Pollard Response on FB Tix

People need to relax a little bit, things are going in the right direction. Here is Pollard's response in wondering if renewals are going well and if there wasn't as much interest with the donation upgrades, since there has been no hype/thermometer updates to get people fired up.

Dear Dave,

Good to hear from you. I am down at the Final Four in Texas. Great games yesterday. The final on Monday should be a track meet.

I appreciate your concern about ticket sales. No need to worry. Keep in mind because of the anticipated movement in seats due to the donation changes, we actually backed up the "deadline" date from last year by 7 weeks. We fully plan to start showing the ticket thermometer again once we get through renewals. Last year we started showing it in late February because the deadline was in February. So far sales look really good. I know as of three weeks ago we actually had processed over 500 new season ticket orders. The fact of the matter is there are plenty of people who want the seats vacated by those that do not want to pay the higher donation prices.

For example, we have already sold 512 of the new $1,500 club seats - we only have 30 seats left. We have sold all the suites except 2 and we have two companies very interested in those two. We have also have increased the number of Directors level donors (keep in mind that annual level went from $10,000 to $12,500 this year) from 75 last year to 90 and counting this year.

I do appreciate your concern for those that may give up their seats and we are sensitive to that. My message to those folks is 1) it will never get less expensive in the future and 2) when Chizik wins they will wish they never gave up their seats.

Thanks for getting the extra tables for the trivia night. It should be fun. See you in a couple of weeks.

Jamie Pollard
Director of Athletics
Iowa State University
1800 South 4th Street
Jacobson Athletic Building
Ames, IA 50011-1140
515-294-0123 (office)
515-294-0104 (fax)
jbp@iastate.edu

Pollard is making tough decisions and is willing to put it on the line to give ISU a chance to have unprecedented sustained success. He's told me before that he is quite aware that if their isn't success in the future that he could easily be out of a job, but he isn't going to let the fear of failure hold back their efforts to do things that they feel will give ISU a chance to move forward. You don't have to agree with all of his decisions, but you have to appreciate that he is willing to take chances to break through the status quo and so far in my opinion all of his tough decisions that he has made has given ISU a better chance to have success.

If you can't afford to pay the extra, don't quit on the FB program, just slide over a section or two. $195 a ticket in the Cy Pack will save you money for those that donated and is still just fine, I've sat there before.

I really respect those of you who have stuck with the program for 20-30 years plus, but I really hope that you don't give up on your season tix now because of the changes. You are still vital to the program and we need you.

Folks it's a long off-season, but we have some footings in place for some great things, I can honestly say there are only a handful of institutiuons that wouldn't trade us right now for our coaching line up of Chizik, McDermott, Fennelly, and Sanderson, with Pollard leading the ship. Those are some heavy duty leaders in their respective roles and their peers have a lot of respect for them. The on-field/court results in a FB and MBB haven't been there yet, but they are building the programs in the right way and I'd be shocked if we as fans aren't thrilled in a couple years.

Just focus on being great fans and your love for ISU and don't get caught up in the emotion ticket prices. There are affordable ticket packages for all and there will be great people around you if you need to move seats. We have a chance to be a part of the building of a great era in ISU athletics. Don't miss out on it.

Thanks for sharing. I am on board! I figure it's now or never for Cyclone sports and they have my backing 100%.

People, JP knows what he is doing. Just leave him alone.

Thanks. This thread is much more helpful than the previous 3 which have been kind of divisive.

Good grief he's smooth.

JP should be selling life insurance.

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Originally Posted by balken

JP should be selling life insurance.

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I honestly think he could sell cloud insurance and be successful...

JP and our athletic program will live and die with his hires of Greg and Gene. I have high hopes like everybody else, but Greg has no background in football or basketball and I'm in a wait and see mode.

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Originally Posted by CYKOFAN

JP and our athletic program will live and die with his hires of Greg and Gene. I have high hopes like everybody else, but Greg has no background in football or basketball and I'm in a wait and see mode.

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Greg has no background in football? Huh?

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Originally Posted by isucyclone4

I honestly think he could sell cloud insurance and be successful...

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Or perhaps volcano insurance. In Rhode Island.

He makes a fair salary as it is. ;)

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Originally Posted by balken

Or perhaps volcano insurance. In Rhode Island.

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A ketchup Popsicle to a woman in white gloves?

Sorry, I meant JP has no background in football or basketball. That isn't everything but I would guess most AD's at major universities have an extensive background in one or the other.

JP's entire answer was simply common sense. I'm not sure why there had to be an e-mail to him about it.

The renewal deadline was less than a week ago. A lot of people send things in at the last possible minute. It takes time to process all of that information. What's the point of putting up a counter or trying to create hype before you even have a base number to work from? Had there been some type of counter/thermometer up in February, well before the renewal deadline, the entire ISU message board community would have been on suicide watch because the numbers were so low.

There have been a few releases put out about limited availability for club seating. Information has been published about the number of suites sold/leased (back when the original master plan presentation was made to the Regents).

Maybe, just maybe, the old axiom "no news is good news" could be applied here, for once?

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Originally Posted by theshadow

JP's entire answer was simply common sense. I'm not sure why there had to be an e-mail to him about it.

The renewal deadline was less than a week ago. A lot of people send things in at the last possible minute. It takes time to process all of that information. What's the point of putting up a counter or trying to create hype before you even have a base number to work from? Had there been some type of counter/thermometer up in February, well before the renewal deadline, the entire ISU message board community would have been on suicide watch because the numbers were so low.

There have been a few releases put out about limited availability for club seating. Information has been published about the number of suites sold/leased (back when the original master plan presentation was made to the Regents).

Maybe, just maybe, the old axiom "no news is good news" could be applied here, for once?

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I don't remember anybody asking for a reasonable reply, do you?:sad:

Just kidding. That was a well-reasoned post.