Oregon Tickets

[WyoBrandX]

As a single man without a care in the world - yes!. A buddy of mine is married with 5 kids. UW graduate - hardcore fan. Has to drive about 5 hours to get to a game. He isn't going to this game just for the fact the tickets are so damned expensive.

He probably has $200 in gas, $100 in lodging, $200 or so in food, plus another $420 in tickets. Kids will want t-shirts. No t-shirts for them!

It adds up quickly. Its a bit short sighted to call this out. $920 is a bunch of money for a 3 hour experience. Maybe it will go to triple overtime make it a 5 hour experience.

Think about that for a minute or two. Wouldn't it be nicer if the damn ticket situation was able to work with him getting down there?

He could spend $100 a month on cable - for 1 year - and only spend $300 more than that 3 hours of time in Laramie.

Even if the tickets were $30 each, your example still has your friend spending $710 on the experience, though. Honestly, having a family is a choice you make, and that comes with financial (among others) consequences. I mean, yeah, my family is forced to make those same calculations when it comes to going to watch Wyoming, Rockies, Eagles, or the Avalanche as well. At least there's actual demand for tickets enough to drive up cost?

Thats entirely right. Its also one of the reasons we don't have as many people at the games as we should have.

Its Oregon - thats a special game like Nebraska, Texas, Ol Miss, etc. People are saving up for it to take their families for the experience. A person can't say there are no excuses to go - as there are many valid reasons.

Now - this is all tongue in cheek - but kinda fun:

We should implement a 1 free beer per child brought to the game policy (with the spouse not drinking). Bring your 4 kids to the game = 4 free beers.

For every mile you drive to go to the game (round trip) - you should get $0.01 discount against each of the beers you have at the game (at least until the margin on the beer is met).

Lastly, for each kid, and for each mileage discount, you should get a token showing your dedication. Maybe a hat at the end of the year.

</end of my nonsense for the night>

[Asmodeanreborn]

Thats entirely right. Its also one of the reasons we don't have as many people at the games as we should have.

Its Oregon - thats a special game like Nebraska, Texas, Ol Miss, etc. People are saving up for it to take their families for the experience. A person can't say there are no excuses to go - as there are many valid reasons.

Now - this is all tongue in cheek - but kinda fun:

We should implement a 1 free beer per child brought to the game policy (with the spouse not drinking). Bring your 4 kids to the game = 4 free beers.

For every mile you drive to go to the game (round trip) - you should get $0.01 discount against each of the beers you have at the game (at least until the margin on the beer is met).

Lastly, for each kid, and for each mileage discount, you should get a token showing your dedication. Maybe a hat at the end of the year.

</end of my nonsense for the night>

For your first point: if those families just wanted to come to the big games that we've now arrived at a point where we sell out anyway, how would that affect the other games that they wouldn't be attending anyway?

I do see your point, though - and maybe the solution to filling up the stadium for the "lesser" games is something that lies in the neighborhood of your tongue-in-cheek suggestions.

I don't generally trust marketing and marketers to do a good job. A lot of my experience with them is that they tend to find ways to increase their budgets, staff, and then spend an inordinate time taking credit for things they had nothing to do with in the first place. Take UW's marketing claiming they had something to do with the increased enrollment when the Boise State win week made more people enroll compared to a normal week than the total increase in enrollment for the new year total... Anyway, my point is, maybe this is one of those things where we as fans could help bring other (cash-strapped) fans to games somehow. I don't really have any ideas that are better than yours, though.

The thing that came to mind for me would be to have some kind of "county pride" games where you put together attractive packages for everybody in a couple of Wyoming counties that include tickets and transportation and then they sit in roughly the same area so they can try to overpower (noise-wise) whatever other county in a different section.

[djm19]

Just win. People will come.

[Expat_Poke]

See above, win and put a quality team on the field and people will come.

Here are my thoughts for families on budgets. I have a young family with two kiddos below kindergarten age. While they are this age, the kids don't care if it is Oregon or Texas State. They like watching football, eating popcorn, watching the band, and just being at the stadium. Sure personally, I would like to go to the Oregon game. That said with our current budget and family situation, I am aok with buying tickets for the lower marquee games and helping bolster the attendance numbers for those games. When the kids are older and if they care who the Pokes are playing, than I will shell out the dough for the higher marquee games.

[wyopig]

The athletic department used to sell family packages for a screaming-low price, and I wish they still did that. The seats were in the top corner sections, but you could get 2 adult and 2 kids season tickets for something like $250 total. They even threw in a few free hot dogs and drink coupons to use throughout the season.

I think there should still be a family package with a similar price point that allows families with young kids to commit to Cowboy Football for 6-7 Saturdays in the fall. Wyoming season tickets are legitimately a really good value if you can go to the games. The package I described is currently priced around $500, but it's tough to get families with young kids to commit to 6 Saturdays each fall when 4 of those games might kickoff after 8pm. $250-300 is a price that families would consider, especially when a local family will have to pay that much for the Oregon game alone.

Set a price point that allows Cowboy Football to be a part of a family's schedule. We all want kids at the games now so that hopefully they become lifelong fans.

[djm19]

Yeah, the family deal would be helpful. I know for me, between Nebraska, MWC Championship and Poinsettia Bowl, I spent about 2k watching the Pokes. That was just for me. Side note, they never won any of those games. Frick.

Anyway, I will continue to spend money watching competitive teams. Some people call you fair-weathered, but it is foolish to think winning doesn't matter. I wouldn't be traveling to Laramie from SLC on garbage roads, spending $500 to watch a winless team play. It is what it is.

I usually take my kids to the USU game as it is closer and cheaper. So, yes, for people with families, money is a huge factor.