How many season ticket holders won't be renewing/students/COVID opt outs?

Maybe a few, but if people didn't bail after Rich Rod and Brady Hoke, they'll stick around to see what comes next. Getting 100,000+ - now that might change. Remember even Bo didn't break that barrier until about half way in his great run - often there were 80-90,000 and he had some good teams.

Fix the program and the attendance will take care of itself. Might just be me venting here, but I'm so sick of the "semantics" of this program. All of this "100,000+ attendance streaks", footballs in Schembechler Hall for each win, "Michigan men", etc. It's all hype, this program hasn't done a damn thing since 2004. Unfortunately, there are too many people with prominent voices within the football department, who can't seem to understand that this stuff is irrelevant in modern day college football.

Student here. 99.9% of students at the games don't give a shit about football. They want a reason to drink and be social and that's what football games are to them.

Maybe you'll lose like 3 male students who think they are making a stand by protesting the team, but the vast, vast majority of students are not going to waste one of their years at Michigan not going to football games in order to make some strange symbolic stand. It's a social part of college, not dependent on the competitiveness of the team. Think why Nebraska always has a full student section for basketball, it's not because they're good.

Outside of the student section, sure, there can be drop offs. But the student section will be the same if there's a normal, non-COVID season (big if)

I mean, sure.  That's absolutely a scenario.  Just as likely is there's pent-up demand and people come flooding back.  At this point trying to figure out what 2021 looks like is just guessing.

I think the stadium experience has been dropping in basically all sports for some time; this might accelerate it but there's always a collection of diehards.

I don't know. Maybe a few. Maybe none. Some will. Some won't.

There's a year without football and a great home schedule next year. I don't think next year will be impacted too much, especially from a student standpoint. There will be the freshman and sophomore class who have never been to a game before as students.

I don't think you're looking at them losing 50% of season ticket holders - many of them already donated or rolled their money over to next year. Could be wrong, but we'll find out in 9 months.

No, but I gave up my tickets last off season after seeing so many good non-conference games get replaced by cupcakes the past few years.  Sure the team gets a win and a tune up, but I'm not going to commit to a day's worth of time, travel and expenses to see it.  (Not my only complaint, but it became the tipping point... the performance on the team itself was relatively low on the list).

After 35 years, I am strongly considering it, so at this time, I will say yes, I'll give them up. Hopefully someone in our family will want them.

Don't know if I can afford another $2,000 a year for another 4 - 6 year re-build; as I see it. Heck, I even saw $60.00 parking prices for the OSU game. 

Prices will always go up, and they (the entire industry, not just Michigan) are in the process of pricing me out.

Depends who the HC is next year

Michigan has a terrific fanbase, which has thus far allowed it to remain immune to the trends that were afflicting sports everywhere prior to 2020. Everybody has been having trouble filling seats. Alabama, which is the dominant power with a huge fanbase in a college football-mad state, is reducing its seating capacity. Places like Florida have struggled for years; Florida State regularly played before 10-20,000 empty seats. 

The fact that Michigan has continued to stay at or near capacity through all this, particularly with the uneven product on the field, is a testament to the loyalty and quality of the fans. There really *is* something special about Michigan.

But it can't last. There has been an attendance bubble in football for years, and the pandemic is likely the catastrophe that pops it. Honestly speaking, I predicted that this year would be the year we finally sunk below 100,000 in attendance assuming that Warde didn't do the DB thing of fraudulent number inflation. Obviously, I can't pretend the pandemic-caused empty stadiums bear any relationship to that, so my prediction is, at best, an "incomplete." 

But the reality is that people aren't as enthusiastic about attending games in-person as they used to be. We've had robust discussions about that on this board. The at-home viewing experience is better than ever. Want to watch on a 75" screen? They're less than $1000 right now at Best Buy. A little more expense and you can get rather excellent surround-sound to listen to the audio with, too. You can use your DVR to instantly re-watch that great play as it happened live, or to flip back and see where the blocking worked or didn't work on that running play. You get your own restroom and your own food. You don't have to pay for parking, walk, get cold, etc.

