AD letter and higher ticket costs

[Frak]

If it does then a season ticket holder like myself of several years and a donor as well might just say "screw it". I go to about half the games and spend a lot of money and if Jamie keeps saying "more, more, more" then I might say "enough, enough, enough". And I have tons of friends who say the same way. I am a diehard fan. But really, I don't feel we should be paying the Oklahoma type prices for season tickets. I will just buy single tickets for the games I want. There will be plenty available if season ticket prices go up as much as you think they will. It is much, much cheaper for me to pay $125 per ticket for a good seat to the games I really want to attend at the times I want to attend them like on Saturdays in September.

I agree. Actually, I can see both sides of the argument. ISU has a lower budget than probably 90% of BCS schools, if not 95%. We have top 35 attendance in FB and higher than that in MBB. The B12 is paying out more than most conferences currently. So why do we have such a small budget? It's because the donors aren't giving as much as they do at other schools. On the other hand, they keep asking for more, more, more and eventually, everyone has their tipping point. It's a dangerous game that Pollard is playing as far as ticket prices and donations.

I'm not going to say that the SEZ is a gamble like hokfan seems to think. They had a $25M donation in hand. At that point, you either move forward and try to compete or give up. It's the right call. And there's evidence that there has been a lot of interest in the new Endzone Club. That's going to pay off.

I do think that it would be dumb to get too crazy with the increases. FB can't justify it. MBB can, but even then, there's a point where you start losing fans. Here's what I would do:

1. Increase MBB season tickets by $50 across the board.
2. Increase donor levels for Hilton. You have to be a $100 donor to get a season ticket and probably $5k for parquet...maybe keep the faculty/staff sections at $2,500.
3. Charge for parking passes at Hilton. $50 for a parking pass and then keep a few lots closer to JTS for public parking, but charge $5 a car.
4. Increase FB parking passes to $75, $150 for RV's.
5. Increase FB season tickets by $25 across the board.

That should do it. I would probably tweak the formula they use for seating assignments and give a little more weight to the number of years a person has had season tickets and the lifetime contribution they've donated. That should allow people a better chance to keep their seats vs someone who comes in with a bunch of money as a first time buyer. That would hopefully prevent long time fans from being too disgruntled.

 

[Stormin]

I agree. Actually, I can see both sides of the argument. ISU has a lower budget than probably 90% of BCS schools, if not 95%. We have top 35 attendance in FB and higher than that in MBB. The B12 is paying out more than most conferences currently. So why do we have such a small budget? It's because the donors aren't giving as much as they do at other schools. On the other hand, they keep asking for more, more, more and eventually, everyone has their tipping point. It's a dangerous game that Pollard is playing as far as ticket prices and donations.

I'm not going to say that the SEZ is a gamble like hokfan seems to think. They had a $25M donation in hand. At that point, you either move forward and try to compete or give up. It's the right call. And there's evidence that there has been a lot of interest in the new Endzone Club. That's going to pay off.

I do think that it would be dumb to get too crazy with the increases. FB can't justify it. MBB can, but even then, there's a point where you start losing fans. Here's what I would do:

1. Increase MBB season tickets by $50 across the board.
2. Increase donor levels for Hilton. You have to be a $100 donor to get a season ticket and probably $5k for parquet...maybe keep the faculty/staff sections at $2,500.
3. Charge for parking passes at Hilton. $50 for a parking pass and then keep a few lots closer to JTS for public parking, but charge $5 a car.
4. Increase FB parking passes to $75, $150 for RV's.
5. Increase FB season tickets by $25 across the board.

That should do it. I would probably tweak the formula they use for seating assignments and give a little more weight to the number of years a person has had season tickets and the lifetime contribution they've donated. That should allow people a better chance to keep their seats vs someone who comes in with a bunch of money as a first time buyer. That would hopefully prevent long time fans from being too disgruntled.

