The curtains are a joke. Give tickets away for $5 or bring a can of food and

[Ute Dub]

get the younger generation coming out to the upper bowl. Give away free tickets to the student body and local schools and families. Do you  remember the hill you could sit on in the north end zone of the football stadium  and all the kids would go there to hang out, throw pizza box frisbees and have fun. I had a great time doing that. During the Boylen era I would go to a game with my wife or son in the lower bowl but once in a while I could take my whole family to the upper bowl on the cheap. 

[Charlie]

Exactly what we were talking about when Tom commented. $5 is a good start for above the concourse, you will get another $10 when they buy popcorn and a drink. The value to the team and progress for the program would be great. And I agree even though it will make my parking a nightmare. Reevaluate for small increases after a couple of sold out years.

[MDUte]

They should rip out the upper bowl seating all together. Add some premium suites along just the two sides of the court and leave the rest of the area open to be able to see down to the court from the concourse similar to the Viv. We rarely filled the HC even when MBB was at its height in the Majerus era. 15K seats is way too many. Getting rid of the upper bowl would reduce to 8500. Then adding some premium suites should bump it up to around 9K which would be a much better size.

[younglurch]

This might make financial sense currently but I for one love the feel of the Huntsman as it currently is. I think adding premium seating will take away the true college basketball feel of the arena. I remember in 2017/18 the place could still get decently full, even with a mediocre product. Bring a top 25 team back, and we’ll be just fine. 

[MDUte]

I hear what you’re saying. Maybe the answer isn’t to add suites but rather replace the current seating with nicer, more spacious seating that reduces capacity. The college atmosphere you’re talking about is much better with a full sellout crowd than 1/2 or 3/4 full.

Here’s season ticket sales over the past 7 years and average attendance over the last 12 years. The Sweet 16 year saw the spike up to just over 13K. I’m only going by the data which just doesn’t support having an arena with over 15K seats. What we’ve learned from RES is that it’s much better to have supply at a level where demand will continually meet and exceed it. That’s all I’m saying.

[highlandute7]

I wholeheartedly agree with this. I was going to take the fam (4 of us) to the game on Saturday. When I looked at tickets there weren’t any less that $25 not including the fees the online sites charge. Sorry, but that is way too much to pay for this current team for me. I could get tickets to the Jazz for less than that.

Can you still buy tickets up at Huntsman at the ticket office as a walkup right before tipoff?

They need to make tickets more accessible and affordable right now.

[dwainegf]

For those who don’t know, season tickets are $125 for the basketball games. There were 17 home games this year. that is less than $7.50 per ticket per game. I sit in row 20 of section K. To answer Highland, you can avoid all surcharges by buying tickets directly from the U at the game, of course that excludes football, which is sold out. I am not sure what tickets cost at the box office because of the season ticket thing. Go Utes!!!

[rbmw263]

i dont think kids these days would be throwing pizza box frisbees and having fun

[Staples]

On a similar note, a little piece of each of us died the day the student section/MUSS stopped hitting boxes around during the games. Incredibly stupid, but also somewhat entertaining when a “Free the box!” chant would break out whenever an usher would inevitably confiscate said box.

[Staples]

Wholeheartedly agree, take a page from gymnastics marketing of the past and give those upper bowl tickets away (that’s how I attended many a gymnastics meet back in the day.) Obviously the gymnastics program no longer needs that help, but basketball sure does now. Get people in the stands and then hopefully provide a product that will bring them back. The UCLA and Oregon games were both losses but were also entertaining games and people want to be entertained.