Season Tickets

[Carl Spackler]

The moments when I agree with you whaler are few and far between, and before I go on, I must say, that there is SIGNIFICANT improvement in how the department is going about their business in the past 2 years. YOu cannot look at one side, and ignore the other. THey are trying, and they are improving.

It's only in the past two years, that I can clearly see that they've even realized that there is a significant difference between season ticket buyers and single game buyers, and how to go about the business of moving tickets between those two kinds of categories, and it's only been one year, that we've had an athletic director, that has a modicum of understanding of what division 1A college football is supposed to be managed like.

I completely agree though, with what you're saying. While it's a step in the right direction, with marketing, it's a slippery slope, because you have to create value in your product with sales pitches, not devalue your product.

It's a simple principle - when you advertise 'free' stuff, you attract the kind of people that want 'free' stuff. Dangerous balance, that you don't want to rely on, because people that are attracted to 'free' stuff, usually aren't the kind that are willing to spend money.

 

[Srqhusky]

Well don't tell that to people that do pharmacy marketing. They are all about giving away free stuff.

Actually it isn't free it is a bonus or reward. You buy seasons say a pair. You get two free to basically a practice game so u can entice two of your buddies.

 

[CTMike]

I'm mostly ok with the work WM and SH are doing... Coach P, not as much, but I'm hopeful about TJW. I think we can be big time at the Rent without sending bulldozers and hundreds of billions of dollars up 384.

Yes, HFD rants and raves like a lunatic.

But the one thing I think he's right about is the overall lack of a proactive, fight for your life attitude coming out of Storrs. For far too long we've been fat and happy on hoops championships, getting to a BCS bowl quickly for a young D1 squad, and improving academics. We are awesome, just ask anyone here. But here we are, demoted to the AAC. EVERY fan interaction, alumni interaction, you name it- it needs to be scrutinized to say : what can we do better? How do we improve the experience and grow the fan base not just here in CT, but throughout New England and New York? Some of HFD's ideas are insane and costly, but some are just creativity, effort, and getting the word out. And yes, winning above all else, but do we have any plans other than "winning because we are winners"? If new fans (even old fans) are going to continue to invest time and money... Will they be rooting for a school that clearly wants to be big time, playing the best, beating the best? Or one that's happy to be "amongst peers" in the AAC reliving past glory? UConn has to want to fight for its life, and people will want to join them in that.

Me, I'm in for life. I'm a proud alum and have been a UConn fan since Scotty Burrell to Tate was seared in my brain as a 12 year old. I'm a Yankees and Giants fan, but first and foremost a UConn football and hoops fan - my time and money go to UConn first. I'm easy. Building the fanbase beyond people like me takes more effort. It's a fight worth putting more effort in to.

 

[whaler11]

Well don't tell that to people that do pharmacy marketing. They are all about giving away free stuff.

Actually it isn't free it is a bonus or reward. You buy seasons say a pair. You get two free to basically a practice game so u can entice two of your buddies.

So despite the fact they have watched season ticket sales fall steadily over 10 years just keep doing the same things.

That makes perfect sense. Maybe Carl is right and they are realizing the value of season ticket holders but based on the debacles at XL last year I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[junglehusky]

Well don't tell that to people that do pharmacy marketing. They are all about giving away free stuff.

Actually it isn't free it is a bonus or reward. You buy seasons say a pair. You get two free to basically a practice game so u can entice two of your buddies.

Pharmaceutical promotions is based on very subtle influences. You would think (or hope) that giving an office of MDs and RNs some sandwiches and a goodie back of notepads and pens with your logo on it would never influence their decision to prescribe one drug or another but IIRC there's evidence that it does work, on a subconscious level even.

Anyway, Dan has a right to do what he wants with his money. I think he's operating under an bit of an illusion that market forces would be enough to get WM fired in the next 4-5 years, let alone in 2013. If the basketball teams win the AAC and keep making runs to the final four, and the overall athletic department does well academically financially (considering the AAC TV deal), an average-ish football program probably won't be enough reason to replace WM. I do want us to not be satisfied with going to bowl games, but realistically we're not going to be the school that fires its football coach once every two years. We're going to take a long term approach to build the athletic department, which means impatient fans who expect transformative changes every two years are not going to run out of things to whine about anytime soon.

