Keep on doing the cheap Kroger tickets. But maybe tier them.

$1 zone. Go as low as $1 for the areas at the top of the stadium. To fill those up first. Let the seating in these zones be first come first serve. Actually enforce people staying in their zone.

$5 zone. Same as above.

$10 zone.

Next: once ticket sales have pegged out, invite area high school bands to come. Assign them places in the stadium in the corners that don’t fill up easy. Offer all of these bands the chance to play the fight song one time. Then let all of these bands put on a show when the game is over. Where fans can stay and watch.

Just my thoughts. I’m tired of seeing the LB appear to be empty when we have 40k, more than any non P5 school gets. We need to do all we can to get that last 20k in the stands. Our fans, city and school do a great job of supporting the football team. Considering all of our obstacles. We are in control of our perception. And the more we create sell outs and fun atmospheres at the games, the more people will begin to show up.

From Texas, I’ll see the Tigers when they come to Houston!!!!

(09-10-2019 08:04 PM)BIGDTiger Wrote:  Keep on doing the cheap Kroger tickets. But maybe tier them.

$1 zone. Go as low as $1 for the areas at the top of the stadium. To fill those up first. Let the seating in these zones be first come first serve. Actually enforce people staying in their zone.

$5 zone. Same as above.

$10 zone.

Next: once ticket sales have pegged out, invite area high school bands to come. Assign them places in the stadium in the corners that don’t fill up easy. Offer all of these bands the chance to play the fight song one time. Then let all of these bands put on a show when the game is over. Where fans can stay and watch.

Just my thoughts. I’m tired of seeing the LB appear to be empty when we have 40k, more than any non P5 school gets. We need to do all we can to get that last 20k in the stands. Our fans, city and school do a great job of supporting the football team. Considering all of our obstacles. We are in control of our perception. And the more we create sell outs and fun atmospheres at the games, the more people will begin to show up.

From Texas, I’ll see the Tigers when they come to Houston!!!!

Most who won't buy a $10 ticket ain't coming if tickets are even less.

You are starting to think like someone addressing the problem. From my experience with the DALLAS SIDEKICKS indoor arena soccer team (no one wants to go to an indoor soccer game), added focus should be on inviting football teams...high school, junior high and peewee to get into home game with their families at a special price with added incentives like photos with the coaches, trainers, etc. I am not sure of the NCAA regulations but....if you get them to be fans ...even at the peewee level...it is a good thing. Invite local basketball teams to our football games the same way. Why....because many of those kids will become fans and some will become possible recruits in later years. I am not up on NCAA regs but....getting to kids early....should be a positive. The SIDEKICKS focused on local Dallas area youth soccer programs and that was where they sold most of their tickets.

(09-10-2019 08:08 PM)BinghamptonNed Wrote:  

(09-10-2019 08:04 PM)BIGDTiger Wrote:  Keep on doing the cheap Kroger tickets. But maybe tier them.

$1 zone. Go as low as $1 for the areas at the top of the stadium. To fill those up first. Let the seating in these zones be first come first serve. Actually enforce people staying in their zone.

$5 zone. Same as above.

$10 zone.

Next: once ticket sales have pegged out, invite area high school bands to come. Assign them places in the stadium in the corners that don’t fill up easy. Offer all of these bands the chance to play the fight song one time. Then let all of these bands put on a show when the game is over. Where fans can stay and watch.

Just my thoughts. I’m tired of seeing the LB appear to be empty when we have 40k, more than any non P5 school gets. We need to do all we can to get that last 20k in the stands. Our fans, city and school do a great job of supporting the football team. Considering all of our obstacles. We are in control of our perception. And the more we create sell outs and fun atmospheres at the games, the more people will begin to show up.

From Texas, I’ll see the Tigers when they come to Houston!!!!

Most who won't buy a $10 ticket ain't coming if tickets are even less.

Actually that is only one market...the cheap ticket buyer. There are other markets to be addressed, like...families who have kids playing football, basketball etc and offering them an incentive. Another area to address is how to get more students to attend the games...again you add incentives. This is a huge market that has really barely been tapped. Then there is the band market which was addressed by the OP. Then you have the corporate or local company market where you get large companies to buy blocks of tickets. When you really think about it...there are multiple potential markets of ticket buyers that need to be addressed. As an example, SIX FLAGS is one of my old clients and they have certain days when the park is closed to the public because American Airlines bought out SIX FLAGS OVER TEXAS for that day. All these concepts are ones that can be addressed, once you put someone in charge of actually doing things that create ways to put more butts in seats. Until that person is hired...nothing is going to happen.

