NRF pricing going to be a huge problem

[Purple Pile Driver]

The "Who cares?" attitude toward fans is just so offputtingly contemptuous of our own fledgling fan base, I just gotta say.

I agree with you more than I disagree with you about the stadium, as we've discussed this now over multiple threads. Tend to think "dynamic pricing" just comes with the territory when you have a fancy new stadium and college football in the NIL era is now all about keeping up with the Joneses in generating revenue. Agree that there's a lot of people not being realistic in expecting things to stay exactly as they were with Old Ryan Field, or wanting a price that doesn't track with the rest of the B1G. Even agree that you make a good point about higher-priced cheap seats keeping out as many visiting fans as NU backers.

But people are allowed to roll their eyes about it while they're handing over their wallet, especially when even this supposed solution...



...is being monetized too. Don't want to subscribe to new streaming networks, go read a box score while wearing purple, amirite? (Oof.)



Shrug. If higher prices are just the way of the world, people complaining about them are too. There's just as much "What else do you expect?" in the second half of that sentence as the first.

Well, go on to any social media platform and read the comments that basically say “Nice stadium, why can’t they fill it up”. Then the mocking begins with other criticisms related to the team, history, nerds, fan engagement etc. all to be expected as you seem to imply, but then I come on thus site to basically see our OWN fans literally complaining about just about everything stadium related. That’s off putting to me. They are entitled to complain as much as they want and I also am entitled to complain about their CONSTANT complaints.

I absolutely have a “who cares” attitude to people enjoying the game from the concourse or NU not selling out the stadium. Doesn’t bother me at all. I have been around long enough to know that dropping prices even in half wouldn’t result in an entirely filled stadium of Purple. If people don’t want to pay the offered price, they have a choice not to. This free board has morphed into Inside NU on steroids. We are having a surprise renaissance this season and there is more stadium talk than team talk. Maybe as you say, what do you expect?, but it is off putting to me.

 

[NU'06er]

We are having a surprise renaissance this season...

Cheers to that. We've looked great. Makes me excited for some of the tougher tests on our schedule instead of dreadful, which is a delightful way to go through the season...

 

[RiseNorthwestern]

Anyone know why we can't buy single game tickets for all the games yet? Seems like they are releasing Rutgers tickets Wednesday, but I want to buy some tickets for the Illinois game.

I get holding off to push season tickets, but at this point, why not open them up? Especially if you are having sell out issues.

 

[mickbula]

Anyone know why we can't buy single game tickets for all the games yet? Seems like they are releasing Rutgers tickets Wednesday, but I want to buy some tickets for the Illinois game.

I get holding off to push season tickets, but at this point, why not open them up? Especially if you are having sell out issues.

Seems illogical right?

 

[jne381]

I don't know what the right answer is in terms of pricing. It would be best to get the place filled with purple. I got to the stadium for the first time this past weekend, and it was pretty great. I had a few minor complaints, but those are things I imagine they are fixing as they present themselves.

I have been a STH for almost 20 years, and I complained about prices. I didn't expect them to stay as low as they were, but they seem to be significantly higher than similar tickets at other Big Ten venues. I will get a little annoyed when I can't go to the game, and I can't even get anything close to what I am paying for tickets on the secondary market. If it happens too often, I believe it will make STHs drop that status and just buy on a game to game basis.

I hope they can find the balance to not price out STHs and still fill the place with purple.

 

[phatcat_rivals223240]

This free board has morphed into Inside NU on steroids.

A) good.
B) there is plenty of game discourse on INU, just as there are plenty of non stadium threads/topics here
C) Why is the free board even worth wasting your breath?

You don't care about whether the stadium is half full, or full of visiting fans, fine. Entitled to your opinion. I'm surprised and disappointed that you don't care about the financial effect on the modest fan base we still have. But...many companies have embraced the new business model of fewer, high margin clients. Apparently, NU/Ryans would rather have 10k high priced fans than 30k (plus a few visitors) at a price they can afford. If that's the case, they could have saved a few hundred million and made it 20k luxury seats

 

[zeek55]

Everyone just has to take a step back and reflect for a moment: We just had 35k for the opener and 25k+ for a 1-5 Ball State team.

