CR Gazette: ISU AD facing potential $147M deficit by 2031 with direct to player payments

[CyCity]

Not if you do the research. I mean I dont know exactly what you call premium access, and I dont know if you are talking straight tickets or donation etc. But we are near the top in both prices and donations in the P4. And places like KSU who you would think is a similar school is quite a bit lower than us. ISUs top donor level requirements for top access is far higher than many schools, and our ticket prices are higher pretty much from entry level to top premium level, in most cases as well. Take gold level donor seats, in most cases you will be able to buy similar seats for around $100 average. Sometimes a little more sometimes a little less. with fees around $150. At that rate it takes 5 games just to cover the face value of the season ticket, and hasnt even dented the donation cost yet, and the only premium feature you get at the gold level, which is now Minimum $1800, is access to purchase parking. Keep in mind Gold level is no longer enough for RV parking, JT club, or any other premium spaces etc outside the end zone club which now requires at least cardinal.

Spend some time looking around at schools you will be shocked. You know if we were one of the cheaper ones JP would be sharing those comparisons to show how much of a deal we were getting, constantly. Instead you never see anything like that from him. Because he knows we are one of the highest price tickets around.

I feel ISUs costs for a long time have been pushed on the regular fans. Where other places have put those expenses on sponsor deals, media deals, high rollers and mega donors. It has worked ok for a long time, but it is starting to price out the regular fans, and it has now become more cost efficient to not buy season tickets, in many cases.

Now they want us to pay the players too, its out of control, these kids get free everything and now they want to make millions, on top of it, out of we fans pockets, that is not how it was supposed to work, if you are a good player, you are supposed to get a business to pay you for you NIL in a deal for advertisements etc. not what we have now. The revenue sharing was supposed to be a share of the schools revenue, which would be dependent on said revenue, not a set amount for a school making it the same for a school making $40M as a school making $140M. Its ridiculous, its insane, and its ruining college sports.

I’ve sat in a meeting where Jamie had a PowerPoint about how affordable we are compared to our peers. You can get hillside, mobile and regular seats without even donating. Plus higher donation levels you can get 8-12 tickets and multiple parking spots per donation.

 

[Mr.G.Spot]

The biggest issue is our number of donors. Especially when u compare to our available alumni. Too few givers.

 

[Mr.G.Spot]

I’ve sat in a meeting where Jamie had a PowerPoint about how affordable we are compared to our peers. You can get hillside, mobile and regular seats without even donating. Plus higher donation levels you can get 8-12 tickets per donation.

The last comparison I saw was about three or four years ago and we were one of the cheapest in the big12.

 

[StPaulCyclone]

That’s quite the list.
Perhaps the football program can justify some of these by “reaching out” to the fans more?
For example, both Minnesota and Nebraska have their “Fan Day” next Saturday. Free to the public, fans can get pictures with players, autographs, and oh there’s an open practice fans can watch.
Iowa’s Kid’s Day is Aug 10, I believe.
Iowa State does squat.

Hasn't the team held practice in Des Moines and Gilbert? Doesn’t the AD do a tailgate tour to go *to* the fans across the state? Don’t know how you get more “reaching out“ than the tour.

 

[brentblum]

Hasn't the team held practice in Des Moines and Gilbert? Doesn’t the AD do a tailgate tour to go *to* the fans across the state? Don’t know how you get more “reaching out“ than the tour.

Iowa State Football players did about 2,000 community engagement hours at non-profit events, camps, fundraisers, meet and greets for We Will in the last year as well, for what it’s worth.

 

[Heathrow06]

Hasn't the team held practice in Des Moines and Gilbert? Doesn’t the AD do a tailgate tour to go *to* the fans across the state? Don’t know how you get more “reaching out“ than the tour.

