Anyone have a attendance number...

[DAWGS1.sixpack]

For the three game series this weekend.
I never did see or hear any announcement.
Was st the game Saturday, outfield had a big crowd, berms were packed, but several empty seats in the grandstand Saturday.

 

[maroonmania]

For the three game series this weekend.
I never did see or hear any announcement.
Was st the game Saturday, outfield had a big crowd, berms were packed, but several empty seats in the grandstand Saturday.

Apparently no crowds this past weekend over 10,000 which was surprising. Now it is finals week for students which started last Friday. Basically though we have the same issue with the new Dude that we did with the old. That being the grandstand is always sold out but rarely more than about two-thirds full while the general admission and outfield are packed.

 

[Leeshouldveflanked]

Apparently no crowds this past weekend over 10,000 which was surprising. Now it is finals week for students which started last Friday. Basically though we have the same issue with the new Dude that we did with the old. That being the grandstand is always sold out but rarely more than about two-thirds full while the general admission and outfield are packed.

^^^^^ This^^^^ no one wants to stand for 4-5 innings until they open the grandstand seating.

 

[Cat Duck]

^^^^^ This^^^^ no one wants to stand for 4-5 innings until they open the grandstand seating.

I am still amazed that people shell out the kind of money it takes to get season tickets, and then do not come to the games. But at least they do pay.

The people in general admission that are complaining have no leg to stand, they want to only come to a few games but do not want to pay up.

There is no easy answer. People are weird. I saw some chairback tickets on sale, and most of those ticket holders want a high price. Most people would just pay $10 for a general admission ticket and wait to sit before paying $40.

At the end of the day, in my experience, the complainers are in reality very few and far between.

 

[maroonmania]

^^^^^ This^^^^ no one wants to stand for 4-5 innings until they open the grandstand seating.

I just continue to be amazed at the hundreds and hundreds of people that own grandstand seats that apparently never plan to come to any games. I mean it was a top ten matchup this past weekend. And it was the same way on SBW when we played LSU. I mean if those folks aren't coming one of those 2 weekends then they are apparently never coming.

 

[maroonmania]

I am still amazed that people shell out the kind of money it takes to get season tickets, and then do not come to the games. But at least they do pay.

The people in general admission that are complaining have no leg to stand, they want to only come to a few games but do not want to pay up.

There is no easy answer. People are weird. I saw some chairback tickets on sale, and most of those ticket holders want a high price. Most people would just pay $10 for a general admission ticket and wait to sit before paying $40.

At the end of the day, in my experience, the complainers are in reality very few and far between.

Probably a lot of people in GA that love coming to games but maybe don't have the incomes to justify the dollars you have to shell out to get season grandstand tickets. And then you have a lot of folks who apparently have lots of money to buy grandstand tickets but no interest or availability to actually come to games. It is a weird situation. I know OM had a couple of thousand more people at their game yesterday in Oxford than we did even with a team that isn't as good as ours.

 

[Cat Duck]

I know OM had a couple of thousand more people at their game yesterday in Oxford than we did even with a team that isn't as good as ours.

This is not true. They have been inflating their reported attendance numbers for years. I have been to a game there recently. They are not drawing nearly what we are drawing.

If you want hard proof of this, wait until regionals (if they host). You cannot fake those numbers, it is actually people who walk in the gate.

 

[drummerdawg]

The people in general admission that are complaining have no leg to stand, they want to only come to a few games but do not want to pay up.

There is no easy answer. People are weird.

You do know it's those general admission people that make those record crowds right? You take them away and you get a half filled grandstand and Lounge. Less and less people will continue going because they dont want to stand. The whole "pony up" argument is so ignorant anyway. There's thousands of people who want to or are able to only go to 5-10 games a season and if they "ponied up" that would just mean the same empty seats most games. If we want record crowds in the future we need to find a way for people to get a seat

 

[AlCoDog]

It was Double Dickhead weekend.

 

[Cat Duck]

You do know it's those general admission people that make those record crowds right? You take them away and you get a half filled grandstand and Lounge. Less and less people will continue going because they dont want to stand. The whole "pony up" argument is so ignorant anyway. There's thousands of people who want to or are able to only go to 5-10 games a season and if they "ponied up" that would just mean the same empty seats most games. If we want record crowds in the future we need to find a way for people to get a seat

Let me ask you this. Do you think we should do the same thing for football? Should we build a huge general admission area for people to get cheap tickets for 2-3 games per year? What about basketball? Why do people not complain about the high demand in those sports?

