Despite having a 4-1 record it appears we are going to struggle at the gate the rest of the year. Stubhub was practically giving tickets away late Saturday to the Smoo gameâŠunfortunately, history tells us that UH is a hard sell when not in the national spotlight. We need people to step up and supportâŠbut then again whatâs newâŠevery year canât have the glitter of a NY6 bowlâŠ
It makes getting home easier
I donât think that is completely the issue. The ticketing scheme this year was altered significantly and the way the seats are priced makes no sense in some parts of the stadium.
No general admission, no family four pack season tickets, waiting till the last second to realize that you screwed up and then trying to do flash sales⊠I have said it before and I will keep saying it, the management in regards to pricing and scheme is lacking.
They are doing the same thing in basketball too.
They will mess up basketball too a then look around and go âwhat went wrong ?â.
I hope folks donât take this the wrong way but I can understand our staff wanting to increase season tickets, but playing most of our home games at TSU is not going to help. I personally have no problem at all parking and walking over to TSU for a game, but I have heard a lot of grumblings from many in our fan base. But it is what it is and hopefully we have decent crowds over at the Tiger pad. Heck, it canât be much worse than our crowds the last few years at the HofâŠlol
As far as football I canât believe we did away with the family packages and general admission. But I am not sure either would have helped last night against SMUâŠface it, SMU is not a rival and the city of Houston nor our fans get excited about playing them. Kind of weird how we drew better for a Rice team that might be the worst team in its historyâŠwe better keep winning or we will be giving away tickets to the Memphis gameâŠthe glitter of the wins over FSU, OU and Louisville has faded away and now coach Applewhite but fight to get us back on the map by rebuildingâŠ
Good news is that the ALCS wonât be going that night so no Astros game.
If we beat Tulsa, hopefully the memories of the last Memphis game in Houston will draw people to the game. Also be nice if Memphis is ranked.
Also, just a thought: two years ago we werenât even drawing 30k for Vanderbilt and only about 32k for Cincinnati and we were undefeated. Fan base is growing even if itâs not as fast as we want it to.
This is a what you get when hire some guy from Alabama to run your ticket office. Guy obviously has no clue about the the ticket market in Houston. That is not Alabama we are in a big metropolitan city with multiple attraction. Why would the AD hire somebody outside the city of Houston does not understand the market. AD just comes off so clueless sometimes.
The ticketing strategy for the new Fertita Center still makes absolutely no sense. He basically forcing fans to buy psa. Hello the Rockets of the NBA our in the city! If your look at the Fertita Center website can see how many the âpremium seatsâ our still available despite all Marketing and advertising been doing.
Yeah their only bringing the other plans back because they realized they did terrible job by not understanding the ticket market. These ticket plans should been available get go but the ticket office got greedy.
Theyâre available now with dogs and drinks. In the past, a family four pack of tickets was $399 or less, correct? I did it one year but didnât like sitting under the big screen.
There were a lot of people that counted on the family four pack SEASON TICKETS and not these family flash sales. People went from affording 4 season tickets to maybe buying two in the same area for the same price. We do have some spenders in Cougardom, but for most people, there is a finite amount of money one is willing to spend on UH Athletics.
Long story short⊠The ticket office - and in particular the Associate Athletics Director for Ticket Sales mentioned above - way overshot the mark in basketball last year and football this year. This comes from a profound misunderstanding of the city of Houston athletics market and demand. The worst part is that anyone that has lived in Houston for a considerable amount of time knows that when you screw up like UH Ticketing has, it takes years to recover and for some of the shafted fans to come back.
I am referring to long-time ticket holders in basketball getting moved involuntarily from their seats after decades of having them and in football -
the original plan:
and after:
Why the hell are the corner seats on the third level the same price as the central ones?
and this year:
Yes it has changed every year since the new ticketing Director has gotten here and has progressively gotten worse. How is the entire tier of the stadium the same price with just the donation changing? How are the 100 and 200 level tickets the same price? Why on earth are the central third deck home side donation requirements the same as the central 2nd deck north side?
You can blame it on the marketing department, the AD, or whatever, but frankly it boils down to lack of interest from what fans we have. Glad to see the students show up well last night, and really if you look at it 31k for SMU is not that bad when compared to other years. I think our fan base growing but at a much slower pace than we would want.
Bottom line is that we are going through another huge transition year with no OUâs or Louisville on our schedule. Last year was a nut buster for our program, but I think as long as our crowds remain over 30k we will be just fineâŠ
And btw, tickets were going as low as $5 each on Stubhub last nightâŠbetter than any package the U could have offeredâŠlol
This is a massive problem. If secondary ticket markets are losing money on our product, they will not be buying next year, i.e. a drop in season ticket sales.
UH should be maximizing what is really a new golden era of success in athletics. Whether the pressure is coming from higher or the decisions on seating maps and promotional plans are coming from the ticketing office, ticketing for football and basketball has really missed the mark. The original seating for football at TDECU was simple and effective ensuring the large donors had quality seating while the more thrifty spender had options available on a low budget. Occasional sellouts were occurring, and the fanbase has grown, partially due to the success of the football program and partially due to effective ticketing strategy.
However, over the previous two seasons changes have been rolled out that have hurt the long term marketability of the program. Last year, you got away with it because the schedule was so good and unprecedented expectations for the football team. This year, not so much. Next year, as secondary markets purchase fewer tickets to avoid getting caught due to low demand and people that got shafted the last two years donât return or only return for a game or two, and boom⊠you have a big problem.
Our marquee matchup next year⊠Arizona. Continue to ignore the problem that these changes to the ticketing strategy have created and we are going to fall below 30,000 next year. Giving away tickets for half their face value through flash sales and giveaways is bad anyway that you look at it.
You can argue the crowds are good considering the hurricane / subsequent flooding.
RegardlessâŠthis yearâs ticket office needs a strategy change starting with spring ball.
I honestly think a group of our fans thought we would lose so stayed away from the game. This should be the low water mark for the season. We have an exciting team so I think we will pick up attendance moving forward.