Season Tickets for 2019-2020

[whaler11]

What’s misleading is the $400 seat donation is really $800, if you have seats in both buildings. Add in the approximately $400 season ticket for each building and the bottomline is $1,600 for a season ticket.

So if you get two seats in each building it’s $3,200. This is before any UConn foundation donation.

They are going to need a Yankee Stadium style moat with this pricing.

 

[whaler11]

Section 106 at the XL Center is a $90 face value ticket. These people are insane and need to be replaced 3 years ago.

Three straight losing seasons? Let’s jack up prices for the most loyal fans.

Have some pride folks.

 

[Vuce]

It also ticks me off that we have the best women's program in the country and they are exempt from this scheme. Why not cut the seat fees in half and split it up? I looked at the details online and what I will probably do is change my seats at both places and have my seat fees equal what I used to donate on my own and eliminate the annual donation. I fired off an email to my ticket rep to address some of this stuff.

 

[CTMike]

Football, basketball... doesn’t matter... let someone else be dumb enough to drop that kind of coin on those tix... I’ll wait for the firesale in the hours prior. The one thing the AD has been consistent with year in and year out is doubling down on poor decisions.

 

[John]

Football, basketball... doesn’t matter... let someone else be dumb enough to drop that kind of coin on those tix... I’ll wait for the firesale in the hours prior. The one thing the AD has been consistent with year in and year out is doubling down on poor decisions.

Its godawful. This whole thing makes me even more glad I dumped our football season tickets this year. What a clown show.

 

[notthestuff]

I spoke to my rep today because I wanted to add a ticket since I now have another child who needs a ticket which will now become harder because I will have to go through the process like a new season ticket holder instead of an existing. Based on that I’ll have to decide whether to keep doing this....

It’s sad because they are actually disincentivising donation. I previously donated more than I would have to for my tickets this year but now why would I add the extra donation? Especially now that according to the donor benefit chart everyone pretty much gets the same benefits at every level....

Also, I love how they are marketing this as what “we” asked for. As if people not wanting to relocate their seats every year after years of loyalty meant they wanted This.

 

[ColchVEGAS]

I will most likely not be renewing my season tickets this time around because of this. More expensive for the same seats and I would have been adding a 3rd seat this year. Secondary market it is. I will be able to get about the same quality seats for a fraction of the price that way for the big games. So much for sticking with the program for this disaster period.

 

[John]

It also ticks me off that we have the best women's program in the country and they are exempt from this scheme. Why not cut the seat fees in half and split it up? I looked at the details online and what I will probably do is change my seats at both places and have my seat fees equal what I used to donate on my own and eliminate the annual donation. I fired off an email to my ticket rep to address some of this stuff.

Obviously the women's program is the JV of the athletic department based on this decision.

 

[John]

This is crazy. Cuse, Nova, Georgetown, Pitt, etc are not walking thru those doors. Crazy money

That's the thing, even if the program gets respectable again, the opponents are not exactly interesting.

 

[gampelcrazies]

It also ticks me off that we have the best women's program in the country and they are exempt from this scheme. Why not cut the seat fees in half and split it up? I looked at the details online and what I will probably do is change my seats at both places and have my seat fees equal what I used to donate on my own and eliminate the annual donation. I fired off an email to my ticket rep to address some of this stuff.

If they implemented this with women's basketball season tickets there would be 1,000 season ticket holders.

 

[John]

If they implemented this with women's basketball season tickets there would be 1,000 season ticket holders.

They need to at least get dinged a little, maybe not what men's are having to pay, but something

 

[wheelerdog]

These are the same geniuses who think that moving you closer to mid court even though they're also moving you from row E to V is a great thing.

At this point I'm just grateful for the 25 great years we had. Every decision now just makes you scratch your head.

 

[Chief00]

They may not see the desired increase in revenue. I think the seat donations will cannibalize the UConn foundation donations - left pocket/right pocket stuff. The huge price increase will probably be offset by a volume decrease. So piss off your only fans you think will give money, don’t get that revenue bump and be worse off after this change.

For years I have given based on how priority points were marketed by the university as rewarding loyal and generous donors. Now despite some meaningless lip service - they will be effectively worthless after this season. That’s the kind of stuff a class action lawsuit is made of - I guess Dave Benedict isn’t spending enough time with litigation as it is?

 

[whaler11]

They may not see the desired increase in revenue. I think the seat donations will cannibalize the UConn foundation donations - left pocket/right pocket stuff. The huge price increase will probably be offset by a volume decrease. So piss off your only fans you think will give money, don’t get that revenue bump and be worse off after this change.

For years I have given based on how priority points were marketed by the university as rewarding loyal and generous donors. Now despite some meaningless lip service - they will be effectively worthless after this season. That’s the kind of stuff a class action lawsuit is made of - I guess Dave Benedict isn’t spending enough time with litigation as it is?

Flat out going to reduce revenue.

Don’t think there is a point to a class action suit, they are going to lower demand to the point where priority points aren’t going to matter - if you’ll pay their ransom you can get the seats.

 

[Imdone]

37 years a season ticket holder; over 1,400 priority points. Kept my season tickets even after moving to Florida 18 years ago. It would cost me an additional $9,600 to keep my six seats in XL Center and Gampel. Just sent my ticket rep an email stating I will no longer be renewing.

Also won't be renewing football tickets.

