Ticket prices to increase, parking and donation levels to change

[Cycsk]

Have we already gotten a glimpse of the future with the announcement about the End Zone Club? $750 tickets, but you pick your seats based on donation level. This seems to be a rather significant departure from the previous emphasis on donation level just to get into a section with tickets priced under $400 for football.

 

[LindenCy]

Same here. I got in on the 129 and was second last row. This year we moved down to 13 at 149. I like to think I have a cap price, but it only keeps breaking down to a couple bucks more a game, it's easy to justify. I couldn't go to 3 games and unloaded them for 50 a pair and ended up paying for one of the seats. Heck one of the games was Texas tech if I remember right.

If those were conference games you probably could have gotten a lot more too. I am ok with having ticket increases, but eventually there is a max that will scare me off, as well as others. I am guessing that is a little while away, but I hate that this letter was sent out without any pricing. Perhaps the strategy is to let our imaginations run wild and then when we see a modest increase we are happy we didn't get a huge one.

 

[RunDMCyclone]

How much is too much?

For FB, we have endzone seats and I would pay $250 . . . for the current seats. However, I'm not wild about paying more for sitting in the wedge.

For BB, we have corner balcony and I would also pay $250 without any griping.

I hope they don't quickly price us out of the market, particularly with big donation levels. However, I'm afraid that low donation levels will squeeze out the non-donation section, especially for BB. I may have to hope for the triple-selling of General Admission tickets so that I can get in and take the spot of a student who didn't show up.

$250 for season tickets would still be insanely cheap at a lot of places. I wouldn't be surprised if it goes over $300. Some of our fans are going to realize what it actually costs to be a bigger football program. No more $15 per game tickets or bringing the family to a game for $75.

 

[RunDMCyclone]

Several thoughts:

1. I think most everybody would accept a modest increase in FB tix, knowing they are helping chip in on the SEZ. Maybe $25-50 a seat. If they go bananas and double prices, then you're going to have some issues.

2. You can have 10,000 seats reserved for FB at the Gold and up levels, and still have beaucoup seats to sell "cheap". But in Hilton, those 10,000 gold and up pretty much doesn't leave anything left for the hoi polloi. People donating that much just to buy tix, will not care much about how much those tix cost on top of the donation. Because so much of our fanbase is local, they will go to both FB and BB. At Hilton, you could see an airplane type pricing scheme, where "first class" costs 10x as much as "coach", and not much in between.

JP will have to do a spreadsheet and figure out which way is best for the programs. This is where it's good to have a finance guy in that role.

3. If the donation level goes up significantly to get anything like a decent seat in Hilton, then I think you will see more people "consolidating" their NCC memberships with friends and buying more tix per NCC member.

4. If they charge $50 for BB parking, then I will be parking at Larch or Lied or something. I already park way in the farthest lot by Trice to minimize traffic when leaving, when I can park several lots closer if I wanted to. No way I would pay additional in order to wait longer in traffic after games. Happy to walk 3 minutes to save 30 minutes. If by paying it would reduce traffic, then I'm in. It's already close to 2 hour drive home, at night, in winter, 18 times. Not paying $50 to sit in traffic wasting gas for an extra half-hour.

5. Had no idea it took $12,500 to get in the parquet corners. So when my wife had foot surgery, and we got re-seated to those spots free due to her handicap, that was a hell of a deal I guess.

I highly doubt that Jamie would waste the money on sending a letter a year in advance to prepare season ticket holders for a ticket increase in 2015 that would amount to $4-5 per game!

 

[cloneluke80]

i wonder what will happen with foot ball parking and donations sections out of all of this?

re-seat trice like iowa does every year?


basically iowa does a per seat fb donation


i wonder if min donation for fb paved parking will go from $500 to $1000

 

[AllInForISU]

i wonder what will happen with foot ball parking and donations sections out of all of this?

re-seat trice like iowa does every year?


basically iowa does a per seat fb donation


i wonder if min donation for fb paved parking will go from $500 to $1000

Iowa re-seats about every 3-4 years according to a coworker that is a season ticket holder for Iowa.

I don't know how this is going to play out for the Athletic Department. The main reason they have been close selling out of all of the football games over the past few years is hope, which if they don't have some progress this year I could see that starting to dwindle, and low ticket prices. If people can't bring their family for low cost, I have a feeling we will have a south end zone that is an embarrassment. We should look into investing into a tarp if they raise them too much.