Every school I know of has a coaches/player tour around their state. Those aren’t unique or special.
ISU used to have a Fan Fest at the Bergstrom every August, with with fans able to meet and greet players and coaches from football, basketball, volleyball. Autographs, photos, stuff to do, Jr. Cyclone Club booth, etc.
Extremely popular. Why end something that the fans and kids appreciated?

 

[IcSyU]

Every school I know of has a coaches/player tour around their state. Those aren’t unique or special.
ISU used to have a Fan Fest at the Bergstrom every August, with with fans able to meet and greet players and coaches from football, basketball, volleyball. Autographs, photos, stuff to do, Jr. Cyclone Club booth, etc.
Extremely popular. Why end something that the fans and kids appreciated?

Because they could do a TON of events fans and kids appreciate but a line has to be drawn somewhere. I'm guessing they also took some of the events and made them perks for donors.

Frankly at this point in time the business focus needs to be on the near term because the long term focus isn't important if it doesn't exist in a form similar to what it is right now. It feels like the tide has turned on growing a base and now it needs to be focused on developing that base because when it comes to the money being generated by donations we are poor compared to our peers. The future isn't unimportant but it needs to take a back seat to the present.

 

[Heathrow06]

I’ve sat in a meeting where Jamie had a PowerPoint about how affordable we are compared to our peers. You can get hillside, mobile and regular seats without even donating. Plus higher donation levels you can get 8-12 tickets and multiple parking spots per donation.

Too many season ticket holders, mini-pac buyers, etc who aren’t Cyclone Club members. Need to find a better way to attract new members or make tickets to non-Cyclone Club members more expensive.

 

[BCClone]

Every school I know of has a coaches/player tour around their state. Those aren’t unique or special.
ISU used to have a Fan Fest at the Bergstrom every August, with with fans able to meet and greet players and coaches from football, basketball, volleyball. Autographs, photos, stuff to do, Jr. Cyclone Club booth, etc.
Extremely popular. Why end something that the fans and kids appreciated?

How many times did you go to that? Hey a couple autographs at best and maybe meet a walk on running a game. It wasn’t much, we stopped going after a couple years.

 

[2speedy1]

I’ve sat in a meeting where Jamie had a PowerPoint about how affordable we are compared to our peers. You can get hillside, mobile and regular seats without even donating. Plus higher donation levels you can get 8-12 tickets and multiple parking spots per donation.

The last ISU game at KSU, I bought 40 yard line tickets for $25 each, directly from the school, no donation, and this was not a last minute sell them because they didnt sell deal, it was before the season even started.

Seriously do some research you will find out ISU is at or very near the top for tickets in the B12, even before the last couple increases.

The hill sides are technically only sold as parent/kid tickets, and those are no real deal either compared to others for what you get for a seat and view, With that there are plenty of other places that also have tickets you can get for no donation too.

I have done a lot of the research and posted a lot of the information on here in the past. I dont feel like spending that much time doing the leg work, for people that dont believe me again. All I can say is google is your friend. Go to the other schools athletic sites and you will find few in the Big 12 that are more expensive than ISU.

For instance, Season tix at OKSt are $200, (which is the same as hill sides, at least before this increase, and lower than all tickets inside the stadium proper) anywhere in the stadium, except suites. The only thing that changes is the donation level. And the none suite donor requirement maxes out at $1175 per ticket for the best none suite seats (50yrd line lower level), so you can buy a lot of tickets before you get to ISUs top level of $18K to get lower level 50yd seats, (you would need to buy 16 seats to get as high of a donation level to match ISU, but then you tickets would still be 1/3rd the price so you would still be getting them like $7600 cheaper. I would love to see how JP shows that on his power point.

Season tix at Utah start at $100 and max out at $550 for club seats. Their highest non club seats, 50 yard line seats with donation, you would need to buy 10 seats, to equal what it costs for 4, 50yrd seats at ISU with required donation.
Heres ASU and TT

Also those high end donor levels, you dont think you get the same perks at other places, many places for less donations. Much of what you are talking about you have to donate $15K+ to even sniff those benefits.

