Gophers cut season ticket prices for men's basketball, hockey
With attendance figures suffering, the University of Minnesota on Thursday announced reduced season ticket prices for Gopher men's basketball and men's hockey.
Starting next season (2019-20), basketball season tickets will start as low as $340 and hockey will start at $500. The university claims the basketball prices are the lowest they've been since the 1995-96 season, with the hockey prices the lowest they've been since 1999-00.
Basketball reductions
Specifically, the price cuts affect Zone 5, which are $190 cheaper, and Zone 4, which have been reduced from $640 last season to $490 next season.
Zone 5 has also been expanded to include sections 204, 205, 209, 210, 216, 217, 221 and 222.
Tickets in Zone 5 do not have a "contribution" price the way every other zone at Williams Arena has, and those can get expensive as you can see in the seating map below.
Hockey reductions
Similar price cuts are available at 3M Arena at Mariucci. Specifically, zones 3 and 4 are $100 cheaper than they were a year ago, and Zone 4 now includes sections 3 and 23.
Zone 3 has an additional price that the Gophers call a "contribution" fee whereas Zone 4 does not.
"I think it's important to listen, collect information and then make the best decisions for our programs," said Athletics Director Mark Coyle. "That's what our staff did. They took feedback, studied the data and were able to find solutions. Our goal is to make Gopher athletics accessible to as many fans as possible, and I believe we have done that."
The Gophers say the men's basketball team averages about 17 home games per season, so the $340 season tickets average out to $20 per game. The men's hockey team plays about 20 home games each season, so the $500 seats average out to $25 per game.
Fans interested in season tickets for next season can click here for more info.
According to NCAA statistics, the Gophers averaged 11,850 fans per men's basketball game at Williams Arena this past season. That ranked 29th in the country but just 10th in the Big Ten.
In men's hockey, the Gophers averaged 7,944 fans per home game. While ranking third nationally, it filled just 79.4% of the 10,000-seat arena, the sixth consecutive year the fill rate has dropped.
- 2017-18: 87.3%
- 2016-17: 95.9%
- 2015-16: 98.5%
- 2014-15: 99.8%
- 2013-14: 115.5%
- 2012-13: 99.5%
- 2011-12: 95.4%
- 2010-11: 95.4%
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.