Those are logical and realistic price increases. When it comes to football, I think a lot of people are forgetting that in 2015 we only have 6 games on our schedule. And Jamie is smart enough to realize that asking for a big price increase combined with less games is being unreasonable. $25 is realistic. You start talking $50, then people will back off. Especially with only 6 games instead of 7 games.

And concerning the letter, I thought that it was emphasizing more that basketball prices would be going up a lot more than football. And that donor levels would also be raised. d

 

[d4nim4l]

Donor requirements will happen across the board, but have a greater affect on basketball than football.

At this point I figure they stick with round numbers for football. $125 becomes $150, $225 non-donor seats become $250 and possibly low level donor seats, and standard $375 tickets become $400.

The real problem are the donor scales and I think that gets adjusted the most throughout this.

 

[BryceC]

Take for instance to south end zone renovation, if there are 3000 seats on each hillside and in the bleachers (I don't know the numbers exactly), that makes 9k seats that could easily go to the $375 price point.

I love our fans, but if you think that's going to be easy...

 

[cycloneworld]

I posted this in the other thread but its more applicable here since we are directly talking about football.

OSU - $500, cheapest option $400
Texas - $450, cheapest option $350
OU - $443, cheapest option $443
Tech - $409 (dynamic pricing), cheapest option $149
ISU - $375, cheapest option $125
WVU - $365, cheapest option $365
KSU - $355, cheapest option $200
KU - $300, cheapest option $87.50
Baylor - $250, cheapest option $125
TCU - $250, cheapest option $200

Almost all places did not require annual donations for the cheapest option. Tech has the most dynamic pricing structure with 10+ different price points based on location.

Based on this, I don't see how the AD can justify a price increase to the main season ticket package. But I think increases to the cheaper option packages would be warranted.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

We're already paying for 7 games and getting 6 most years.

Glass half empty.

Glass half full would be you're paying for six games and every second or third year you get a bonus game.

 

[CycloneErik]

I posted this in the other thread but its more applicable here since we are directly talking about football.

OSU - $500, cheapest option $400
Texas - $450, cheapest option $350
OU - $443, cheapest option $443
Tech - $409 (dynamic pricing), cheapest option $149
ISU - $375, cheapest option $125
WVU - $365, cheapest option $365
KSU - $355, cheapest option $200
KU - $300, cheapest option $87.50
Baylor - $250, cheapest option $125
TCU - $250, cheapest option $200

Almost all places did not require annual donations for the cheapest option. Tech has the most dynamic pricing structure with 10+ different price points based on location.

Based on this, I don't see how the AD can justify a price increase to the main season ticket package. But I think increases to the cheaper option packages would be warranted.

I see what you're saying, but I don't think the backbone of the increase can be on the lower priced seats. That goes against that old claim of an environment for families, and throws around the idea that people making the least in the stadium/arena (potentially) are the ones to foot the bill for people making 6 or 7 figures. I don't approve of that approach at all.

 

[cycloneworld]

I see what you're saying, but I don't think the backbone of the increase can be on the lower priced seats. That goes against that old claim of an environment for families, and throws around the idea that people making the least in the stadium/arena (potentially) are the ones to foot the bill for people making 6 or 7 figures. I don't approve of that approach at all.

I don't want to see an increase either but it makes more sense to raise the "cheap ticket" prices if you look at the Big 12. It makes no sense to raise the basic season ticket price as we are already in the upper half in the Big 12 (with none of the success to show for it). But we are still towards the bottom of the "get-in" prices. Raise hillsides to $150, endzones to $200, and the $225 corners to $250. And if you really have to raise the base price to meet the budget, then make up the rest there. But those people are already carrying most of the burden between donations and higher ticket prices.

 

[CyBobby]

We've had one season of 8+ wins since 1978. I'm not sure "spoiled" is the term I'd use to describe Cyclone football fans.

Right on Bro. Our fans are the most unspoiled football fans in all of college football...when you average around 4 wins a year for the last 100 years or so, there is nothing to be spoiled about, now is there.....