 

[2speedy1]

Iowa State Football players did about 2,000 community engagement hours at non-profit events, camps, fundraisers, meet and greets for We Will in the last year as well, for what it’s worth.

Which they were paid for.... by the fans, on top of their donations and ticket prices.

 

[brentblum]

Which they were paid for.... by the fans, on top of their donations and ticket prices.

Point being on my end, we’ve tried to get the players out in the community to make a positive impact and provide engagement with regular folks and didn’t cost them a dime to come out to most of those events. I’m not arguing whether the regular fan is being asked to do too much, I wish it wasn’t the case, but Iowa State didn’t choose the current environment. On my end, I’m trying to provide as many opportunities as possible for them to make an impact with the current environment. Appreciate the conversation.

 

[IcSyU]

The last ISU game at KSU, I bought 40 yard line tickets for $25 each, directly from the school, no donation, and this was not a last minute sell them because they didnt sell deal, it was before the season even started.

Seriously do some research you will find out ISU is at or very near the top for tickets in the B12, even before the last couple increases.

The hill sides are technically only sold as parent/kid tickets, and those are no real deal either compared to others for what you get for a seat and view, With that there are plenty of other places that also have tickets you can get for no donation too.

I have done a lot of the research and posted a lot of the information on here in the past. I dont feel like spending that much time doing the leg work, for people that dont believe me again. All I can say is google is your friend. Go to the other schools athletic sites and you will find few in the Big 12 that are more expensive than ISU.

For instance, Season tix at OKSt are $200, (which is the same as hill sides, at least before this increase, and lower than all tickets inside the stadium proper) anywhere in the stadium, except suites. The only thing that changes is the donation level. And the none suite donor requirement maxes out at $1175 per ticket for the best none suite seats (50yrd line lower level), so you can buy a lot of tickets before you get to ISUs top level of $18K to get lower level 50yd seats, (you would need to buy 16 seats to get as high of a donation level to match ISU, but then you tickets would still be 1/3rd the price so you would still be getting them like $7600 cheaper. I would love to see how JP shows that on his power point.

Season tix at Utah start at $100 and max out at $550 for club seats. Their highest non club seats, 50 yard line seats with donation, you would need to buy 10 seats, to equal what it costs for 4, 50yrd seats at ISU with required donation.
Heres ASU and TT
View attachment 153264 View attachment 153265
Also those high end donor levels, you dont think you get the same perks at other places, many places for less donations. Much of what you are talking about you have to donate $15K+ to even sniff those benefits.

And every year we battled for the basement in Big 12 AD budgets before realignment so I'm still not understanding your point.

It also seems a bit disingenuous to slap the donation just on the football tickets. A LOT of people donate to get their basketball tickets somewhere other than the space station.

If you want cheap stuff all the time please go be a fan of UNI. I would rather at least try to play big boy football and basketball.

 

[NWICY]

They did increase ticket and parking prices this year.

Makes you wonder how many people talking about it actually have skin in the game.

 

[CyCity]

The last ISU game at KSU, I bought 40 yard line tickets for $25 each, directly from the school, no donation, and this was not a last minute sell them because they didnt sell deal, it was before the season even started.

Seriously do some research you will find out ISU is at or very near the top for tickets in the B12, even before the last couple increases.

The hill sides are technically only sold as parent/kid tickets, and those are no real deal either compared to others for what you get for a seat and view, With that there are plenty of other places that also have tickets you can get for no donation too.

I have done a lot of the research and posted a lot of the information on here in the past. I dont feel like spending that much time doing the leg work, for people that dont believe me again. All I can say is google is your friend. Go to the other schools athletic sites and you will find few in the Big 12 that are more expensive than ISU.

