Open Letter to Cuse Athletics - Let the Students Pack the Dome for FREE Friday Night!

[VikesCuse84]

Students absolutely should be able to get in free for every game. It's their team and they certainly pay enough in tuition and the university can always add in some fee to the tuition to cover the cost of the ticket revenue if it's that important. An increase in student attendance will help the atmosphere and hopefully overtime give them a sense of pride with the football team that will carry over in the future after they graduate to donate or come back and buy tickets. I agree with everyone that has stated the university needs to make vast changes to the pricing structure for single game tickets. They also need to ramp up the marketing. I haven't seen a single TV ad or heard a radio ad promoting the game. There has to be something done from a marketing perspective to get the casual fans from Rochester, Binghamton, Ithaca, Watertown, etc to want to come to the dome for football.

 

[sufandu]

Monmouth saw a huge increase in student attendance in basketball several years ago; Binghamton led America East in attendance when they first joined the conference. I don't know that there is an answer, but if it was my job I'd be studying what those schools did since they were not winners at the time the attendance jumped. There's probably other examples more recent than the two I mentioned - find them and copy what makes sense.

I would also ask students for input, knowing going in that "free tickets!" will be a common answer...and that I'd have no intention of listening to it.

I don't know about either of those situations. If I had to guess I would say Binghamton benefited from the excitement that comes with a new conference. Was it sustained?

With regard to ours, you don't have a suggestion, but you'll criticize others. I see.

 

[bnoro]

SU gets way more than half. Beer sales the profit for SU is about 80%, profit on soda on tap is also large bottled drinks a little less, but still much greater than half the price to customer. Food profits are more in line with your half figure, but still more than half.

I'm not talking about the profits on items. I'm talking about what the actual university gets from sales compared to what Aramark (I think?) makes.

 

[Jake]

It almost never makes sense to give away a substantial amount free tickets, but for whatever reason there is a huge contingent of our fan base hell bent on promoting free tickets for students so I'm pointing out the only time it can be defended. Tennessee giving away student tickets can be defended, Syracuse giving away tickets can't. It's actually pretty basic economics. As Syracuse football declined, they tried reducing ticket prices to increase attendance. It didn't work, and it lead to a pricing structure that was totally out of whack. I used to have preferred seating but switched to the end zone, because the pricing difference was unacceptable. So the end zones having more fans than the sidelines at games actually illustrates exactly why playing games with ticket prices is a high risk, low reward option for the school. Giving away free tickets for a product that's not in demand absolutely impacts the perception of your product and your revenues. Years ago I lived in Albany and would occasionally buy tickets to their AHL team. They started giving away tickets at Berkshire Bank locations, which influenced me in two ways - first, I stopped buying tickets because they were free. Second, I occasionally blew off games when I had tickets and something came up - because what did it matter, the tickets didn't cost me anything. The team stunk; giving away free tickets didn't increase the crowd - it just meant that the die-hands went for free now, and you still had 1,200 at the games. Just less revenue to show for it. There is absolutely a cost to poor ticket pricing strategy.

^^^^^^^
This 1000x.

The answer is to raise end zone pricing and reduce pricing on the sidelines.

Make it less desirable to sit in the end zones.

Unpopular at first, but will pay off in the long run.

You could keep a Very limited amount of $125 season tickets in the upper corners.

 

[CuseOnly]

^^^^^^^
This 1000x.

The answer is to raise end zone pricing and reduce pricing on the sidelines.

Make it less desirable to sit in the end zones.

Unpopular at first, but will pay off in the long run.

You could keep a Very limited amount of $125 season tickets in the upper corners.

How about keeping the end zone prices right where they are as it seems to be working and changing the pricing for the rest of the Dome to something reasonably affordable to the population in Syracuse.

I know that with my brother and another couple of friends that buy on my account that if tickets say went up to $150, I would be giving up the extras that I buy to bring friends.

Making it less desirable to sit in the end zones, will make it affordable and more desirable to sit elsewhere at higher prices? That makes absolutely zero sense.

 

[TexanMark]

The SU student fan base is different than Land Grant State U...we have lots of International Students and students from the Bos-Wash who follow pro sports...SU has to get them in the Dome. We should have a good student section for this game...the question is will they still be there in the 2nd Half when the House Party calls?

