Forever Seats? | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Forever Seats?

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Lambeau said:
Will these be New Forever Seats--or every year there's a new auction and you get bumped?
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I asked that question and my rep said he didn’t know. That information will be coming out later this year. I can’t see that it’s going to be an answer that we like. Otherwise, they would’ve just told us already so we’d only be half as pissed.
 
Vancat said:
I asked that question and my rep said he didn’t know. That information will be coming out later this year. I can’t see that it’s going to be an answer that we like. Otherwise, they would’ve just told us already so we’d only be half as pissed.
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I was going to email my rep, but decided not to because I'm pretty sure his responses will make me even more irritated than I presently am. He wasn't particularly soothing when I contacted him a couple of weeks ago to register my dissatisfaction with the XL game lineup this coming season.
 
calamity17 said:
I can see both sides, but winning out why should a long time donor that donates say $1K per year get better seats than a new donor that donates $5K+ per year? New donors willing to shell out more dough should get some benefit or else why do It? It’s unfortunate, but this is big time college athletics.
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A longtime donor that gives $1k per year should have their seats because the athletic department has spent the past five years telling them that they are their Forever Seats — to keep business when the program was cratering, to plead for donations during a global pandemic with no product to offer and to ask for additional money as the program’s rise continued.

Had the program not chosen that route, they could do whatever they want, but the same athletic director who is calling the shots today made that decision and spent half a decade repeating a lie. This isn’t big-time athletics, it’s selling snake oil.
 
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Kemba Time said:
A longtime donor that gives $1k per year should have their seats because the athletic department has spent the past five years telling them that they are their Forever Seats — to keep business when the program was cratering, to plead for donations during a global pandemic with no product to offer and to ask for additional money as the program’s rise continued.

Had the program not chosen that tact, they could do whatever they want, but the same athletic director who is calling the shots today made that choice and spent half a decade repeating a lie. This isn’t big-time athletics, it’s selling snake oil.
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these same long-time donors also continued to donate/buy season tickets during some years of truly horrendous program history, and these same donors supported football during these years of struggle too (ask me how I know). Now that's all thrown overboard for Johnny-come-lately fair weather fans with deeper pockets now that the basketball program saw the light of day again.
 
John said:
these same long-time donors also continued to donate/buy season tickets during some years of truly horrendous program history, and these same donors supported football during these years of struggle too (ask me how I know). Now that's all thrown overboard for Johnny-come-lately fair weather fans with deeper pockets now that the basketball program saw the light of day again.
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The bet that there is some magical pool of potential donors who haven’t sprung for season tickets in previous years with deeper pockets than the ones who have been giving UConn thousands annually AD David Benedict chose to alienate is a big one to make.

Given my priority points, it’s more a matter of where than if I will have tickets in the new world and I would have written a check for about any amount UConn asked for had they come to current donors with an opportunity to lock in seats first.

But with the disgraceful way this has been handled and a simple cost analysis of donation/ticket prices, I can just hand-pick the games I want to attend instead for a far smaller total $ commitment. As I’ve learned anytime I’ve needed to sell any of my seats, the secondary market doesn’t care how much you donated to get them.

I would give the benefit of the doubt that our athletic director has thought past the short-term cash grab of auctioning off priority points but given the $11 million check he wrote KO and the number of times he has come back publicly dragging his tail because the Big 12 might have winked in his direction, I don’t think foresight is among his greatest strengths.
 
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Pay for your seats every year. Prices will go up. Pay up or shut up. The idea of "forever seats" is silly.
 
After 40 plus years we gave up our season tickets because they were getting unreal in cost and AD David Benedict didn't care to hear about longevity and loyalty.
I've discovered that I now have the best seat in the arena sitting at home in front of the large screen TV and admire all the ink on these kids arms and legs. Kept my soccer season tickets and shoot the baseball team extra donations on a yearly basis.
Maybe, just maybe, I'll restart the football season tickets next year.
 
husky429 said:
Pay for your seats every year. Prices will go up. Pay up or shut up. The idea of "forever seats" is silly.
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Whose silly idea was it? I certainly didn't go to the athletic department and tell them to call them my forever seats in 2019, or 2020, or 2021, or 2022, or 2023. And the first part of your post was the exact promise: Prices will go up, pay up and the seats are yours forever.
 
If the results of the renovations are a better fan experience, then the athletic department can reasonably assume that the value of the experience is higher and raise prices. The market will determine whether they are correct. Perhaps it might make sense to wait and see how this plays out before jumping to conclusions. In hindsight it was not a great idea for the athletic department to market the seats as "forever". However, the arenas need to be updated and the fan experience needs to be upgraded (most especially at XL). It's possible that some may be priced out or will have to pay more for the better experience, which is unfortunate, but that's the proverbial cost of doing business in this era in the upper echelon of big time college sports. I for one am thankful that UConn basketball remains in the upper echelon, which a few years ago was not at all a certainty.
 
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Just got off a call with someone from UConn. Nothing is official but this is what I was told.

