Is Big Ten buzz wearing off? Rutgers official explains dip in season tickets

[MYHATINTHERING]

Only OUR fans feel this way. Every comment I've ever read here, or heard away from here, from visiting fans about the bus system has been positive. Our fans just like to whine.

so...who do we want to fill the stadium? Parking matters, the school knows this and is working on solutions. The school has a customer base, the customer base hates the parking outside of the big 3 lots and it matters per every study the school has done. It will get fixed

 

[MYHATINTHERING]

Another example to use is what we did when we first got into the Big East...nothing. Same thing, "Yay we're in the Big East (now B1G), now it's gonna happen! Just you watch!"

And people need to stop with using the size of the alumni base as "How come we don't.." since a lot of them 1. Don't care about sports 2. Don't really care about Rutgers 3. Not really Rutgers to begin with (IMO we should not at Camden and Newark).

But...the flipside (and this is the good part) is there is really no other school that I can think of, even with all the competition as listed in this thread already that just has to win, not WIN or WIN to to get all the good that comes with the latter two.

I mean think about what it was like with just a good season what happened on the back pages, TV and others around here.

We don't even have to WIN, just win and we get all the gravy that comes with it.

alumni base is important, the failure of Rutgers to capitalize on it's education, position, economic and location with alumni is a major reason the school struggles with the ancillary economic approach to athletics. Bet your a$$ things need to change if we want people to love the school the way the die hards do

 

[AshSaturday]

Hat, yes don't think too many have elaborated here but for the casual fan (yes I understand the bargain parking economic argument) $40 to park is maddening and probably kills sales to begin with. Now its $6 water.

For decent seats for a family of 4 at $50 per ticket that's $240 alone for tickets and parking-for a program that's rebuilding. Also, thinking Yankees, NJ transit fares have increased now about $30 to take a train from NYC to NB.

 

[e5fdny]

alumni base is important, the failure of Rutgers to capitalize on it's education, position, economic and location with alumni is a major reason the school struggles with the ancillary economic approach to athletics. Bet your a$$ things need to change if we want people to love the school the way the diehards do

Agree.

But I don't think we should count or assume the Camden/Newark folks want the same thing we do.

I mean does Cal count UCLA when doing this type of comparison?

 

[MoobyCow]

so...who do we want to fill the stadium? Parking matters, the school knows this and is working on solutions. The school has a customer base, the customer base hates the parking outside of the big 3 lots and it matters per every study the school has done. It will get fixed

It does matter, but at the end of the day there is only so much space for parking, and if you've visited other places, the RU situation is not bad.

If there is a way of fixing it, I'd be very surprised. It's not like more spaces will magically appear.

 

[AshSaturday]

outstanding!!!!! That is just awesome!!!!

The best I've seen (and it worked as maybe the guy was offered the only ticket floating around at $250!) was for the Springsteen show at the State Theatre for the "Tom Joad" tour. A guy literally dressed up, from what I remember, as a record player/phonograph and wrote a note begging for a ticket.

At least 100 including myself, were shut out (the only time I was ever shut out from a Springsteen show-there was a Bon Jovi show at Giants stadium with P-Mike but we were way late and didn't want to pay much above cost).

 

[AshSaturday]

The resale market (actually discussed such with Piscataway Mike's brother at the last tailgate-and our crew many a time) also affects overall sales to an extent that many fans buy the extras to resell so that they can increase their priority points. If they can come close to breaking even its worth it to buy extras for the points.

 

[MYHATINTHERING]

It does matter, but at the end of the day there is only so much space for parking, and if you've visited other places, the RU situation is not bad.

If there is a way of fixing it, I'd be very surprised. It's not like more spaces will magically appear.

yes and no

either way, it's good the school looks at it because it affects overall view of the program

 

[MYHATINTHERING]

Agree.

But I don't think we should count or assume the Camden/Newark folks want the same thing we do.

I mean does Cal count UCLA when doing this type of comparison?

spot on, apologies if that came through as it's not what I meant because I don't really count those areas in the overall viewpoint.