 

[Carl Spackler]

So despite the fact they have watched season ticket sales fall steadily over 10 years just keep doing the same things.

That makes perfect sense. Maybe Carl is right and they are realizing the value of season ticket holders but based on the debacles at XL last year I'll believe it when I see it.

I remember talking about this at length 2-3 years ago. For nearly a decade, Hathaway managed the football program ticket sales for Rentschler, exactly the same way that basketball model was created by Lew Perkins and decade earlier. THe simple facts are that in basketball, we're looking at splitting some 16-20 events or so between two venues that each sit about 10k, 15k respectively. In football, we're looking at 6-8 max events per year at 40k each. In both scenarios - you're looking at two groups of people - season ticket holders, and individual game ticket buyers.

I'm quite sure that Warde Manuel has never managed a basketball program like ours, that splits our home games among different venues, and has basically two entirely separate and distinct ticket buying bases, and there will be a learning curve there as well.

I think the father's day gift idea, with extra tickets to the Towson game, on field passes, is a great idea. I'm pretty sure that exact idea was suggested here, in the past.

I'm concerned as to who the email blast actually went to though.

There are some kinds of rules that go along with waiting beyond certain posted dates to renew your tickets, but I don't know what they are specifically, because I renew in February every year. BUt if it is the case, that I could have waited until now, to renew my seats, and could have waited without penalty of some kind, to buy my tickets, and still be guaranteed the same seats, and now get a couple freebies, what's the incentive to buy early? And therein, lies my concern.

Because the offer itself, I think it's a great marketing ploy, for generating NEW MULTIPLE TICKET sales. This is clearly not a ploy marketed toward returning buyers, and that's why whaler is upset with it, I think.

There are the four categories of ticket buyers - in any sales really.

YOu are either a new buyer or a returning buyer. You can only be a new buyer once. Once you buy once, anytime thereafter, you are a return buyer. and your contact info better be compiled into a list and categorized.

Once you become a buyer, you are either a multiple ticket package buyer, or a single ticket buyer.

Each type (new buyer - multiple or single) or (returning buyer - multiple or single) needs to be marketed to in a specific, individualized way.

This father's day promotion is clearly a ploy at new/multiple buyers. that's a good thing.

The issue, is getting the promotion out into the public. If the email blast is going to exising season buyers, they've missed their mark - it needs to get out into the general public.

And the greater point, I'm saying whaler - is that until the past 2 seasons basically - for both basketball and football, the athletic department has failed to even address these kinds of things in any way. We didn't do promotions like this at all.

It seems the issue now, is that we're doing the promotions, +1 step in the right direction, but are they being targeted to the proper populations? Good question.

THe underlying thing, that pisses me off a bit, is that this is elementary sales 101, and that it shouldn't take years to develop the experience and knowledge to do this kind of thing properly. I don't know who the people are in charge of marketing, who's been around a long time, and who might be new, and what they're respective qualifications and experience are/is, but the learning curve has been on a slow slope, and hopefully will accelerate upward, quickly.

My prediction, is that very soon, after this father's day promotion, will start to see some specific targeted stuff for new multiple buyers around the michigan and maryland games. Mini packages.

THe message has to get out into the general public though, if you're looking at generating new buyers. You can't expect your returning ticket buying base, to spread the word on deals for tickets that they've already purchased.

 

[Carl Spackler]

All of that said - this promotion is a fantastic effort at generating NEW MULTIPLE ticket buyers.

You just go to hope that it makes it's way into the faces of potential NEW MULTIPLE buyers.

I've done my part and forwarded the email appropriately. Hopefully the rest of you do too.

And when you're done, feel free to bitch about it, the way I have. Shouldn't be our responsibility to get the message to potential NEW MULTIPLE buyers.

