"This is a place where we can express our personal opinions without others taking it "
Of course it is, but there are many posts that are meant to be personal and that is not all right. Everyone, at some point, make decisions based on emotions and not necessarily on facts. Give the guy a break. There are too many posters that are in love with their so called wit.
It wasn't that long ago we were in the low 20's for ticket sales. I think we're doing pretty well if we're in the low 30's now after a big increase in ticket prices, donation levels, and a team that has been playing subpar.
I would't read into that 1 in 6 not renewing number too much. You're going to have a certain percentage who aren't going to renew ever year anyway. With all the changes, sure that number is going to increase. Actually with the donation increases that were needed, if 5 in 6 renewed, that's a pretty good number and a net revenue gainer for the athletic department.
And folk please don't pick on the people who are have been long time supporters for ISU and are not happy. They made a commitment to ISU long before a lot of you were born. Things change and if they're not happy, they are free to vote with their check books. Until we actually do something on the football field and routinely sell out Jack Trice, they have a point....
So, what is the flaw?
We've designated different sections of the stadium as being available for season tickets with different donation levels. I don't know how many seats are in each section, but let's say there are 4,000 seats that require a $1,000 donation for season tickets. We have not sold out all of the seats at any of the donation levels. So if, for example, we sold 3,000 of the 4,000 available seats to $1,000 donors, what do we do with the other 1,000 seats?
Options:
(1) Leave them empty.
(2) Fill them with $500 donors (preference to ones with most NCC points).
(3) Sell them as single game tickets thru ticketmaster to anyone including non donors and fans of the visiting team.
Pollard has chosen option (3).
If you're a $500 donor who had to move to a worse seat in 2008 and you look over to your old section and see a South Dakota State fan who donates nothing sitting there, how does that make you feel? And why should you have bought your season ticket when you could have bought individual game tickets for the same total price and had better seats?
I wasn't upset until the "I'm better than you'll ever be" got played. Stuff like that instantly pisses me off.
I figure if I can find 100-125 student loan lenders at $40,000/year, I already have $5,000,000 :biggrin: Then after I talk to the Nigerian dude that e-mailed me, I have another $20,000,000 after his account freezes, and there's $25,000,000 to donate :wink:You mean the guy who's "given more money to ISU than you'll ever dream of"? Yeah, I'm with you on that... I'm heading up to Ames on the bike right now to check out the new JTS signage and get some Es Tas. I'll let you know if his name is on the stadium. Because, I don't know about you, but I've dreamt of A LOT of money... I'm talking my-name-on-the-new-south-endzone money.
In response to Monty,
You're option #2 sounds great but is it really possible to pull that off. At what point do they move the $500 dollar donor up a section? It would be very difficult moving people to different sections in the short amount of time between the end of season ticket sales and the start of the season. I would think that would be a logistical nightmare because not only are you moving the Cardinal guy to the Gold but now you have opened a spot for the States 250 guy to move to Cardinal and so on down the line. A lot of time the single game tickets aren't available in multiple seat packs. They are single seats scattered around the section.
I upped my donation from States 250 to Cardinal to stay in the same seats. I considered dropping down but figured after 10 years in the same spot it was time to step up to stay there but really the seats I kept really aren't much better than what I would have had to move to. If I had to move down 1 section I'm pretty sure I would have been watching the game and not been looking over at my old seats thinking about the good old days in section 12. That seems rather immature but who am I to judge.
As far as option 1 goes I would be po'd if I knew they were leaving seats open just to make a few people feel better that single game tickets weren't better seats than season ticket seats.
In response to Monty,
You're option #2 sounds great but is it really possible to pull that off.
What Wisconsin does is have the # of seats at each level less than the demand at that level. So if you're willing to donate $1,000 to sit in a $1,000 section, you can "apply", but if you're low on their points scoring system, you may not get into that section...and you change your seating donation to $500 and get into a $500 section. It's essentially a waiting list. It ensures that all the "donation required" seats are filled with donating season ticket holders. All the single game tickets they sell are located in non-donation seating sections on the ends of the stadium and in the end zone. Pollard either didn't think of the ramifications of his plan or he grossly overestimated the demand for donation-required seating.
That works too. At least it fills the best seats with the best fans, keeps visiting fans out of donation required seats, and provides some incentive for fans to buy season tickets.
I haven't read all the posts, but I got the sense that a lot of people feel that not breaking last year's record is bad. Let me remind everyone that it wasn't very long ago our season ticket sales were half of what they will be this year. We'd all like to see records every year, but keep in mind that the number of season tickets being sold this year are on par with total attendance at some of the games early in the McCarney era. And there were many late season "specials" that were needed just to get people to come. We are light years ahead of those days and moving forward. As long as we are taking 3 steps forward for every 1 step back (or sideways), I am okay with that.
I guess I question where you are getting your information in regards to donor levels not being sold out (at least higher level areas)...
Let me remind everyone that it wasn't very long ago our season ticket sales were half of what they will be this year. We'd all like to see records every year, but keep in mind that the number of season tickets being sold this year are on par with total attendance at some of the games early in the McCarney era
I think this just shows how much of a superbowl the Iowa game is to the average ISU fan...not the diehards on message boards necessarily. I mean, everyone knew we were going to be terrible last year. You can blame economy, fuel prices, losing season, whatever. But the fact is when our fans had to pony up for season tickets to get to the Iowa game they had no trouble doing that. It is a nice contrast to see how dissimilar even the desire to get to the nebraska game is. We really need to move beyond Iowa. Some of you are going to rip me for this because you won't believe Iowa is that important to us, and I would agree that it probably isn't to those on this site. But there are 6000-8000 people that attended the Iowa game last year that would say that game is the season in my opinion. If we have a winning season this year we are on the mend. If we have a losing season at least we play Iowa next year and can count on the "superbowl" bump in season tickets.