Baylor Tickets

[Eddie P]

Stallion-

I do not work for the athletic department.
And you are dead wrong on this issue, although I am curious if you will back away or try to find some justification for what was a pretty ignorant post. And this from someone who is usually so well-informed. I guess we will see.

[Stallion]

Why don't YOU explain why it is so ignorant-NOBODY ELSE HAS EXCEPT TO SAY SMU DOES NOT GET ANY MONEY SO WHO CARES ITS BAYLOR'S PROBLEM-obviously there is a contract between the schools about return of tickets-change the DAMN contract-it didn't used to be that way. Next year we have Baylor coming to Dallas in Ford. I want the Baylor ticket office to be selling as many tickets as possible until at least the Thursday before the game. This should be the policy for all games within driving distance. Wouldn't Copeland want that TOO! Overnight the rest back to Dallas for Friday morning delivery. Believe me SMU has and will lose ticket sales because of this. Ask anyone who went to Shrevport for the Arkansas game and didn't get into the game until mid 2nd Q. Ask the Baylor fans who reportedly didn't make it to their seats in Denton last week until the score was 21-0. People don't want to stand in line at WILL CALL and may decide not to attend if that is a factor. Every year we have fans saying they went to the ticket office but they were sent back 5 days before the game. The goal of the ticket office is to sell tickets-SELL TICKETS.

[SoCal_Pony]

Since it is painfully clear that most if not all of our games (home and road) will not be sellouts, what is so terrible about us or our opponents returning some unused tickets AFTER the game?

Unless the game is a sellout, seems to me Baylor would benefit from us holding on to an extra 300 tickets if it meant we could sell another 30.

[EastStang]

Aren't most of the tickets are electronically issued anyway? It ought to be easy to block out x number of seats and Baylor gets to work against those seats until Thursday or the home team sells out whichever first occurs at which point they are open to both Baylor and SMU to sell. This would be the best way to handle it in my view. But I'm sure SMU still prints its tickets and sells them in hard form.

[Stallion]

another point from this IGNORANT poster. If SMU fans without tickets drive down and purchase tickets from scalpers who gets shafted. Oh I know its Baylor's problem! Well what about next year? How about if that cold front passes through about 3:00 on Saturday and brings rain? How about next year. Lost ticket sales for a school that may struggle to reach NCAA minimum standards.

[This message has been edited by Stallion (edited 09-11-2003).]

[Backsdabears]

just so you all know there will be no scalpers at the baylor game. the baylor pd along with waco pd and sheriffs are out in force so you wont see any scalpers at floyd casey. as far as tickets go floyd casey seats around 50,000 + so i dont think tickets will be a problem

[RE Tycoon]

Stallion has a point IF we were a top tier program and/or we were playing a top tier program...News Flash we're not, so getting tickets is not a problem for home OR away. I don't mind the ticket office sending back the tickets on a tues., because as other people have said we would have to eat the costs of those we didn't sell. And I will streak at the game if the ONLY way you can get a ticket for the Baylor game is through a scalper.
Some people were also sceptical if we sold out our allotment, judging by the amount of students that are going and people on this board that say they are gong, I beleive it.
We should all be happy about that and stop complaining about it.

GO Stangs!


[This message has been edited by Current STUDent (edited 09-11-2003).]

[Stallion]

you really didn't spend much time thinking about these issues did you Current Student?

[Hoop Fan]

Stallion has a point about getting as many people to buy tickets earlier than later. A rain storm kills your walkup crowd. And I would agree that no matter what Baylor requires, next year if the game in Dallas is not selling well SMU ought to leave a block of seats at the Baylor office and waive any no sell penalties. Where I think Stallion exaggerates his case using the Shreveport example is that more than a handful of people would not go that wanted to just because they had to pickup their tix from will call, which is a common method in all ticket sale situations. I'd be willing to bet that a Big 12 school like Baylor can handle a Will Call situation given the throngs of Horns, Ags and Sooners that they host biannually.

[Eddie P]

Stallion-

A few points and then I'll be quiet...I pay my lawyers to argue with other lawyers so I don't have to do it myself.

1) You are correct that there is a contract that dictates when unsold tickets must be returned. However, to suggest changing a contract for a very, very few (if any) people's right to purchase tickets the day before an away game at Moody seems a bit of an overkill and quite frankly incredibly naive. I don't have to explain to a lawyer how one goes about trying to change a contract and all it entails. And I don't know how it has been done in the past, but I know we used to send mail via the Pony Express but now we don't for some reason...

2) Your examples of both the UNT/Baylor game & the Arkansas game in Shreveport are rather skewed, don't you think. I would call them rare exceptions and are not germaine to this particular instance or the norm.

3)Waiting in line at stadiums is a fact of live when attending a major sporting event anywhere in the world. If people will not attend a game because of fears of waiting at a will call line, then I suspect they also eat lunch everyday at 3pm, stay at their offices until 8pm and go to the early mass on sunday because they have a severe aversion to waiting in lines that affects their behaviour. This is described by some professionals as an "unhealthy fixation."