 

[e5fdny]

spot on, apologies if that came through as it's not what I meant because I don't really count those areas in the overall viewpoint.

You'd be surprised how many people do.

And as @MoobyCow said, when you go to other places you realize we do have it pretty good. Also people also have to think where are we going to put the cars for the 80K-100K place they are dreaming of.

 

[MYHATINTHERING]

You'd be surprised how many people do.

And as Mooby said, when you go to other places you realize we do have it pretty good. Also people also have to think where are we going to put the cars for the 80K-100K place they are dreaming of.

I'm sure

been to plenty of other venues, don't think we are that special. There are places that are worse, many that are better. Point is, our customer base matters and our customer base does want an easy, close to stadium option that does not involve buses. It really does not matter what other places have as we simply cannot command or dictate the amenities right now. We have high ticket prices relative to alternative options with a $hitty product in a school most believe will screw up a great wet dream.

 

[rubaseball78]

BIG DIFFERENCE '78 on selling tickets this month vs last. RU hadn't lost 3 games or 58-0 to Ohio State last month. Last month RU had Grant (worth the price of admission
alone) and Lambert. 10 days ago there was no hurricane for Michigan for forecast of showers. ***For each game you mentioned the market is 50% of what you stated.

The problem is many don't purchase tickets to "profit or sell right off the bat"-they wait to see if friends are going,. schedule of their kids, yada. If the market isn't there late its that much more motivation not to renew.

Supposedly from talking to others professional scalpers (and even many on this board) buy up thousands of seats when they can profit. Tough to do for the past few years and coincidentally season sales are down.

Didn't keep the tickets to make money. With the girls out of the house, decided not to give them up. However, I'm not going to eat them if I'm not using them. I also didn't keep them with the expectation to retire on the profit. If I break even on the two extra at the end of the year, I'm happy.

 

[rubaseball78]

matters not in the grand scheme of things. If Rutgers is winning, pricing is reasonable, the stadium fills up

Agreed. I'm a Mets, Giants, Knicks and Rangers fan, yet I'm also a season ticket holder for RU football. I don't have season tickets or any ticket plan to the pro games. I can certainly see people being hesitant to purchase RU season tickets if they are already a season ticket holder for a pro team.

 

[AshSaturday]

Didn't keep the tickets to make money. With the girls out of the house, decided not to give them up. However, I'm not going to eat them if I'm not using them. I also didn't keep them with the expectation to retire on the profit. If I break even on the two extra at the end of the year, I'm happy.

Many on here similar. You "planned ahead" to the market was much better in September. Many aren't breaking even with their extras and half plans (that allowed for profit/break even-and easy PP was eliminated). Also a factor in decreased ticket sales.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

so...who do we want to fill the stadium? Parking matters, the school knows this and is working on solutions. The school has a customer base, the customer base hates the parking outside of the big 3 lots and it matters per every study the school has done. It will get fixed

Our customers are the whiniest fan base in the nation. Our parking situation blows away that at many of our peer schools. Not sure what else they can do to make people happy OTHER THAN parking on the golf course (ain't happening) or building decks (which they likely wouldn't let people tailgate in...).

 

[MYHATINTHERING]

Our customers are the whiniest fan base in the nation. Our parking situation blows away that at many of our peer schools. Not sure what else they can do to make people happy OTHER THAN parking on the golf course (ain't happening) or building decks (which they likely wouldn't let people tailgate in...).

I can only think of 2 I've been to in the Big that are worse. What peer group are you thinking of and who specifically.

you'd be surprised some of the options on the table that have been thrown out there

I do however strongly disagree on whiny, who the fk wants to get on a bus to get to the game and then wait for one after the game

 

[MoobyCow]

Our customers are the whiniest fan base in the nation. Our parking situation blows away that at many of our peer schools. Not sure what else they can do to make people happy OTHER THAN parking on the golf course (ain't happening) or building decks (which they likely wouldn't let people tailgate in...).

