Sorry if I gave the wrong impression. My donation was on time and the gamble I told Ben I would take in the future was choosing a donation level that would match my expectations for how the team would do in the postseason of that donor year. I felt they were trolling for big, new, corporate or matching donations and overlooking those of us who had been supporting the programs in a major way for years.
My points got me high priority for season tickets but my donor class in 1995 got me second priority for the postseason because they added a new class at $10,000 per year and I didn't donate that amount. They went by class and then point totals within each class and, as I recall, we weren't told it would be that way or I didn't understand it when the solicitation came out.
The best examples of the reality of it and the points I made with Ben Kirtland were the following:
1. Long time donor with over 1,000 points but only giving $5,000 in the current year would be given high priority for the best seating during the regular season but would be in the second group to be called for post season tickets.
2. New donor/company, etc. who gave $10,000 in the current year would have 100 points for the donation plus a few odd extra ones like 2 points for one year of donation and maybe something else would be in the first group called.
So, I told Ben that I understood they were trying to sweeten the pot to attract major new donations but they were doing it the wrong way and my only way to protest, if I didn't want to donate in the highest class, would be to gamble on good years versus bad years and donate accordingly.
Just my little protest. The change they made was a real slap in the face to those who had a long history of donations and a high point total. They got greedy and it probably made sense from their point of view but not that of some long time donors who were there for them in the 80's when things were pretty grim.