 

[rhino3382]

If those were conference games you probably could have gotten a lot more too. I am ok with having ticket increases, but eventually there is a max that will scare me off, as well as others. I am guessing that is a little while away, but I hate that this letter was sent out without any pricing. Perhaps the strategy is to let our imaginations run wild and then when we see a modest increase we are happy we didn't get a huge one.

Looked back on the schedule. Umkc, TT, and UNC Wilmington. Either way it worked out for me. All 3 times it was on that day I found out I couldn't go (5month old daughter at that time). Usually within 30 minutes of being on Craigslist, they were sold

 

[LindenCy]

Looked back on the schedule. Umkc, TT, and UNC Wilmington. Either way it worked out for me. All 3 times it was on that day I found out I couldn't go (5month old daughter at that time). Usually within 30 minutes of being on Craigslist, they were sold

Selling some lower non-con games for that speaks pretty well of the demand. I expect a decent increase for season tickets, but I find it odd that this letter was sent out without the prices. There is definitely a reason for that, but I am not sure what.

 

[Stormin]

I highly doubt that Jamie would waste the money on sending a letter a year in advance to prepare season ticket holders for a ticket increase in 2015 that would amount to $4-5 per game!

Let's see. Iowa has raised their ticket prices over the last 4 years from $0 to $3 per game. They get at least 7 games EVERY year. ISU fans get 6 games and sometimes 7 games. ISU fans get late November NIGHT games. Thursday night games. We raise our ticket prices $25 and we are charging $400 and Iowa charges $395.

For a 6 game season ticket that is $67 each game plus the donation level. Iowa gets 7 games for less than $57 each plus donation level.

IMO, the $25 increase for football will fly but you start getting up into $450 to $500 range plus donation level you will lose a lot of people.

 

[RunDMCyclone]

Let's see. Iowa has raised their ticket prices over the last 4 years from $0 to $3 per game. They get at least 7 games EVERY year. ISU fans get 6 games and sometimes 7 games. ISU fans get late November NIGHT games. Thursday night games. We raise our ticket prices $25 and we are charging $400 and Iowa charges $395.

For a 6 game season ticket that is $67 each game plus the donation level. Iowa gets 7 games for less than $57 each plus donation level.

IMO, the $25 increase for football will fly but you start getting up into $450 to $500 range plus donation level you will lose a lot of people.

You're talking about our highest price tickets. The rest of our locations are drastically less than Iowa's $395. Currently we have season ticket holders who got 7 games for $99-$125 this upcoming season. Iowa has nothing remotely like that since their seats are flatly priced across the stadium where even the worst endzone seats are nearly $400 before any donation. I would suspect that ours will jump up quite a bit to a more comparable price.

I agree raising our tickets significantly is "not going to fly" with a lot of people, but those people just aren't realistic if they truly think that it is a crime to do that. College football became an arms race a few years back, and if we aren't trying to increase our revenue to keep up, then we are doing something wrong. Like I said, the days of season tickets being affordable for everyone have been long gone at most major programs. Our fans were lucky to get it for as long as we did. I wanted this to happen before any SEZ project. That way we could have tested the demand for tickets priced at a normal market value and see if we still need 60k seats or not.

 

[VeloClone]

Jamie probably didn't put any prices in so that we could all freak out that it is going to be a huge change and then come back with a significant but modest increase and everyone is relatively happy about - rather than grousing about - the increase.

I find it ridiculous that some are still indicating that the endzone work doesn't need to be done even if we lose a few season ticket holders. Pretty much no where is a grassy hillside counted as seats but we have been selling tickets for a lot of people for a long time on the grass. If you compare our tickets sold for the last few years to actual seats it is pretty silly to discount the need - even if we lose a few season ticket holders. Besides, if you look back at this thread, there are a lot of people concerned that they may not be able to afford season tickets if prices go up too much, however they often are saying that they will probably select games to buy tickets and go so they generally aren't lost entirely.

 

[CyDude16]

Iowa re-seats about every 3-4 years according to a coworker that is a season ticket holder for Iowa.

I don't know how this is going to play out for the Athletic Department. The main reason they have been close selling out of all of the football games over the past few years is hope, which if they don't have some progress this year I could see that starting to dwindle, and low ticket prices. If people can't bring their family for low cost, I have a feeling we will have a south end zone that is an embarrassment. We should look into investing into a tarp if they raise them too much.

Wont happen.

 

[Psyclone]

Just saying that we leave lots of money on the table by letting so many park for free at Hilton (and CY Stephens, for that matter). There's no other place I've gone to for games or concerts that let this happen...