And it is really expensive to go to games now. The cost of tickets relative to the cost of the dollar is just astronomically high compared to 20-30 years ago. And program would rather maintain those high prices and lose a few thousand fans at games than drop the prices to include a much wider number of customers to fill the seats. 

It's not that nobody will ever go, but more people will go less. I took my daughters to the MTSU game last year and we had a great time; it was also a significant undertaking (in all ways except financial, with a kind mgoblogger donating excellent tickets to me, something for which I will always be grateful). It was just a heavy day. I couldn't do that all the time. Other people may choose to go once or twice a year instead of every game. You get the experience, and you sit at home for that game against Purdue in 40-degree temps that really doesn't excite you.

This has been a trend for a long time. It is to Michigan's credit that it hasn't seriously affected us yet, 2014 aside. But assuming the pandemic doesn't totally reverse the pull of in-person events, there is no escaping it, and a terrible season like this simply provides extra fuel to encourage the trend. 

When MGrowOld announced on this board that he was dropping his season tickets (maybe after 2013, if I recall correctly) he was excoriated. I certainly had critical words for it. He has actually been rather gracious about this choice since then on here, declining to spike the football when he well could have. Because I don't think anybody really questions the wisdom of that choice anymore. 

After 20 years we are out. The costs have just gotten out of hand for us.  Following that the in-stadium experience of sitting there during a million TV time outs is beyond frustrating. Personally I absolutely hate noon games, makes it hard to get there for anytime to tailgate and enjoy the event. I'm sure if the team was competitive we would find a way but can no longer justify it. It sucks and I will miss it tremendously but it's just reality at this point.

I will be keeping my tickets. But going to games is an extended family affair (12+ people with tickets) who all get together for the tailgate. We make it an entire day for all home games and is something we all look forward to all year. To be honest, I've hated having to be at home for every game this year.

With all that said, I do not blame anyone for wanting to give up tickets. Thankfully I live close enough to Ann Arbor so the drive home isn't bad but between the price increases, tv networks waiting as long as possible to announce game times, uncomfortable seating, long lines for bathrooms and concessions, extended commercial timeouts and poor matchups on the field it can be a bit of a slog.

I was THIS close to bailing back in the last year of Hoke.  I waited until who they decided to hire and when it was Harbaugh, I re-upped immediately. 

I'm in the same position today.  I'll see what they do regarding the coaching role at the end of the season.

Season tickets are already paid for 2021 by people who paid in 2020 and did not choose either of the other two options (full refund or convert to donation).  So for me, I am already paid in full with no decision to make for the 2021 season.  So yeah, I'm getting tickets in 2021.

I also believe M Football is one of those evergreen things for enough people where the ticket situation won't be too dire.  After a year off, where most people haven't been able to do ANYTHING, people will be itching to go to games and visit Ann Arbor.  If there's a new coach, the demand for tickets will be even greater.

I don't know how people can go to all the homes games. I used to love going to the games when I was younger. Now it just pisses me off when i'm being touched by 6 different people in my seat.

I gave up my season tickets a years back, but it doesn't really have to do with the product on the field.  I end up working quite a few weekends because it's my only time to catch-up on things I couldn't get to during the week, and the kids have sports and it's generally family time.  The cost of going as a family is outrageous too.  I still go to 1-2 games a year, but I'll just find tickets on the used market, and there's usually someone in my office trying to unload a ticket for face value because a family conflict.  Maybe I'll re-up when my kids are old enough to appreciate it (3 under 7), but for now, my couch and 70" big screen are just fine.

If I made it through Hoke and RR I can make it through this. Part of the fun of gameday is the whole event, not necessarily just the game. I really miss tailgating this year and seeing the normal crew. 

We all have a serious problem on our hands...Covid.  The world has been fundamentally changed for the better half of a year.  What's going on at UM is just a bad football coach.  It's not the first.  Heck it's not even the second this second this decade.  It will happen again.  It's also fixable.  The larger economic issue is Covid.