NU ticket sales are rolling

[lou v]

I was at practice today and talked to an NU official who told me that NU has sold somewhere around 26,000 season tickets this year. That is the highest number of the Fitz era. There are only around 400 or so left. He said that they could get close to 40,000 for Duke on Saturday.

That's pretty impressive. And students aren't even in yet.

 

[Max_Power]

I was at practice today and talked to an NU official who told me that NU has sold somewhere around 26,000 season tickets this year. That is the highest number of the Fitz era. There are only around 400 or so left. He said that they could get close to 40,000 for Duke on Saturday.

That's pretty impressive. And students aren't even in yet.

Sideline seats going for $6 this weekend on stubhub. I expect 20k empties this weekend including a DJ playing to the empty student section.

 

[willycat]

Sideline seats going for $6 this weekend on stubhub. I expect 20k empties this weekend including a DJ playing to the empty student section.

Sounds like you and the guy who works for NU differ by about 10,000 . Who shall we believe?

 

[NJCat]

Sounds like you and the guy who works for NU differ by about 10,000 . Who shall we believe?

Believe your eyes Saturday afternoon....

 

[Williesfan]

Sounds like you and the guy who works for NU differ by about 10,000 . Who shall we believe?

The only concern I have is that the 26K ST holders may not all be NU fans. Which would be indicated by the Stubhub postings.

 

[lou v]

Sideline seats going for $6 this weekend on stubhub. I expect 20k empties this weekend including a DJ playing to the empty student section.

Well, the student section will be empty. We know that. They're not in school yet. The ticket sales are what they are. We'll just see how many are Notre Dame fans (and maybe some Michigan and Nebraska fans) who bought season tickets for just one game. I don't know how they came up with the Duke estimate, but they think it could be more than Stanford in 2015, which was just over 36K.

 

[NJCat]

I don't know how they came up with the Duke estimate, but they think it could be more than Stanford in 2015, which was just over 36K.

It's not like Duke fans travel well. Heck, they don't even show up in Wallace-Wade. With iffy weather I'm guessing low 30's......

 

[pschatz25]

Well, the student section will be empty. We know that. They're not in school yet. The ticket sales are what they are. We'll just see how many are Notre Dame fans (and maybe some Michigan and Nebraska fans) who bought season tickets for just one game. I don't know how they came up with the Duke estimate, but they think it could be more than Stanford in 2015, which was just over 36K.

The crowd for that Stanford game was very solid, both in size and enthusiasm.

As for the ST sales, I would hope they're up. And I'm sure there are NU fans who were pushed over the edge to get STs because of the schedule. In fact I know a few of those people. But there are also fans of other teams and brokers that are looking to cash. I know a few of those people too. So hopefully NU fan attendance improves a bit, but I don't think we're closing in on 40k fans in purple.

 

[Mr Wickerpark]

It's not like Duke fans travel well. Heck, they don't even show up in Wallace-Wade. With iffy weather I'm guessing low 30's......

If the weather holds up then we will get 28,000 + any High School band teams. Not much demand for this game although it will be a goody.

 

[ParisCat]

The Wall Street Journal had an article the other week regarding "college football's attendance problem." Its analysis showed that actual attendance (i.e. based on scanned tickets) was only about 71% of announced attendance, nationally. I assume the 40,000 estimate from NU is based on ticket sales, and that actual attendance for Duke will be substantially less, but we'll see...

 

[Max_Power]

Sounds like you and the guy who works for NU differ by about 10,000 . Who shall we believe?

If you are talking ticket sales they might get 35k to 40k if its a great day. But there are gonna be a lot of empties. Hence the stubhub flooded market.

 

[zeek55]

I was at practice today and talked to an NU official who told me that NU has sold somewhere around 26,000 season tickets this year. That is the highest number of the Fitz era. There are only around 400 or so left. He said that they could get close to 40,000 for Duke on Saturday.

That's pretty impressive. And students aren't even in yet.

Last year's season ticket sales were around 19k right?

So that's a huge increase (largely due to the quality of schedule: ND, Nebraska, Michigan, Wisconsin; in small part due to our continued success on the field).

I had earlier estimated around 33k average for Duke, Akron, and Illinois combined (Illinois the lowest, Duke the highest of those 3) with around 40k for Wisconsin and the other 3 sellouts (ND, Nebraska, Michigan). That would put the season average around 40k.

But if the season ticket base is up more than expected, it's reasonable to expect an average of around 35k for Duke/Akron/Illinois and then Wisconsin to be closer to a sellout than 40k. Season average will probably be around 41-42k in that case.

 

[Wrestlerneverdiesasacatfan]

I was at practice today and talked to an NU official who told me that NU has sold somewhere around 26,000 season tickets this year. That is the highest number of the Fitz era. There are only around 400 or so left. He said that they could get close to 40,000 for Duke on Saturday.

That's pretty impressive. And students aren't even in yet.

25,000-30-000

 

[CoralSpringsCat]

The only concern I have is that the 26K ST holders may not all be NU fans. Which would be indicated by the Stubhub postings.

The only concern I have is beating Duke.

 

[hdhntr1]

Sideline seats going for $6 this weekend on stubhub. I expect 20k empties this weekend including a DJ playing to the empty student section.

