1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - The Spring Game Crowd: April 11th, 10am

Episode Date: April 11, 2022

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It's time to go one-on-one with DP. Coming at you live from the couple Chevrolet GMC Studios. Here is your host, Derek Pearson, presented by Beatrice Bakery on 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Welcome to it, one-on-one on a Monday, the Monday after spring game, the Monday after the Masters. and I'm slightly sad because normally I'm in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina hanging out with golfers and musicians, and we're not doing it, but I'm here. What you mean Lincoln is in Myrtle Beach?

It is not Myrtle Beach this morning. Literally all those golfers are in Myrtle Beach just hanging out. This is as close to Myrtle Beach as you can get without being in Myrtle Beach. Yeah, I'll let you say that. Go ahead and say it. I'll let you say it. Go ahead and do that. Lincoln is the San Diego of the Big Ten.

It is. It really is, isn't it? It's as close as you want to be. We were just sharing some videos and pictures from various spring games around the country. As I said to Rico, and I said to you guys before, that there are a couple of places where folks are connected to me, and they kind of share what's going on in their programs. and they were showing video and pictures from their spring games. And a thing happens where you notice that the camera is really purposefully tight. Like it is not showing anything but the field.

Anything but the field, right? Guy scores a touchdown. You still don't see anything with grass. Like that's purposeful. They don't show anybody celebrating in the crowd. They're just like, yeah, look at these guys slapping each other on the hands. They scored a touchdown in the North Carolina game. They scored a touchdown and literally nobody clapped.

You heard one. I heard one. Like somebody's mom. So you know that noise you make when you're by yourself and you're like, and the crowd goes wild and you're by yourself and you go, that's what it sounded like. Yeah. But like exactly like that, not loud.

Like that exact volume was and then one. Yeah, yeah. It was different. It was different. And so we went, we bounced around. We went to NC State. Same thing. Not great.

They messed up NC State. They didn't aerial shot before they came. They did an aerial shot and it was like, oh, no, ooh. Bad idea. Some folks said, yeah, it looked like Bellevue West on a bad Friday. Yeah. Well, it looked like a Bellevue West practice. Yeah.

Like that's, it was terrible. There's still people at a practice watching. Like, come on. I was trying to make sense of it, right? And to go through. What are you doing? Well, if it was a redout, they did good because all their seats. are red. Yeah, but you know that.

Like you actually know. Well, and it looked weird. So what was empty in a lot of the spaces is usually the end zones, right? And you go, okay, but then they get to give you that 50-yard line shot. And when those are empty? Like, so they showed a couple crowd shots for Nebraska's spring game, right? And you get the higher up is empty. And you're like, oh, that, that, that kind of looks weird because you're not used to seeing that. But, you know, everybody, that lower bowl was pretty much full.

You go to those other games and the first three rows are maybe full. And not all the way around. Like, I didn't know how to process it. And then there's like, it's weird because, look, if I pay for a general admission ticket and I go to a game and I see that some of those reserve tickets, seats, there's nobody there, I'm moving. I'm not going to stay. They're like splattered like singular like three people in like random spots throughout these

stadiums. And I'm like, just move. Well, you could sit anywhere you want. Nobody is going. I'm, look, I don't think security in that moment in time and that spring game is going to be like, uh-uh, not your general admission. We can't have you sitting down here with the other five people that are in the stadium with you. But if you only sold like a thousand tickets?

Put them all. Get everybody as close as you can. Well, but here's the problem. You put a thousand people doesn't cover the 40 from 40 to 40. No. 20 rows up. Like it doesn't work that way.

No. So how do you do it? Well, if you law everybody in the front first two rows, you can't even fill all of the section. Do you just, if you came here with somebody, you sit next to them. If you're not with somebody, you go find somebody. Two seats, two seats in between each group of people.