 

[Carl Spackler]

last thing I'll say - promise

Thinking about this thing - offering the on-field pass, would be a great offer at targeted population of returning buyers (either single or multiple) in an effort to move returning buyers (people that have purchased at least one ticket sometime in the past) into returning buyers of multiple packages. Getting down on the field is a pretty cool thing, for people that actually have been there before - Ithink.

The two freebies, is a great ploy - toward NEW buyers. ANd that's where the 'free' thing I mentioned before - comes in as dangerous - advertising 'freebie's' is a dangerous thing - because you attract people that don't spend money regularly. But it generates 'NEW' interest.

If there's any fault here - it's in combining the two things - and what target population the ad actually was sent to.

If it was a shotgun approach, to everybody, which it appears to be - it's still better than nothing - and hopefully they learn from it to get more specific.

THe key to all of it, is establishing and maintaining a detailed database and contact list of ticket buyers, that can be divided up into the categories of single and multiple buyers.

 

[Husky25]

It's friggin Towson on Thursday before Labor Day, anyone expecting more than 32K, especially the way the last two seasons have gone, is out of touch. Some people just love to complain.

The athletic department is damned if they do, damned if they don't with many on this board.

I'm hopeful for more than 32,000, but you do not lie.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I don't like telling people how to spend their money. And you have all the right in the world to not support the team or the school. But it pretty much eliminates your credibility here as far as I'm concerned.

Lots of things I'm not happy about. I tried to get elected to the Alumni board. I lost but I tried to get involved. And in the process I am now connected to more people that can influence change. And I will exert influence on those people. That's how actual change happens.

But this was always going to be a tough grind. There are no magic bullets. This is going to take time. And our fan base is fickle. A hoops game against FFLD will never sell out. Syracuse games always did. This conference is a big problem. Poor opponents means there is no "marquis" nature to the events. And that, coupled with winning, matters. But it will be 10 more years before we regularly sell out, if ever, unless we end up in the B1G (I personally don't think the ACC changes that much either as it is mostly just the old BE plus a few). The culture doesn't exist here yet. And it may never. There is a reason that we were 1-AA for so long.

So given all of the doom and gloom, where will I be? In section 241. Representing. Because I believe that's my job. And if I'm there with my son and BL and nobody else? So be it.

Jmoney - we will sell out with a winning football program. I have no reason whatsoever to think that we wouldn't. You need look no further than recent history. When this program has been it's hottest, the stadium has been sold to capacity every time. Until we reach a point, where we are a top 25 competitive program, and winning regularly, and we are playing in front of 70% capacity - the problems we face now, are generating ticket sales, for a poor product on the field.

We need to learn from these things, so that when we do have down years, the fans have reason to return to the stadium. HFD's idea yesterday about creating some kind of common theme at the stadium for all fans to experience (I am in man-love with the monument park idea around the stadium with UCONN dairy bar station, local micro brew, stations, sitting areas etc.) is a great idea. The response here to the ticket sales ploy - not so much.

I really believe on further review that this was a much better effort at generating ticket sales than anything I"ve seen - well - ever before in the Rentschler field days. It appears to be a shotgun approach across all categories of ticket buyers though, and that's something to definitely learn from.

Just sharing my thoughts - now I gotta go do what I do to pay the bills. Have a great weekend, and happy father's day to all the dad's out there, may there be several thousand dads that get the gift of UCONN football season tickets!

Forward the message.

 

[Husky25]

Dan, These marketing ideas you have cost money. You are depriving the marketing department of a valuable resource. I don't deny you your passion. It is passion, misguided though it may be.

Protest via boycott, simply does not work unless you can influence a sizable percentage of the population and your target is aware of (and affected by) the boycott. Warde Manuel is not directly affected, but the team, and the marketing budget is. That is why it was such as stupid idea when people wanted to not go to games last year because of their misgiving over the coaching. The program already had their money, and besides that, Manuel heard the fans. While he did not fire Coach Pasqualoni (probably due to a cost analysis), he did force a shake up and made it known that another non-bowl season would not be tolerated. You want Coach Pasqualoni fired? What if it is warranted in January, but UConn only has $749k? They are missing your grand to complete the job...

