Ticket Sales Lagging

[JFCats22]

I am looking forward to this season. More than any season in a long time. 1) we are going to be good and 2) my son is playing soccer at Bellarmine this fall so I will be in KY more than I have been since leaving UK and will get to go to 2-3 games.

However, I spoke to someone today connected to UKAA about a lot of things. But, the one thing he shared was the "huge concern" over UK football tickets this season. He said people just are not buying tickets. And not in the all schools are losing attendance type of concern. He said the folks around football, Barnhart, etc... have major worries about attendance and ticket sales. According to him, they are 25-30% off of where they thought they would be right now.

[40bill]

Bad bad losses at seasons end PLUS snatching defeat from the jaws of victory against Florida are big contributors.
juat from what I've read, the Louisville game over a year ago was the real beginning of great hopes. The game against the same team last season was like hitting an ice Berg.
Whether that is a legitimate reason or not is debatable, throwing in a lot of factors. Losing the last game of the season at home and not forcing a punt is a deflating experience after all the hope and dreams.

[WildcatRick]

I know from some of our tailgaters and others around us that fans are not renewing their tickets over parking passes and other things UK has been handling poorly for several years now. And I am not talking about a few folks.

[Spiritof96]

I am looking forward to this season. More than any season in a long time. 1) we are going to be good and 2) my son is playing soccer at Bellarmine this fall so I will be in KY more than I have been since leaving UK and will get to go to 2-3 games.

However, I spoke to someone today connected to UKAA about a lot of things. But, the one thing he shared was the "huge concern" over UK football tickets this season. He said people just are not buying tickets. And not in the all schools are losing attendance type of concern. He said the folks around football, Barnhart, etc... have major worries about attendance and ticket sales. According to him, they are 25-30% off of where they thought they would be right now.

The market corrects price. Those tickets while cheap by SEC standards are costly and parking is insane. Add that to the, are we really gonna be good vibe around the program and I'd say it's unsurprising. Win eight regular season games and problem solved. (or cut prices)

[40bill]

I think the price thing is the main deal. A lot of us are a bit older, and a four hour drive for a long walk from a bad spot to pay high ticket prices just isn't as attractive as it once was.

But I agree...eight wins on up and the prices would look better.

[Old School]

No doubt many UK fans, including many longtime season ticket holders, have been put off by various developments and aren't renewing tickets. Parking costs, unpredictable game times, the comfort of watching at home in HD, losing longtime seats after the stadium renovation, watching UK basically build the entire stadium around a handful of wealthy donors and kick everyone around for sake of building a special area for the fat cats - all of those things have taken a toll. I'm not sure how much I could attribute a decline in ticket sales to on the field performance. This program had loyal attendance through a lot of bad years. These haven't been bad years. Granted, a lot of folks who were a lot younger when they'd buck up and attend games despite Bill Curry being the coach aren't as young, and that takes a toll in terms of physical demands of game day: parking, 4 hour game duration now, drives to and from home, etc. Some of those people aren't as eager to make every game, and perhaps younger fans aren't as eager to see 7 win teams as the older fans were. But even if there's some truth to that, I can't imagine that people unhappy with 7 win seasons accounts for much if any net decline in ticket sales.

I am certain that something else is at play. There is also a general decline in ticket sales nationally. It isn't limited to college football. The Washington Redskins, after decades of having a waiting list for season tickets, now can't sell them all and is offering single game packages. For many years that was one of the tougher tickets in sports due to high demand. Everywhere, factors mentioned above - cost in time and money, ease and comfort of watching elsewhere, watching stadiums cater to the wealthy even more obviously than airlines do - are resulting in more and more people deciding to stay home instead of shelling out time and money to attend sports events (football in particular) in person.

[fastkat]

I think it's that way in general. I play music and we don't see as many people out as we used to.

[KevinHall]

UK needs to beat someone really good and that would help a lot. Ending that 30+ year losing streak to Florida would be a good step in the right direction. Also every game is on TV. I mean every team and every game is on TV or the Internet. After a while people will say I will just stay home and watch rather than pay out all that money for tickets,concessions and parking. I don't blame them one bit either.

[Brother_Vol]

The market corrects price. Those tickets while cheap by SEC standards are costly and parking is insane. Add that to the, are we really gonna be good vibe around the program and I'd say it's unsurprising. Win eight regular season games and problem solved. (or cut prices)

This exactly. We have the same thread going on volnation right now. Put a product worth the price on the field and you'll never have a problem filling Neyland. But one of those values has to change, price or quality of product. It only took a decade for folks to figure it out I guess.

P.S. Good seeing everyone. I'll be around more often as the season gets closer

[Spiritof96]

This exactly. We have the same thread going on volnation right now. Put a product worth the price on the field and you'll never have a problem filling Neyland. But one of those values has to change, price or quality of product. It only took a decade for folks to figure it out I guess.

P.S. Good seeing everyone. I'll be around more often as the season gets closer

I lurk on Vol nation sometimes to see what the enemy is up to... Or to laugh at the hysterics when something goes bad for UT. The Football coaching search was to die for.

Good to see you and good luck until you play UK. #Caytsby90

[Brother_Vol]

I lurk on Vol nation sometimes to see what the enemy is up to... Or to laugh at the hysterics when something goes bad for UT. The Football coaching search was to die for.

Good to see you and good luck until you play UK. #Caytsby90

I'd be lying if I said that anything other than the meltdown periods were the best times on Volnation. It's probably not quite as enjoyable for me but definitely helpful to put priorities in perspective haha.

#JustDon'tGetBlownOut

[Matt Dillon]

This exactly. We have the same thread going on volnation right now. Put a product worth the price on the field and you'll never have a problem filling Neyland. But one of those values has to change, price or quality of product. It only took a decade for folks to figure it out I guess.

P.S. Good seeing everyone. I'll be around more often as the season gets closer

Welcome back. It's good to hear from you.

[Jload]

The program needs something exciting to happen, let's face it people don't want to pay high prices and walk 2 miles to the stadium , at least the nondiehards, to see us beat Central Michigan. Beat Florida or a really good team and that might change. Other than beating a fading UL team a couple of years ago that hasn't happened in the Stoops era. It also hasn't helped the coming season when we finish the previous one so poorly. Our Movemder record and losing our bowl games has not built any momentum going into the next season. Finally our style of play especially on offense is pretty vanilla Gran getting leads and trying to sit on them and losing late is very deflating and has happened in several big games. IMO Stoops has played not to lose in many games and has done just that lost It is very deflating for fans. Last years Florida game where we had an edge or were at least their equal talent wise is a perfect example

[Blue Heaven]

We had Florida beat. TWICE in the last few seasons. Head scratching "tough" wins against lesser teams.
The South Carolina wins aren't enough to keep fans coming back. We HAVE to beat Florida and totally blowout the EKUs and Central Michigans of the world. Do that regularly and ticket prices won't mean squat to our fanbase.

[40bill]

At this stage of my fan life, I will concede Florida as a curse from someone and maybe even Georgia as, well, Georgia.
Win all the rest and I will be satisfied.
Until next year.