Everyone trades in for a Smart car off campus ;)

I actually know the head of transportation at RU, and if there are options on the table to add a lot of spaces, he doesn't know about them, or didn't at the end of last year. There are some things that might help around the margins, but nothing that replaces the amount of parking at the RAC.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

I can only think of 2 I've been to in the Big that are worse. What peer group are you thinking of and who specifically.

you'd be surprised some of the options on the table that have been thrown out there

I do however strongly disagree on whiny, who the fk wants to get on a bus to get to the game and then wait for one after the game

You don't think OUR fan base is whiny? LOL, okay, you're welcome to your opinion obviously. Anyway, sorry, but we have more parking, close to the stadium, than most college stadiums I've been to (and that's a helluva'lot of them) and people complain. Shit, even THE RAC isn't far but take away the buses and the whining will be 100x worse. It's a lose-lose with our fans and parking. They're never going to be satisfied as a whole.

 

[MYHATINTHERING]

Everyone trades in for a Smart car off campus ;)

I actually know the head of transportation at RU, and if there are options on the table to add a lot of spaces, he doesn't know about them, or didn't at the end of last year. There are some things that might help around the margins, but nothing that replaces the amount of parking at the RAC.

agree that nothing replaces the RAC.

 

[Nosoj]

Our 8 tickets went to four because of all the noon starts.
Not Flood, not the record. The noon starts.

Noon starts suck and are a drag for the casual fan. Really screws up the whole day, as you have to leave by 9 or 10 a.m. to be into the stadium by 11:30 (who gets in that early?), game over at 3:30, and home by 5 or 6. Yeah, it's fine if you are a hardcore fan or live in a college football centric area like Nebraska, Columbus, East Lansing or Madison.

Answer here is the same is it for the other problems with attendance. Win. And play other teams that win and/or people want to watch. Some of that is outside your control, but Rutgers vs. Howard or New Mexico are never going to be anywhere but noon.

To add to Skinny's comments, in September RU competes with 3 baseball teams and 3 pro football teams. In October, RU competes with 1 baseball team, 3 pro football teams and, with the start of hockey and bball, 3 bball teams and 4 hockey teams. In November, its 3 pro football, 3 bball and 4 hockey. Given the amount of competition for interest, our stadium is probably the right size and we need to have an interesting, competitive product to fill it up. I'm not sure that there are many college teams around the country competing with up to 10 pro teams for fan interest.

No offense, I think this is cop out. Within 100 miles of Ohio Stadium there's 6,815,755 people. Within 100 miles of High Point Solutions Stadium, there's 30,799,802. That's the reason you're in the B1G. If you can't marshal less than 2% of them to fill the stadium for 7 home games, that's on the program.

EDIT: It's the end of a long week and my math is way off. It's much closer to 1% than 2%.

 

[Cheesesteak Vegas]

EDIT: It's the end of a long week and my math is way off. It's much closer to 1% than 2%.

Haha, it's actually like 0.0001%.

 

[Nosoj]

Haha, it's actually like 0.0001%.

It's actually somewhere between that, since 0.0001% of 30 million is 30 ;)

I took 50,000 x 7 home games for 350,000 (which for some reason I made 600,000 in my first calculation). Then roughly 300,000+ out of 30 million is about 1%. But if you figure in for season ticket holders and assume they attend every game (or most games) you get down to below 1% for the necessary bodies to fill the seats.

All very, very rough anyway since we know people come from farther away to go to games and visiting fans, etc.

 

[rubaseball78]

Answer here is the same is it for the other problems with attendance. Win. And play other teams that win and/or people want to watch. Some of that is outside your control, but Rutgers vs. Howard or New Mexico are never going to be anywhere but noon.

No offense, I think this is cop out. Within 100 miles of Ohio Stadium there's 6,815,755 people. Within 100 miles of High Point Solutions Stadium, there's 30,799,802. That's the reason you're in the B1G. If you can't marshal less than 2% of them to fill the stadium for 7 home games, that's on the program.

EDIT: It's the end of a long week and my math is way off. It's much closer to 1% than 2%.

