BS. They would send out a letter notifying of ANY price increase. It is called keeping people informed. I can tell you right now if it gets too pricey that there will be a backlash and fewer season tickets sold. Pollard is not stupid. He knows that. You go in small incremental increases to keep the fan base intact and gradually raise prices by a bit each year. You jump too much at once and you sell less tickets which means a reduction in revenues despite a season ticket price increase.
Ticket prices to increase, parking and donation levels to change
- Thread starter Ms3r4ISU
- Start date
BS. They would send out a letter notifying of ANY price increase. It is called keeping people informed. I can tell you right now if it gets too pricey that there will be a backlash and fewer season tickets sold. Pollard is not stupid. He knows that. You go in small incremental increases to keep the fan base intact and gradually raise prices by a bit each year. You jump too much at once and you sell less tickets which means a reduction in revenues despite a season ticket price increase.
They didn't warn anyone of the MBB price increase last year. You just saw it when the renewal form came.
(though we expected an increase last year and this, just wondering how much)
Do what u gotta do in the lower bowl. Thats fair game.
Upper bowl don't get greedy. 20-50 dollar raises are cool don't go overboard and ur ok.
Iowa State is a team of the people though Pollard shouldn't assume people who pay 20 a game are good for 40 a game. It doesn't work like that and trust me I know I sell a lot of tickets. ISU has an extremely loyal core fanbase that rivals anyones core fanbase. But there are no Walmart fans to pick up the slack if you **** off the real fans. The state isn't that big. So don't **** off your real fans.
Dont be that team in the middle of butt**** who thinks it can charge big prices cause a couple doctors came out of there and they think 4 hours away = greater Chicago area.
That is being a jerkoff and is the opposite of every Cyclone fan Ive ever met don't push for that. Totally different fanbase Ive never met one ISU fan who fits the hawkeye stereotype.
Seriously though every ISU fan I know is from Iowa and every UI fan I know is from Indiana or Illinois Im not kidding (didn't grow up here so that might be a factor but still.)
20-30 bucks a game for ****** seats as season tickets is cool just take the money.
Upper bowl don't get greedy. 20-50 dollar raises are cool don't go overboard and ur ok.
Iowa State is a team of the people though Pollard shouldn't assume people who pay 20 a game are good for 40 a game. It doesn't work like that and trust me I know I sell a lot of tickets. ISU has an extremely loyal core fanbase that rivals anyones core fanbase. But there are no Walmart fans to pick up the slack if you **** off the real fans. The state isn't that big. So don't **** off your real fans.
Dont be that team in the middle of butt**** who thinks it can charge big prices cause a couple doctors came out of there and they think 4 hours away = greater Chicago area.
That is being a jerkoff and is the opposite of every Cyclone fan Ive ever met don't push for that. Totally different fanbase Ive never met one ISU fan who fits the hawkeye stereotype.
Seriously though every ISU fan I know is from Iowa and every UI fan I know is from Indiana or Illinois Im not kidding (didn't grow up here so that might be a factor but still.)
20-30 bucks a game for ****** seats as season tickets is cool just take the money.
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Your entire post is 100% accurate...but the last two sentences were exactly what I was thinking when I started the thread questioning whether or not the SEZ project was a good investment or not.
While I don't think there's any way Pollard is going to Iowa level prices just to get in the stadium, I would think the lowest season ticket prices after this renovation would have to be in the $250 range...there won't be anymore $100-$150 season tickets (except maybe the north end zone hillside seats). So the question becomes, will a family of four who as paying $400 for SEZ hillside season tickets in 2014 renew those same season tickets in 2015 when the asking price is $1,000-$1,200?
It seems blatantly obvious to me that there were two things that led to ISU's recent success at selling out Jack Trice:
1. As you pointed out, artificially low season ticket prices compared to any other tickets in the area - to even get into most college football stadiums you have to pay $300-$400 for season tickets...ISU has a lot of seats right now where you can get in for a lot less than that.
2. Historically unparalleled national exposure for the football program since Paul Rhoads was hired - there was the big win over Nebraska in 2009 that led to the "I'm so proud speech" (which went viral and was included in ESPN's "Images of the Decade" video), the win in Austin in 2010, the win over OSU in 2011 was the biggest win in the history of ISU's football program, and finally, ISU made back to back bowl games in 2011 & 2012.
