UConn Bringing in Marketing Team to Fill Seats

[Carnac]

I have been complaining to the UCONN ticket office and the Athletic Offiice by e-mail for it seems like forever!
And if you've been a season ticket holder for a lot of years you're so invested in it you can't give them up!
1. My buddy Glenn & I have been season ticket holders since 1999 and they're in his name! 7 years ago or so Glenn got divorced and moved back to PA. So we want the tickets sent to me in New London not PA. It took 3 years to get them to send the WBB tix to me! Glenn would send the Ticket Office a letter explaining the situation and he'd be told the letter will be in our file so tix will go to NL. For those first 3 years they were sent by FEDEX to Glenn in PA and he'd have to overnight them to me for 1st exhibitions. They finally grew a brain and now I get the tix in NL!
1a. The ticket office has a donation plan where each year you donate $ and you get points but the tix office takes points away also in their cockeyed system. No one at the T.O. understands the policy! Instead of doing it the simple way if you donate $500.00 you have 500 points. The next year you donate $450.00, you have 950 points and so on! Simplify it!
2. I now send my e-mails to the AD and because I'm a no-body donor it's given to Neal Eskin, an asst. AD. I tried to explain to Mr. Eskin that UCONN was sticking it to their loyal fans with all their new policies. For example, Season ticket holders have to pay a donation to get season tickets. The T.O. starts a plan for 3-game packs at Gampel & the XL Center for $45.00 or $15.00 a game with NO donation and other similar plans! He explained UCONN was trying to get NEW people involved! I said not at the expense of their long time fans.
I told Mr. Eskin if the A.D. wanted to help their fans, anyone sitting on bleacher seats at Gampel gets a $2.00 a game deduction to $18.00!
3. UCONN tix are the most expensive by a lot in the USA, $20.00 a game plus parking fees.
a. Bridgeport games are priced way higher than regular tix. For seats comparable to mine at Gampel & XL, 2nd level corner seats for $20.00 I would have to pay $70.00 at The Arena at HY! They raise parking from $5.00 a game to $20.00 a game also!
b. Several years ago in line at XL an older gentleman and his wife said this game, Stanford, was now the only game they go to. He was a big time lawyer in Hartford and donated $5,000+ back in the Field House days to just recently. When he retired his donations went down and his seats went up to AA, GG, etc. When he called the T.O. to ask why, he was told, "If you don't want the damn tickets don't buy them we have thousands of fans that will buy them and hung up on him! I've talked to other fans that are treated the same way!
c. When the BIG EAST Tournament was at Rutgers years ago, Tourney tix went for $45.00 for all games plus NO parking fees. When they moved the BE to Hartford the BE asked Lou Perkins, UCONN AD at the time, what should they charge, and Lou told them "any amount, UCONN fans will pay any amount to see their Huskies!" So prices went up to $195.00 a Tourney package! Plus parking went up too! Almost no one was going so they lowered it to the present $99.00!
d. When the NCAA Tournament starts the 1st and 2nd rounds and the Regionals wherever UCONN is placed is way more expensive than the other sites across the USA!
e. I hear that next season a surcharge of $15.00 will be added to ALL FB & BB season tickets holders to cover the cost of upgrading the Athletic Fields on campus!
UCONN wonders why many fans don't attend FB & BB games, it's because many loyal fans are upset at the way they've been treated!

Let's hope the firm hired to address UConn's attendance woes takes serious note of everything you've mentioned here, and gives these issues every possible consideration. You don't bend your fan base over year after year, treat them like crap, take them for granted, and expect them to stay loyal. There's an old saying: people may not always remember what you tell them, or what you do for them, but they'll ALWAYS remember how you made them feel. Disrespect them and treat them like crap, take them for granted and they'll quit you for sure.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

Let's hope the firm hired to address UConn's attendance woes takes serious note of everything you've mentioned here, and gives these issues every possible consideration. You don't bend your fan base over year after year, treat them like crap, take them for granted, and expect them to stay loyal. There's an old saying: people may not always remember what you tell them, or what you do for them, but they'll ALWAYS remember how you made them feel. Disrespect them and treat them like crap, take them for granted and they'll quit you for sure.

Carnac- - - At Bridgeport for the Regional this past March I ran into Neal Eskin, the Asst. AD, and introduced myself as the pain in the ass that e-mails him often about the fan problems and he doesn't agree that there IS a problem(s) the way the T.O./A.D. are treating the fans! He doesn't understand that the majority of UCONN season ticket holders are older people on a fixed income and when UCONN raises the cost of everything they're pricing their fans out!
The A.O. & T.O. don't want to hear about the fans problems, they're not interested, just pay up!
I figured out I spend approximately $1500+ for season tickets, parking, food, gas, etc. a season and I don't know how much longer I can afford to pay this as the costs keep on going up & up! There was a rumor that ticket prices were possibly going up! They are already the most expensive by $8 to $10 a game now!

 

[BroadwayVa]

Uh.....sorry about that Broadway, I got carried away. I've been to Texas many times, but never to a TEXAS Longhorn tailgate party before a game. I've love to attend one. I love BBQ. No doubt THAT is the main item on most of the attending "grill master's menu on Saturdays.

If I walked around there decked out in my turban and cape, somebody would recognize me, and offer me a plate. I'd get a plate from somebody, even if I had to buy it. Those guys know how to cook some BBQ in Texas, and I know how to eat some BBQ (washed down of course with lots of cold beer, and then I'd take a nap). A match made in Heaven. Fight on!

No apology necessary--I was teasing --in a previous posting I mentioned my EAST Coast Bias while teaching UALR students--and it gave me an opportunity to brag about 2 of my kids in Calif.
Back to tailgating and BBQ---I love GOOD BBQ, Virginia does not do great BBQ, Arkansas does great as does Kansas (KC has some of the best places)
I spent a lot of time in Tex-Arkansas, Galveston, Dallas (Debby wasn't there) and FW but never had their BBQ--can you beat that??? The Texan's tailgating cooked everything from pigs to ribs and you name it they drank it. Party Hardy a term developed to name the Texan's.

 

[BroadwayVa]

Uh.....sorry about that Broadway, I got carried away. I've been to Texas many times, but never to a TEXAS Longhorn tailgate party before a game. I've love to attend one. I love BBQ. No doubt THAT is the main item on most of the attending "grill master's menu on Saturdays.

If I walked around there decked out in my turban and cape, somebody would recognize me, and offer me a plate. I'd get a plate from somebody, even if I had to buy it. Those guys know how to cook some BBQ in Texas, and I know how to eat some BBQ (washed down of course with lots of cold beer, and then I'd take a nap). A match made in Heaven. Fight on!

Please NEVER apologize to me! I've been following you, and your decent positive postings for a few years now including the Courant. . My new Avatar is two of the 3 loves of my life--my wife is number one plus plus. I call the pix --Caught in the Act.

 

[Husky25]

I can tell you with confidence that games at XL are very, very well attended on average over the weekends. Night games don't work as well with kids, who have homework and family/social/extra-curricular commitments. On a Saturday afternoon? Attendance is close to or greater than the capacity of Storrs.

If UConn is looking to make any money on games in Hartford, that is not going to cut it. Let's say that the average game ticket cost $25.00. If it is to be believed that UConn pays $50,000/game rent, then they need to sell 2,000 more seats at the XL Center than at Gampel just to break even. Mind you, that does not include parking or food concessions that UConn sees little, if any, of in Hartford.