(09-10-2019 08:04 PM)BIGDTiger Wrote:  Keep on doing the cheap Kroger tickets. But maybe tier them.

$1 zone. Go as low as $1 for the areas at the top of the stadium. To fill those up first. Let the seating in these zones be first come first serve. Actually enforce people staying in their zone.

$5 zone. Same as above.

$10 zone.

Next: once ticket sales have pegged out, invite area high school bands to come. Assign them places in the stadium in the corners that don’t fill up easy. Offer all of these bands the chance to play the fight song one time. Then let all of these bands put on a show when the game is over. Where fans can stay and watch.

Just my thoughts. I’m tired of seeing the LB appear to be empty when we have 40k, more than any non P5 school gets. We need to do all we can to get that last 20k in the stands. Our fans, city and school do a great job of supporting the football team. Considering all of our obstacles. We are in control of our perception. And the more we create sell outs and fun atmospheres at the games, the more people will begin to show up.

From Texas, I’ll see the Tigers when they come to Houston!!!!

Good thinking in this post. The band thing will not work until October games because of the heat. All anybody was thinking last Saturday in the 3rd quarter was "when are the Tigers gonna salt this game away so I can go get in some air conditioning..."

Also, I think $5 is as low as any of them should go. I mean, that's $30 for a season ticket. You can't do any better than that anywhere.

Other than the tiered pricing, which will be hard because you are selling those seats at $100 for a season ticket.... I get your point.

Send suggestions to Dr Rudd or the new AD. I would bet both would be receptive to solid ideas.

My honest opinion, IF this season plays out as some have predicted. Ticket sales will not be a problem next year.

(09-10-2019 11:32 PM)tigernole79 Wrote:  Other than the tiered pricing, which will be hard because you are selling those seats at $100 for a season ticket.... I get your point.

Send suggestions to Dr Rudd or the new AD. I would bet both would be receptive to solid ideas.

My honest opinion, IF this season plays out as some have predicted. Ticket sales will not be a problem next year.

I'm not as positive as you seem to be about the speed at which ticket sales will improve if you base it strictly on on-field performance. We have enjoyed the best 5 years of my life as far as nationally recognized success and being ranked in the AP T25, and we still haven't reached 25,000 season ticket sales (as far as we know - I find it odd that the U won't tell us the numbers... why not?)

But I do think we are making progress/the numbers are headed in the right direction. My thinking is that due to the shear size of the LB, and no pressure to buy tickets until game-day, it will take 5 more years of sustained T25 rankings and AAC championship games to reach 40K season ticket sales, which in my estimation would result in sell-outs "on the regular" when combined with week-of on-line sales and walk-up sales the day of.

I think what BIGD is driving at is trying to bridge the gap between that time and now.

I tell ya, if we could ever get 58,318 actual Tigers fans in the Liberty Bowl... Not us + visitors + boys clubs + local high school band day + etc., but ALL US, screaming for a win, yelling side to side, GO..... TIGERS.... GO.... TIGERS, I think it would be addictive. I think it would be like perpetual motion. I think some people stay away because "it's not like Neiland Stadium, It's small-time." If it could ever get to "big-time" in the atmosphere department, the atmosphere might stay "big-time."

Not a fan of cheapening the ticket value.

It erodes the season ticket base. Why buy a season ticket when You can buy 6 $1 tickets and sit where You want. One or two “Kroger” ticket games is plenty.

We already do group sales for a discount. No problem with having a theme every year for each game other than marquee games, especial for kid groups, sports teams, band day, nonprofits, company outings. I don’t thinK that generates a lot of sales now.

A football game becomes a 5-6 hour investment of time from getting there to getting home. More if you are coming from outside the immediate area.

We’ve had a reported 44k+ and 34k+ attendance for 11:00am KO against a bad name team and a buy game in miserable heat.

I’m an easy sell. I go to Tiger football games as a season ticket holder since 1980. I don’t go for the food. I don’t go for the on-field promotions or the cheap tickets. I buy extra tickets and often can’t give them away. I go rather than stay home and watch on tv regardless of the weather.

Improve the schedule and win and play in upper tier bowl games. Make the Tiger brand relevant and valued. We are better at that now than 7 years ago. Build on your strengths and successes instead of a coupon mentality.

(09-11-2019 05:46 AM)Tigerx3 Wrote:  Not a fan of cheapening the ticket value.

It erodes the season ticket base. Why buy a season ticket when You can buy 6 $1 tickets and sit where You want. One or two “Kroger” ticket games is plenty.

