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Time to pony up!!!

Still gonna show up to support the team, but no longer donating to the Mustang Club or SMU. It was a tougher decision than it should have been, but I get sentimental about "my" seats...

Final straw poll from the group of people in my section: 2 renewals, 2 walking away and 1 still undecided.

skyscraper wrote:Final straw poll from the group of people in my section: 2 renewals, 2 walking away and 1 still undecided.

Any idea if the renewals plan on upping their donation?

Similar split to my group. The guys I know that are renewing are doing so at the minimum (for their seat location) to see where they land, then re-evaluating next year based on the result.

Totally get that MC staff get bonus for raising more money. Great incentive.

The way this was rolled out and the heavy handed.. you give me more money and later I'll tell you where you sit.... NOT so well done.

Some will pay, others drop to minimum donation and others just buy on secondary market.
This ended up being a gamble for the MC staff. I don't have crystal ball but with the injuries... budget got injured also. Too many people walking away from what I have heard. Big fans.

Personally, I pick four or so games and pay 100 each for a good ticket. I'm happy.

Can’t wait to see SMU come crawling back in desperation in October with discounted season tickets because of thousands of unspoken for seats

SMU Section F wrote:

skyscraper wrote:Final straw poll from the group of people in my section: 2 renewals, 2 walking away and 1 still undecided.

Any idea if the renewals plan on upping their donation?

That would be an interesting option in the poll - increasing donation hoping to keep current seats

I'm maintaining my donation at my current level, which means I will be losing my seats, which I've had since Mike Dement era. I've added seats each time my family has grown (or in some cases before it's grown). I can't afford to double my donation to maintain 4 seats in my section, and I don't want to go down to 2 seats. We'll see where we land and then reevaluate for next year.

Put me in the camp of doing the same donation as last year (what was required for my current seats) and seeing what that does. I think this whole thing is a total PR disaster for SMU but am not surprised since I have lived through 25 years of it. I literally cringed sitting through one of the re-seat discussions listening to people who have had tickets for 20 plus years saying they were done and why could they not just keep their seats at today's prices? SMU has such a small core group of fans and this re-seat is directly attacking that group. There is too much material to put on a message board, but I think that if SMU had gone to their existing season ticket holders and INVOLVED them in the process of building the program (asking for increased donations, seeing if they want to move seats, letting them know the goals of the basketball program etc.) they would have had plenty of buy in! How about a personal invitation to season ticket holders to come visit with SMU regarding the direction of the basketball program and how we can support them? This is common sense. The athletic department should want us all rowing in the same direction and I think they have achieved the total opposite.

Edit : when referring to gathering input from season ticket holders, I meant BEFORE rolling out the re-seat. So they could gauge the reaction and tweak the plan accordingly.

Blunt Pony wrote:...and why could they not just keep their seats at today's prices?

Hell, I think most people are OK with the new prices. Just tell me that if I pay the new price, I'll get the seat I'm paying for.

Sorry, may not have been clear. When I said "today's" I meant "market or new" price. I totally agree with you. Just tell me the price and let me make a decision.

Blunt Pony wrote:Sorry, may not have been clear. When I said "today's" I meant "market or new" price. I totally agree with you. Just tell me the price and let me make a decision.

Yeah, just realized that could be read either way. We are in agreement.

SMU Section F wrote:

skyscraper wrote:Final straw poll from the group of people in my section: 2 renewals, 2 walking away and 1 still undecided.

Any idea if the renewals plan on upping their donation?

Similar split to my group. The guys I know that are renewing are doing so at the minimum (for their seat location) to see where they land, then re-evaluating next year based on the result.

One of the renewals is upping his donation to stay in the same section we were in. Don't know about the other one.

I don't live in Dallas anymore anyway, but was fine with keeping the season tickets, coming in for the good weekend games and giving away/selling the rest. Just going to buy on the secondary market now and have better seats and spend less. All my friends, who actually still live there, dropped their season tickets and are doing the same.

My fear is they are just going to destroy the atmosphere in Moody. It was such madhouse. Remember the Louisville game when the reporter kept trying to interview Aresco and he just quit halfway through because he had to scream "I'm sorry, I can't hear a word you're saying"? It was amazing.

But it's SMU: We Do What We Do.

Somewhere LB is shaking his head and thinking again that SMU does things a little differently.