  • Seat selection will only be open to current season ticket holders
  • Once you select your seats, you'll be able to keep those seats year after year like we do now
  • Club seating will be added at Gampel, I believe I read before this will also be true at XL
  • Person I spoke with has not heard anything about moving students to the sidelines
  • Expect costs to go up for tickets / seat donations (no surprise about this)
 
DayDayTFS said:
Anyone remember when they begged to keep season ticket money during covid instead of just refunding everyone? Yeah I do, I let them keep it to help sustain things.
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me too, have also bought bowl tickets several times even though I wasn't attending in order to support the department.
 
Forever seats are gone, at least for one year.

We have to go through a seat selection process next year, based on priority points (and not donor level). That's huge and somewhat protects long time fans. Not perfect, but better than allocating by donor class

And it's possible the seats we pick next year become forever seats. I'd hate to pick new seats every year

It's still better than $uckin!


PS: No, I'm not happy about it either
 
Fishy said:
The business of college sports has changed and UConn’s revenue stream is not well-situated to deal with it. Just staying in place will cost millions a year.

It’s not awesome for some people, but fans and students will be footing the bill for it.
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This.

Those complaining about "forever seats" can steal them from the lower bowl before they're ripped out. Problem solved, and you're saving demo cost!
 
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Gburyhusky said:
If the results of the renovations are a better fan experience, then the athletic department can reasonably assume that the value of the experience is higher and raise prices.
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The value of the ticket rises with the performance of the team. The "fan experience" is a minor factor. The renovations haven't happened and ticket sales couldn't be hotter. $103 to sit in the endzone for Maryland-Eastern Shore? Seriously?
 
If you’re a Husky-level donor or even a Director-level donor, Dave Benedict doesn’t care about you. Especially if you came on the last 2-3 years.

If you’ve had your same two cheap seats at Gampel for 25 years, pre first championship, at todays donation level of $100 per, you’ve donated $5000 in 25 years.

A ton of corporate folks came in the last 2 years and donate $5000 monthly. That’s who they care about because they bring the money.

There is no loyalty in this, it’s a business that’s thinking short term. But, spurning loyal customers isn’t ideal when Hurley leaves/retires. That’s when you want your loyal customers support. We’ll see how big of an impact this causes. My guess is not enough to make Dave Benedict lose any sleep.
 
Fishy said:
You can’t have been paying attention to what is happening in college sports and then casually dismiss ‘the bottom line.’ The athletic department’s finances are hugely consequential here.

Our fandom has been subsidized forever by the university and the students. Their costs keep going up, our costs will need keep going up in the form of licenses, donations, ticket prices, etc. It’s unavoidable.

Also, the “corporations will take over” gambit has been peddled since the 1990s and it hasn’t happened, so everyone can stop.
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Umm, no, I sit in "good seats" 10 years ago I knew everyone that sat around me, knew their kids, went to funerals, now it is a revolving group of casual fans from corporate tickets.
 
At the end of the day, the issue is not the $ required for the AD to stay afloat (and keep the basketball teams elite). The issue is using the guise of "renovations" as a cash grab to solicit donations. The email didn't even mention anything about changes to the upper level of Gampel, implying that it might not even be impacted -- yet, sorry, need your cash screw you for being loyal.

Of course, some seats will be removed due to this, and thus impacting season ticket holders. But why upend everyone rather than the select few that are impacted? They just seem to be doing this all wrong and frankly, even releasing an email in Oct about this without all the info was only done to get more money -- from the people that already give a lot of money.

Raising prices is one thing, but alienating loyal fans -- who stood by you when things were bleak (both during AAC and COVID) is straight up greedy.

At the end of the day, fully support AD David Benedict needing to raise as much $ as possible -- but do it the right way and not at the expense of loyal fans. This is a shortcut and cheap shot.
 
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We've made friends with those around us as well

I just hope we don't go back to picking new seats every year and wondering where we're going to land
 
Gburyhusky said:
When were seats promoted by UConn as "forever seats"? I have been a season ticket holder for 20 years and have never seen anything suggesting that you get to keep your seats forever. It's always been points (money) based, as far as I can recall.
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Once you got a seat it was promoted as yours forever as long as you renewed. It was UConn who said that. I guess forever isn't such a long time after all.
 
It was clearly and absolutely sold as forever seats, that's simply not debatable.

Now I expected them to increase donations per seat, and that was going to drive some people away and that would create turnover.

However, I never expected to go through an entire seat allocation process again. That is unjustifiable. A tweak here or there I get. I believe they're remodeling just so they can do this.

Many people have the seats that they have because they stayed with the program through the AAC and Ollie years. Now people who left get to jump back in and move ahead of others.

The more I think about it, the more I dislike it
 
Fact is, professionalizing college ball means moving to an NBA model, with many rows of corporate 'premier seating' in front of the sideline seating (at $500-$1,000) for merely wealthy mortals--the Warriors' arena, for one, even sticks a lounge behind the seven Courtside rows,
before you even start the 'sideline' seats. It'll be interesting how many 'premier' rows UConn indulges in.
 
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