State is good now but fans still think of them as a crappy team due to a decade of mediocre play

5) price increases?

[NDSU92]

I think the biggest thing is the reduction in large blocks of tickets that make it look bad.

1. As mentioned, the student section is getting way less tickets. Take a thousand single game tickets off the market and it probably looks similar to years prior.

2. I would be surprised if there a lot of corporate groups that decided to not get blocks of tickets this year. One company arbitrarily deciding to not renew their block of 10 tickets has the same “impact” as 5 couples or 3 families. Yet it’s different.

That all being said, NDSU probably had one of the most exclusive tickets in all of college football. Previously you essentially had to be a booster and buy season tickets if you were going to buy tickets direct from the school. Impressive, but as has been mentioned here, not a great way to add more casual fans to your base.

I think it’s fine as long as the walk up still provides a sell out. If not we just have to hope that these are folks being cautious with COVID.

[THEsocalledfan]

Global pandemic.

I don't buy that. Everyone other than kids can be vaccinated, and those who are not vaccinated clearly don't care/understand the risk. Now, worry NDSU will do something dumb like cancel outdoor tailgating? I could buy that as a reason.

[Professor Chaos]

I'd be happy to be wrong but I don't think demand comes back when COVID is no longer dominating the news cycle. I don't even think COVID is a very big part of it anymore. Maybe it accelerated things or made some realize how easy it was to watch games this spring. But just look at attendance figures in the 2019 playoffs. The arrow has been pointing down in terms of demand since 2016 or maybe even longer.

[Hammerhead]

For me it's just that I've been so burned out at work that it's hard to make too many plans when all I want to do is absolutely nothing on Saturdays.

[bisonaudit]

I don't buy that. Everyone other than kids can be vaccinated, and those who are not vaccinated clearly don't care/understand the risk. Now, worry NDSU will do something dumb like cancel outdoor tailgating? I could buy that as a reason.

Well I can tell you for a fact that they’re down at least two fully vaccinated season ticket holders for this very reason. I have no interest sitting inside for three hours with 18,000 people I don’t know. I’ll watch on TV and radio for another year and next fall we’ll all know more about variants and lasting immune response and members of my extended household will be another year away from immune compromising medical treatments.

Certainly not the whole answer but a contributing factor.

[Grizzled]

I forgot they went on sale today. I'm so used to Aug 1st. Just checked a few games it doesn't look like a ton left but others look slow. But there is plenty of time

We sold 13,000 season tickets

A few reasons in no particular order

1) Covid. Some people lost faith after last year. Maybe they think the games will be cancelled, they will have to wear a mask or tailgating will be cancelled. The team just hit 85% vaccination so we won't be tested

2) spring season may have cut into people's budget and covid hasn't been good for the economy

3) lots of people who are still not vaccinated. Maybe they are scared to go out in public due to the delta varient

4) it's kind of a weak home schedule outside of UNI. Yeah I know Missouri State is good now but fans still think of them as a crappy team due to a decade of mediocre play

5) price increases?

Not sure people who aren’t vaccinated by this point are scared to go out in public.