It was sad. It was sad. So again, kudos. I said it's crazy that we can complain about $55,000. Like I found myself saying, look, man, $55,000. This has got to be some type of indictment on the program. And, you know, they can't even sell out the spring game anymore. And then you see all these other places.

You know what? $55,000 is really good. It's really good. And it was good for us, which the other thing was to be able to get together. I want to thank all the folks who stopped by the pregame show down in Tipsy Tipsy Tinas. We made some new friends and some new fans. Had a cute family to come down and they brought their three little girls. I saw that.

And we had we had t-shirts. So, you know, I'm trying to, they weren't folded and rubber band up. So it was windy. So I'm trying to throw them down to them. And the littlest one came up first. And I was like, okay, yes, you definitely get a shirt. And then her sister came up. And she gave me the big smile.

I'm like, okay. You also get a shirt. Right. So we gave the entire family shirts. And then the thing that happened to me, and this is why you love going out to events because you get to meet people in bond in unique ways. And they ran up around to where we were. And I was talking to Bach and talking to Nick.

And the three little girls just ran up like they sprinted. And I wasn't paying attention, but I could hear them. and then all of a sudden I feel these three, I feel these three sets of arms wrap around me like, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. And I was just like, okay, this is a good day. This is a very cool day. So they put the shirts on, they modeled them for us,

and we took pictures, and they kept giving a hug. So it was good. We had several fans. Of course, the anthem were our folks who came in studio and sang for us. They were doing the anthem. tore it up they shredded and saw them hung out with them before the game as well and just a ton of folks stopped by

and said hello and it meant a lot of Dave Minds we got to meet him Nylauk you stopped by like there's there's just a bunch of folks who stopped by and you got yourself a Triso breakfast taco I did not disappointed I did not well

so here's what happened so Rashon lost his keys Saturday morning come on man so we had to adjust on the fly and then Tom Stevens stopped by so we were like okay well we're we're going to flip the script and we'll we'll adjust and then Nick and I finally when we got done we said okay we'll go up and and get to the stadium to do our thing so it was it was it was

fun but we had to scramble so I couldn't really eat makes sense didn't have time and then got up in the stadium and then of course the meeting of people in the meeting of fans. Actually, a really cool thing that happened is that the Peru State Women's Basketball coach was there. Okay. And it turns

out that his dad was one of my classmates in high school. It's fine. And he brought his dad to the game. And I hear this voice, and of course, he said, Derek. And I'm like, turn. I'm like, Mike Hollering. I was like,

wow. Like, I Mike and I we played little league ball baseball together one of the all around good dudes like if I was fully going to expect for for anybody to become a sportscaster it would have been Mike hollering back the day he had that kind of love for it but hadn't seen him in a while and there he was here he was at you know he's here is at Lincoln spring game and his son is here

and we sat and talked a little bit and did our thing. So Ian Hollering is the head women's basketball coach, and that's his dad. So shout out to Ian. It was a pleasure hanging out with you for a little bit. We'll do some stuff with them as we go forward as well because again, his dad is a childhood friend. So the event and then the post game and then the after game, the after parties that are invented Rococo, where all the alumni were at,

down at rosy's our friends down at rosy rosy's had a had a full bar and literally all the alums are there just hanging out they had dance contest i did i missed it oh darn rshawn rshawn was like oh you were late i'm like no you're supposed to call me and tell me when to show up uh he goes no no i was looking for you and you know you would have won it i was like yeah no it would have That's not a question. There's no question. Of course I would have. I just needed to be there.

You know, you had to tell me. So from the text line, again, you guys can engage and interact 402, 464, 5685. So on the hymn text line, Honda Lincoln Hotline. And of course, all the video streams are up, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch. You can check in on us there as well. But I'll ask what the fans take away from this is. It's 55,000, a good number, bad number, and different numbers. Does it matter to you at all?

Did the practice, did the game, the scrimmage, did it matter? Like to me, even if it was just a practice and they invited the entire fan base into it, if they invited you to a practice, a free practice, it would sell out, right? Probably. Right? So for folks who are paying $10 per, or $20 per day of, and you got $55,000. people, you had a good day. Mm-hmm.

