My reply to the UofI President article in DM Reg

[stateofmind]

Regarding Pollard: Seems to make sense to me why some of us think he's pretty good at his job.

I know that you all hate Pollard, and I can see why you do. But if you would look at some simple numbers that I ran, it might make more sense to you. (I'm assuming that no logic will ever make much sense to you...)

If ISU decided to sell single game tickets this year for this game, and let's just say it was $55/ticket, this would've been the result:
$275,000 for $55 * 5,000 more tickets sold, (I'm assuming 50K will be there with me tomorrow and the Iowa game has never been over 55K I believe.)
-$140,000 for $55 instead of the $90 you paid for the 4,000 sold to UofI
$135,000 net gain if we sold single game tickets. (Again, assuming 50K paid for a ticket tomorrow)

Now, if you look at the season ticket cost for ISU last year, and the number of season ticket holders:
$220 * 30,728 = $6,760,160 (The price of a season ticket was roughly $220 and we sold 6,000 less last year)
$350 * 36,605 = $12,811,750 (This year we are paying $130 more/ticket and we sold 6,000 more)
$6,051,590 net gain for season tickets this year.

By my math Pollard gained ISU close to $6,000,000 for ISU by doing this move. So ask yourself, did he make the right decision or not? The only people complaining about this is the Hawkeyes that didn't spend $90 or couldn't get one. Hmmm, they couldn't get one. I guess they could've gotten more from the Hawkeye faithful...

All things considered, ISU fans like myself should be upset about the price we are paying for the product we are seeing out there, but we feel there is something about being a part of the foundation of our new success, not just waiting for it to be the popular choice. BTW, just to let you know, UNI and Nebraska hold the stadium seating records, not the Hawks. Just trying to help you realize that other games are actually more important than this game. And yes I realize that we should've done this to UNI as well, since they do hold 2 of the 3 largest attendances. I'm assuming it's because we don't mind having them come to Ames, even if they do make us look like, well, like crap.

Anyway, I hope this helps you understand, I doubt that it did.

Go Clones!
(Hawk thesaurus: Ames = Lames, Clones, Cyclones = Clowns, ISU = ISWho, ISMoo Sorry if I missed some translations for you.)

[mvsta]

You have one major flaw in your formula--the season ticket price for 2007. There are thousand of season tickets sold at $125, $150, $195 and $300. I don't believe you can take 36,000 season tickets at $350 each.

Also, your logic that the remaining 5000 tickets would be sold at $55 seems a bit arbitrary.

Pollard's scheme did put more money in the ISU coffers, but not $6.0 Million more.

[stateofmind]

Understood, but there were $99 tickets sold last year as well. It may not be $6M, but it's very substantial nonetheless. I'm also assuming that on top of the 37K season tickets plus the 4K sold to Iowa fans only comes to 41K. Lots are saying that there will 50K in the stadium tomorrow. Logic stands to reason that there isn't a dollar amount for any of the 9K. Now we all know that in that 9K are guests of big donors, by tent sales and suites, etc.

So yes, it's not exact math, but it's only to make a point. I would love to know the true financials here. I'm curious to know how much of the season tickets goes to this game. If we say that this game is only worth $1 for the 37K season tickets sold, wouldn't Iowa get totatlly screwed in the 20% of gate sales? I'm sure that we would never do anything like that though...

[BigBake]

My reply to the EIU pres...

Learn to pronounce your own coach's name before you critique other schools.

[SplitIdentity]

My reply to the EIU pres...

Learn to pronounce your own coach's name before you critique other schools.

Who doesn't know how to pronounce his name?

[Bobber]

My take is that she's more surprised than critical.

Hey you can debate this all you want, but I say price it as much as the market will bear. Jamie looks brilliant right now setting a season ticket record total while raising ticket prices. It's generating a lot of money for the athletic department which is needed.

Now he just needs to field a better team, so we can continue to sell tickets in the future.

[BigBake]

Who doesn't know how to pronounce his name?

Sally Mason. She flubbed his name in an interview this week.

[SplitIdentity]

Sally Mason. She flubbed his name in an interview this week.

Oh. My guess that was just what you said - a flub. With her being the president at Purdue, and with Lick being a coach in the state of Indiana, and with their known friendship, I'm willing to bet she knows his name.

Now, if you're saying she messed up Ferentz's name, then that is a mistake.

I guess I hadn't heard this, so sorry if it was indeed Ferentz.

[CycloneDaddy]

I know she jacked up Ferentz's name during the Northern Illinois game on the radio during halftime. You would think the President of the university would know how to pronounce the football coaches name but I guess not. Where is Pat McManus when you need him.

Rock In Prevention