North Dakota vs. Minnesota in Las Vegas - October 2018

[AJS]

1 minute ago, UNDSioux23 said:

It would "make the school some money", as you put it.

I genuinely don't follow what you are saying at all, lets cut our loses on this one.

[siouxstudent]

By my guess 3x the people would go to Vegas for this as opposed to the NY game.

[NDRPinLV]

2 minutes ago, southpaw said:

The Ralph didn't even sell out last weekend.  I get that Vegas is a destination trip but let's look at some facts:  MSG was half-full this year, a year after winning a national championship UND hasn't sold out games as consistently in the past, they're only playing one game so you have to assume fewer people are going to make that trip for just the single game.

In hindsight you can believe that UND would sell out an NHL arena (although I don't believe they would for this game), but the costs go up even with more people in the stands.

Granted hindsight is 20/20, but we midwesterners love Vegas.  (See Cratters post above.)

[southpaw]

2 minutes ago, runaroundsioux said:

MSG seats 16,000 for hockey. I estimated there were 12,000. 9000+ were green. I think they realized after that, Vegas should have been a larger venue. But you are right, they had never done an event like New York or Vegas,so there was a lot of risk involved. If New York hadn't been such a success I don't think there would have been this kind of demand for Vegas. No one who was in New York wants to miss Vegas.

There were 11,348 people at the game at MSG.  At least 1,000 of those are tickets that aren't sold because of giveaways, business agreements with MSG, etc.  Let's be generous and say 9,000 of the slightly more than 10,000 purchased tickets at the game were UND fans.  Does 9,000 people in MSG make the Vegas game a sellout?  You can guess or assume, but it's a big risk for UND to just assume.  Especially in this budget climate.

[southpaw]

3 minutes ago, siouxstudent said:

By my guess 3x the people would go to Vegas for this as opposed to the NY game.

So according to the math by some, 27,000 UND fans would be at the Vegas game?

Don't be ridiculous please.  

[talksalot83]

5 minutes ago, NDRPinLV said:

Las Vegas is much more accessible for UND (and Gopher) fans that primarily live in the midwest and west than is NYC, especially with airlines like Allegiant, Frontier and Southwest.  Add in the hotel deals that many of these airlines have and, Yes, I think it was forseeable that this game would have a much higher demand than MSG. The TMobile Arena would have sold out.

I have family in Vegas who are not tied to UND beyond me. They would have attended with me and at least one friend had there been an opportunity to go. I'm not super upset, but slightly disappointed. 

Getting ND/MN tickets are usually pretty difficult to get to begin with regardless of the venue. It just seems like UND would have known that this event would sell out based on the fact that transportation to Vegas is pretty good. 

[cowboys5xsbs]

Just now, southpaw said:

So according to the math by some, 27,000 UND fans would be at the Vegas game?

Don't be ridiculous please.  

27,000 is crazy but I would say 10,000 easy.  There were alot more people I talked to trying to get tickets that had no interest in NYC.  On top of that there will always be a good crowd against the gophers.  

[Cratter]

UND vs Minn > UND vs BC

Vegas > NYC

11,000 in NYC equals 17,000 in Vegas. 

[runaroundsioux]

Just now, southpaw said:

There were 11,348 people at the game at MSG.  At least 1,000 of those are tickets that aren't sold because of giveaways, business agreements with MSG, etc.  Let's be generous and say 9,000 of the slightly more than 10,000 purchased tickets at the game were UND fans.  Does 9,000 people in MSG make the Vegas game a sellout?  You can guess or assume, but it's a big risk for UND to just assume.  Especially in this budget climate.

I was agreeing with you. Thus the part about they didn't know it would be such a success and being risky and all.

[AJS]

3 minutes ago, southpaw said:

There were 11,348 people at the game at MSG.  At least 1,000 of those are tickets that aren't sold because of giveaways, business agreements with MSG, etc.  Let's be generous and say 9,000 of the slightly more than 10,000 purchased tickets at the game were UND fans.  Does 9,000 people in MSG make the Vegas game a sellout?  You can guess or assume, but it's a big risk for UND to just assume.  Especially in this budget climate.

What does the crowd for MSG have to do with the one in Vegas? This isn't just hindsight, why would anyone think that?

[Cratter]

The fact was it is so far in the future was also great giving plenty of time for everyone to plan and save, but looks like it could be held tomorrow now. 

[Siouxtimestwo]

I'm amused by the people who are unwilling to risk a $135 Champions Club membership, all while ridiculing the athletic department for refusing to gamble with hundreds of thousands of dollars when universities across the state are facing budget cuts and potential hiring freezes. If you're willing to spend thousands of dollars for a Vegas trip, why didn't you budget an extra $135? And the university is supposed to take financial advice from you?!?!?!

[southpaw]

11 minutes ago, cowboys5xsbs said:

27,000 is crazy but I would say 10,000 easy.  There were alot more people I talked to trying to get tickets that had no interest in NYC.  On top of that there will always be a good crowd against the gophers.  

And 10,000 loses money for UND.  And if UND/Gophers is always a good crowd, why wasn't there a sellout on Saturday in Minneapolis when they played?