And when you say this:

My family has a emotional aspect to it like many here. I simply don't.

You are only kidding yourself. The type of passion that you bring to this board oozes with your emotion.

 

[Husky25]

But yes, it's my fault they are season tix holders not the school they went to. And this folks is why uconn fans are laughed at on other messages boards and uconns commitment to football is laughed at on other boards and here's a good one maybe this is why uconn is in the AAC.


You mention UConn fans should follow Michigan (and other big football schools) fans around for a month, that we would be amazed. I think you would be amazed, cause they support the program no matter what. Do you think that if Michigan fans didn't like the AD they would stop going to games to teach the university a lesson? No, that's just dumb. If anything you are hurting the program. UConn has never sold out for the season so the administrations expectations for attendance aren't high-and when the administration sees such poor attendance they won't blame the AD, they will blame the fans and you will just be postponing any additional funding and attention the university gives to the program and making other conferences not look at us as a legitimate potential conference addition. Not to mention hurting recruiting even more, cause these kids want to play in front of people and not in front of an empty stadium. Think before you post.

I don't particularly like WM so far, but you blaming him for everything is just not well thought out. You talk about all these marketing plans but fail to realize that every department is given a budget so they can't just do whatever they want when it comes to marketing - and you do realize that he is in charge of all the athletic programs at the university and everything that goes along with being an AD (ie scheduling, hiring/firing, attending events on top of marketing and everything else).

Lastly, I come to your quote above. Maybe other fans and fans on other message boards laugh at us cause we don't fill the stadium cause our "fans" don't like the AD, or the new logo, or the new uniforms. It's "fans" like you that give other fans a reason to laugh at us. maybe the reason we are in the AAC is cause some "fans" only support the program and go to games when it's easy an convenient to cause we are winning. If we sold out all our games (or have close to a sellout every game) regardless of record and opponent, other conferences would see we have a bigger fan base then they thought and would maybe look at us for expanding their conference. Don't you realize that the bigger the following (which includes selling out games) brings the university to the attention of other schools and brings better recruits (and vice versa) the bigger the fan base (including consistenly selling out games) brings better recruits which leads to winning more games and makes other conference consider us more seriously.

Agree with all except the never sell out part. I believe UConn did "report" 100% capacity in 2005 and close in 2006.

 

[UConnJim]

I've already said what I think about fans like HFD, so I won't go there.

I do think most people do not give UConn fans the credit they deserve for building a fan base for football. This is going to be the 11th season of UConn football at the Rent. UConn has developed a fan base from, say 12k to 14k fans at Storrs in 1AA to almost 40k per game at the Rent. This is a tremendous accomplishment and attendance taking a step back over the last couple of years shouldn't be a surprise given the lack of quality opponents at home, a couple of losing seasons, a horrendous offense, and a bad economy.

Do you know how many ranked opponents that UConn has played at the Rent? 6. In 10 seasons, UConn has played 6 ranked opponents and only one of them was ranked in the top 10, WVU in 2006 at #4. In the last 3 seasons, UConn has played ZERO ranked opponents at home. That is ZERO in three seasons. ZERO ranked opponents + two losing seasons + a horrendous offense + a bad economy = a decline in home attendance. This would happen at almost every FBS school.

I do think UConn is doing a better job marketing football, but it's not perfect and I do expect continuous improvement. (Personally, I would put a limited number of individual game tickets for sale and let them sell out quickly to create some buzz and perhaps drive more season ticket sales.) I like that the scoreboard is being replaced. I like that a new offensive coordinator was hired. I do realize that Warde Manual was saddled with PP and in college football, you can not fire a head coach after two seasons, unless the seasons were 0 or 1 win seasons. Some on this board may not like that fact, but if you are going to attract a decent coach in the future, you can not show that you fire a coach after two 5-7 seasons. But, PP has to produce this year or I think he's gone.

