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.
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