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Re: Season tickets

Postby PonyTime » Wed Oct 04, 2017 10:34 pm

Mustangsabu wrote:I have been a football season ticket holder for 10 years, and a b-ball holder for 9. About a month ago I got a call asking if I’d like to buy basketball season tickets. I said I’d like to renew my previous seats. I was told they had already sold my seats to someone else a couple of weeks previously. Apparently they had sent an email saying that if you didn’t make your donation by May 11th you would lose your seats. But they called me on May 15th to renew my football seats and I paid my donation then. They didn’t tell me that my donation was too late for my basketball seats or indeed that my football seats didn’t require that level of donation. They just took my money and never said a word. Three months later they sell my basketball seats and have the balls to call me and ask if I want to buy more.

I know I should have read the email, but it went to an old account I stared check. My fault. But they call me any time they want money. But they couldn’t call me and say “we need your donation if you want to keep your seats”. They just took them.

I used to be in the front row of the old red seats (now the Blue) and I went every game. This is how they treat their fans.

I’m done. I will be at every game, but I will get seats in the secondary market. And for football too.

I know that stallion is right in many ways about the fans needing to financially carry the load, and I understand that many might not approve but I have to look my sons in the face and teach them how to treat people and to value themselves enough to demand respect. To my core I believe that this is not how fans should be treated. Especially not loyal fans, of which I consider myself one.

Oh and I wrote to Hart and Pottkotter expressing my sadness at the decision I was forced to make. Didn’t merit a response apparently.

My sons will be better. And they both love the Ponies.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Though this is sad and disappointing, I am not all that surprised. I will PM you if I have extra tix to any of this year's games. I would love to have you in my seats if I am not there (of course, mine are not nearly as good as yours were)
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Re: Season tickets

Postby lollaperuna » Thu Oct 05, 2017 8:04 am

I'm appalled that they haven't responded to your letters.
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Re: Season tickets

Postby Stallion » Thu Oct 05, 2017 9:30 am

PonyTime wrote:
Stallion wrote:well I guess you screwed up not supporting the football program. They should give preference to those who support the entire program-SMU's basketball team wouldn't have been in the AAC without SMU's football program. Welcome to the 21st Century-that's how all programs operate these days.


So you are saying a Mustang Club BBall supporter who donates twice as much as a Football Supporter should be second class? Really? Seems like you must work for the Mustang Club.

SMU BBall would have been in the Big East with TCU, Louisville, Georgetown, Villanova, etc if SMU Football had been relevant at the time. Those teams left that conference because of the joke SMU football program. Don't tell me that SMU Football did any favors in our getting into the AAC. Seriously.


You get points by donating and ATTENDING SMU games-the points system applies evenly to all SMU Mustang Club members-so yes if you do not support the football program your points are going to be less than the next guy who supports both programs. Further, there is no way in hell SMU Basketball (alone) was getting into the (current or former) Big East -that's a figment of your imagination
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Re: Season tickets

Postby PonyTime » Thu Oct 05, 2017 9:52 am

Stallion wrote:
PonyTime wrote:
Stallion wrote:well I guess you screwed up not supporting the football program. They should give preference to those who support the entire program-SMU's basketball team wouldn't have been in the AAC without SMU's football program. Welcome to the 21st Century-that's how all programs operate these days.


So you are saying a Mustang Club BBall supporter who donates twice as much as a Football Supporter should be second class? Really? Seems like you must work for the Mustang Club.

SMU BBall would have been in the Big East with TCU, Louisville, Georgetown, Villanova, etc if SMU Football had been relevant at the time. Those teams left that conference because of the joke SMU football program. Don't tell me that SMU Football did any favors in our getting into the AAC. Seriously.