It is not a cop out; it is more competition thus you need to put a good product on the field. I also said in a subsequent post I'm a Mets, Giants, Rangers and Knicks fan who somehow finds time to be an RU season ticket holder.

 

[Cheesesteak Vegas]

It's actually somewhere between that, since 0.0001% of 30 million is 30 ;)

I took 50,000 x 7 home games for 350,000 (which for some reason I made 600,000 in my first calculation). Then roughly 300,000+ out of 30 million is about 1%. But if you figure in for season ticket holders and assume they attend every game (or most games) you get down to below 1% for the necessary bodies to fill the seats.

All very, very rough anyway since we know people come from farther away to go to games and visiting fans, etc.

Math is not my strong suit, haha, but I'll keep playing for fun:

Looks like 0.18% of 31 million is 55,800.

For comparison, using the figures provided for Columbus above, whenever OSU draws 105,000 it is attracting 1.5% of the "local" population.

If RU could draw 1.5% of its "local" population the stadium could seat 465,000.

DISCLAIMER: All of these figures could be wrong. I might have gone to Penn State, but John Urschel I am not.

 

[RUNYC13]

In other news, water is wet

 

[kupuna133]

I can only think of 2 I've been to in the Big that are worse. What peer group are you thinking of and who specifically.

you'd be surprised some of the options on the table that have been thrown out there

I do however strongly disagree on whiny, who the fk wants to get on a bus to get to the game and then wait for one after the game

I have been to 20 plus college stadiums and I can only think of two that have easier access to the stadium for the amount of people than RU. I am talking about Pac, BIG, SEC and ACC schools. Rutgers has one of the largest and closest in proximity to the stadium parking available to the masses. Shoot most of our peers rely on parking in office parks 3-4 miles away from stadium for a majority of the tailgating options.

 

[retired711]

Do I think the presence of professional sports negatively impacts the "buzz" around Rutgers' athletics? I do.

Do I think that angle is severely overplayed on this board? Yes.

For one, your comparisons to other towns, such as State College, don't carry as much weight when you consider that the majority of people attending games in those locations travel a great distance, from places like Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, and even New York and New Jersey, where they are also surrounded by pro teams. Do they have as many pro teams as exist in the NY/NJ area? No. But does it really matter? A Pirates is a Pirates fan, and a Mets fan is a Mets fan. The Mets fan isn't also a Yankees fan, so he doesn't have an extra team competing for his time and money. Same goes with Giants v. Jets, Knicks v. Devils v. Islanders, and Knicks v. Nets.

RU has more than 67,000 students (and the Camden campus is only an hour from High Point Solutions Stadium). According to RU's web site, about two-thirds of its 470,000 alumni live in New Jersey. That's 315,000 people. And New Jersey isn't big; HPSS is no more than two hours or so from anywhere in the state. We're not even including those alums who might live in the Lehigh Valley, Philadelphia or NYC.

The point being: There are plenty of available customers for RU football. Some might not show up because a lot of the games start at noon, some might not buy tickets because they have family conflicts, and sure, some might choose to spend their sports ticket budget on season tickets to a pro team. But the two primary reasons, as far as I can tell, that RU doesn't attract more attention are (1) a lack of success and (2) an apparent lack of connection between the alumni and the school. The people on this board are clearly an exception when compared with the average RU alum; that's evident from football attendance right on through donations.

First and foremost, RU needs to win. It also needs to do a better job of fostering relationships with and creating a better college experience for its current students, so they want to donate to academics and athletics, return to campus, and attend games in the future, and work to repair whatever cracks are in that bridge with alumni.

not to carp, but it is more than an hour from the Camden campus to the stadium. (I know, I've done it.) If there's no traffic, it takes 75 minutes, but of course on game day there's traffic. Very few Camden students actually live in Camden, but are rather scattered around, with most in Gloucester, Camden and Burlington counties. The key question is how close someone is to the NJ Turnpike. It's relatively easy for me living in Cherry Hill because I am five minutes from 295-North, and the Turnpike is just two exits away. It's harder for many others down here.

