should CU raise ticket prices?

[BlackNGold]

I think it would be a disaster to raise ticket prices. Attendance was down 1000 per game this season as it is. I know several people who dropped their parking passes this past year in order to cut cost.

The problem Bohn is having is that next season he only has 6 games in the season ticket package instead of the 7 that he has had for several years. This is a direct result of the mistake of signing Miami of Ohio to a home and home series. Adding to the financial difficulties is the fact that both BB programs are in the tank and attendance will be way down as a result. Also if the Big 12 does not get as many teams to the Big Dance the conference payout for BB will be less.

Add a poor economy and you have a formula for disaster.

I do agree with moving the people out of section 116. I proposed this to Bohn 3 years ago. One issue is there is not a waiting list to get into the 3 top $ sections right now.

 

[Timbuff10]

Dude, you can buy tickets for $25 each from the athletic dept. True, the seats are usually in the upper level or in the North End zone, but who cares?

I figured there had to be some available cheaper than what I saw, but I could never find them that cheap. Everything was around $100 and up. Kinda pissed me off actually. Do you typically have to buy these months in advance?

 

[MiamiBuffs]

I think it would be a disaster to raise ticket prices. Attendance was down 1000 per game this season as it is. I know several people who dropped their parking passes this past year in order to cut cost.

The problem Bohn is having is that next season he only has 6 games in the season ticket package instead of the 7 that he has had for several years. This is a direct result of the mistake of signing Miami of Ohio to a home and home series. Adding to the financial difficulties is the fact that both BB programs are in the tank and attendance will be way down as a result. Also if the Big 12 does not get as many teams to the Big Dance the conference payout for BB will be less.

Add a poor economy and you have a formula for disaster.

I do agree with moving the people out of section 116. I proposed this to Bohn 3 years ago. One issue is there is not a waiting list to get into the 3 top $ sections right now.

Most of what I have read indicates that 2009 will be as crappy or worse than the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2008. The consumer is in deep doo doo this time with any kind of credit and its predicted to take 2-2.5 years to turn it arround. Lots of people are pulling back on spending. Retailers likely had the worst Christmas in 40 years when it comes to big ticket items. Football tickets are a discretionary spend.

The other side of this argument is to raise prices because you know, given the above, that you WILL lose some current customers while gaining no new ones. There are a lot of companies trying this but we'll have to wait and see if it works.

 

[Buffarino]

My question is simple and a i'll ask it again; would you still oppose CU playing all home games in Denver if it was a financial benefit to the school greater than playing in Folsom?

I would drop my season tickets if that happened. I can barely tolerate one game a year in Invesco. An entire season tailgating on asphalt watching the Buffs play in a 25% empty stadium would be more than I could stand.

 

[Buffarino]

My last game was 62-36, it was a great memory! Unfortunately, I got priced out the day I graduated so I can care less what they do with the prices. The only way I will ever see any more CU games is if someone is trying to get rid of tickets on craigslist or something like that. Every time I looked at trying to get a ticket this season the cheapest I could find were around $100/person. Double that for my wife, and add parking and some stale/soggy stadium food with flat colas and we are at a minimum of $230 to see us score 13 points from the nosebleed section.

For that much, I am ready to sit on my own couch and be able to pause the game when I have to take a leak and not miss anything. All that for no extra cost plus I don't have to dodge marshmellows at halftime.

You didn't look very hard. I had to sell some tickets this season for my sister and I don't think I ever got more than face value for them. This includes the WVU game. We are in Sec. 109, so not nosebleeds by any stretch.

 

[Buffarino]

The other side of this argument is to raise prices because you know, given the above, that you WILL lose some current customers while gaining no new ones. There are a lot of companies trying this but we'll have to wait and see if it works.

That sounds like some stupid ****ing companies to me.

 

[MiamiBuffs]

That sounds like some stupid ****ing companies to me.

One of them is General Electric whose Industrial division passed a 12% increase in Jan 1 08 and will be passing along another 12% Jan 1 09. You will soon see some of the top of the line GE Profile refrigerators at $3500+ at retail (before sale pricing). Light bulbs going up 12% are not so dramatic. I don't know what their aircraft business or NBC went up by.

It's a dumb move for sure but rumor has it that GE Capital is in big trouble and thus the prices went up in their other divisions to try and compensate. Capital was apparently the biggest contributor of the five divisions to their bottom line. Apparently, rumor has it, GE Capital is now sucking money out of the rest of the company for a lot of the same reasons other lenders are suffering. I guess Capital owns a lot of commercial aircraft and hold the leases... Ouch.

Whirlpool, Electrolux, Thermador, Viking, Sub Zero, and others also increased pricing at about 10% +/-. Maybe they think they can back off of that later on. Im not sure. It leaves retailers in a pickle because they are suffering right now and that kind of increase squeezes their margins if they maintain pricing or loses business for them if they raise prices. Volume is not gonna be there anymore.

 

[Mick Ronson]

i'd also like to add that contrary to wsp's earlier post about GA seats in 117, "get there early, enthusiasm, and sit in the best seats"; we always had assigned seats in 117 in the 5 seasons I had tickets there.

 

[Buffarino]

One of them is General Electric whose Industrial division passed a 12% increase in Jan 1 08 and will be passing along another 12% Jan 1 09. You will soon see some of the top of the line GE Profile refrigerators at $3500+ at retail (before sale pricing). Light bulbs going up 12% are not so dramatic. I don't know what their aircraft business or NBC went up by.

It's a dumb move for sure but rumor has it that GE Capital is in big trouble and thus the prices went up in their other divisions to try and compensate. Capital was apparently the biggest contributor of the five divisions to their bottom line. Apparently, rumor has it, GE Capital is now sucking money out of the rest of the company for a lot of the same reasons other lenders are suffering. I guess Capital owns a lot of commercial aircraft and hold the leases... Ouch.

Whirlpool, Electrolux, Thermador, Viking, Sub Zero, and others also increased pricing at about 10% +/-. Maybe they think they can back off of that later on. Im not sure. It leaves retailers in a pickle because they are suffering right now and that kind of increase squeezes their margins if they maintain pricing or loses business for them if they raise prices. Volume is not gonna be there anymore.

That sounds like some stupid ****ing companies to me.

If I hadn't already sold all my GE stock, I would do so after hearing that.

 

[BuffAlum2007]

i'd also like to add that contrary to wsp's earlier post about GA seats in 117, "get there early, enthusiasm, and sit in the best seats"; we always had assigned seats in 117 in the 5 seasons I had tickets there.

The enforcement of student assigned seats in 117, in my experience (2006 & 2007 seasons in those sections), was spotty at best...I generally arrived at games about an hour before kickoff, and there was an Argus guy at the front of the section (bald guy with red beard & mustache, looked kind of like Pat Croce) who would check tickets and kick people out of 117 if they didn't have them...however, as it got closer to kickoff and the section got more and more full, he would give up on checking and then basically right around kickoff it generally turned into a free-for-all for students sitting in 116 to move over and fill up the empty parts of 117, and for those sitting higher in 117 to try to move down.

Even though I'm no longer a student, I'm glad to hear that 117 is now all GA and that they have ditched the reserved ticketing policy for that section - I just wish I was still there to be able to take advantage of it!