You get points by donating and ATTENDING SMU games-the points system applies evenly to all SMU Mustang Club members-so yes if you do not support the football program your points are going to be less than the next guy who supports both programs. Further, there is no way in hell SMU Basketball (alone) was getting into the (current or former) Big East -that's a figment of your imagination


If I attend all Basketball home games, I will be attending three times as many SMU games as the Football only season ticket holder. There are plenty out there that hold football season tix, but not basketball.
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Re: Season tickets

Postby Charleston Pony » Thu Oct 05, 2017 10:25 am

I moved away from Dallas years ago so haven't had season tickets in quite some time but always thought the rules were pretty simple. Location of seats for both football and bball are determined by your level of giving/participation starting with what level Mustang Club donor you are and with points also awarded for buying season tickets (and the number of tickets purchased) for football and bball. Obviously with the downsized Moody and the quality bball product we suddenly have, getting good seats is going to require a larger investment in SMU athletics. It's easy to have a great seat at Ford, especially if you are willing to sit on the visitor's side. Not sure that will change in my lifetime. It's too bad if a long time season ticket holder wasn't contacted and informed what additional investment would be required to maintain those same seats at Moody but for all the complaining we do about attendance (and I'm at the top of that list), we should be thankful that attending SMU games is still a bargain (relatively speaking) compared to larger public schools that have quality programs. When I was a relatively young alum, I had 2nd row mezzanine seats behind the SMU bench and gave only the minimum to the Mustang Club...and that was to watch the Dave Bliss years of teams that were at times ranked in the top 10. I doubt I could justify the cost of those seats today
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Re: Season tickets

Postby Prideful Pony » Thu Oct 05, 2017 11:10 am

horsemanx wrote:That is insane they would treat you that way based on your history.

I am going to enjoy this year to its fullest because I assume I will be out one way or another when they reseat in 2018 anyway.

Pony Up!


Has the reseating timeline/plan been finalized? I'm not particularly worried given my mediocre seats, but it would be funny that the SMU sales rep assured me that I would have an opportunity to renew the same tickets next year after I intentionally asked her about it.
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Re: Season tickets

Postby Black Horseshoe » Thu Oct 05, 2017 11:19 am

Prideful Pony wrote:
horsemanx wrote:That is insane they would treat you that way based on your history.

I am going to enjoy this year to its fullest because I assume I will be out one way or another when they reseat in 2018 anyway.

Pony Up!


Has the reseating timeline/plan been finalized? I'm not particularly worried given my mediocre seats, but it would be funny that the SMU sales rep assured me that I would have an opportunity to renew the same tickets next year after I intentionally asked her about it.


Reseating after this season
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Re: Season tickets

Postby Grant Carter » Thu Oct 05, 2017 11:21 am

When you say reseating do you mean an actual reseating, or just a price change? People often say there was a reseating a couple of years ago but it was just a price change.
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Re: Season tickets

Postby Mustangsabu » Thu Oct 05, 2017 12:55 pm

Charleston Pony wrote:I moved away from Dallas years ago so haven't had season tickets in quite some time but always thought the rules were pretty simple. Location of seats for both football and bball are determined by your level of giving/participation starting with what level Mustang Club donor you are and with points also awarded for buying season tickets (and the number of tickets purchased) for football and bball. Obviously with the downsized Moody and the quality bball product we suddenly have, getting good seats is going to require a larger investment in SMU athletics. It's easy to have a great seat at Ford, especially if you are willing to sit on the visitor's side. Not sure that will change in my lifetime. It's too bad if a long time season ticket holder wasn't contacted and informed what additional investment would be required to maintain those same seats at Moody but for all the complaining we do about attendance (and I'm at the top of that list), we should be thankful that attending SMU games is still a bargain (relatively speaking) compared to larger public schools that have quality programs. When I was a relatively young alum, I had 2nd row mezzanine seats behind the SMU bench and gave only the minimum to the Mustang Club...and that was to watch the Dave Bliss years of teams that were at times ranked in the top 10. I doubt I could justify the cost of those seats today


Just to be clear this was not an issue of being priced out. That happened when I had to move from the lower bowl to the upper bowl a couple of years after LB arrived. While they lied to me about that, I am aware that they feel the need to make the money where they can. But having forced me to move then, they go on to treat me like this when there was no money at stake, just clearly some pre-pre-sale waiting list that wanted better seats and they needed to free up some.
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Re: Season tickets

