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Message: [QUOTE="rrlbees, post: 1476297, member: 96"] This is a post of mine from another thread yesterday about crowds and attendance. So I'll put it here too. ------------------ 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. [/QUOTE]

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