The numbers are far from complete, but as of now, Gophers basketball is seeing a sizeable boost in student season ticket sales.
As of today, the University of Minnesota has sold 873 basketball season tickets, five times more than they had sold at this time in each of the previous two years. There are up to 2,200 student season ticket seats available.
The last two seasons are the only two that are applicable because the Gophers started selling student season tickets in the spring – vs. the fall – at that time.
What has changed? A few marketing decisions, and, of course, a coaching change with Richard Pitino taking the job this spring – although the Gophers ticket office hasn't done any surveys yet of those purchasing the tickets.
"We made a strategic decision to package up – whether it's football and basketball, football and hockey, we also have a package that gives you all three – and we really have done a good job of promoting the packages, Director of Ticketing Brent Holck said. "There's a price discount in for students who want to purchase multiple sports season tickets, so that's really helped us increase our basketball and hockey numbers as well early on. We've seen a lot of those kids that are a little bit more tied in – or I would call them diehards – that are deciding to purchase more than just football or just basketball. So we're seeing an increase in investment from our students to multiple sports."
Otherwise, basketball student season ticket prices have stayed the same. Regular season tickets look to stay static from a year ago, Holck said.
