USM Ticket Sales

[ShockerFever]

How can you get a good read on what this fanbase would due by bringing in UAB on Thanksgiving weekend and Southern Miss on the Christmas holiday weekend? Remember, those of us that post on SN and those that just lurk are some of the most rabid of Shocker fans and a fair number of all those live out of town. During the 90's you got a good idea of the heart of the fanbase. Average attendence was generally between 5,500 and 7,500. Beyond those numbers are the ones that you need to attract to make IBA a success. That's going to be tough during those weekends, against those teams, with this economy, almost regardless of what the Shockers are doing. And don't expect large numbers of that group to be early buyers when they expect (now rightfully so) discounted tickets to be available.

Really? Has Thanksgiving or Christmas weekend kept fans away from Koch in the past? What about the New Year's Eve/Day games we've had at Koch? That's a bunch of Grade A BS and excuses. They were scheduled on those days for a reason. More often then not, those are the times when families get together and bring more potential people for those coming into town. And you're really stretching with the December 22nd with Christmas. It should have no bearing at all. It didn't stop 14,000 from attending the Tulsa game on December 21, 2010, did it? And you continue to ignore the fact that this is a team now ranked 23rd in the country. This isn't a middling Valley team. This is a team that everyone wants and strives for. Again, I don't know what more you can do... Southern Miss certainly isn't garbage. Even K-State/WSU tweener fans would recognize them since they played KState in the NCAA's last year. A quick google search of their record by a casual fan sees they're not terrible.

I expected some to wait for the ridiculous discounts. No doubt. But it better be packed or it'll say a lot about this great fanbase. And it'll also say a lot to Marshall and the promoter for any future, potential "bigger" games involving WSU at IBA. And I always thought the Shocks were the hottest ticket in town.. I guess there are exceptions.

[ShockerFever]

And actually considering the economy, holiday, and opponent the original prices were too high. $39 to $152 to not sit in a nose bleed section is pretty high.

$152 are for a row of courtside seats, which were all sold btw. If you factor in the a SASO donation for seats about 10-15 rows up in court and add in the cost of a ticket for a game in Koch, you'd probably come up to something close to $39. But again, there are cheaper alternatives. You get what you pay for..

[shox1989]

I agree that $39 isn't too far off for a good seat in the Koch when you factor in SASO but $39 only gets you seats behind the baskets at Intrust. It is $67 for lower bowl seats if you don't want to sit behind the baskets. I think that is a little steep (I bought them anyway).

Personally I think $39 for most of the lower level seats (plus some higher prices for the first few rows) with $29 behind the baskets would have been much more reasonable. With around $20 for the upper bowl. I think those kind of prices would have stimulated much better ticket sales.

But there were people like me who paid the $67 and we are probably now subsidizing the $8.50 and $12 seats in the upper bowl.

I don't really care I would just love to see the place sold out and I am not sure the promoter priced this thing right to do that. Hopefully with the discounts it will happen. But they need to sell a lot seats in the next 11 days.

[shox1989]

It appears that the discounting is working, I just clicked on the dealsaver link and it says they have already sold 572 tickets today (just through that offer that doesn't count the other sales or discounts).

It took them 10 days to sell around 200 tickets from all sources before the discounting started.

[GoShockers89]

A win on Thursday would really juice the fairweather crowd, probably the difference between selling 9-10k vs. 11-12k even with the discounts.

[ShockTalk]

Really? Has Thanksgiving or Christmas weekend kept fans away from Koch in the past? What about the New Year's Eve/Day games we've had at Koch? That's a bunch of Grade A BS and excuses. They were scheduled on those days for a reason. More often then not, those are the times when families get together and bring more potential people for those coming into town. And you're really stretching with the December 22nd with Christmas. It should have no bearing at all. It didn't stop 14,000 from attending the Tulsa game on December 21, 2010, did it? And you continue to ignore the fact that this is a team now ranked 23rd in the country. This isn't a middling Valley team. This is a team that everyone wants and strives for. Again, I don't know what more you can do... Southern Miss certainly isn't garbage. Even K-State/WSU tweener fans would recognize them since they played KState in the NCAA's last year. A quick google search of their record by a casual fan sees they're not terrible.

I expected some to wait for the ridiculous discounts. No doubt. But it better be packed or it'll say a lot about this great fanbase. And it'll also say a lot to Marshall and the promoter for any future, potential "bigger" games involving WSU at IBA. And I always thought the Shocks were the hottest ticket in town.. I guess there are exceptions.

Really? Yes. There's no way to go back and check the numbers because of how the count is done. There is no way we've had 10,300 at some of the last games at Koch. However, I did go back to see what games there were. But, first, this Dec. 22nd is not a stretch because a lot of folks either get off or take off the "long Christmas weekend" and may travel. This time, Christmas is on Tuesday and many take off Monday as well.

Nevertheless, since Marshall has been here, the only time WSU has played on Thanksgiving or the extended Christmas weekend was last year against UAB and now this year with USM. The Tulsa game was the weekend prior to the Christmas weekend and it was Tulsa, a game with some sizzle (poor example to compare). As for New Year's Eve, the last game of December is always a conference game and the last one was against Creighton (another poor example to test).

Lastly, what makes you, or anyone, think that because WSU doesn't do great guns at filling IBA on those weekends, against good, but not high profile type teams, that they wouldn't sell out against an Xavier, Gonzaga, OU, Missouri, VCU, Butler, Georgetown, Alabama. The type of teams that won't play us at Koch, even with a home/home.

[GoShockers89]

The quality of the opponent theory will get put to the test next season when we have Tennessee at IBA. HCGM is also looking to start another home and home on the road next season against a high profile opponent with the idea of pulling them into IBA in 2014 for the return game.

Hopefully this is the last year that ticket sales are a legitimate concern for the Intrust game.

[shox1989]

BTW- Just checked the dealsaver link and they are sold out. They sold their allotment of tickets (apparently 600) in 24 hours or less. I wonder if they will do another deal since that one sold out so fast (they were allowing around a week and sold them in one day).

[SB Shock]

8635 tickets left

7,617 seats left

[JaminShock]

Buying four very soon for myself, my Dad, my brother, and my nephew, none of whom have ever seen a WSU game in person. I hope the arena isn't half-empty for their first exposure to WSU hoops.

[1972Shocker]

The quality of the opponent theory will get put to the test next season when we have Tennessee at IBA. HCGM is also looking to start another home and home on the road next season against a high profile opponent with the idea of pulling them into IBA in 2014 for the return game.

Hopefully this is the last year that ticket sales are a legitimate concern for the Intrust game.

Do we know yet whether that Tennessee game will be part of the season ticket package or is that game also being promoted by a 3rd party?

[GoShockers89]

Get ready for mega-Groupon deals, this sucker's gonna be a tomb without em.

[ShockerFever]

Get ready for mega-Groupon deals, this sucker's gonna be a tomb without em.

$8.50/ticket already seems pretty mega to me. But I'm sure the bandwagon will shrink some, now that we're gonna lose that little number next to our name.

[shox1989]

They may just need to sell some more $8.50 tickets. The first 600 sold out in less than 24 hours.

[RomeoCrennel's Belly]

Sad really. The atmosphere won't be as good as Koch and it's going to look like an Atlanta Hawks game or something.