Don't know if they have thought this through - but just imagine sitting in your seats that you paid $800 for and someone is sitting next to you - who just bought his seat day of the game at the ticket window for $30...

It's either going to be that situation - or there are going to be a lot of empty seats in the lower bowls at most games (like at Yankee stadium behind home plate).

 

[Caronimo]

People will just start buying the cheap seats or not buy season tickets... and then the season ticket holder with these ripoff seats is going to get screwed even more when UConn is forced to sell these good seats go non season ticket holders. Right?

Side note- Hopefully big red can still afford his seat. I mean his should be free and all, but it probably isn’t.

 

[Calhoun's Court]

Gave up my season tickets after 37 years 2 years ago. Glad I did.

Been buying tickets on Stubhub and Uconn Black Friday Sale instead.

This year most games I paid $6-$15(plus fees).

 

[John]

Gave up my season tickets after 37 years 2 years ago. Glad I did.

Been buying tickets on Stubhub and Uconn Black Friday Sale instead.

This year most games I paid $6-$15(plus fees).

that's what we did with football season tickets this year - plan on cherry picking the games I want and paying a whole lot less to attend.

 

[gampelcrazies]

I know it's probably unlikely but I can see them pulling back this idea or scaling it back because of all the negative feedback. They can't afford to lose 1,000s of season ticket holders.

 

[Excalibur]

This is absurd. Besides two Gampel tickets for myself, I buy an additional 3, lower level, for two friends who are both teachers. Even if I decide that I'm crazy enough to pay for it, do you think they're going to accept a nearly 200% increase in the cost of the ticket?

 

[whaler11]

I know it's probably unlikely but I can see them pulling back this idea or scaling it back because of all the negative feedback. They can't afford to lose 1,000s of season ticket holders.

Here is hoping because in an avalanche of stupid this is the biggest boulder yet.

Do we still think Herbst gets it? lol

 

[Vancat]

They must be getting complaints up the arse. Personally I quit years ago when we were moved from courtside slowly up to the rafters. Now when I want to go I just buy cheapy single tickets.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Is UConn trying to copy schemes that professional sports teams use? I could see this kind of scheme working for small market teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder. NBA is 82 games, 41 home - so say you have 5 guys that share the tickets and each attend 8 games per year. So the license fee gets split and the 5 guys lock in their games every year with a mix of good and bad, but its kind of worth it. Other than the uber rich, I think most big city sports ticket pricing is supported by season ticket holders that are predominately multi-person shares AND the ongoing attraction of people that buy 1 game a year (think Red Sox in Boston, must-see tourist purchases & fans from throughout New England pay UP for their 1-3 games per year).

The HUGE difference they are missing is college hoop fans are season ticket holders that want to go to almost every game and generally don't share tickets in groups (maybe season tickets shared, but 1 person per seat).

And the donation thing is a separate fairy tale that people have bought into, now they've removed the pretend. People rationalized; "I'm doing an altruistic thing by donating to the school, even though mostly I know I'm doing it for good seats to basketball games." Now they've removed that justification and necessary pretense (to facilitate donations in excess of value of tickets) and made it cold, hard paying up solely for good seats to finance a good basketball team.

I understand there are wealthy boosters that have play money and they have always been the backbone of college athletics. I appreciate them! But now they are more or less asking the middle class to participate & pay their 'fair share' in this scheme (facetiously scam) and it just doesn't make economic sense, especially as the world evolves into paying ala carte for so many things (like watching UConn on ESPN+!).

 

[Excalibur]

They must be getting complaints up the arse. Personally I quit years ago when we were moved from courtside slowly up to the rafters. Now when I want to go I just buy cheapy single tickets.

I'm certainly weighing in, both directly and in their social media announcements about it.

 

[gampelcrazies]

Is UConn trying to copy schemes that professional sports teams use? I could see this kind of scheme working for small market teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder. NBA is 82 games, 41 home - so say you have 5 guys that share the tickets and each attend 8 games per year. So the license fee gets split and the 5 guys lock in their games every year with a mix of good and bad, but its kind of worth it. Other than the uber rich, I think most big city sports ticket pricing is supported by season ticket holders that are predominately multi-person shares AND the ongoing attraction of people that buy 1 game a year (think Red Sox in Boston, must-see tourist purchases & fans from throughout New England pay UP for their 1-3 games per year).

The HUGE difference they are missing is college hoop fans are season ticket holders that want to go to almost every game and generally don't share tickets in groups (maybe season tickets shared, but 1 person per seat).

And the donation thing is a separate fairy tale that people have bought into, now they've removed the pretend. People rationalized; "I'm doing an altruistic thing by donating to the school, even though mostly I know I'm doing it for good seats to basketball games." Now they've removed that justification and necessary pretense (to facilitate donations in excess of value of tickets) and made it cold, hard paying up solely for good seats to finance a good basketball team.

I understand there are wealthy boosters that have play money and they have always been the backbone of college athletics. I appreciate them! But now they are more or less asking the middle class to participate & pay their 'fair share' in this scheme (facetiously scam) and it just doesn't make economic sense, especially as the world evolves into paying ala carte for so many things (like watching UConn on ESPN+!).

So most schools have this seat donation model and when my rep told me about it I was on board. The problem is UConn is charging stupid money for these seat donations. My rep told me different prices a couple weeks ago before this came out. Either he lied to us or they jacked it up last second. They've done so many stupid things over the years but this might be at the top of the list.