Great idea for a Tuesday nite game. Good PR with your fans and more butts in seats. A win, win.

I have no problem with it. Just don't expect them to cheer like a die hard and don't get too pissed if they sit on their hands. you'll make more money on concessions too.

The only thing about free tickets is that it seems a little unfair to season ticket holders who pay for season tickets and it possibly discourages people from buying season tickets in the future. I understand the circumstances here and USA would probably do something similar for a Tuesday game. If I was a school giving away free tickets I'd make them all endzone tickets and/or the very end section of each sideline section.

They are giving tickets for one game, not all of them, they are also giving the GA tickets away. I don't think any season ticket holders are going to get upset, after all, it is a Tuesday night, I'm sure there are out of town season ticket holders that can't make it to the game anyway.

(10-22-2013 08:51 AM)Usajags Wrote:  They are giving tickets for one game, not all of them, they are also giving the GA tickets away. I don't think any season ticket holders are going to get upset, after all, it is a Tuesday night, I'm sure there are out of town season ticket holders that can't make it to the game anyway.

True. The season ticket holders wouldn't want to sit where the free tickets are anyways.
I'm missing the game because it would cost me too much vacation (1 1/2 days) at this point.
(Sorry about that Arkstfan...I didn't plan well this year)

Tuesday games stink....>>>....that means PERIOD

We may have to take a couple of Tuesday games a year but I like most others would prefer them to be on Thursday.

I hate playing on Tuesdays, but I love watching them. So do others....even in the big conferences.

Stands look better then most games, but not full. At least not what I've seen so far. No stAte just needs to give them something to get excited about.

The crowd was pathetic. A lot of the reserved seating (season tickets) was empty. We didn't give away enough.

(10-22-2013 11:35 PM)Fanof49ASU Wrote:  The crowd was pathetic. A lot of the reserved seating (season tickets) was empty. We didn't give away enough.

Most of the empty seats in the lower level were sold. They were just sitting on a counter in someone's house.

If we have to play on Tuesday I wish it was on the road. Louisiana did it right.

(10-21-2013 06:04 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(10-21-2013 05:55 PM)Usajags Wrote:  I got no problem with the give away games, puts people in the stands that might never go to a game. Looks good on TV, looks good to recruits and the stadium will still make their money on parking(if charged) and concessions.

Biggest thing when you fill the house with hopeful fans and you are trying to sell them on your product, you better win. Otherwise those people don't come back.

As much as ASU fans love to talk about the 30K plus we drew for Monroe on a Thursday last year, a large portion of that crowd got in free. We gave free tickets to all our sponsors, and then went into Little Rock and gave out tickets to Little Rock businesses as a chance for people who once thought about helping ASU to see what the school looks like.

I know it can work...I just hope it doesn't make us sound desperate.

The way I see it, if you aren't consistingly selling out games, you SHOULD be desperate to get more butts in the seats (or at least sell the seats).

Besides, the cost of an unsold ticket is zero, so you're not "losing" money per se. You would have an increase in concession personnel (I hope) to accommodate the large crowd which would be offset by the increased concession sales. Maybe have additional security as well.

Overall, the "lost" cost to me, isn't lost at all. It's really just another form of marketing dollars. The empty seat used to promote the game by giving someone access. Really, it's probably the best marketing, as those that use the empty seats are already at least mildly invested, and they get to see the product live and in action, as opposed to someone "hyping" it up.

One of the main problems with giving away tickets is lessen the value of your season ticket and pissing off people who purchase a season ticket. They don't get a refund for that "free" ticket that anyone else can get.

I'm taking the other view on giving away unsold tickets, not for 1 game every couple years but as a rule. It cheapens your season ticket and makes it harder to sell the season ticket. The same goes when you discount the tickets to greatly less than a value you want to get at.

Once fans become use to unreasonably low prices and freebies it's harder to get the price of a ticket to where a program need it. In most schools the season ticket is the backbone of future growth. At most of our schools there are season ticket packages that are with in every fans range. At Western you can get a GA season ticket for $60 with no donation. If you can't get them in the stands at that price for 5 football games a freebie isn't going to get them back once that ticket is no longer free.

To grow a program it's not about the butts in the seats on freebie night. If only 10,000 showed up but Western sold 18,000 season tickets (almost 9,000 this year) which is probably our max when you add in students it has a bigger effect on the program that a stadium filled on the back of freebies

Regularly giving away tickets sends a message as to what you think the value of the product is. You have to plan your papering the town promotions carefully.

Official attendance was supposedly 24,000 plus. From what I saw on TV that was a stretch but the reality is for a game on Tuesday night we can't complain too much about the attendance.

(10-23-2013 01:27 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(10-22-2013 11:35 PM)Fanof49ASU Wrote:  The crowd was pathetic. A lot of the reserved seating (season tickets) was empty. We didn't give away enough.

Most of the empty seats in the lower level were sold. They were just sitting on a counter in someone's house.

Yeah....that's what I mean.

The sparse crowd surprised me....considering the week games previously.