Reminder: past 2 seasons every game has been at 12k on campus and in 2023 the highest game attended was the old RF finale against Purdue with 23,291.

In other words, the fanbase is a fair bit healthier than it was in 2023 (I'm aware that's not a high bar given the pre-season debacle that year). The Iowa game will be a sellout; hopefully there's less than 10k Iowa fans in here, but who knows; plus Iowa is good this year so their fans will be even more incentivized to bid up tickets and show up to a possibly ranked matchup of both teams.

The Rutgers game is a more interesting test to me because they won't be bringing many fans, so that's probably a better measure of what the Northwestern fanbase looks like against a Big Ten opponent (even a non-traditional one).

Either way, this season is about the admin learning how to properly price tickets and all of the learning that goes into that. The next season will also be more of a learning experience as well as they see what the real season ticket numbers look like (and winning 8 or 9 games this year would help with that). It will take some time, but if we win and they get the pricing set appropriately, we can have a mostly full purple crowd throughout the year. That's the goal, but it will take a few years and some success to get there.

I have 0 worries about ticket sales this year to this point or the rest of the season.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

A) good.
B) there is plenty of game discourse on INU, just as there are plenty of non stadium threads/topics here
C) Why is the free board even worth wasting your breath?

You don't care about whether the stadium is half full, or full of visiting fans, fine. Entitled to your opinion. I'm surprised and disappointed that you don't care about the financial effect on the modest fan base we still have. But...many companies have embraced the new business model of fewer, high margin clients. Apparently, NU/Ryans would rather have 10k high priced fans than 30k (plus a few visitors) at a price they can afford. If that's the case, they could have saved a few hundred million and made it 20k luxury seats

The problem is your case does not hold water. The Ryan’s are pretty astute business people. The end goal is to full NRF with purple at the set pricing. It’s not to fill the stadium with low margin Butts regardless of affiliation. Do These opposing fans make the experience better for NU STH’s? How did ST sales do this year? Try to get a seat in the Loft club. Entirely sold out to NU STH’s. 100 level and Mezzanine level between the goal lines entirely STH’s or damn close. I can tell you the first two games were Utopia not sitting anywhere near visiting fans. NU was never going to sell out the stadium to NU fans even if they charged $10 for the seats that are currently unsold! It makes no sense to lower the prices to a point that it pisses off the actual STH’s either for the disparity pricing or the fact they could be over run with these opponents fans.

Maybe they will make adjustments next season in these less desirable seats. Don’t know, but I suspect they won’t be lowered to the point it encourages ticket brokers to buy them up or shade tree NU fans that buy for 1-2 games they want to attend and then try and profit in the after market.

As far as Inside NU, you may be right. Maybe it is filled with interesting football thoughts, I gave up on it a few years ago, because a bunch of posters were either so negative or completely uninformed that it wasn’t worth my time to read the drivel. As far as this site, there are still a lot of good posters, if I see a topic that interests me or a poster that I know, I generally read and/or participate. If not, I skip it.

 

[zeek55]

One other reminder: (which supports @Purple Pile Driver's point):

In this new stadium especially: something like 10% of the seats will generate around 40+% of the revenue (and those will be sold out at pretty much every game for the foreseeable future). So that's 3000-4000 of our purple fans that will generally be paying near a half the revenue the stadium needs to generate at every game. That's just a reality of why they built this kind of palace.

In a modern NIL world where we have to pay players and try to compete in a Big Ten full of high spenders; we need a stadium with NFL-level premium seating. That's why the Ryans chose this direction for the stadium. The AD needs the revenue to compete because we're likely going to need to escalate our NIL towards the middle or upper half of the conference. It's a lot harder with a smaller fanbase, but this is the one way that it's doable when you have several thousand wealthy alums that want to win.

They can work at the margins to figure out how to get the extra seats filled as they learn what demand is for the last few thousand seats that are unsold at a game like Ball State.

The Ball State game probably generated a revenue number not that far off from the Penn State game for example because the premium seats were filled despite the 25k vs 35k overall disparity.