Right? Pretty solid. If Nebraska did the spring game like a lot of other places and didn't charge for you to get into the spring game, it would be full. Every year. I'm not sure. After watching these, those videos, my goodness gracious. Man, watching some of those.

I mean, if 55,000 people paid $10 or $20. Right. And then some for, you know, everybody in their family to, or whoever was with them to come in, like, if you didn't have to pay anything, Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's $10, and this was a family event. There were tons of kids there. Yeah.

Tons of kids, tons of families. Kadova guy says this. I agree with you guys that $55,000 is really awesome and way above average compared to other programs, but are we not lowering our standards as the Nebraska program? If you go back 10 years in the spring game, only sold $55,000 tickets, I think it would have been a negative connotation. It would have had a negative connotation behind it.

Rico, would say you to that. I mean, maybe, but even then, it's still, you know, 55,000 people took time out of their day to go to watch Nebraska practice. And I think that the way that the program has been going these last couple of years, 55,000 is still really good. And it's not, it's not lowering Nebraska's standards to think that 55,000 is a solid turnout. It's just kind of looking at what's currently going on with the program. 55,000 is really good for a team that hasn't had a winning record in four years. And I'm not saying, I'm not lowering Nebraska standards. I'm just saying, as of right now where they are sitting, that's really good.

Now, if they were still at the standard for Nebraska, if they were still a winning program and in contention for the Big Ten West and the Big Ten championship, and they only got $55,000, that would have been bad. Well, I'll say this. The standard of Nebraska's football program has changed. That's not a, that's not, like you can't, there's nothing you can say that would change the fact that the standards of things accepted or not have changed. It's been allowed.

I've said since the moment I got here, be careful. when you tell people who you are because they'll start to believe you. And if you start to tell people that you're a less than 500 team, they will treat you accordingly. If you tell people that you aren't loyal to the fan base and what the fan base wants, they will tell you. Hey, look, man, I'm not going to pay attention to that. And then when it comes down to choices and priority,

people will make a decision based on the relationship that you have. We're talking about women softball. Look, that's a winning team. So it's not just about winning because they're winning. and they're representing the university. They're representing the state. It should be supporting it. Same for women's basketball.

We've talked about this. Women's volleyball. It should be done. If you're in, you're in. But all of this Saturday was a statement. And we're just trying to find out what it means. We told it it was a dollar for kids, eighth-grade, or younger. Right.

So I thought that was good. And again, a great deal. And neither says it was prom weekend. She blames that. Yeah, I mean, there's tons of stuff going on. Everything was happening. Yeah, there's tons of stuff going on. It's also just a beautiful day.

Yeah. Jesse O'Shawn Mathis just tweeted out. My announcement will be at the end of this month. Yeah, okay. We'll find out the end of the month. That just means he's made a decision. Or he hasn't made a decision. But he's going to make a decision at the end of the month.

Well, look, we said Saturday in the pregame show that there is zero. If Mathis is the guy that you think he is, same for Riola. You don't let them leave the building without. Right. Like you got them here. The greatest cell is right here in your space in your face. It's always we just got to get him here. You just got to get him here.

Well, you got him here. Now what? Yeah. I don't have an opinion on it. Again, you guys know how I feel about a lot of that. When somebody says they want to be here, that's when you can get into the pool. Otherwise, it's a lot of splashing and noise.

Freddott-Hoyberg says, my opinion, the wins and losses do have something to do with the spring game of tennis, but I believe that changing the way that tickets are sold may have a bigger impact than people think. It used to be first come for a serve on signing day at 8 in the morning when tickets went on sale. Season ticket holders didn't have an advantage over anybody else. There was a fierce competition for the best seats. But they allow people to move and move around.