We already do group sales for a discount. No problem with having a theme every year for each game other than marquee games, especial for kid groups, sports teams, band day, nonprofits, company outings. I don’t thinK that generates a lot of sales now.

A football game becomes a 5-6 hour investment of time from getting there to getting home. More if you are coming from outside the immediate area.

We’ve had a reported 44k+ and 34k+ attendance for 11:00am KO against a bad name team and a buy game in miserable heat.

I’m an easy sell. I go to Tiger football games as a season ticket holder since 1980. I don’t go for the food. I don’t go for the on-field promotions or the cheap tickets. I buy extra tickets and often can’t give them away. I go rather than stay home and watch on tv regardless of the weather.

Improve the schedule and win and play in upper tier bowl games. Make the Tiger brand relevant and valued. We are better at that now than 7 years ago. Build on your strengths and successes instead of a coupon mentality.

I sympathize with you and remember experiencing the same things when I still lived in Memphis. But the fact is we need to build the off field product as well. And then people will see it as total entertainment and keep coming back.

When I lived in K town. Which is actually a nice place to live. I would go to Vol games as much as a could. Wearing Tiger blue of course. But they make the entire game day experience an amazing day. From pre game to in game to post game. And I’m not even a Vols fan. I hate them. But I’d still do it.

All of the SEC teams in our region suck right now. It’s time to show off our brand and take these fans and show them a better time in Memphis than they will ever have in all those hick towns. Come to Memphis, enjoy a great team with a great time and by the way, you have an amazing city to hang out in afterwards.

We are getting close. With Tiger lane, the fun zone....etc...I remember hearing once that Michigan would invite 50 bands a game just to fill their stadium and build their brand and experience. You don’t get to 100k season tickets anywhere unless you get creative along the way.

Just avoid 11 AM and 3:30 starts in the first part of the season OR play an opponent people are willing to show up for.

All we have to do is chairback the whole stadium. That would drop our capacity to 38,171 (which is too low if you ask me), but it would create scarcity.

They should remove the north end zone seats, guessing 4-6 thousand seats and make a veranda style, similar to right field at Redbirds stadium ( auto zone park) or do cabana style there

(09-11-2019 07:31 AM)TigerTim Wrote:  Just avoid 11 AM and 3:30 starts in the first part of the season OR play an opponent people are willing to show up for.

That sounds so simple....but we don't really set the game times. Those are done by the TV people. We certainly have say so in the scheduling. I expect that will improve but having quality home games may not since some teams may only give buy games or 2 for 1. Heck schedule BYU every year. They had about 13K fans at the UTK game.

(09-10-2019 08:19 PM)DallasTiger Wrote:  You are starting to think like someone addressing the problem. From my experience with the DALLAS SIDEKICKS indoor arena soccer team (no one wants to go to an indoor soccer game), added focus should be on inviting football teams...high school, junior high and peewee to get into home game with their families at a special price with added incentives like photos with the coaches, trainers, etc. I am not sure of the NCAA regulations but....if you get them to be fans ...even at the peewee level...it is a good thing. Invite local basketball teams to our football games the same way. Why....because many of those kids will become fans and some will become possible recruits in later years. I am not up on NCAA regs but....getting to kids early....should be a positive. The SIDEKICKS focused on local Dallas area youth soccer programs and that was where they sold most of their tickets.

It'd probably be hard with NCAA rules to invite football teams directly, but they could offer it to whole schools. Maybe do it as a promotion where the school that sells the most tickets gets something at the end of the season.

(09-11-2019 08:31 AM)Titans3775 Wrote:  All we have to do is chairback the whole stadium. That would drop our capacity to 38,171 (which is too low if you ask me), but it would create scarcity.

Always the conundrum. They won't permanently remove seats because they still want to fill it up for the Liberty Bowl. Really just need a new stadium that seats about 40-45K but can be expanded.

(09-10-2019 08:19 PM)DallasTiger Wrote:  You are starting to think like someone addressing the problem. From my experience with the DALLAS SIDEKICKS indoor arena soccer team (no one wants to go to an indoor soccer game), added focus should be on inviting football teams...high school, junior high and peewee to get into home game with their families at a special price with added incentives like photos with the coaches, trainers, etc. I am not sure of the NCAA regulations but....if you get them to be fans ...even at the peewee level...it is a good thing. Invite local basketball teams to our football games the same way. Why....because many of those kids will become fans and some will become possible recruits in later years. I am not up on NCAA regs but....getting to kids early....should be a positive. The SIDEKICKS focused on local Dallas area youth soccer programs and that was where they sold most of their tickets.