MSU's blessing is also its curse. High demand for baseball tickets means less opportunities for fans like you speak. That is the way of the world.

On the record crowds - I would rather have consistently bigger crowds on average, rather than 2-3 super huge crowds and then 40 small ones. It would be better for recruiting. We already have the records.

 

[dickiedawg]

Lots of people who sit in the lounge also have grandstand seats. It's possible there are fewer now since they required folks to pony up again.

I noticed while looking into the ticket situation for College Station that 2 sections of their upper deck are first come, first served general admission.

 

[Cat Duck]

Lots of people who sit in the lounge also have grandstand seats. It's possible there are fewer now since they required folks to pony up again.

I noticed while looking into the ticket situation for College Station that 2 sections of their upper deck are first come, first served general admission.

I think a lot of our fans would like the stadium to be like Hoover, where the whole upper deck is general admission. I think it is just hard for the school to pay for a stadium like that because season ticket holders take up the whole area. I do wish we could accommodate everyone, but it appears we have run out of space.

 

[maroonmania]

This is not true. They have been inflating their reported attendance numbers for years. I have been to a game there recently. They are not drawing nearly what we are drawing.

If you want hard proof of this, wait until regionals (if they host). You cannot fake those numbers, it is actually people who walk in the gate.

Not surprising if true as they inflate everything there. And I misspoke (got my days mixed up) as it was actually the Saturday game I attended in Starkville where we had over 9 thousand something and then I pulled up the OM game on the way home and the broadcasters were saying they were at like almost 11,000 or something. Thought it sounded pretty high for them at the time and it was around a thousand difference for that day.

 

[Mjoelner]

There is no easy answer. People are weird. I saw some chairback tickets on sale, and most of those ticket holders want a high price. Most people would just pay $10 for a general admission ticket and wait to sit before paying $40.

I've seen lots of ideas on here and other boards and I've even spouted off a few myself. I had another one that I don't think I've seen yet.

Add a third tier of ticketing between grandstand and SRO. Charge $15 to $20 for this ticket and have it be SRO with the option of grandstand seating in an open, non-club seat as soon as you walk through the gate. If someone shows up with a ticket for that specific seat later, you go find another empty seat. If there are no other empty seats, go grab a drink rail. If you buy the $10 SRO ticket, then you get to wait 4.5 innings before you can find a seat.

1. The grandstand fills up sooner.
2. People may get grandstand seats cheaper than face value.
3. The university makes even more money.

Seems like a win, win, win for all involved.

 

[maroonmania]

Let me ask you this. Do you think we should do the same thing for football? Should we build a huge general admission area for people to get cheap tickets for 2-3 games per year? What about basketball? Why do people not complain about the high demand in those sports?

MSU's blessing is also its curse. High demand for baseball tickets means less opportunities for fans like you speak. That is the way of the world.

On the record crowds - I would rather have consistently bigger crowds on average, rather than 2-3 super huge crowds and then 40 small ones. It would be better for recruiting. We already have the records.

Yes, high demand for tickets in baseball. But with the distance that most MSU fans have to travel to see games, a lot of those folks buying tickets don't come to many games because there are so many. Football is a different animal because there are only 6-7 home games for the entire year and all on Saturday. If you have to spend 6 hours roundtrip that many times its not a big deal. For baseball and basketball where there are many more games and multiple games a week it is a big deal.

 

[johnson86-1]

I am still amazed that people shell out the kind of money it takes to get season tickets, and then do not come to the games. But at least they do pay.

The people in general admission that are complaining have no leg to stand, they want to only come to a few games but do not want to pay up.

There is no easy answer. People are weird. I saw some chairback tickets on sale, and most of those ticket holders want a high price. Most people would just pay $10 for a general admission ticket and wait to sit before paying $40.

At the end of the day, in my experience, the complainers are in reality very few and far between.

If tickets are available for $40, then people really can't complain about not having seats. I get that's not cheap for a college baseball game, but I suspect a lot of the people with grandstand tickets are paying well more than $40 per game they actually attend.