Now, mind you, it's the lower level and that was all full. But at $10 a pop on the day where the tickets become available, I would imagine that you can get, you can get what? what you want. Like, that's kind of the point is that you get what you want. If they would have left it at $10 the day of, would they have gotten more?

Well, I mean, I don't know. I don't know why. I don't know the fan base enough to know whether that $10, especially if it's families, right? You're talking to family of five, the difference between a $50 and then you being able to spend $50 and concessions otherwise rather than that $100.

I don't know what people's line of engagement is. Why they bumped it up to $20? the day of. I mean, I, I, I, discourage people.

Well, you want to kind of know who's coming. Yeah. Um, but, to your own detriment sometimes. Right.

I mean, you can't, you can't sell t-shirts. In the business, we can't sell hot dogs to a, to a chair. Yeah. So,

I'm keeping it at, if it's me, I'm keeping it at $10. I mean, you're going to make your money regardless. Until you're sold out again, I would keep it at, yeah.

I don't know why you're, you're like, yeah, $10. but the day of if you, if you, that day you weren't sure if you wanted to go to the spring game but that day you just had to change of heart and you're like you know what I want to go to the spring game you can't buy it

online so you go to the stadium and like up $20 and you're like I was not ready to spend $20. Yeah like I don't know this market like when I talk about spending money some people frown up and go well no that that's still a lot of money so I don't know what people are used to or prepared or comfortable with spending on spring game tickets. Like I said for me You know, I would go, if there was high school football next Saturday, and it was $10, I would go. Like I would go. That's why, you know, if there's a game going on, I kind of want to be there.

I don't know that everybody feels that way. And I also don't know that number. For me, that's usually me just talking about me. Yeah. Like in your case, you know, you've got kids you've got to think about. So does it become... It would have been $22 for me and my family to go. Right.

Me, Rachel, and the two kids. Right. So then you say, okay, from that standpoint, that's doable or not doable. I would have gone. Yeah. 42, maybe not. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing, right?

Because then, you know, because then, like you said, you got to get food. I mean, you don't have to. Like, people like, oh, you don't have to get concessions. I'm like, well, I'm in there for an hour and a half, two hours. Like, first off, my kid's going to get hungry. And also, you know, I like to eat food as well. So I'm going to get food. And, you know, if I have to pay $8 for a pizza or a hot dog,

I'd rather have only spent $22 on tickets. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. And their space is like what I would do, and I can tell you what we'll do for next year, is that we're going to buy just a bunch of tickets and give them away. Because I want a place and space where ticket fans can go and do that.

That's the kind of event we can do that. Like, I would want to do that for softball and say, okay, how many people want to go to a softball game? Like, let's pack the place. Like, ticket listeners could, fill out any venue arena here in town, especially softball. So then I would say, okay, would 500 tickets sell that? Would that make, if the ticket pushed 500 people to go, would it happen?

Like that makes that room look different. Yeah. It makes the stadium look different. So I'd like to keep track of that and say, okay, all right, ticket fans. Let me know how many of you are going to watch softball this weekend. how many of you're going to watch softball this week? I know a lot of, I know a bunch of you went to the spring game,

but I'll ask how many of you're going to go to watch, go to watch this 28 and 9 softball team this year. Or this 12 and 18 baseball team, right? Like, who's going? And quite frankly, you know, there's one game where it's at least one, where it's the same first pitch. What do you go to?

What do you go to? to. What do you do? And that'll be interesting. And you're not wrong in whatever you choose. No. You're not wrong in whatever you choose. But to say that you can't fill both this week, I'd be

disappointed if both of those venues aren't told this week. You got Creighton Tuesday and baseball. Got Iowa. You got Iowa. You got Iowa for women. It's rivalry Tuesday. Right? You know, to Red Out. So hey, market should look fantastic.

It's the hope anyway. That is the hope. We'll throw the break. We come back a little bit more to dive into. Again, it's a busy sports week. So I want to set. I won't put flags in the ground for how we're going to approach this thing. We'll be right back.

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