Forever Seats?

[temery]

On a positive note, there will likely be more tickets for sale on the secondary market. Season ticket holders will be selling a few more tickets to help pay for the ones they want.

 

[Kemba Time]

He doesn't.

Personally I liked the email (but I've been
a football season ticket holder from the day they opened the Rent and I don't view football as a detriment to the basketball program) but my interpretation of KT's knocking the email was that the audience it was sent to included some UConn fans who would prefer to see the program fail.

My apologies if I misinterpreted.

That is not what I am saying. To be clear, I am a supporter of all of UConn athletics (I make sure a portion of my annual donation gets directly to the baseball program and was a football season-ticket holder for several years in addition to hoops) and want nothing more than for the football team to succeed.

There is nothing wrong with the letter from Jim itself. It’s the fact that four days after making a sizable portion of the fan base feel unvalued with the whole end of Forever Seats debacle, the same athletic department is reaching back to the same group of fans to say they need them in a plea for support.

 

[Vuce]

 

[pepband99]

Exactly. This really isn't that hard.

1) The lower level will not have the same number of seats or config, so people will need to be moved - how much, how badly, is still open. Admittedly the wording of "purchase seats" vs "purchase as simlar seats" isn't a good omen,
2) Anyone displaced from the lower level will have to move up, which will move people above the changes too. It would make sense to prioritize the lower displaced over the upper currents, within reason.
3) That's also not counting any new (likely luxury) seating too.

 

[Vuce]

Admittedly the wording of "purchase seats" vs "purchase as similar seats" isn't a good omen,

This is it right here. I dont think any current season ticket holder is worried about not being able to get seats. It's more about, if you LOVE your "forever seats" you should have the opportunity to purchase seats as close to where you sit now. I am all for the renovations and there's no way around people getting displaced, just hope it's minimal. Can't wait to see what the plan is - I think they said we will hear about the process by the end of this year.

 

[Vancat]

It's more about, if you LOVE your "forever seats" you should have the opportunity to purchase seats as close to where you sit now.

x 100

 

[gampelcrazies]

So we really think the capacity is going down for Gampel by that much?

 

[Ha Who]

This is it right here. I dont think any current season ticket holder is worried about not being able to get seats. It's more about, if you LOVE your "forever seats" you should have the opportunity to purchase seats as close to where you sit now. I am all for the renovations and there's no way around people getting displaced, just hope it's minimal. Can't wait to see what the plan is - I think they said we will hear about the process by the end of this year.

Exactly. I understand what is going on and why this is happening. I never have problems with change or opportunity to improve revenue or image. For example, when attendance was poor and I was still getting season tickets. I never complain when they suddenly offered cheap seats in order to improve the attendance. I wanted this season tickets because I enjoy basketball and I like to know where I’m sitting. However, I would draw the line at moving to the upper level.

 

[Waquoit]

Admittedly the wording of "purchase seats" vs "purchase as simlar seats" isn't a good omen,

Not just that, it says "We will do our best to make sure every single season ticket holder will have the opportunity to purchase seats." To me, that says "no guarentees".

 

[StllH8L8ner]

The claim of “Forever seats” sounds similar to “Unlimited vacation days”…ie they both sound great but there’s no way you’re keeping your seats forever if there’s a chance to make more money on them and no way you’re taking 60 vacation days off a year…

 

[DaveHuskiesFan]

Single game pricing is absurd lol. $187 a ticket to St. John's for upper deck at Gampel, 3 rows from the top around the free throw line?

 

[zls44]

Single game pricing is absurd lol. $187 a ticket to St. John's for upper deck at Gampel, 3 rows from the top around the free throw line?

Well, then those seats obviously won’t sell.

Right?

 

[Northbound]

Horrible wording there - might as well say if you don’t give to our expectations you will be SOL.

Not just that, it says "We will do our best to make sure every single season ticket holder will have the opportunity to purchase seats." To me, that says "no guarentees".

 

[DaveHuskiesFan]

Well, then those seats obviously won’t sell.

Right?

I can’t see why they would when the price for the same seats are $50 cheaper on StubHub & Seatgeek.

 

[Stew Crew]

So we really think the capacity is going down for Gampel by that much?

I don't think the capacity will be reduced by much. The question is how many of the seats will be "premium", how much will they cost, and will enough existing season ticket holders pay up for them?

They could easily solve this problem by reducing the number of tickets reserved for the University's use. I would say that 1/3 of section 108 are University seats and regularly go less than half full, except for big games.

 

[Stew Crew]

I can’t see why they would when the price for the same seats are $50 cheaper on StubHub & Seatgeek.

They will eventually sell as it gets closer to the game date.

To be fair, season ticket holders in that section pay an average of $100 per ticket ($800 for the 8 games). Compare that to football where chairbacks run about $100 per game for season ticket holders but you can buy the same seats at Costco for $25.

 

[zls44]

They will eventually sell as it gets closer to the game date.

To be fair, season ticket holders in that section pay an average of $100 per ticket ($800 for the 8 games). Compare that to football where chairbacks run about $100 per game for season ticket holders but you can buy the same seats at Costco for $25.

They will sell out far before then.

 

[John]

Single game pricing is absurd lol. $187 a ticket to St. John's for upper deck at Gampel, 3 rows from the top around the free throw line?

just wait until there's a mediocre season (ie. don't win a national championship) and the bandwagon will start exiting stage left and prices will filter down.

 

[Chief00]

No doubt the communication is poor and I'm definitely not arguing that this is a good thing or anything, I'm just not that surprised. I agree that announcing a mandatory reseating with no information about whether the venue will be adding/losing seats seems bad.

I personally thought the pricing changes in spring 2022 were far more egregious than this. My season tickets (2x at Gampel, 2x at XL) were $436.90 for 2021-22 including donation, and the following year, the same tickets were $1420. As long as they aren't taking people's seats and doing a humongous price hike at the same time, it's hard to envision this being worse for the average season ticket holder than that was.

So you think they are going through this trouble/change not to raise prices for a comprarable seat?

 

[DayDayTFS]

If they cared about current ticket holders at all they wouldn’t be allowing people to buy points to move up the list between now and announcing/executing whatever the unknown plan is. There’s no reason they couldn’t slot people into the same, comparable or best available seats, either allowing you to confirm you’ll keep at the new price, choose an open spot or simply decline. His initials are DB for a reason.

 

[John]

If they cared about current ticket holders at all they wouldn’t be allowing people to buy points to move up the list between now and announcing/executing whatever the unknown plan is. There’s no reason they couldn’t slot people into the same, comparable or best available seats, either allowing you to confirm you’ll keep at the new price, choose an open spot or simply decline. His initials are DB for a reason.

It's a naked money grab, long time loyalty be damned.