Here’s the problem: Up until Greg Gumbel called
This effectively stalled ANY momentum the program had after holding a great Selection Show party Sunday night.
Let me explain:
The scenario I have just presented is probably more unstable than the Tommy Amaker era. I get that. But here’s something else to keep in mind: Most of the students that bought season tickets this year are freshmen. The athletic dept. doesn’t release these stats, but you can tell by how many kids only have the current season’s Maize Rage T-Shirt as game-day attire. Upper classmen don’t buy tickets because the Juniors and Seniors in Ann Arbor are still trying to get over losing 4 straight games in ’07 to miss the tournament, and are still trying to forget about how badly Amaker butchered the career of Courtney Sims (aka the D-League MVP). These kids paid 120 dollars a season to watch Brent Petway practice for his future as a D-League Slam Dunk Champion.
The reasons they had to stop buying tickets were valid. The marketing department had to cater to a group that didn’t know any better (i.e. the 2012 class). But then how do you expect your freshman fan base to get to KC when most of them have nowhere to park a car on
The worst part about this is that most Wolverine students didn’t buy season tickets at the beginning of the year because the tickets were FREE for all but three or four home games. That means you could have been a huge supporter of U of M Basketball, attended 13 home games this season, and not been eligible for a NCAA ticket. Yet, the student who bought the season tickets, and didn’t use/scalped his tickets, is now eligible for a trip to
The athletic department had to beg, plead, and even bribe students to attend these basketball games this year. Most times students were allowed in for free, and would be eligible for free M-Den goodies just for swiping their M-Cards. And, now that these students are willing to pay big bucks and travel 12 hours to see this team, the athletic department is telling them “No?” Awesome! There is 7 months of hard work in promotions and marketing down the drain.
Here is my solution: Allow the students that attended these games for free to have a crack at these tickets. If you are a student and attended a game, your M-Card was swiped for “reward points” purposes. They have these records lying around somewhere. Go back, find these numbers, and allow the kids who attended 11 of the 13 home games to be eligible for these tickets. This would open up the ticket base to those elder classmen, who actually cared enough about the program to brave the cold to walk to Crisler in the winter. These future alumni are the ones the Athletic Department should worry about winning over.
I say we let them put their money where their mouth is.