We have a G5 level fan base right now (students and locals/alumni) and we won't elevate until we get into the Top 25.

 

[SUbear]

I'm not talking about the profits on items. I'm talking about what the actual university gets from sales compared to what Aramark (I think?) makes.

I do not know what you are talking about, the university runs their concessions with volunteer groups running individual concession stands for a percentage of the sales at each stand. That has been the way they have done it since the dome was built, far as I know there has been no change in that scenario. Pretty sure Aramark has nothing to do with it. I suppose they could have made a change, but not to my knowledge.

 

[Jake]

How about keeping the end zone prices right where they are as it seems to be working and changing the pricing for the rest of the Dome to something reasonably affordable to the population in Syracuse.

I know that with my brother and another couple of friends that buy on my account that if tickets say went up to $150, I would be giving up the extras that I buy to bring friends.

Making it less desirable to sit in the end zones, will make it affordable and more desirable to sit elsewhere at higher prices? That makes absolutely zero sense.

The problem is, there's not a bad seat in the dome.

Its about $20/ game to sit in the end zone.

Let's say it's about $200/game for 35 yard line tickets including donation.

Are those seats 10x better than end zone? Obviously not if fans are buying the better percieved value in the end zone and the 35s go empty every game.

Now let's bump the end zone ticket to $35 game.

Reduce the 35 yard line seat to $65
Plus a modest donation...and those area are percieved to be a better value.

The issue isn't an attempt to keep out those who can't afford seasons, it's keeping those who can from seeing much greater value in buying the better seats.

I would bet the end zones are nearly sold out and 20% sit in better seats somewhere else because they're empty.

 

[upperdeck]

when you can sit in the endzone for more than half what a 10-20 yd line seat sells for and its almost as good a seat for a bad product the product sells much better. if you cant get to every game then buy the cheaper ticket makes sense.. when the product improves then you have to decide on whether a better seat make more sense. i cant even drag people to the games now, hopefully someday soon i will

 

[CuseOnly]

The problem is, there's not a bad seat in the dome.

Its about $20/ game to sit in the end zone.

Let's say it's about $200/game for 35 yard line tickets including donation.

Are those seats 10x better than end zone? Obviously not if fans are buying the better percieved value in the end zone and the 35s go empty every game.

Now let's bump the end zone ticket to $35 game.

Reduce the 35 yard line seat to $65
Plus a modest donation...and those area are percieved to be a better value.

The issue isn't an attempt to keep out those who can't afford seasons, it's keeping those who can from seeing much greater value in buying the better seats.

I would bet the end zones are nearly sold out and 20% sit in better seats somewhere else because they're empty.

The $100 end zone seats are $16.75/Game this year for 6 home games. If you can't pack the end zones for that price, guess what...you aren't going to sell those very same seats at $35/Game. I sit there so I know and see that there are plenty of seats available, perceived value or not. People don't see the REAL value right now.

I ask different people every week including family and offer my extras for FREE and they won't go.

I guarantee that you will lose 40-50% of your end zone buyers with that example of pricing. I would still buy my 6 seasons at $125/Season each but not if you double them to $35/game which brings them all to $210/Season doubling my price.

For Comparison
Option 1 - $600 = affordable (100/season x6)
Option 2 - $1260 = not affordable (210/season x6)
Option 3 - $0 = Sitting at home watching on my 60" TV with surround sound

Make no mistake, #3 is the biggest competition that any team in athletics has and for that difference in pricing I would choose #3 and pick an choose a game or 2 I really wanted to go see just like most of this town does now.

If it is about increasing revenue, that's one thing...then do everything to that end and maximize profits at the expense of the fans. Seems that this has been the MO for just about forever. SU seems to be happy with the money and the fan turnout to this point as it hasn't changed.

If it is about packing the Dome and the fan experience...again do everything to that end. Don't do it half-ass, change the pricing structure across the board. Keep the cheap end zone seats, it's clearly working. Change the rest of the pricing everywhere else as well as the donation structures.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Everyone wants everything to be free as long as they're not the one paying for it. Oh Lord

It should be part of student activity fee. That SU charges students has always been stupid.