I would wager to guess that 2011-2013's extremely strong season ticket sales were a combination of the two above variables - what happens when neither are present anymore? Wouldn't JP want to see that question answered before voluntarily taxing the ISU fan base for the next few decades to pay for this stadium renovation that may or may not have the financial support from the fan base?
Raise your ticket prices in 2015 before a stadium renovation and see what kind of season ticket numbers you can post before investing the kind of money you are investing in the SEZ. It seems like Pollard is forcing this...he's putting the cart before the horse.
I'm really surprised there hasn't been more criticism of JP about the decision to expand the SEZ on this board - I get why ISU fans think it is a good thing - it will make Jack Trice look nicer...however, you have to fill those new seats at a higher price (and retain ALL of the 55K that were buying season tickets at a lower price), otherwise you won't create a "big time" college football environment, you'll just have a stadium that sits 20% empty each Saturday.
I found this rivals article from 2010 listing the cheapest CFB season tickets in the country:
https://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1094191
Unfortunately, it is dated 2010, so I'm sure almost everyones cost has gone up since then, but I doubt the order has changed all that much (I couldn't quickly find an updated chart anywhere via Google, if someone else knows of one, let me know). Back in 2010 you could get ISU season tickets for a total cost of $150 and get into the stadium - that ranked ISU outside the top 50 in terms of cost of attendance (sandwiched between UAB & ECU).
That has been great for the fans, and its probably led to elevated attendance figures - if that low cost variable is no longer present, and the national exposure for the program has receded dramatically, how much do think the season attendance will be affected? Doesn't that seem like something JP should have explored prior to volunteering ISU fans to pay for his stadium renovation?
As recently as 2010, ISU's season attendance average was 45K - what has changed so significantly since then that JP thinks a 61,000 stadium can be sold out consistently at a much higher cost?
https://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1094191
Unfortunately, it is dated 2010, so I'm sure almost everyones cost has gone up since then, but I doubt the order has changed all that much (I couldn't quickly find an updated chart anywhere via Google, if someone else knows of one, let me know). Back in 2010 you could get ISU season tickets for a total cost of $150 and get into the stadium - that ranked ISU outside the top 50 in terms of cost of attendance (sandwiched between UAB & ECU).
That has been great for the fans, and its probably led to elevated attendance figures - if that low cost variable is no longer present, and the national exposure for the program has receded dramatically, how much do think the season attendance will be affected? Doesn't that seem like something JP should have explored prior to volunteering ISU fans to pay for his stadium renovation?
As recently as 2010, ISU's season attendance average was 45K - what has changed so significantly since then that JP thinks a 61,000 stadium can be sold out consistently at a much higher cost?
There was a warning. I was well aware of it before the renewals came out. I do not recall if it was a letter or an email, but there was a notifications sent.
I kinda have a feeling that the ticket prices will be increased at a greater % in MBB than football. What I do believe will happen is that the bigger difference will be in donation level increases vs ticket price increases. There will still be an increase of ticket prices, but the bigger jump will be donation levels. That's just my opinion.
You make some good points. Some are complaining that we have some cheap tickets, but those same tickets are not very good seats. Those poor seats are purchased by the "economical" fan who won't even purchase if you price them out too high. The key is to balance price with what the fan will pay. End Zone seats have been a great deal in the past. $175 per ticket with a great view of video board along with bench seating with a back on it. Those days are done. Those same people are now going to go to the wedge areas because they are not going to pay the $750 per ticket for the End Zone Club. But they will only go to the wedge areas if the prices don't jump too drastically.
We sell 56,000 tickets per game but many of them are cheap. Does anyone actually think we will sell 5,000 more tickets each game while jacking ticket prices up $100 or more for football? Just saying that IMO, we won't sell out the stadium if that happens. What kind of perception will we give when we expand our stadium and jack up the ticket prices to a level where we sell 48,000 tickets in a 61,000 seat stadium? And actually go backwards in attendance, does ISU just keep raising prices to make up for the revenue shortfall or what?