ETA: And seeing this makes me understand a little better why we wait so long to open up the grandstand. If I were a ticket holder, I would want the opportunity to resell my seat, and that's going to be hard if people know they can just go use the seats on essentially a first come basis. I wonder how it would work if the grand stands were never just opened, but that people that didn't scan their ticket or confirm their attendance online would have their seat sold off for say another $10 after the 2nd inning, with the money (less a service charge) funded back to the ticket holder.

 

[thekimmer]

You do know it's those general admission people that make those record crowds right? You take them away and you get a half filled grandstand and Lounge. Less and less people will continue going because they dont want to stand. The whole "pony up" argument is so ignorant anyway. There's thousands of people who want to or are able to only go to 5-10 games a season and if they "ponied up" that would just mean the same empty seats most games. If we want record crowds in the future we need to find a way for people to get a seat

That is a very good point. Whatever your opinion of them, the GA crowd plays a role as 'gap fillers' as there will apparently always be a significant percentage of season ticket holders not in attendance at any given regular season game. The problem is there is apparently not an effective system to get them in the gaps.

It looks like LSU either does a good job at this or their season ticket holders show up in much higher percentage. If the latter is true perhaps we should benchmark.

 

[bigiron.sixpack]

Also, we have three clubs now. All of those people in the clubs are not in their chair back seats.

 

[thekimmer]

Probably a lot of people in GA that love coming to games but maybe don't have the incomes to justify the dollars you have to shell out to get season grandstand tickets. And then you have a lot of folks who apparently have lots of money to buy grandstand tickets but no interest or availability to actually come to games. It is a weird situation. I know OM had a couple of thousand more people at their game yesterday in Oxford than we did even with a team that isn't as good as ours.

I agree we have the better team but they still have a pretty good one themselves. They did beat Arky twice in F-ville. Then again they lost a series to UK at home! I suppose we will find out in a couple of weeks.

 

[OrrDawg]

The attendance figures listed in the box scores on the athletic site were: 9,061, 9,572, and 8,204 Saturday-Sunday, respectively.

 

[shotgunDawg]

Also, we have three clubs now. All of those people in the clubs are not in their chair back seats.

Yeah, but the club people still count as attendance.

The problem is that we have people that would normally want to come to the game & buy a GA ticket, instead staying at home and watching it on TV because they have no place to sit if they came to the game.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

Yeah I’ve been buying off stubhub when chair backs are decently priced. Sometimes not. So I have have had a pretty good idea the amount of tickets being resold. When I get there to the game there are tons of empty seats that were not on any of the third party markets meanwhile lots of people packed in berms and SRO. That would or they are staying at home because they don’t want to pay quadruple ticket price for a resold chairback or they don’t want to stand for 5 innings.

 

[MedDawg]

That is a very good point. Whatever your opinion of them, the GA crowd plays a role as 'gap fillers' as there will apparently always be a significant percentage of season ticket holders not in attendance at any given regular season game. The problem is there is apparently not an effective system to get them in the gaps.

It looks like LSU either does a good job at this or their season ticket holders show up in much higher percentage. If the latter is true perhaps we should benchmark.

LSU has as big of a problem of empty grandstand seats as anyone. Their 11,000 attendance averages are from season tickets and they have a LOT of no-shows, especially early in the season.

If we built more grandstands now, we would sell more season tickets. We built based on season ticket commitments which didn't sell out until late 2017 or early 2018 (I believe), so before the season started it looked like we built it just right.

In my opinion it was not the cost of the season ticket that kept more people from getting them, it was the $1,800 per seat one-time commitment ($1,500/seat if you chose back in 2015/16). Even if it's good for 10 years (working out to 'only' $180 per season), it's still a chunk to come up with all at once, especially for those who would need more than 2. At some point the school will need to lower commitments and decrease or keep ticket prices to keep people/families coming to games. Lowering the concession prices shows school officials are paying attention.

If MSU just allowed GA people to go to empty seats earlier, like after 2 or 2.5 innings, then more GA people would come to games. There were people in my seats both Sat and Sunday. We made them move Saturday and Sunday we just took the seats one row in front. No big deal either way. At this point, allowing early entry to grandstand seats wouldn't hurt season ticket sales, because we are sold out of season tickets. If we expand, then maybe move it back to 4.5 innings to encourage current GA people to buy season tickets.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

I am still amazed that people shell out the kind of money it takes to get season tickets, and then do not come to the games. But at least they do pay.

The people in general admission that are complaining have no leg to stand, they want to only come to a few games but do not want to pay up.