Postby PerunasHoof » Thu Oct 05, 2017 1:42 pm

Mustangsabu wrote:
Charleston Pony wrote:I moved away from Dallas years ago so haven't had season tickets in quite some time but always thought the rules were pretty simple. Location of seats for both football and bball are determined by your level of giving/participation starting with what level Mustang Club donor you are and with points also awarded for buying season tickets (and the number of tickets purchased) for football and bball. Obviously with the downsized Moody and the quality bball product we suddenly have, getting good seats is going to require a larger investment in SMU athletics. It's easy to have a great seat at Ford, especially if you are willing to sit on the visitor's side. Not sure that will change in my lifetime. It's too bad if a long time season ticket holder wasn't contacted and informed what additional investment would be required to maintain those same seats at Moody but for all the complaining we do about attendance (and I'm at the top of that list), we should be thankful that attending SMU games is still a bargain (relatively speaking) compared to larger public schools that have quality programs. When I was a relatively young alum, I had 2nd row mezzanine seats behind the SMU bench and gave only the minimum to the Mustang Club...and that was to watch the Dave Bliss years of teams that were at times ranked in the top 10. I doubt I could justify the cost of those seats today


Just to be clear this was not an issue of being priced out. That happened when I had to move from the lower bowl to the upper bowl a couple of years after LB arrived. While they lied to me about that, I am aware that they feel the need to make the money where they can. But having forced me to move then, they go on to treat me like this when there was no money at stake, just clearly some pre-pre-sale waiting list that wanted better seats and they needed to free up some.


What did they lie about the first time?
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Re: Season tickets

Postby Blunt Pony » Thu Oct 05, 2017 1:57 pm

This treatment does not surprise me at all. SMU has always been opportunistic at the slightest uptick in the product. Unfortunately, this has backfired for football. Like others have pointed out, you can sit anywhere you want in Ford without buying a season ticket. I am sure I will be proven wrong, but I would guess that the donation $ being tied to the ability to buy season tickets has run off a lot of people. I dropped football mainly because it was just not a very good product but I am sure the premium did not make it any more palatable. Still go to a lot of games, but am not tied to it. I do have season tickets to basketball and actually added a couple more this year. I like our trajectory in basketball but unfortunately in football I have been burned too many times. Conference affiliation would change my outlook on football but until that happens, I will just be a game by game buyer of tickets. I know, chicken and egg, but you have to make choices in life!
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Re: Season tickets

Postby Grant Carter » Thu Oct 05, 2017 3:11 pm

Does this boil down to you got an email with a deadline and did not reply in time, but you think they should not have held you to the deadline?
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Re: Season tickets

Postby ponyboy » Thu Oct 05, 2017 3:44 pm

To me it boils down to SMU placing the call to renew season tickets before the existing seat arrangement expires.
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Re: Season tickets

Postby Pony_Law » Thu Oct 05, 2017 4:04 pm

I got an email and a physical letter in the mail. I've also been paranoid about this since I became a season ticket holder given how I've seen the SMU ticket office operate. Basically I'm sympathetic to the fact you lost your seats but not surprised and think if you have spent so long interacting with SMU athletics you should have been proactive and on top of your renewal.
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Re: Season tickets

Postby Mustangsabu » Thu Oct 05, 2017 4:47 pm

It is exactly because I have been around SMU athletics for years that I saw no reason to take action earlier. I have always been called when it was renewal time.

But that is not the point for me. I fully get that they put a procedure in place and they followed it. I get that. But in my opinion it is a procedure that should not have been in place. They clearly wanted me to buy season tickets. They called me and asked. So why did they take my old season tickets and try to sell me inferior ones? They could simply have made the same call and renewed my old seats.

I don't suggest that anyone think that I am right. I am just saying that I refuse to be treated that way. Other people are welcome to see nothing wrong with SMU's actions, and can continue to give them money. I still support the teams with my presence at games, and will continue to bring my kids.

Oh and as for their previous lies. I was told that they were done increasing the costs of my seats when they brought in the MC donations for basketball and that this would be the state of play moving forward "unless they won the NC". The following year they doubled them.
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