Crowd

[DPCuse]

It's amazing how many people in town have no idea that there is a game on any given weekend. I know they are student athletes but maybe you send a handful of players out to the local schools to visit the kids and drum up support. Hand out coupons for a $20 package that includes one adult and one child ticket. Kids will all run home and beg their parents to bring them. Or just distribute the coupons to the schools.

 

[sutomcat]

You guys are making this more difficult than it is.

Obviously winning is paramount. It's been a long time since we were a consistent winning program. It's hard to get back fans after they were a fan then left. Especially when the OOC home schedule is a bit watered down.

BUT

Just as big an issue, and I've said this numerous times, is the preferred seating tickets between the 20's, both downstairs and upstairs. We do OK in the end zones.

Too many of those go left unsold. We have too small a donor base for preferred seating and then we can sell them to the occasional fan who goes to a couple games a year because they cost $80 - $140 per ticket. A lot of casual fans think sideline seats are the "good" seats and wouldn't consider end zones. So a family of 4 looking at the website sees they will have to spend $320 - $560 just to get in. No way Jose'.

SU is stuck between a rock and a hard place. They sell individual game tickets in the preferred area for the cost of the ticket plus a pro-rating of the donation. Thus the high cost for a single game between the 20's. Those are also the sections seen on TV. So they either maintain that pricing strategy or sell individuals without the pro-rated donation. That runs the risk of losing donors, some longtime and the heart of the program. It's tough to pay $140 for your seat and see random joe fan pay $35 (or whatever it is) for the seat next to you. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I had the chance to talk with Dan yesterday about this exact situation. I shared some thoughts with him and it was good to hear they recognize the issue and are assessing ways to address it. Dan had a couple of good ideas himself that I was glad to hear.

My opinion is blow it up. Make donations basketball only. You get a big break when you donate to both anyways. No donations for football that is ticket related. There will still be donors to the football program. Let all current preferred seat holders keep their seats but with no seat donation. Then sell everything for the cost of tickets only. The people now sitting in the upper end zones will buy sideline seats and more will also do so. There will be some cost hit but it may not be as big as some think. Then over time, if the team starts winning more and the fans come back, slowly institute the preferred seating donation concept on a smaller scale and grow it from there.

This. Dr Gross desperately needed to address this, which has been a problem since before he came on board and his reluctance to try was, IMHO, one of his biggest failings. I hope Mark Coyle has the courage and foresight to take a small hit to revenue now to fix the horrible mess we have with pricing for football tickets today. A stadium should not have giant gaps with few people in some of the best seats available. You end up essentially taking great seats off the market and almost forcing people to sit in the endzones, when many would gladly pay more for good seats, as long as the cost for the better seats was reasonable and in line with the market for tickets.

Get a consistent winning team on the field and get ticket pricing that makes sense and you will see a much fuller Dome, with a normal distribution of people sitting in the different sections of the stadium.

This has to happen. It should absolutely be one of Mark Coyle's first priorities.

 

[upperdeck]

i still never undertstand why so little is done to generate ticket sales.

1) the state fair brings in a million people, they have almost zero presence there
2) destiny mall has a kiosk but no body for anyone to talk to
3) no tv/radio presence at all if people dont watch sports you dont even know there is a game
4) why are they not out at the schools at events trying to promote with the fan base
5) people want deals these days, other than the touchdown deal little is done, was the 3 pack even a deal since there is no demand
6) fanfest was a start but that seems to be it to connect with the fanbase
7) reward season ticket holders dont gouge them

 

[Millhouse]

Bees is right, the list price of football ticket pricing is insane. How on Earth they can try to justify $80+ seats at the 15 yard line I cannot pretend to understand.

I'm in the drivers seat of the "win and they'll come" bandwagon but the pricing doesn't help
at all.

i prefer my current endzone upperdecker seats to that 15 yard seat. and my seat costs 100 for the year.

i get the playstation view of it, there's a reason you don't play videogames iwth a 15 yard line view

 

[Millhouse]

This. Dr Gross desperately needed to address this, which has been a problem since before he came on board and his reluctance to try was, IMHO, one of his biggest failings. I hope Mark Coyle has the courage and foresight to take a small hit to revenue now to fix the horrible mess we have with pricing for football tickets today. A stadium should not have giant gaps with few people in some of the best seats available. You end up essentially taking great seats off the market and almost forcing people to sit in the endzones, when many would gladly pay more for good seats, as long as the cost for the better seats was reasonable and in line with the market for tickets.

Get a consistent winning team on the field and get ticket pricing that makes sense and you will see a much fuller Dome, with a normal distribution of people sitting in the different sections of the stadium.

This has to happen. It should absolutely be one of Mark Coyle's first priorities.

who does the dome pricing? i have to imagine that a system that is so obviously stupid exists because of incentives for individual managers. one person who is in charge of donations, another who is in charge of concessions, another who is in charge of tickets, all reporting to different people? perhaps there are people too entrenched for gross to have done anything about it - he cared a lot about appearances and cared little for wasting money. if he could've filled the place, he would've. someone else must've been a roadblock.

i remember that way back in one of jake c's web articles, i can't remember all the details, but different revenue from sports was going to different places and there wasn't any overriding strategy - all silos, sometimes counterproductive from a big picture standpoint. i suspect cantor failed in putting in a more sensible org chart. we know there are way too many cooks in the kitchen at SU

 

[Ozcuse]

Buying tickets between the 20 yard lines is more of a status thing than for the great view. When SU games are THE event to be at, people will pay a premium for the status/bragging rights. As it is now, there is nothing to brag about or rub elbows with when you're sitting by yourself between the 20's.

 

[upperdeck]

who does the dome pricing? i have to imagine that a system that is so obviously stupid exists because of incentives for individual managers. one person who is in charge of donations, another who is in charge of concessions, another who is in charge of tickets, all reporting to different people? perhaps there are people too entrenched for gross to have done anything about it - he cared a lot about appearances and cared little for wasting money. if he could've filled the place, he would've. someone else must've been a roadblock.

i remember that way back in one of jake c's web articles, i can't remember all the details, but different revenue from sports was going to different places and there wasn't any overriding strategy - all silos, sometimes counterproductive from a big picture standpoint. i suspect cantor failed in putting in a more sensible org chart. we know there are way too many cooks in the kitchen at SU

i think the last report of no one reporting to anyone at SU explains most of the issues. too many managers

 

[JHarris44]

Do folks realize that if you buy upper end zone seats, the ushers really don't check your tickets if you want to sit in the middle? I was at the Wake game, and granted it was half-empty, but we just walked into whatever section we wanted without having tickets at that price point. The usher stopped us to ask if we knew where we were going was all. I don't know if the lower bowl ushers are instructed to check or not, or if this was an anomaly because it was such a light crowd.

 

[cuseguy]

Do folks realize that if you buy upper end zone seats, the ushers really don't check your tickets if you want to sit in the middle? I was at the Wake game, and granted it was half-empty, but we just walked into whatever section we wanted without having tickets at that price point. The usher stopped us to ask if we knew where we were going was all. I don't know if the lower bowl ushers are instructed to check or not, or if this was an anomaly because it was such a light crowd.

So true. I have trouble selling my end zone seats sometimes because some people think you actually have to sit in those seats.

 

[donniesyracuse]

i prefer my current endzone upperdecker seats to that 15 yard seat. and my seat costs 100 for the year.

i get the playstation view of it, there's a reason you don't play videogames iwth a 15 yard line view

I feel the same way. I would not pay to more to sit somewhere else. Although, since the uniform numbers changed, my view does not seem quite as good.