People are not going to drop $10 to come and watch Indiana get pummeled by almost every major opponent that we face. When you know leaving your house that there is a greater than probably 70% chance that you are going to watch your team get beat, it is not worth the time investment.
sorry, but that's just not true.
close to thirty thousand show up at 4 to 7 times that for every game.
there are plenty of people who would also like to attend, but just can't afford it.
how much you want to discount, depends on how many people you want.
Billy Idol might sell 2,000 tickets at Conseco at $50 a pop.
8,000 at $20 a pop.
set up a free stage on the circle, and you'll get 50,000 plus.
decide how full you want the stadium, and work backwards from there with price.
offering some $35 tics might bring in an extra 500 plus fans, depending on the opponent and weather.
$20 tics, a few to several thousand more.
$10 for adults and free for kids accompanied by them, and you'll see a noticeable difference.
discounting won't help that much if done for 1 or 2 games a yr.
have a regular roped off general admission area with $10 - $20 adult tics, and $1 knothole for kids, and while not over 1 game, or even 1 season, over time, you'll build a whole nother fan base of regulars who don't go at all now.
IU no doubt fears cannibalizing some high priced ticket sales, but no reserved seat, less desired sections, no points, and i don't think you would cannibalize that many of the regulars. (though obviously some).
and again, to really grow a new base it can't be a once in a while thing, but needs to be a regular thing.
in addition, give IU students fee admission and free come and go.
if IU sells approx 11,000 IU student section seats a game at $10 a pop now, that's, maybe $600,000 - $700,000 a yr.
that amount isn't squat to IU, and you could recoup some with sponsorships, and the enhanced student experience should help bring students to IU to cover the rest. (a cheap marketing campaign for IU).
that said, a problem IU has is that both endzones, (which would otherwise be natural GA discounted areas), have gated communities that aren't designed to increase attendance.
so where and how much to cordon off for general admission, is dicier.
i personally, think i could fill the stadium most every game, other than bad weather games.
as to how much discounting that would take with current level winning percentages, one would need to start at really cheap discounted tics, ($5-10 adults, free for kids), and work backwards from there to see how much higher you could go without a drop off in attendance.
and like i said, even at really cheap, you'd need to do it over time, not once in a while, but doing it over time you would build a new base on top of the current one, and could probably eventually work the new base up to $15-$20 adult, $2 kids.
remember, you're also getting parking and concessions at the same rate as the current base.
when winning alleviates the need to discount, you can address that at the time.
as to how hard IU needs to or will work or sacrifice to increase attendance, depends on how much they want to increase it. which depends on do they look at it as an investment in winning and building a larger base, or just an expense.
i'm guessing IU preaches sacrifice for future gains all day every day, to athletes and students.
do they walk the walk themselves?
so far, the answer has been no.
