50 50

mchammer · Post by **mchammer** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 10:08 pm

Just so you all know we had a winner at the Weber Game. Lynda White won the $1,918, and was very excited. She had a string of tickets, including the winner.

Mike Carignan

Post by **kmax** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 10:21 pm

Congrats to her, but I am disappointed in you Mike, the ten you sold to me weren't even close to the winning number!

torrybruce · Post by **torrybruce** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:24 am

Maybe she could help with some of Barechest's thunderstix

mchammer · Post by **mchammer** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:24 am

Half of the money goes to the winner, a quarter to the Scholarship Association, and a quarter goes to our track budget. We will continue selling from six tables and send someone up through the skyboxes. We won't sell in the stands or outside the stadium. We will always charge $1 a ticket. We can't do the arm length thing anymore because it makes accounting of sales very difficult, and it would waste a lot of tickets. Short armed sellers would be out of luck.
We know that we could sell more by pushing it in the tailgates and up in the stands, but we don't want to bother people and we want people to recognize established vending areas so that you can be sure that the tickets are legit.

You're a winner everytime you play because you contribute to the ASA and MSU track and field.

Mike Carignan

Belgrade Big Dog · Post by **Belgrade Big Dog** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 10:37 am

I have heard for some time that the winning tickets are always drawn from tickets sold up in the sky boxes (big money doners). Does anyone know if this is true or just a rumor. In the 30+ years I've been going to games, I've never seen someone in the stands begin yelling "I WON! I WON!!" I have to admit that I have quit buying them for that reason.

Bleedinbluengold · Post by **Bleedinbluengold** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:11 am

"Other fans" play a different game. It is called 90/10.

grzh8r · Post by **grzh8r** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:24 am

<joke> just a little marketing clue.... you might sell more tickets if the tickets you sell are sequentially numbered and one color. The tickets I buy at the student side table are usually the wrong color and off by about 100,000 numbers. Me thinks it's rigged!

Gallatin Griz · Post by **Gallatin Griz** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 1:37 pm

FYI, I was at the Griz/ISU game last Saturday and the winner of the 50/50 got over $11,000 dollars.

Not smack, just letting you know if you go to the Griz/cat game, at least you have the chance to go back east with a lot of dinero.

Looking forward to the Brawl. See ya there.

NoGriz · Post by **NoGriz** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 2:08 pm

One of our buddies sitting with us in Section 102 was the winner at Cat/Griz three years ago. Consider this a win for one of the Commoners in the stands! I don't think the track team does any rigging to make sure that only the luxury box gang wins the raffle.

CATCO · Post by **CATCO** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 3:29 pm

Congrats Lynda. I can not believe that half the pot was only $2k, which means we only sold 4,000 tickets??? I have never seen anyone selling tickets, dancers used to sell them at the tailgates. I would be in for at least $5 a game...please find me.

Bleedinbluengold · Post by **Bleedinbluengold** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 3:32 pm

Gallatin Griz wrote:FYI, I was at the Griz/ISU game last Saturday and the winner of the 50/50 got over $11,000 dollars.

Not smack, just letting you know if you go to the Griz/cat game, at least you have the chance to go back east with a lot of dinero.

Looking forward to the Brawl. See ya there.

Oh man, that's nothing...you should go to a Michigan game. The winner usually gets over $30,000 dollars.

mchammer · Post by **mchammer** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 3:51 pm

The skyboxes buy about 25% of the tickets, but the two winners that I personally drew from the hopper this Fall were from there. We mix the tickets well and draw without looking (as if that matters). I can't imagine "fixing" the draw. The way we draw makes it impossible. You'd have to know our staff; we're a bunch of Eagle Scouts at heart.

When we first took over the 50-50 it was very hard for me because I considered it gambling. It was so hard that I had to stop and walk it off a couple of times, and almost decided that I could not do it. But I felt better about it when I started thinking of it as a way to promote the ASA and Track. Also, I don't like pushing it, but prefer the idea of regular stations that people can go to if they want to play. I think that there are some people at games that could be taken advantage of, if we wanted to seek them out.

The big sales at UM have been common knowledge for a long time. Our crowds aren't as big, and I tend to think that we're a different crowd, with a lot of people that consider it gambling.

We noticed that basketfall fans just weren't as interested, which is why we let go of the 50-50 for basketball. Some other group might handle it, I don't know.

Mike Carignan

Cat in NC · Post by **Cat in NC** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 3:53 pm

CATCO wrote:Congrats Lynda. I can not believe that half the pot was only $2k, which means we only sold 4,000 tickets??? I have never seen anyone selling tickets, dancers used to sell them at the tailgates. I would be in for at least $5 a game...please find me.

Most of this group only give "dancers" money in $1 increments...

Sorry, that was bad.

In all seriousness, I love the fact that the track team benefits from 50/50 sales. It's a sport close to my heart (and one that could really use great student/alumni support from an attendance standpoint).