There is no easy answer. People are weird. I saw some chairback tickets on sale, and most of those ticket holders want a high price. Most people would just pay $10 for a general admission ticket and wait to sit before paying $40.

At the end of the day, in my experience, the complainers are in reality very few and far between.

That last statement isn’t true. A large majority of the people I know don’t like the situation. I’ve even cut out a few series this year and stayed at home because I didn’t want to stand or pay for the hikes up price of the few chairbacks being resold.

They could extend the west upper deck and make that a slightly higher that ga pay by the game that would alleviate the berms some.

I went this weekend. Bought in stub hub about 40 bucks. Still tons of seats empty that weren’t for resell. I’ve seen some for as high as 100 down the baseline. Don’t know many people buying those on resale. I know high demand. Although I thought it was against state law to sell higher than face value of the ticket. Ticket office told me that was 15 dollars. I think at season ticket price it might be 40 a game.

 

[Go Budaw]

It looks like LSU either does a good job at this or their season ticket holders show up in much higher percentage. If the latter is true perhaps we should benchmark.

LSU’s stadium has actual seats for over 10,000 fans, compared to ours which can only seat maybe 5,000 in the grandstand / skyboxes and another 500ish in the lounges (although most of those folks stand too). And yes, their season ticket holders and fans in general show up at a much higher clip than ours, in large part due to the demographic advantages they possess with being able to draw from 2.5 million people that are within an hour of BR. It’s no wonder they lead the nation in attendance every year.

 

[512taylor]

I may be in the minority. I go to all home games and have two chairbacks and two GA tickets. If I am not going to use the GA tickets I walk up to the ticket window and give those two GA's to someone that is in line to buy tickets. I usually find a father and son/daughter. No one needs to pat me on the back, but I remember how it was years ago to not be able to afford tickets.

 

[8dog]

Everyone stay home. Its too crowded. Please stay at home and rest those legs

 

[bigiron.sixpack]

I was trying to explain why some chair backs are empty.

 

[Spidey.sixpack]

i live four hours away and i have no interest in paying for SRO and standing with my four year old for two hours until the grandstand opens. nor do i have an interest in paying $80-100 for tickets for the two of us.

 

[Diggin Out Yo Wife]

i live four hours away and i have no interest in paying for SRO and standing with my four year old for two hours until the grandstand opens. nor do i have an interest in paying $80-100 for tickets for the two of us.

Sounds like you need to keep yo *** on the couch!

 

[maroonmania]

Yeah, but the club people still count as attendance.

The problem is that we have people that would normally want to come to the game & buy a GA ticket, instead staying at home and watching it on TV because they have no place to sit if they came to the game.

Apparently a lot of grandstand chairback owners choose to stay home and watch on TV as well.

 

[drummerdawg]

Let me ask you this. Do you think we should do the same thing for football? Should we build a huge general admission area for people to get cheap tickets for 2-3 games per year? What about basketball? Why do people not complain about the high demand in those sports?

MSU's blessing is also its curse. High demand for baseball tickets means less opportunities for fans like you speak. That is the way of the world.

On the record crowds - I would rather have consistently bigger crowds on average, rather than 2-3 super huge crowds and then 40 small ones. It would be better for recruiting. We already have the records.

Well, yeah but in football we call them "mini plans" where people get a few games for a discounted price. You think people would go if we sold SRO tickets?

For basketball people do complain.

The problem for baseball is that if we have a seat we sell it as a season ticket. We have too many season tickets imo. I understand it is financially beneficial to sell every seat you have, but there are ways to make money from the seat and have it filled every game. I'm a big fan of first come first serve. Why not reduce season tickets and sell chairbacks at a higher cost on a game to game basis?

 

[maroonmania]

i live four hours away and i have no interest in paying for SRO and standing with my four year old for two hours until the grandstand opens. nor do i have an interest in paying $80-100 for tickets for the two of us.

You can always get chairback tickets when you get there as, just like football games, there will always be the "ticket brokers" out around selling them. Both weekends I've been (LSU and Georgia) I got 2 chairbacks both times for the $30/ticket range which is not much more than what the school resells them for on the prior Tuesday. I just prefer to buy them when I get there so if I don't get to go I'm not stuck with tickets I can't use.

 

[Cat Duck]

Well, yeah but in football we call them "mini plans" where people get a few games for a discounted price. You think people would go if we sold SRO tickets?