 

[NU'06er]

The Ball State game probably generated a revenue number not that far off from the Penn State game for example because the premium seats were filled despite the 25k vs 35k overall disparity.

I think the point is that it's not good for the sport as a whole that we've hit a point where the presence or absence of 10,000 fans is negligible, even if I don't blame Northwestern in the slightest for building a stadium that is revenue-optimal.

Purple Pile Driver is correct that complaining about it may as well be the Simpsons' Old Man Yells at Cloud meme.

But there are plenty of NU fans that fit the profile of Grandpa Abe for whom that is cold comfort.

Again, ultimately, shrug.

 

[NU'06er]

As far as Inside NU, you may be right. Maybe it is filled with interesting football thoughts, I gave up on it a few years ago, because a bunch of posters were either so negative or completely uninformed that it wasn’t worth my time to read the drivel.

For my money, the problem with iNU is the moderation, which doesn't seem to know its own site rules.

They nominally prohibit trolling, then have 100+ comment threads where ignoring two people wipes out all but a couple comments from visibility. But they can't figure out that those problem commenters insistence on inserting themselves into every conversation with their respective agendas is indeed trolling behavior that is driving people away, whether intentional or not.

Just like here, there are some quality posters and discussions to be had. But there's a frustrating amount of noise to signal (which go figure, seems to be the main complaint about the free board here, so I guess apropos of this entire stadium thread -- you get what you pay for)...

 

[zeek55]

I think the point is that it's not good for the sport as a whole that we've hit a point where the presence or absence of 10,000 fans is negligible, even if I don't blame Northwestern in the slightest for building a stadium that is revenue-optimal.

Purple Pile Driver is correct that complaining about it may as well be the Simpsons' Old Man Yells at Cloud meme.

But there are plenty of NU fans that fit the profile of Grandpa Abe for whom that is cold comfort.

Again, ultimately, shrug.

I get it and generally I agree with you (and others who lament the changes that have happened).

The AD (and Ryan family) stuck a finger in the air and realized which way the wind was blowing. I'd also just say that this is likely only the beginning.

Even here at NU, I wouldn't be surprised if we see >$50 million per year in roster NIL+revenue share in the next couple of years. Just a few years ago, that number was $0.

That's the reality of where we are if we're going to compete in the Big Ten and at the highest level of the sport; and if we're going to do that as a small private school, then there's no real alternative other than to have new RF as a "dozens of days" a year NFL-quality premium facility bringing in tens of millions of dollars.

 

[phatcat_rivals223240]

"Exclusive Pre-Sale" email for Rutgers. Upper deck seats for $57. A nice to season tix holders who paid 100.

(I'm in lower deck and paid 200)

 

[Sheffielder]

This issue is like politics - everyone wants to espouse their opinions while no minds are being changed. Everyone's heels are firmly dug in.

I will just say this...earlier this morning I got an email offering an "exclusive presale" for tickets vs. Rutgers starting at $57...which is barely half of what I paid for the same seats (and no I'm not speaking hypothetically, I checked the seating chart and corresponding prices). This is on the heels of finding out on Saturday that there is definitely a mailing list for certain people to buy unsold tickets last-minute for $25...that are definitely better seats than mine that cost exponentially more.

To answer someone's question from earlier in this thread, they aren't offering single tickets to every game yet because they are very publicly fumbling their way through figuring out how much "the market" will pay for tickets, and the answer isn't looking good (although I'm sure as we all are that the Iowa game will be fine).

As I type this, I do not plan to renew my season tickets next year, for the first time in over 20 years...not because I don't plan on going to the games, but because I don't like standing here like a fool with overpriced tickets in my hand when I could have paid half or less for them...especially with no club seats or parking to show for it. Again...Northwestern wanted to make this a business-first relationship...that cuts both ways as they are learning in real time.

If anyone from the ticket office is reading this...and I suspect someone is...you are royally screwing this up, at least when it comes to solidifying your base.

 

[NU'06er]

This issue is like politics - everyone wants to espouse their opinions while no minds are being changed. Everyone's heels are firmly dug in.