As for this year, this could be the first year we have 2 ranked opponents visit the Rent, Michigan and Louisville, which both could be ranked in the top 10. In addition, we have Rutgers and Maryland visiting this year. If we had experienced success last year, had a decent offense, and there was some preseason buzz, I would have expected the season to sell out. Well, all of that has not happened, thus, I think we will see 3 sellouts or perhaps 4 sellouts this year.

 

[Dann]

Dan, These marketing ideas you have cost money. You are depriving the marketing department of a valuable resource. I don't deny you your passion. It is passion, misguided though it may be.

Protest via boycott, simply does not work unless you can influence a sizable percentage of the population and your target is aware of (and affected by) the boycott. Warde Manuel is not directly affected, but the team, and the marketing budget is. That is why it was such as stupid idea when people wanted to not go to games last year because of their misgiving over the coaching. The program already had their money, and besides that, Manuel heard the fans. While he did not fire Coach Pasqualoni (probably due to a cost analysis), he did force a shake up and made it known that another non-bowl season would not be tolerated. You want Coach Pasqualoni fired? What if it is warranted in January, but UConn only has $749k? They are missing your grand to complete the job...

And when you say this:


You are only kidding yourself. The type of passion that you bring to this board oozes with your emotion.

My family members give to uconn, I give to my alma not uconn. It's different. A lot of fans view there tickets as donations of a certain size. I don't. I view tickets as tickets to a sport I want to watch.


I love ppl here think now. Never went to a game and need a hand out or something. To funny. I got season tix from 08 till last year in my group. The last year I ate a lot of them with school and in 2009 I had a couple weekend some major eating also on good games. Just how it was for me and what I had to do. I can afford tickets. Lets stop all the bs. I simply chose as of now not to buy.

Honest question, tell me why I should buy tickets? I know as a somewhat knowledgable fan that I can buy a Michigan ticket on line somewhere. And then I now Michigan fans are going to dump the rest of the season for cheap. I mean honestly, what stops me from buying a Michigan ticket and then walking around the stadium looking for yellow shirts and making them offers to buy the rest of there seasons tickets with some nice story about my friends needing them. Give them a cell number and email and bam. Cake.

You guys can rip all u want. But this happens. The stands will tell the story early on. Then based on what p does will dictate them the rest of the season.

Whaler tells it like it is always. Some times I argue with him but he's not wrong.

Father's Day promotion? Good. The freebie? Bad. Simple as that. I mean we have a new logo out right? What better that a new logo t shirt or hoodie or something as the freebie? Has the same value doesn't it? But one of them you wear around and pump your favorite school/team. The other you annoy friends about a school they have never heard when all they heard about was Michigan all off season anyway. Yea, that's really a good strategy.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Me personally, I will not buy tickets until warde does something good or gets fired.

And now we know what kind of fan you really are. A fair weather one.

Never been easier to hit the ignore button in my life.

 

[Carl Spackler]

North Carolina was ranked when they came in. WVU has been ranked a few times coming in. The last official sell out, to my knowledge, was the Cincinatti game in Nov. 2010.

Neither team was ranked - us or them - we were 7-4, they were 4-7. It was as cold day, the saturday after thanksgiving - noon kickoff. Pretty much every bad scenario you can think of for poor attendance. It was sold out. THe reason? We were on a 4 game win streak. It's the last win streak we've had.

If you don't win though, you need other reasons to draw people to the stadium. It's that simple.

 

[junglehusky]

I think it's pretty obvious the freebie tickets are primarily to get some butts in the seats so the stadium is at least half full in the third quarter for a I-AA opponent that nobody cares abou. Secondarily - to get new fans who haven't been to Rentschler something to think about for entertainment options.

 

[Dann]

And now we know what kind of fan you really are. A fair weather one.

Never been easier to hit the ignore button in my life.

Without "fair weather fans" the rent doesn't fill up 40k yet to date in uconn football. They are 10-15k of your base right now. They are the ones who sell your. P,ace out and when you have a good product, entertainer capture them they become more serious fans and buy season tix. You must work for uconn because u don't understand how it works. Lets turn off all fair weather/casual fans. Yea screw them. We don't need there money.

