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One small correction on the season tickets. I am a football season ticket holder as well and because I am also a past basketball season ticket holder I was not give the 1/2 deal. Reward the new, punish the old.

DBB

Originally posted by Duke Blue Blood:
Reward the new, punish the old.

DBB

How about "Encourage new people to come to basketball games and maybe they'll like it so much that they'll renew again next year at full price. Thank the old for their continued support."

And, for the record, both my men's and women's season tickets were full price. And I don't mind paying it at all.

For the casual college hoops fan or the Tech fans in the area, paying $45/$25 was probably too much. I know when I stopped by to get my tickets to the Wake game, the lady in front of me couldn't understand why they were so much for this game and less for the others. Frankly, I can't blame people for staying away if that's their reason. I think there are other factors too.

1- The newness factor has worn off. In other words, the first time Knight and Co. came to town two years ago, it was Knight's first year on the job and everyone came to see him..the curiosity factor. Now that it seems Tech will come here every other year, people aren't seeing it as a big deal any more.
2- Tech is going to be in town again in two weeks down at the American Airlines Center, playing Iowa of the Big Ten. To a lot of fans, that might be too much to pay $45 a ticket at SMU and then turn around and pay $39 down at the AAC for that game too. And if fans have to make a choice, my guess is they would rather see Tech and Knight vs. Steve Alford and Iowa. Plus if Tech fans want to see their team, they can drive to Waco and see Tech play Baylor for like $10 and $15.

At any rate, all of this hurt the attendance..To me it's like SMU wants to gouge what faithful few they have to make more revenue instead of going after new fans and making it affordable. 6,000 at $45/25 could easily be 9,000 at $30/15 and still get about the same revenue.

Seriously, what do you people want? You can get some damn good season tickets for $8 a piece. I went to the Mavs game tonight and sat in a $40 crappy seat, major nosebleeds. Even tickets to high school football games are $10 each. Raising the prices was a great move, intentional or unintentional, to keep the Tech fans from overwhelming us. Enthusiasm is not real high for SMU athletics, and if you offer $10 seats, you would have had 2000 more Tech fans and probably 100 more SMU fans. And then you have a loss and nothing to build on.