First of all, the SEZ is taking place because of a $25 million donation that was given for that purpose. Secondly, we have been selling out the stadium at the present prices and would sell out the new stadium if prices are kept the same. Pollard is looking to increase revenues by raising prices some. And IMO will keep it at a $25 increase which will raise prices of all seats by less than $5 per game. Keep in mind that with the 3,000 new seats at $750 apiece in the End Zone Club plus donation level as well as the upgrade of hillside seats to reserved seating results in some substantial money as well. Increase season parking permits by $25 as well. All told those increases and new seats should bring in at least $2.5 million to $3 million just doing a rough calculation just for football. And that does not include basketball.
Pollard is going to take action that the stadium will sell out that first season for sure. And that is why I predict the $25 increase.
So $25M of $60 is paid for...the fans still have to pay for $35M.
If you think that people who were paying $100-$125 and sitting on dirt will only be asked to pay $125-$150 and get a bleacher seat, I think you're being at least a bit naive - what's the capacity of the current SEZ hillside seats? Those tickets will increase easily the most, with most of them nearly doubling.
I could see current bleacher seats maybe seeing a $25-$50 increase or so...but even with a minimal increase like that, selling 61,000 seats coming off back to back losing seasons will be challenging.
This is exactly what I'm trying to say as well. They would not send out a letter a year in advance to warn them of a relatively small price increase. I'm guessing it will go up to at least $250 minimum for the endzone/wedge.
That's the question I've been asking for a while. Before expanding, why not test the demand for higher priced tickets in the SEZ bleachers? Expanding and raising tickets at the same time is not a good idea, but I think we all knew it would have to happen to keep funding both the SEZ expansion as well as the AD as a whole.
take your families donation amount and multiply by 3. or tell us your donation amount and we'll do the math for you.
as I pointed out, we do not need to test the waters with high priced end zone tickets of $250 each. if the crappy endzone seats go up to 250 each then we should expect the regularly priced seats to go up to 475 dollars each. which would be suicide for Iowa State.
We get it. You are bent out of shape because we can sell out our stadium even though our team sucked last year (something unfathomable to bandwagoning Iowa fans). To make you more angry, we do it by not charging much to get in (in some sections), thus having a great atmosphere that incorporates families into the environment setting us up for generations of future fans. Lastly, you're pi$$ed that we aren't mad at JP for raising prices at the same time as we expand the stadium. JP did not get to his position by being a moron, do you seriously think he hasn't thought this over about 1000 times??
Ok, so I did the research over lunch looking at other schools.
OSU - $500, cheapest option $400
Texas - $450, cheapest option $350
OU - $443, cheapest option $443
Tech - $409 (dynamic pricing), cheapest option $149
ISU - $375, cheapest option $125
WVU - $365, cheapest option $365
KSU - $355, cheapest option $200
KU - $300, cheapest option $87.50
Baylor - $250, cheapest option $125
TCU - $250, cheapest option $200
Almost all places did not require annual donations for the cheapest option. Tech has the most dynamic pricing structure with 10+ different price points based on location.
Based on this, I don't see how the AD can justify a price increase to the main season ticket package. But I think increases to the cheaper option packages would be warranted.
OSU - $500, cheapest option $400
Texas - $450, cheapest option $350
OU - $443, cheapest option $443
Tech - $409 (dynamic pricing), cheapest option $149
ISU - $375, cheapest option $125
WVU - $365, cheapest option $365
KSU - $355, cheapest option $200
KU - $300, cheapest option $87.50
Baylor - $250, cheapest option $125
TCU - $250, cheapest option $200
Almost all places did not require annual donations for the cheapest option. Tech has the most dynamic pricing structure with 10+ different price points based on location.
Based on this, I don't see how the AD can justify a price increase to the main season ticket package. But I think increases to the cheaper option packages would be warranted.
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Except our cheapest option is not even a seat. It is Standing Room or Sitting on a Grass Hillside. So the $125 option is kind of ridiculous to be called a "seat". Our cheapest option is really the $175 seats in the endzone and the Gold section of Cy's Pack. The worst seats in the house. The second worst seats in the house is the Cardinal Section of Cy's Pack for $225 each.
There are not that many seats in these non-premium sections, so if you do not raise the price of the full price $375 seats you will not achieve the goal of really raising revenue. Plus there was a reason for the spread in price. Not many people want to pay a significant amount of money to sit in a far corner of the stadium with a not so good view.