 

[UConnJim]

North Carolina was ranked when they came in. WVU has been ranked a few times coming in. The last official sell out, to my knowledge, was the Cincinatti game in Nov. 2010.

Neither team was ranked - us or them - we were 7-4, they were 4-7. It was as cold day, the saturday after thanksgiving - noon kickoff. Pretty much every bad scenario you can think of for poor attendance. It was sold out. THe reason? We were on a 4 game win streak. It's the last win streak we've had.

If you don't win though, you need other reasons to draw people to the stadium. It's that simple.

Here are the ranked opponents we have seen at the Rent by year:

2002: Zero
2003: Zero
2004: #17 WVU
2005: #16 Louisville
2006: #4 WVU
2007: #11 USF
2008: #25 Pitt
2009: #19 UNC
2010: Zero
2011: Zero
2012: Zero
2013: Possibility of two top 10 ranked teams, Michigan and Louisville

 

[Dann]

I think it's pretty obvious the freebie tickets are primarily to get some butts in the seats so the stadium is at least half full in the third quarter for a I-AA opponent that nobody cares abou. Secondarily - to get new fans who haven't been to Rentschler something to think about for entertainment options.

The point is, new fans are not going to buy watching p run it up the middle vs Towson as entertaining. Maybe they enjoy the tailgate? Ok, but they can drop there tailgate in there driveway and invite the neighborhood over and do the same thing.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Dan - the biggest reason, by far, why anyone buys tickets, is because they want to go the game(s). Not sure where else you really want to go with this. The father's day gift idea is a good promotion, I think it was misguided, but we've been over this - no?

The solution here, is for every fan that recieved this email - to forward that email about the promotion - to someone they know that may be interested, and is a NEW buyer, or a returning buyer - that has not yet purchased tickets this season.

You are very keyed in on pointing out mistakes, that's good - but it's a much better habit, to point out a mistake once, and then focus all your energy on how to fix that mistake, rather than repeating what the mistake was over and over.

Everyone take the info here, and forward it to people that might be new buyers, or people that have bought before, but haven't bought season tickets this here. and I'll go out on a limb and say that people that pay attention to this website, have gotten the message.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Here are the ranked opponents we have seen at the Rent by year:

2002: Zero
2003: Zero
2004: #17 WVU
2005: #16 Louisville
2006: #4 WVU
2007: #11 USF
2008: #25 Pitt
2009: #19 UNC
2010: Zero
2011: Zero
2012: Zero
2013: Possibility of two top 10 ranked teams, Michigan and Louisville

I know we've had this discussion before too.

You know what I'd like to see!

2013 : say......5
2014: 7
2015: 7
2016: 7

Etc......the team being ranked in all those home games? UCONN!!!!!

 

[noeynox]

Honestly, I see nothing wrong with what Dan is doing here. I made similar decision when I stopped attending men's basketball games because I felt they kept pushing you further from the court. They sold good seats to corporations/donors who didn't attend or resell tickets. I had to pay exorbitant $$$ on the secondary market to sit in nosebleeds for UCONN vs Gtown, while looking at tons of empty seats down low. It infuriated me and I made a decision to watch on TV from then on.

Different reason, but bottom line is they pissed me off so I won't attend.

 

[Dann]

Honestly, I see nothing wrong with what Dan is doing here. I made similar decision when I stopped attending men's basketball games because I felt they kept pushing you further from the court. They sold good seats to corporations/donors who didn't attend or resell tickets. I had to pay exorbitant $ on the secondary market to sit in nosebleeds for UCONN vs Gtown, while looking at tons of empty seats down low. It infuriated me and I made a decision to watch on TV from then on.

Different reason, but bottom line is they pissed me off so I won't attend.

Your a fair weather bozo. You shouldn't waste your time here. What a jerk you are. How dare you not give a lot of money to uconn without the product that you like in return.and 20 other insults, cheap shots. Some from high horses and some form crack heads....

 

[UConnJim]

BC has faced the same problem as UConn with lack of ranked home opponents:

2007: Zero
2008: #17 VT
2009: Zero
2010: Zero
2011: Zero
2012: #17 Clemson, #4 ND