I will just say this...earlier this morning I got an email offering an "exclusive presale" for tickets vs. Rutgers starting at $57...which is barely half of what I paid for the same seats (and no I'm not speaking hypothetically, I checked the seating chart and corresponding prices). This is on the heels of finding out on Saturday that there is definitely a mailing list for certain people to buy unsold tickets last-minute for $25...that are definitely better seats than mine that cost exponentially more.

To answer someone's question from earlier in this thread, they aren't offering single tickets to every game yet because they are very publicly fumbling their way through figuring out how much "the market" will pay for tickets, and the answer isn't looking good (although I'm sure as we all are that the Iowa game will be fine).

As I type this, I do not plan to renew my season tickets next year, for the first time in over 20 years...not because I don't plan on going to the games, but because I don't like standing here like a fool with overpriced tickets in my hand when I could have paid half or less for them...especially with no club seats or parking to show for it. Again...Northwestern wanted to make this a business-first relationship...that cuts both ways as they are learning in real time.

If anyone from the ticket office is reading this...and I suspect someone is...you are royally screwing this up, at least when it comes to solidifying your base.

Oddly enough, I actually think (most if not) everyone pretty much agrees NRF tickets are more expensive than they need to be.

The disagreement seems to be how to react to that, along a spectrum from "This is what they wanted all along, to price out visiting fans vulturing cheap seats and offer a premium experience" to "Don't like it, but not surprised, this is just the way modern college football is" to "What a betrayal of long-time season ticket holders." (i.e. are you the sucker if this team supposedly matters to you but you can't figure out how to get in the door anyway, or are you the sucker if you hold your nose and hand over your money?)

Anyway, it is what it is. Let's go beat Sparty.

 

[its_the_sauce]

This issue is like politics - everyone wants to espouse their opinions while no minds are being changed. Everyone's heels are firmly dug in.

I will just say this...earlier this morning I got an email offering an "exclusive presale" for tickets vs. Rutgers starting at $57...which is barely half of what I paid for the same seats (and no I'm not speaking hypothetically, I checked the seating chart and corresponding prices). This is on the heels of finding out on Saturday that there is definitely a mailing list for certain people to buy unsold tickets last-minute for $25...that are definitely better seats than mine that cost exponentially more.

To answer someone's question from earlier in this thread, they aren't offering single tickets to every game yet because they are very publicly fumbling their way through figuring out how much "the market" will pay for tickets, and the answer isn't looking good (although I'm sure as we all are that the Iowa game will be fine).

As I type this, I do not plan to renew my season tickets next year, for the first time in over 20 years...not because I don't plan on going to the games, but because I don't like standing here like a fool with overpriced tickets in my hand when I could have paid half or less for them...especially with no club seats or parking to show for it. Again...Northwestern wanted to make this a business-first relationship...that cuts both ways as they are learning in real time.

If anyone from the ticket office is reading this...and I suspect someone is...you are royally screwing this up, at least when it comes to solidifying your base.

Knock your socks off..

I've already told my AE I'm looking to upgrade for next year.

 

[Sheffielder]

Oddly enough, I actually think (most if not) everyone pretty much agrees NRF tickets are more expensive than they need to be.

The disagreement seems to be how to react to that, along a spectrum from "This is what they wanted all along, to price out visiting fans vulturing cheap seats and offer a premium experience" to "Don't like it, but not surprised, this is just the way modern college football is" to "What a betrayal of long-time season ticket holders." (i.e. are you the sucker if this team supposedly matters to you but you can't figure out how to get in the door anyway, or are you the sucker if you hold your nose and hand over your money?)

Anyway, it is what it is. Let's go beat Sparty.

I agree with all sentiments here...I think we've all chosen the hills we want to die on for this particular topic, for better or worse. I also think most of us (myself included, admittedly) have a bad case of tunnel vision on the problems and potential solutions.

 

[Sheffielder]

Knock your socks off..

I've already told my AE I'm looking to upgrade for next year.

fast forward to the commercial where we're sitting next to each other and a narrator says "one of these people paid four times as much for the same seat..."

 

[its_the_sauce]

fast forward to the commercial where we're sitting next to each other and a narrator says "one of these people paid four times as much for the same seat..."

That's possible. If it happens I'm not losing sleep over it.