4) This is how I am going to address concerns that SMU fans might get ripped off by scalpers at an SMU football game this year: _____________________________

5) Bad weather does affect walk-up sales... somewhat dramatically, actually. This is not new news. But this point is almost moot. Here's why:

Secenario A: Johnny Johnson decided to attend the football game in Waco so he strolls up to SMU around lunchtime on thursday, two days before the game, to purchase his tickets. Alas, all unsold tickets have been sent back to Baylor. Oh no. Johnny is angry. Can't believe it. After apologizing, the SMU staff member tells Angry Johnny that he can pick up an obscure device called the telephone and order his tickets over the phone. Or, Johnny can used a mysterious device called the INTERNET and order them online. Either way, he might have to pick-up his tickets at the dreaded will-call window. Johnny orders his tickets via the telephone. Gameday arrives and Angry Johnny has arrived in Waco. Alas, it has started to rain. Angry Johnny has a decision to make whether he's going to turn around and drive back home because it's raining or stay and watch the game. Regardless of which decision Angry Johnny makes (and I think any person who is already in town for an away game is going to stay regardless of the weather) he has already purchased his ticket. So, no lost revenue there and thus no connection between Mother Nature and SMU's penchant for sending used tickets back to the home team five days before the game.

6) Walk-up sales are immaterial to this conversation because this is an away game and most normal people do not just decide in a split second to get in their car and drive 150 miles. Thus they make plans to attend the game at least a little time beforehand, which probably means they could buy tickets for the game via some of the aforementioned means. Therefore, the ticket would be purchased and not a revenue loss for the schools involved.

In summary, I think this is really just the ranting of a very vocal but tiny, tiny minority. Stallion mentioned about how this situation illustrates how NOT to run a business. Well, wrong. This IS how you run a business. You do NOT run a business by catering to the smallest possible demographic where your possible return is negligible but your possible expense is enormous. (i.e. SMU having to purchase several hundred unused tickets to satisfy the 8 people who became so irate that SMU didn't have tickets for them the day before an AWAY game at Moody who then promptly threw a fit and decided not to attend the game because of it)

You can't please every single person on the face of the world. You create procedures for things and people adjust to them. That's how life works. You don't destroy an entire system because .002% of your audience are dissatisfied with the way things work. And this argument might have a shred of credibility if SMU fans had NO means of getting tickets and that this procedure was not allowing people to go to the games. But this is simply not the case, but rather a case of Angry Johnny acting like a 9 month old baby.

Of course, I guess this also is Ken Pye's fault. If we had more athlete friendly majors, SMU wouldn't send their unsold away game tickets back 5 days before the game.

This court is adjourned.




[This message has been edited by Eddie P (edited 09-11-2003).]

[ponyboy]

"Of course, I guess this also is Ken Pye's fault. If we had more athlete friendly majors, SMU wouldn't send their unsold away game tickets back 5 days before the game."

Now THAT's funny, Ed!

[Stallion]

....and again if I had people working for me like you in the athletic department you would be fired on the first day. To quickly respond to your rambling excuse on why the SMU Ticket Office in not in the business of catering to real life SMU fans I would point out that a contract can be written CORRECTLY the first time-but I guess it would take too much work for our athletic director and attorney's to distinguish between games within driving distance like TCU, Baylor, Louisiana Tech, Tulsa as opposed to Hawaii, Nevada and Fresno. That would take some real business acumen and legal expertise that I'm sure that SMU can not afford. All you do is take your little cookie-cutter form used each week and mark through 7 days and fill in 2 days and initial it. Or better yet fill it out correctly the first time. Real tough. Second, I have seen many scalpers selling tickets to many fans at every single SMU game I've ever been too in my life=Lost Revenue. Third, your statement that fans don't make last minute decisions to go to DRIVEABLE ROAD GAMES-the relevant time period being within 5-7 days before the game is a bunch of crap. Because of family obligations and work responsibilities that's ALWAYS when I make the decision to go to a DRIVEABLE ROAD GAME.

[Eddie P]

I'm thoroughly unimpressed with your response. Surely you can do better...

You mean I can't work for you??? Ouch, that hurt. I guess I'll take my office buildings and slink back to Fisher Island and crawl under a rock and die. I had always wondered what is would be like to work for someone who is anhedonic.

[BearRabbit]

We sent you 1000 and you sold them. Get to the game for old times sake.

[Hoop Fan]

Eddie P- I agree that Will Call is no big deal in most situations, Shreveport aside. But bad wheather can still hurt overall sales, sometimes signifcantly. Heres why, and I am speaking of my current situation. I decided to go to the game this week. I too called SMU about tix, but they were sold out. No problem. But, I didn't pick up the phone and call Baylor and buy my tickets right away. Why, you ask? Because I am not worried about Baylor selling out. And since I would have to wait in a Will Call line anyway, I figure I can just as easily wait in a ticket purchase line on Saturday. Keeps my options open. Now, if there is a massive rain storm on Saturday and my family doesn't want to endure it (kids ya know), I haven't flushed $80 to the Baylor charity fund. Now, had SMU still had tickets, I probably would have bought them already just for the convenience. In the end its Baylors problem this year. Next year its SMUs and I would hope we would use common sense if the game is not selling well and leave some tickets at Baylor longer. Either amend the contract or waive the no-sell penalties.

[This message has been edited by Hoop Fan (edited 09-12-2003).]