Student section = weak.

[MU/Panther]

I do like the fact that Marquette added two sections in the upper deck (south side) for the $125 season tickets.

[bleedbluegold03]

easy economics peeps - the supply faaaaar outstrips the demand for all but 3 games a year. Something that hasn't been mentioned to this point is that it is ALL freshman and sophomores that actually buy tickets.

Juniors and Seniors know that they can get a free ticket from anyone of their friends. essentially the crowd is made up of three groups: 10% fanantics (stay in line 2hrs+ and sit in the lowest section behind the basket), 30% fans (get there around an hour before the game), 50% students that go for the scene (show up drunk minutes before the game and sit upstairs).

---

My suggestion is such: pull back the student tickets by 2-3k. Make it special to have a ticket to the game and not something you want to just give away. You could sell two types of tickets: season passes that get you to each game for the running rate per ticket (40% actually student fans), and bunch passes that give you half the games a year for slightly more a ticket (still cheaper for the majority of students who are more price conscious and don't care as much). This way each type of student gets the amount of tickets they want and pay what they deem a good price.

next take the 2-3k and sell them as reg season tickets (I'd prefer marketing them to recent alums who can keep the bonding alive). If you can get half of the tickets sold at a higher rate that could equate up to 10k-12k seats sold each season or one more full game's worth of revenue.

You know what that allows us to do?!?! Use the increased revenue to offset a game at the AL each year. My dream.

[mufansince72]

easy economics peeps - the supply faaaaar outstrips the demand for all but 3 games a year. Something that hasn't been mentioned to this point is that is ALL freshman and sophomores that actually buy tickets.

Juniors and Seniors know that they can get a free ticket from anyone of their friends. essentially the crowd is made up of three groups: 10% fanantics (stay in line 2hrs+ and sit in the lowest section behind the basket), 30% fans (get there around an hour before the game), 50% students that go for the scene (show up drunk minutes before the game and sit upstairs).

---

My suggest is such: pull back the student tickets by 2-3k. Make it special to have a ticket to the game and not something you want to just give away. You could sell two types of tickets: season passes that get you to each game for the running rate per ticket (40% actually student fans), and bunch passes that give you have the games a year for slightly more a ticket (still cheaper for the majority of students who are more price conscious and don't care as much). This way each type of student gets the amount of tickets they want and pay what they deem a good price.

next take the 2-3k and sell them as reg season tickets (I'd prefer marketing them to recent alums who can keep the bonding alive). If you can get half of the tickets sold at a higher rate that could equate up to 10k-12k seats sold each season or one more full game's worth of revenue.

You know what that allows us to do?!?! Use the increased revenue to offset a game at the AL each year. My dream.

I like your thinking. Something has to be done.

[Gato78]

Gotta give Spencer the total kudos on student section organization. He is in the 1st row and leads the I believe cheer. The kid is a gamer.

[MU/Panther]

Why pull back on the number of seats you can sell to the student. It's not like those seats are going to sell to the public, since there are 4,000 unsold seats to the general public.

[MKE_GoldenEagleFan]

I think the reality is that for most games the supply of tickets outweighs the demand, and not just in the student section. If we got an on campus arena (I don't see that happening any time soon), I'd advocate that it be a 12-13,000 seat arena. It would be a bit more cozy than the BC is now and I think it would create an awesome atmosphere for college games

[MUBRACES]

For whatever reason, the student section has been less active for years. I remember waiting out in the cold at the BC in line hundreds deep just to get a lower bowl seat for probably half of all MU games back between 2002-2004, now how often does that happen? And that was against C-USA teams! Is it because people take for granted our success and expect it? The students used to be loud and rowdy all game....now it seams they only make noise when MU is in trouble, or is on a roll.

Now on what to do about the attendance....I agree with Bleed....there are just too many seats open for the demand. I think the true demand for a MU game is around 1500 to 2500 students a game, but we have 4k plus available.....reduce the number of student season tickets down to around 2500, which makes the supply and demand more on par....which will make the tickets available more coveted. Do this for a full season ticket, but then offer a 5-game pack for all the marquee games that will open up the 4k student section. Will this fill the upper section with general public for the lesser opponent games...no, but it will offer the general public to buy them at $25 a ticket instead of the $5 a ticket the students are paying for it.

That brings me to the other thing MU can do to increase student attendance.....right now (or at least when I was in school 10 years ago), season tickets for students were only like 50 or 60 bucks for the entire season, thats like 3-5 bucks a game.....of course they don't care if they miss the game, there is no financial loss. Increase the price they pay a game, and maybe they will think twice about throwing that money away, or at least selling the ticket to someone that will use it.

[Mucrisco]

Why pull back on the number of seats you can sell to the student. It's not like those seats are going to sell to the public, since there are 4,000 unsold seats to the general public.

With the big games that will sell out, you can make more money off of those seats. It's not like they are making a lot of money off of students anyway. For big games, everyone is rowdy anyway, so it's not like you lose energy with a smaller student section. I think the idea that people have, is if it's harder to get tickets if you are a student, they will appreciate them more and go to more games. If they aren't able to go to a game, they could sell that game to those students who weren't as fortunate to get tickets and actually want to go.

[MU/Panther]

For whatever reason, the student section has been less active for years. I remember waiting out in the cold at the BC in line hundreds deep just to get a lower bowl seat for probably half of all MU games back between 2002-2004, now how often does that happen? And that was against C-USA teams! Is it because people take for granted our success and expect it? The students used to be loud and rowdy all game....now it seams they only make noise when MU is in trouble, or is on a roll.

Now on what to do about the attendance....I agree with Bleed....there are just too many seats open for the demand. I think the true demand for a MU game is around 1500 to 2500 students a game, but we have 4k plus available.....reduce the number of student season tickets down to around 2500, which makes the supply and demand more on par....which will make the tickets available more coveted. Do this for a full season ticket, but then offer a 5-game pack for all the marquee games that will open up the 4k student section. Will this fill the upper section with general public for the lesser opponent games...no, but it will offer the general public to buy them at $25 a ticket instead of the $5 a ticket the students are paying for it.

That brings me to the other thing MU can do to increase student attendance.....right now (or at least when I was in school 10 years ago), season tickets for students were only like 50 or 60 bucks for the entire season, thats like 3-5 bucks a game.....of course they don't care if they miss the game, there is no financial loss. Increase the price they pay a game, and maybe they will think twice about throwing that money away, or at least selling the ticket to someone that will use it.

A) In your first part, our saleman in Tom Crean is gone.
B)You can only buy student tickets as season-tickets, it's only $99. Why only sell 1500 to 2500 as you said, when MU has sold about 3200 student season tickets.

C) student-season tickets were $125 for the 2011-12 season. Sales went down, so they went back to $99.

[MU/Panther]

With the big games that will sell out, you can make more money off of those seats. It's not like they are making a lot of money off of students anyway. For big games, everyone is rowdy anyway, so it's not like you lose energy with a smaller student section. I think the idea that people have, is if it's harder to get tickets if you are a student, they will appreciate them more and go to more games. If they aren't able to go to a game, they could sell that game to those students who weren't as fortunate to get tickets and actually want to go.

I got word students on Monday were trying to give away their tickets for free. The big games that sell out, is about 1 game per year. The Badger game wasn't even a sell-out. MU sold student area tickets for that game to the general public.