 

[Cycsk]

I don't want to see an increase either but it makes more sense to raise the "cheap ticket" prices if you look at the Big 12. It makes no sense to raise the basic season ticket price as we are already in the upper half in the Big 12 (with none of the success to show for it). But we are still towards the bottom of the "get-in" prices. Raise hillsides to $150, endzones to $200, and the $225 corners to $250. And if you really have to raise the base price to meet the budget, then make up the rest there. But those people are already carrying most of the burden between donations and higher ticket prices.

JP's goal is not to make our ticket prices comparable to anyone else's. His goal is to keep the stadium full and generate as much revenue as possible. As these two factors interact with each other, we will see the "market" at work. I expect that he will try various things, such as the brand new Endzone Club with expensive seats, but probably won't get ahead of himself. I don't think he wants to get in a situation where he has to drop prices to get people to buy them, and then have to deal with those who already bought them at higher prices. It makes more sense to shoot for the moon on a few things like the Endzone Club, but then increase prices and donation levels incrementally in order to find the market level for each section.

 

[jbhtexas]

I agree. Actually, I can see both sides of the argument. ISU has a lower budget than probably 90% of BCS schools, if not 95%. We have top 35 attendance in FB and higher than that in MBB. The B12 is paying out more than most conferences currently. So why do we have such a small budget? It's because the donors aren't giving as much as they do at other schools.

Donations are one part.

ESPN has a database where they have broken down revenue for the public schools (private schools don't have to divulge the detailed info). I've pulled out the Big 12 schools. Looking at the bigger revenue generating categories, for the eight schools for which there is detailed data, ISU is 7th in ticket sales, 8th in donations (lagging KSU by over $4 million), and 8th in licensing/royalties (lagging KSU by over $1 million).



https://b2.caspio.com/dp.asp?AppKey=900c1000ea466e223e104a22814a

 

[VeloClone]

Also note that despite TCU and WVU still getting just half shares of the conference $, ISU is almost $10M behind TCU in total revenues and over $15M behind WVU. ISU is sucking hind teat and it isn't even close.

Why do Kansas and Oklahoma State Universities feel they still need to subsidize their AD's $93M in revenues (basically tied for third in the conference)?

 

[CyBobby]

And that is why I think Jamie is looking at maybe a $25 increase for football. Basketball, on the other hand, is a different matter. Hoiberg has gotten some really big raises and basketball should pay that bill not football. We have had great success and I can see those going up about $5 or so more per game or $100 per season ticket, plus increased donation levels.

Great Post and I agree, when you are a Basketball School, Basketball has to carry the load....

 

[jbhtexas]

Also note that despite TCU and WVU still getting just half shares of the conference $, ISU is almost $10M behind TCU in total revenues and over $15M behind WVU. ISU is sucking hind teat and it isn't even close.

The doctors/lawyers vs. engineers/farmers argument will be given (among others) and certainly there is some legitimacy to those things, but given ISU's enrollment advantage over KSU, it is difficult to see why ISU should be lagging KSU that far in contributions.

Why do Kansas and Oklahoma State Universities feel they still need to subsidize their AD's $93M in revenues (basically tied for third in the conference)?

In OSU's case, they are spending more than they are taking in, and apparently they aren't willing to cut $3 million to be self-sufficient. In KU's case, they are taking in $13 million more than they are spending (at least according to that report), so I've got nothing for that one. But hey, if the taxpayers are willing to foot the bill for athletics, I guess the AD might as well take their money...

 

[Stormin]

Great Post and I agree, when you are a Basketball School, Basketball has to carry the load....

That is what I do not understand when some people are saying that football needs to be raised so much. Hoiberg has had his salary increased close to $1.5 million over the last few years. That needs to be factored into the basketball ticket prices. Basically that amounts to about $8 per game per season ticket just for Hoiberg's salary increases. Which would be over $100 on every season ticket.