OWH: Sellout Streak Perspective

[Mavric]

Some interesting history in this article but I'll highlight this portion:

The streak did come close to ending during the 2015 season. NU development officer Jack Pierce told The Associated Press last month he had to call up friends of the program days before three games and ask them to buy up tickets returned by the opponent.

That could happen more frequently unless they find a solution to an attendance issue thats become a nationwide problem.

CBS reported that average attendance nationally has declined every year since 2008. 2015 only saw a decrease less than 1 percent, but in 2014, it was 4 percent. And 2015s average attendance figure was the lowest recorded since 2000.

The Big Ten has seen a decline as well. The 2015 average of 65,998 was down from 66,939 in 2014 and 70,431 in 2013.

Nebraska has mostly avoided a significant decline in attendance. The Huskers have never finished outside the top 20 nationally dating back to 2003, and stadium expansions in 2006 and 2013 boosted numbers the following year.

But 2015 attendance was down. The Huskers average last season (89,998) was lower than the two previous years 91,249 in 2014 and 90,933 in 2013. The cost of tickets combined with the quality and availability of television broadcasts has encouraged fans to stay home.

 

[Mavric]

Sellout streak milestones

Nebraska is undefeated in milestone games of the sellout streak:

[SIZE=12.0024px]50th:[/SIZE] defeated Utah State, 42-6, on Oct. 2, 1971

[SIZE=12.0024px]100th:[/SIZE] defeated Penn State, 42-17, on Sept. 29, 1979

[SIZE=12.0024px]150th:[/SIZE] defeated Utah State, 56-12, on Sept. 5, 1987

[SIZE=12.0024px]200th:[/SIZE] defeated Colorado, 24-7, on Oct. 29, 1994

[SIZE=12.0024px]250th:[/SIZE] defeated Utah State, 44-13, on Sept. 7, 2002

[SIZE=12.0024px]300th:[/SIZE] defeated Louisiana-Lafayette, 55-0, on Sept. 26, 2009

*The 350th consecutive sellout would fall on the Oregon game Sept. 17.

 

[Landlord]

How many attendance related threads do we have now, six?

 

[84HuskerLaw]

We have always had the issue of selling off the unused portion of opponent's required allocations. This goes back decades I am sure. I would suggest that tickets returned by defaulted buyers (that's essentially what an opponent is doing by not buying the tickets that are legally allocated to them) would not be appropriately viewed as a dismal failure of the ticket market. Many opponents' fans simply can't afford nor wish to spend thousands traveling to Lincoln. Typically these teams are perennial losers of course seeking to get big bucks for their own struggling program financing. I suspect Oregon will sell their allotment and then some to get a chance to come to Lincoln but who knows. Most fans, evidenced by the sellout streak that few other programs, out of more than a hundred, come close to, are not as loyal and devoted and intense as Huskers. I dare say There is No Place Like Nebraska!

The comment that we had to call friends to get the tickets 'bought' up nothing new. That was happening big time in the late '60s as Devaney annually drove around the state stopping in every small town bank and store to get 'donations' (buy tickets that might not be used but the team needs the support). Give the tickets away as 'thank yous' to your best customers and help promote Nebraska. It continues to this day.

 

[Mavric]

Searching for something else and came across this article from 2013 - right as the East Stadium Expansion was set to open:

But it does raise the question about the size of Memorial Stadium. With attendance likely to top 90,000 this fall for each game, is this upper limits of the market? Sure, when a Wisconsin or Michigan comes to Lincoln, Nebraska could easily sell another 50,000 seats if they existed. But for South Dakota State, 90,000 is probably too many. I'm sure many people would prefer to spend their $56 on something other than those tickets, if they had a choice. (And no, when the choice is between all eight games or none moving forward, nobody is going to say no to the South Dakota State tickets.)


Does this expansion meet all of the demand for Nebraska football tickets? Or could Nebraska reasonably support a bigger stadium capacity for all home games? I think we're approaching the upper limit; some cracks appeared in the ticketholder base during the Callahan years. I know a lot of people ate tickets during those years because nobody wanted them, and in fact, I even heard reports that the ticket office had tickets for sale during the season as the waiting list had disappeared. Now the stadium will be over 10,000 seats larger than that.

Nevermind that further expansion of Memorial Stadium is going to be difficult. Maybe something could be done in the south end zone, though the top row of South Stadium is AWFULLY far from the field. (Take this from a guy who once spent a season in row 98; I quickly realized how important a good pair of binoculars are with those seats!) The east and west stadiums are likely capped now, and the infrastructure around the north stadium probably makes further expansion unlikely there.

 

[I am I]

Win

 

[Hayseed]

With over 90,000 seats available, this treasured attendance record is the least important thing to me. Some people seem obsessed over these weird stats.

​You know what fans should really be concerned with? It's been 15 years...

 

[Mavric]

More perspective, this time about student tickets.

We've found one place where season football tickets were gobbled up by students in a hurry ... Wisconsin.


Hard to say it's anything but impressive when all the tickets reserved for undergrads are sold out in 90 minutes That's what happened Monday morning in Madison.

Of course, people still have to show up and fill those seats when the games actually arrive. And Wisconsin still has a separate sale for grad students on July 7 as it tries to sell out its 14,000-seat student allotment for the 24th straight year.

LJS

For reference, here's where the students sit:

 

[fwhuskerfan]

They may sell out quick, but they show up late and are a bunch of jerks.

Good on them selling out, however.

 

[Red Five]

Wisconsin also has about twice as many students as Nebraska.

 

[famoustitles]

With over 90,000 seats available, this treasured attendance record is the least important thing to me. Some people seem obsessed over these weird stats.

​You know what fans should really be concerned with? It's been 15 years...

We have no control as fans on winning championships. (Unless maybe we sell out our home games and make it hard for opposing teams giving our team a chance in the championship). But the one streak we can control and should be proud is the SELL OUT STREAK

 

[Landlord]

Selling out in 90 minutes? That's impressive compared to us, but no big deal nationwide - most big time schools sell out essentially instantaneously.

Definitely helps that their student section actually gets good seats, however.

 

[Mavric]

Wisconsin also has about twice as many students as Nebraska.

And sells about twice as many student tickets.

 

[Mavric]

Selling out in 90 minutes? That's impressive compared to us, but no big deal nationwide - most big time schools sell out essentially instantaneously.

Definitely helps that their student section actually gets good seats, however.

There are more of them and some are better.

But it would seem that some of ours are better as well. The bottom half of section 9 is our band but the rest of section 9 and all of section 10 would seem to be closer to the filed than anything Wisconsin has. But they have most of the end zone where our students only have the corner.

So I guess it depends on your (general "your", not necessarily you) definition of good seats but they look fairly comparable to me, after adjusting for different number of seats available.

But looking at that chart,

 

[Landlord]

Selling out in 90 minutes? That's impressive compared to us, but no big deal nationwide - most big time schools sell out essentially instantaneously.

Definitely helps that their student section actually gets good seats, however.

There are more of them and some are better.

But it would seem that some of ours are better as well. The bottom half of section 9 is our band but the rest of section 9 and all of section 10 would seem to be closer to the filed than anything Wisconsin has. But they have most of the end zone where our students only have the corner.

So I guess it depends on your (general "your", not necessarily you) definition of good seats but they look fairly comparable to me, after adjusting for different number of seats available.

But looking at that chart,

Their endzone doesn't go very high. It goes to probably close to the equivalent of our row 68. While we've got some kids in East stadium that have a better vantage point on the side of the field, the overall point is that within what they have to work with in their own stadium, their students are given a good, fair part of the stadium. Our students are given row 98.