For basketball people do complain.

The problem for baseball is that if we have a seat we sell it as a season ticket. We have too many season tickets imo. I understand it is financially beneficial to sell every seat you have, but there are ways to make money from the seat and have it filled every game. I'm a big fan of first come first serve. Why not reduce season tickets and sell chairbacks at a higher cost on a game to game basis?

Decent plan but fortunately for us we have 5,000+ fans who were willing to drop $1,500/ticket for a 10-year reservation fee.

Come 2028 when that contract expires and it is time to renew, they will have 10 years of data and can make a decision at that time on which way to go. However, as long as people are willing to pony up that kind of cash, the athletic department will continue to sell the season tickets, 100% guaranteed. Only option would be to expand the stadium, and those might sell out too. At that point, there is no solution, unless you want to build a third deck.

 

[Bulldogg31]

Here’s an idea.

Add an “RSVP” feature to the Hail State app, where ticket holders can go online and let the university know which game tickets they will either be using (or selling themselves, giving to friends, whatever). If a ticket owner hasn’t “claimed” their seats 24-48 hours before kickoff, tip-off, or first pitch, then those seats go onto a ticket exchange where other people can buy them at face value. You’d need to send consistent “are you coming?” text messages, emails, letters, whatever leading up to the games so folks can’t get mad when their tickets go onto the exchange. Click “yes” and your tickets are claimed, no more reminders. Click “not sure” to be reminded again, click “not coming” to allow your tickets to go to the exchange.

There will still be folks who do nothing, lose their seats and then get upset before a game, but after a season or two it will be normal.

I’d also set it up where ticket owners can put tickets on the exchange as soon as they know they won’t be attending so they don’t have to wait for any 24-48 hour windows.

The proceeds for the resales can either go to the athletic dept, or back to the ticket owners, whatever, but the ticket owners can accrue BDC points by allowing their seats to go onto the exchange.

I know it’s not a perfect plan but it would help put folks in empty seats. I’d gladly pay face value for any game I attend, especially for good seats I can pick up a day or so before the game.

 

[patdog]

As good as that idea sounds, you just can't do it. People are going to forget to RSVP, or the app is going to go down for a minute and their RSVP isn't going to be recorded, and you're going to have some seriously pissed off season ticket holders when they show up and their ticket doesn't scan. And you can say well it's their own fault all you want to, but that won't change the fact that you've seriously pissed off some of your loyal donors. You'll open up some grandstand seats for next year when they simply don't renew though.

 

[MagnoliaHunter]

Modification of Bulldog31's plan

Here’s an idea.

Add an “RSVP” feature to the Hail State app, where ticket holders can go online and let the university know which game tickets they will either be using (or selling themselves, giving to friends, whatever). If a ticket owner hasn’t “claimed” their seats 24-48 hours before kickoff, tip-off, or first pitch, then those seats go onto a ticket exchange where other people can buy them at face value. You’d need to send consistent “are you coming?” text messages, emails, letters, whatever leading up to the games so folks can’t get mad when their tickets go onto the exchange. Click “yes” and your tickets are claimed, no more reminders. Click “not sure” to be reminded again, click “not coming” to allow your tickets to go to the exchange.

There will still be folks who do nothing, lose their seats and then get upset before a game, but after a season or two it will be normal.

I’d also set it up where ticket owners can put tickets on the exchange as soon as they know they won’t be attending so they don’t have to wait for any 24-48 hour windows.

The proceeds for the resales can either go to the athletic dept, or back to the ticket owners, whatever, but the ticket owners can accrue BDC points by allowing their seats to go onto the exchange.

I know it’s not a perfect plan but it would help put folks in empty seats. I’d gladly pay face value for any game I attend, especially for good seats I can pick up a day or so before the game.

Instead of taking away seats, If you have season tickets and are coming to a game, turn them back in to the ticket office and get some number of bulldog club points. This will give people more incentive to go to the trouble of turning tickets in.

 

[state2013]

Or just make the whole place general admission with the exception of maybe 2 or 3 rows.

 

[Madison Swinger]

Or just make the whole place general admission with the exception of maybe 2 or 3 rows.

View attachment 12817

 

[dawgstudent]

Or just make the whole place general admission with the exception of maybe 2 or 3 rows.

I can't tell if you are serious.