Good idea. Group deals are a great way to get fans in and excited about their team. Cubs used to do it all the time at Wrigley, and they were always the loudest.

(09-11-2019 08:42 AM)mairving Wrote:  

(09-11-2019 08:31 AM)Titans3775 Wrote:  All we have to do is chairback the whole stadium. That would drop our capacity to 38,171 (which is too low if you ask me), but it would create scarcity.

Always the conundrum. They won't permanently remove seats because they still want to fill it up for the Liberty Bowl. Really just need a new stadium that seats about 40-45K but can be expanded.

A couple of comments in here get to the fundamental issue with the liberty bowl. There are multiple, competing interests that do not always align.
University of Memphis - almost certainly wants a smaller, on-campus stadium. At 40-45k, this would create the scarcity needed and make the stadium look fuller on the days where we have Southern or South Alabama show up.
Southern Heritage classic - a once per year game that brings in teams and fans of HBCUs in the area. From what I can tell, this does sell pretty well? Not sure on tourism money for the City though.

Liberty Bowl Committee - the drivers of the stadium. They want the stadium seating to be as large as practical. Need to sell tickets for that sweet sweet bowl tourism revenue.

City of Memphis - trying to avoid having yet another stadium that is essentially mothballed. But, it seems their primary driver is keeping the Liberty Bowl Committee happy, followed by UofM. I don't understand the exact relationship between the City and UofM, but it seems that only lately has the City cared much about what UofM thinks. This seems to be very dependent upon the state of the economy and state of the City finances. The relationship between the City and UofM could go south with a change in mayor or City Council or UofM president...

For UofM - The southern heritage classic can be a pain. We must schedule an away game every year about that time. The Liberty Bowl Committee's wants a large stadium for ticket revenue. However, this creates issues for Memphis since it is hard to sell anything over 40k ahead of time. My guess is that this also creates issues for the vendors in the stadium - how many food stalls do you need open at any one game to avoid wasting cash.

Another issue for UofM is the layout of the liberty bowl stadium itself. With the TV pointed at the visitor side due to the orientation with respect to the sun, the Liberty bowl will always look barely full since TV pointed at side with fewer people regardless.

So whats the solution?
The most obvious, long term solution is the On-Campus stadium. But that really isn't happening anytime soon. I still feel like the South lot is being prepped for an on-campus stadium (decade out). I have no inside information on this, just gut feeling. The garage on the south lot by the bridge is huge. They are doing major upgrades to that area of campus. I am not sure that UofM has anywhere near the same amount of parking that the Liberty Bowl has. But, UofM could be pretty creative about game day parking.

The less obvious solutions?
Put up sun shades around Liberty Bowl to enable TV camera moving?
Put up even more tarp to force people towards the bottom of the stadium?
Chair backs everywhere (already discussed, and liberty bowl committee would not be happy).

Anything else? It's a tough situation for UofM. Especially when you compare the atmosphere (fullness) of a football game to a basketball game. When you put 15,000 into FedExForum, it's pretty awesome. For the Liberty Bowl, we would need 48,000 or more for the approximate equivalent experience.

I also hate the Liberty Bowl tunnels. At the Ole Miss game, there was essentially no room to walk. This is makes taking little people tough. The vendors need to be moved back a solid 20 - 30 ft and it would be awesome (but haha, almost certainly never happening)

(09-11-2019 09:25 AM)InsiderTiger Wrote:  ...I am not sure that UofM has anywhere near the same amount of parking that the Liberty Bowl has. But, UofM could be pretty creative about game day parking. ...

Just a quick note, actually the campus has more parking than the Liberty Bowl. That was the case back when the Heerey Report was done, and it has only gotten smaller at the LB and larger on campus (parking garages on campus vs. all that zoysia in the middle of Tiger Lane).

I am now off the OCS movement, at least for the time being. This latest frecuss with UT toying with the idea of playing the LB against someone other than us... I don't like the sound of that. If we move out of the LB, you can bet the city is gonna start courting them and Ole' Miss and others to actually do that.

I don't want to cheapen season tickets. However, I (and I imagine many other season ticket holders) would love a full Liberty Bowl. It would be neat to have one "fill the bowl" game per year, with the ticket prices you suggested and other promotions to create a festive, filled atmosphere.

Tarp the upper bowl. We shouldn't be trying to sell more than 42500 seats to most games, and we should be consolidating the fans that are there into fewer parts of the bowl. Take off the tarps when you're expecting way more demand.

It's the only sensible solution to most of our attendance problems.