 

[retired711]

Agree.

But I don't think we should count or assume the Camden/Newark folks want the same thing we do.

I mean does Cal count UCLA when doing this type of comparison?

No, it does not; Cal and UCLA are fierce rivals. (Cal students call UCLA "the University of California for Lesser Achievers." ) OTOH, Newark and Camden are Division III, and so the comparison fails, especially since neither campus has football. Some "recruiting" at Camden and Newark would be valuable. I recall the game at Temple a few years ago (the one in which Temple dominated the first half, and we came back to win), and there were plenty of Camden students there.

 

[retired711]

Math is not my strong suit, haha, but I'll keep playing for fun:

Looks like 0.18% of 31 million is 55,800.

For comparison, using the figures provided for Columbus above, whenever OSU draws 105,000 it is attracting 1.5% of the "local" population.

If RU could draw 1.5% of its "local" population the stadium could seat 465,000.

DISCLAIMER: All of these figures could be wrong. I might have gone to Penn State, but John Urschel I am not.

I don't want to seem like I'm picking on you, but OSU draws *many* fans from a distance. The same is true of other midwestern powers with a history of doing well. Unfortunately, we don't have that.

 

[albanyknight]

Don't people see what is going on? Sports is pricing itself out of the market in an economy where discretionary income is shrinking.

Before the Giants went to seat licenses, they had a 20+-year waiting list. Now they advertise begging people to become season tickets. Even though the Giants fill the stadium I wonder how many people were given tickets and how many tickets were bought on the secondary market (the money not going to the Giants).

Look at the corporate boxes at Yankee games..........minimally filled. Knick and Ranger season ticket prices are a joke.

Rutgers plays in a pro-market and a short drive from the entertainment capital of the world. As 2005/2006 taught us, unless the team generates a buzz, the casual fan simply does not care.

The vast majority of Americans are hurting and my guess this is not reflected by the regular posters on this site. The job market is shrinking while everything is getting more expensive, not just attending RU games. Take a look at how many people are leaving the metropolitan area for less expensive areas of the country.

Even with two season tickets, I spend over 5K a year for the privilege of seeing a mediocre product year-after-year and having to beg people to go to games for free (although I don't discount the theory that it is me).

It is becoming easier for the over 55 crowd to just stay home and watch the game on their large flat screen television in the comfort of their own home.

I have no doubt that when Ash re-builds this thing that people will fill the stadium but let's be real. Even if Ash is the 2nd coming of Vince Lombardi, the ceiling for Rutgers in the Big Ten is at best a Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska level. We are never going to be a Ohio State/Michigan level for a number of reasons.

 

[Debtbubble]

Only 5 more years of beatings with BE money. Don't let Rutgers negotiate your next business deal.

 

[Nosoj]

Math is not my strong suit, haha, but I'll keep playing for fun:

Looks like 0.18% of 31 million is 55,800.

For comparison, using the figures provided for Columbus above, whenever OSU draws 105,000 it is attracting 1.5% of the "local" population.

If RU could draw 1.5% of its "local" population the stadium could seat 465,000.

DISCLAIMER: All of these figures could be wrong. I might have gone to Penn State, but John Urschel I am not.

That's my point. With the size of the "local" population Rutgers has to draw a miniscule amount to fill the stadium 7 days a year. That's why I think the "too many pro trams!" argument is a cop out.

 

[Nosoj]

It is not a cop out; it is more competition thus you need to put a good product on the field. I also said in a subsequent post I'm a Mets, Giants, Rangers and Knicks fan who somehow finds time to be an RU season ticket holder.

It is. Because if you don't put a good product on the field over an extended time, no one is going to fill their stadium. Regardless the answer remains the same. Win. Or at the very least be competitive.

 

[rubaseball78]

It is. Because if you don't put a good product on the field over an extended time, no one is going to fill their stadium. Regardless the answer remains the same. Win. Or at the very least be competitive.

I said you had to put a good competitive product on the field. If you don't too many other activities in this area to divert people's attention.