For instance, Season tix at OKSt are $200, (which is the same as hill sides, at least before this increase, and lower than all tickets inside the stadium proper) anywhere in the stadium, except suites. The only thing that changes is the donation level. And the none suite donor requirement maxes out at $1175 per ticket for the best none suite seats (50yrd line lower level), so you can buy a lot of tickets before you get to ISUs top level of $18K to get lower level 50yd seats, (you would need to buy 16 seats to get as high of a donation level to match ISU, but then you tickets would still be 1/3rd the price so you would still be getting them like $7600 cheaper. I would love to see how JP shows that on his power point.

Season tix at Utah start at $100 and max out at $550 for club seats. Their highest non club seats, 50 yard line seats with donation, you would need to buy 10 seats, to equal what it costs for 4, 50yrd seats at ISU with required donation.
Heres ASU and TT
View attachment 153264 View attachment 153265
Also those high end donor levels, you dont think you get the same perks at other places, many places for less donations. Much of what you are talking about you have to donate $15K+ to even sniff those benefits.

With those donations you get 12 tickets and multiple premium parking passes for football? Plus 8 premium MBB tickets and multiple parking too?

 

[BCClone]

The last ISU game at KSU, I bought 40 yard line tickets for $25 each, directly from the school, no donation, and this was not a last minute sell them because they didnt sell deal, it was before the season even started.

Seriously do some research you will find out ISU is at or very near the top for tickets in the B12, even before the last couple increases.

The hill sides are technically only sold as parent/kid tickets, and those are no real deal either compared to others for what you get for a seat and view, With that there are plenty of other places that also have tickets you can get for no donation too.

I have done a lot of the research and posted a lot of the information on here in the past. I dont feel like spending that much time doing the leg work, for people that dont believe me again. All I can say is google is your friend. Go to the other schools athletic sites and you will find few in the Big 12 that are more expensive than ISU.

For instance, Season tix at OKSt are $200, (which is the same as hill sides, at least before this increase, and lower than all tickets inside the stadium proper) anywhere in the stadium, except suites. The only thing that changes is the donation level. And the none suite donor requirement maxes out at $1175 per ticket for the best none suite seats (50yrd line lower level), so you can buy a lot of tickets before you get to ISUs top level of $18K to get lower level 50yd seats, (you would need to buy 16 seats to get as high of a donation level to match ISU, but then you tickets would still be 1/3rd the price so you would still be getting them like $7600 cheaper. I would love to see how JP shows that on his power point.

Season tix at Utah start at $100 and max out at $550 for club seats. Their highest non club seats, 50 yard line seats with donation, you would need to buy 10 seats, to equal what it costs for 4, 50yrd seats at ISU with required donation.
Heres ASU and TT
View attachment 153264 View attachment 153265
Also those high end donor levels, you dont think you get the same perks at other places, many places for less donations. Much of what you are talking about you have to donate $15K+ to even sniff those benefits.

We get it, you don’t want to financially support ISU that much. Others think it’s not that bad to support them.

 

[dirtfarmer]

We get it, you don’t want to financially support ISU that much. Others think it’s not that bad to support them.

This is sort of the broader point. There are just not enough others who are willing to support at a much higher of a level to come up with $20 million extra. We can't just raise fees to get out of this mess.

 

[AlCyJim]

I’ve sat in a meeting where Jamie had a PowerPoint about how affordable we are compared to our peers. You can get hillside, mobile and regular seats without even donating. Plus higher donation levels you can get 8-12 tickets and multiple parking spots per donation.

explain that to me as I have asked about more passes for the number of tickets purchased and been told 1 pass per. thanks

 

[CyCity]

explain that to me as I have asked about more passes for the number of tickets purchased and been told 1 pass per. thanks

Directors level you get two passes for both basketball and football. For example for football you can get an RV and reserved spot OR a reserved spot and then best available (usually a C5).

 

[AlCyJim]

Directors level you get two passes for both basketball and football. For example for football you can get an RV and reserved spot OR a reserved spot and then best available (usually a C5).

ok. so I need to donate more to get more passes not just buy more tickets. thanks.