Akron I can believe 20k empty. DUKE would seem closer to 10K

 

[pawildcat]

25,000-30-000

That would actually be a decent crowd considering Duke won't bring many.

 

[phatcat]

I think that the season ticket increase is fueled by ND and possibly others buying season to get their own game and dumping the rest, like the 1st Nebraska year and the Wrigley year

 

[gocatsgo2003]

I think that the season ticket increase is fueled by ND and possibly others buying season to get their own game and dumping the rest, like the 1st Nebraska year and the Wrigley year

And Nebraska fans.

 

[Fitz51]

Sounds like you and the guy who works for NU differ by about 10,000 . Who shall we believe?

Max is right. Tickets sold versus actual attendance may differ significantly for Duke and Akron, given how many STs were sold to people seeking the marquee matchups.

 

[hdhntr1]

I think that the season ticket increase is fueled by ND and possibly others buying season to get their own game and dumping the rest, like the 1st Nebraska year and the Wrigley year

There are a lot of good games for attendance this year. Yes ND is the big one but Mich, Neb and Wis draw pretty well. DUKE being the first game is likely to draw better than it has in the past. Regarding AKRON and IL... well you cannot win them all.

 

[FloridAlum]

It's not like Duke fans travel well. Heck, they don't even show up in Wallace-Wade. With iffy weather I'm guessing low 30's......

I was astonished at how bad the attendance was last year at Duke. That is partly why I was able to get a large block of tickets in a pretty good location and a very good price
PS The last two times we went to Duke, I was the single largest customer in the entire stadium. The second largest ticket order was about 30 or 40 seats less than my block.

 

[zeek55]

Duke's 2016 visit had attendance of 34,464 (which was 3,700 above the Western Michigan and Illinois State games).

Let's assume that an extra 4000 regular single ticket buyers (anyone coming in not on season tickets) end up grabbing tickets off of Stubhub from the ~7000 new season ticket buyers.

Something like this is reasonable:

ND/Nebraska/Michigan: sellouts
Wisconsin: 44,000
Duke: 37,500
Akron: 34,000
Illinois: 32,000

Average would be over 41,000.

Of course, real attendance (i.e. butts in seats) would only increase modestly compared to 2016-2017 for Duke/Akron/Illinois (an extra 1000 or so in real attendance increases), but on the whole attendance should be up in real terms for most of the games.

 

[hdhntr1]

Duke's 2016 visit had attendance of 34,464 (which was 3,700 above the Western Michigan and Illinois State games).

Let's assume that an extra 4000 regular single ticket buyers (anyone coming in not on season tickets) end up grabbing tickets off of Stubhub from the ~7000 new season ticket buyers.

Something like this is reasonable:

ND/Nebraska/Michigan: sellouts
Wisconsin: 44,000
Duke: 37,500
Akron: 34,000
Illinois: 32,000

Average would be over 41,000.

Of course, real attendance (i.e. butts in seats) would only increase modestly compared to 2016-2017 for Duke/Akron/Illinois (an extra 1000 or so in real attendance increases), but on the whole attendance should be up in real terms for most of the games.

With 26k ST sales plus 5 k students and what NU gives to other BT schools, I would guess you are going to see ND, Mich (good thing it is early in the year), NEB and WIS all being sellouts or virtual sellouts. Even DUKE will be close to 40K tickets sold (26 +5 student tickets still counted plus others) AKRON will be about 35K and IL likely 35K Actual attendance for DUKE might be 37but AKRON likely below 30K and 32 if we beat DUKE. IL may be our lowest attended game unless we keep on winning.

 

[NJCat]

With 26k ST sales plus 5 k students and what NU gives to other BT schools, I would guess you are going to see ND, Mich (good thing it is early in the year), NEB and WIS all being sellouts or virtual sellouts. Even DUKE will be close to 40K tickets sold (26 +5 student tickets still counted plus others) AKRON will be about 35K and IL likely 35K Actual attendance for DUKE might be 37but AKRON likely below 30K and 32 if we beat DUKE. IL may be our lowest attended game unless we keep on winning.

I'd be willing to bet that the Illinois game after Thanksgiving will be the lowest actual attendance no matter what the Cats record is. A cold holiday weekend with no students and a crap opponent doesn't bode well for butts in the bleachers.

 

[zeek55]

Going into the last weekend, unless we have 10 wins or Illinois has 5 wins, I don't see how the Illinois game has more than 32-33k. Illinois games have been among our lowest attended the past couple of years...

We'd have to be going for the division title or Illinois fighting for a bowl to entice people to that game.

 

[Williesfan]

There are a lot of good games for attendance this year. Yes ND is the big one but Mich, Neb and Wis draw pretty well. DUKE being the first game is likely to draw better than it has in the past. Regarding AKRON and IL... well you cannot win them all.

But those are two we should.

 

[EvanstonCat]

I was at practice today and talked to an NU official who told me that NU has sold somewhere around 26,000 season tickets this year. That is the highest number of the Fitz era. There are only around 400 or so left. He said that they could get close to 40,000 for Duke on Saturday.

That's pretty impressive. And students aren't even in yet.

ND and Michigan fans buying up ST's for their games and will scalp the other games.