Maybe, maybe not. Parking is part of the total cost of attendance. I am assuming that season ticket holders will pay for parking when they order tickets, so the total cost is what they write the check for, regardless of how it is broken down on the order form. Some people may decide the cost of attending games just isn't worth it and you start to lose people.

Hopefully there are price points available for everybody, although if they could fill the place with $5000 donors, I guess that's not all bad either, as long as it isn't just corporate donors pushing out individual fans.

 

[GWad]

Got a letter from Jamie today about football and men's basketball pricing increases and adjustments. Nothing changes this year, but changes for 2015-2016 will be announced by early fall. He emphasizes Hilton will NOT be reseated for MBB.

It's about time -- FB better make it back to mediocre again soon to support the new seat supply.

 

[Stormin]

You're talking about our highest price tickets. The rest of our locations are drastically less than Iowa's $395. Currently we have season ticket holders who got 7 games for $99-$125 this upcoming season. Iowa has nothing remotely like that since their seats are flatly priced across the stadium where even the worst endzone seats are nearly $400 before any donation. I would suspect that ours will jump up quite a bit to a more comparable price.

I agree raising our tickets significantly is "not going to fly" with a lot of people, but those people just aren't realistic if they truly think that it is a crime to do that. College football became an arms race a few years back, and if we aren't trying to increase our revenue to keep up, then we are doing something wrong. Like I said, the days of season tickets being affordable for everyone have been long gone at most major programs. Our fans were lucky to get it for as long as we did. I wanted this to happen before any SEZ project. That way we could have tested the demand for tickets priced at a normal market value and see if we still need 60k seats or not.

We have eliminated almost half of those $99-$125 tickets with the stadium expansion. They are gone. Even if pricing structure remained the same, they would now be $175 tickets.

There is no way you can jack up prices to $400 each at Jack Trice Stadium for the wedge and endzone seats. They will remain empty. Better fill them up at $200 per ticket and then go from there. And raise every season ticket by $25 that first year. There is a reason why we had $99 endzone seats a while back. It is because we were not selling tickets. We can also jack the price up for parking to $75 to $100 for the season. We definitely have the demand for it.

And no offense to Jamie, but giving away a home and home to play in Kansas City screws the season ticket holder. That is one less game. Same thing with Thursday night games. And late night November games. It makes it tough for those who travel a good distance. The fact is that Iowa State is in competition for entertainment dollars. It gets too high and you lose customers and fans.

 

[CycloneErik]

We have eliminated almost half of those $99-$125 tickets with the stadium expansion. They are gone. Even if pricing structure remained the same, they would now be $175 tickets.

There is no way you can jack up prices to $400 each at Jack Trice Stadium for the wedge and endzone seats. They will remain empty. Better fill them up at $200 per ticket and then go from there. And raise every season ticket by $25 that first year. There is a reason why we had $99 endzone seats a while back. It is because we were not selling tickets. We can also jack the price up for parking to $75 to $100 for the season. We definitely have the demand for it.

And no offense to Jamie, but giving away a home and home to play in Kansas City screws the season ticket holder. That is one less game. Same thing with Thursday night games. And late night November games. It makes it tough for those who travel a good distance. The fact is that Iowa State is in competition for entertainment dollars. It gets too high and you lose customers and fans.

There is no way they sent out a letter without prices to warn people of a $25 increase. It's going to get pricey.

 

[rhino3382]

Selling some lower non-con games for that speaks pretty well of the demand. I expect a decent increase for season tickets, but I find it odd that this letter was sent out without the prices. There is definitely a reason for that, but I am not sure what.

Agreed, I have decided that JP is following this thread and will base prices off of what he reads

 

[Ms3r4ISU]

Agreed, I have decided that JP is following this thread and will base prices off of what he reads

If that's the case, please get a parking lot entrance and exit plan in place for the next season with appropriate staffing for MBB. Oh, and get good-tasting concessions at Hilton with sufficient staffing so people don't need to miss as much action because they 're waiting in line. Twice as many ice cream and walking taco locations, to start.

 

[whatparking]

If that's the case, please get a parking lot entrance and exit plan in place for the next season with appropriate staffing for MBB. Oh, and get good-tasting concessions at Hilton with sufficient staffing so people don't need to miss as much action because they 're waiting in line. Twice as many ice cream and walking taco locations, to start.

I vote for shuttle buses from Hy-Vee parking lot to Hilton on game days. Lots of people park there anyway and carpool from there, me included most games. Des Moines does this shuttling for the Iowa State Fair. We could do it for the games. Thoughts?

 

[LindenCy]

Agreed, I have decided that JP is following this thread and will base prices off of what he reads

Well, that is one theory.