[southpaw]

8 minutes ago, AJS said:

What does the crowd for MSG have to do with the one in Vegas? This isn't just hindsight, why would anyone think that?

How is UND supposed to gauge attendance at Vegas?  That's why MSG plays a role.

[UNDColorado]

17 minutes ago, Cratter said:

Had no desire to see NYC: expensive, overcrowded, and the main thing to do is stare at tall buildings.

And by the looks of my friends trying to buy Vegas tickets but not NYC, they agreed. 

My brother paid $800 a night in Manhatten for the smallest hotel room he has ever stayed in. Vegas is a much better deal. I also had zero interest in going to the NYC game.

[southpaw]

I too wanted to go to the Vegas game.  I had a group of at least 8 that were hoping to get tickets as this would be the first time we've all been together since the outdoor game in Omaha.

I'm upset we didn't get tickets.  I think it should be at T-Mobile Arena however I understand UND's perspective that it costs a lot of money to do a game like this.  And losing money is not an option at UND right now.

[Ray77]

Reading this thread is interesting.  For some perspective, I remember watching the Sioux play UMD in the HoF game in 1988.  That game was played in Eveleth, MN, the home of the US Hockey Hall of Fame.  I'd guess there were several hundreds of people there!  OK...maybe a thousand or so...

[AJS]

6 minutes ago, Siouxtimestwo said:

I'm amused by the people who are unwilling to risk a $135 Champions Club membership, all while ridiculing the athletic department for refusing to gamble with hundreds of thousands of dollars when universities across the state are facing budget cuts and potential hiring freezes. If you're willing to spend thousands of dollars for a Vegas trip, why didn't you budget an extra $135? And the university is supposed to take financial advice from you?!?!?!

Lets make sure we are all on the same page. We can all agree that the Champions Club allotment, which was basically every seat not given to the schools, was sold out, correct? This has nothing to do with risking to be in Champions Club, you know that there were only so many seats available, right?

 

[SiouxFanatic]

5 minutes ago, Siouxtimestwo said:

I'm amused by the people who are unwilling to risk a $135 Champions Club membership, all while ridiculing the athletic department for refusing to gamble with hundreds of thousands of dollars when universities across the state are facing budget cuts and potential hiring freezes. If you're willing to spend thousands of dollars for a Vegas trip, why didn't you budget an extra $135? And the university is supposed to take financial advice from you?!?!?!

I'm amused by people who post here smugly saying "should've just been a Champions Club member."

Once again, if everyone did just that, there would've been different rules to how tickets would've been dispersed and people would STILL lose out.

[Cratter]

Approximately 7,000 champions clubs members bought tickets. How many UND fans that weren't members wanted to go 3-5,000?

That apparently leaves zero fans from one of the largest fan bases in college hockey wanting to go see a rivalry game in Vegas. 

[Siouxperfan7]

9 minutes ago, SiouxFanatic said:

I'm amused by people who post here smugly saying "should've just been a Champions Club member."

Once again, if everyone did just that, there would've been different rules to how tickets would've been dispersed and people would STILL lose out.

Fact still remains that if you had a Champions Club membership, you had a far better chance getting tickets in the presale than waiting till today at 2.

[AJS]

I'd be interested to see what they actually did to come up with the decision that the T-Mobile center wasn't feasible. I mean when you can sell out the Orleans with only tickets sold to the Champions club, I would think that would be a hint that you'd probably sell a few more.

I get they can't afford to lose money, but they also can't afford leaving a potential million dollars of ticket sales on the table (10,000 more seats at T-Mobile). They didn't do enough research obviously, because they were flat out wrong having it at the Orleans.

[jdub27]

6 minutes ago, AJS said:

I'd be interested to see what they actually did to come up with the decision that the T-Mobile center wasn't feasible. I mean when you can sell out the Orleans with only tickets sold to the Champions club, I would think that would be a hint that you'd probably sell a few more.

I get they can't afford to lose money, but they also can't afford leaving a potential million dollars of ticket sales on the table (10,000 more seats at T-Mobile). They didn't do enough research obviously, because they were flat out wrong having it at the Orleans.

brian.faison@athletics.und.edu

[SiouxperDave]

44 minutes ago, siouxstudent said:

By my guess 3x the people would go to Vegas for this as opposed to the NY game.

Probably not that many but there also has to be a lot of retired UND & Minn alum living in Arizona who might have made the trip to Vegas for the game.

[Dave Berger]

50 minutes ago, southpaw said:

I get that Vegas is a destination trip but let's look at some facts:  MSG was half-full this year, a year after winning a national championship UND hasn't sold out games as consistently in the past, they're only playing one game so you have to assume fewer people are going to make that trip for just the single game.

I'm going to take the opposite side. We went to New York City for five nights, and knew that we weren't going to plan anything on our travel day there (just in case there were delays). That left us four nights for dinners, Broadway, etc. We were actually glad that it was just a single game, because we went to two different musicals and had some extra time for shopping and sightseeing.

I think the same is true of Las Vegas. We always take in shows while we're there, so one game is just fine. There's also the finality of a winner and loser rather than a two game series that can end in a split. I like it.

Dave