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Message: [QUOTE="rrlbees, post: 1480753, member: 96"] There are many reasons, right or wrong, for the bad attendance. Win loss record, marketing, lost season ticket holders due to age, grudges, whatever and them not being replaced by younger fans who have only known an average or worse program the past 15 years. I keep harping on the price structure and have been beating this drum for at least the past few years. I see it as a big reason why the "good" seats between the 20"s are the most barren. I've said it before, so as not to risk losing donors, SU charges for individual tickets a price that is the ticket cost + the prorated cost of the donation for those preferred seat areas. Here's my first proposal, which I spoke a little bit about to Dan last week. I doubt SU would do it because it would put a dent in donations, but who knows. Get rid of donations for preferred seating for football. Still have preferred seating donations for the basketball program and those who pay the combined donation for both sports, just charge them for basketball which is only a $20-$30 difference when you do both. There will be people, as there are now, that make donations to the program separate to, or over and above to, the donation required for preferred seating. Allow all preferred seating folks to keep their seats of course, but now charge them only for the cost of the seat and also make that the cost for an individual game ticket. Something along the lines of $50 for A location seats, $40 for B location, $30 for C, $20 for D and $15 for all other seats. This can be tweaked a bit if they feel its too out of line, but I think it pretty reasonable. Or maybe make that the price for ACC and LSU type games and make it even cheaper for the OOC games. The key though is to get rid of the $80-$140 tickets that casual fans have to pay to sit in the "good" sideline seats. There will be lost $$$ of course but how much will depend on how many football only preferred seating football fans there are and some due to a decrease in individual ticket costs. But there will be an upper in tickets sold, thus there's that income along with concessions, souvenirs, parking etc. An over time, larger crowds has to benefit the program in some way whether its recruiting or just helping the team win more which means more bowls, more bowl money, more TV money etc. With the new ACC $$$ which is significantly more than what we used to get, now is the time to do something like this. We just have to find a way to fill more, a lot more, of those seats between the 20's that also appear on TV and give off a very bad look. Do this, along with smarter marketing, reaching out to organizations and STH's, improve game day experiences, etc. and we can get back to regular 40K and more crowds. Of course the program has to do their part and continue to improve and win football games. But I think that will happen, but more fans will help all that too. [/QUOTE]

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