POLL: Deadline passed... what did you wind up doing?

[Junior]

Had to move back 6 rows.

[mustang92]

My understanding of the motivation behind all this (other than the obvious desire to increase revenue) was that there was a pretty substantial waiting list for season tickets. Maybe the combination of increasing prices, decreasing the number of tickets donors could buy, and p!$$ing off a bunch of long-term season ticket holders negated that demand. Time will tell.

With regard to the donation: There are some who view the donation as the "basketball tax." They simply consider the required donation + the ticket price as the price of the season tickets and nothing else. There are some who view the donation as a donation - as providing charitable support for the University, the athletic department, and the student athletes. Of course it is part of the calculation for buying season tickets, but there is some altruism associated with the transaction. Sure, you might be paying more than you would if you bought individual game tickets either directly from SMU or on the secondary market and only attend the marquee games (and you might even score better seats to those specific games you attend). But, you acknowledge that the revenue provided is what fuels the program.

The basketball team has come a long way in a relatively short time. We all want it to continue on it's upward trajectory. That costs money. I'm sure SMU could have handled this better, but it's not unreasonable for them to want to use the basketball success and demand for tickets to increase revenue in order to improve not only basketball, but all our sports. It is unreasonable for us to expect greatness and steady improvement without figuring out how to generate the revenue necessary to achieve those goals. We'll all have to wait and see how this ultimately works out. Maybe they screwed up the execution of this so badly that they end up decreasing rather than increasing revenue. Maybe they succeed in increasing revenue, but that results in decreasing attendance such that the negative impact cancels out the additional revenue. All we can do is wait and see.

I understand the frustration of long-term supporters and fans. I understand the motivation of SMU. I understand the execution was less than perfect. Still, I've been giving more than the required donation for my football and basketball tickets for years. I've been giving at some level to some area of the university every single year since I graduated. I'm a sucker. SMU is my juvenile delinquent kid I can't quit. I'll keep paying my football and basketball taxes, keep donating, keep having hope every year when my season tickets arrive in the mail, and keep parking my butt in the seats in both Ford & Moody.

[Stallion]

I think one problem is that functionally there have been 4 significant price increases since Moody was renovated:

2 re-seatings
1 change to per seat donation requirement
1 elimination of IRS deduction

But basically this is the cost of competition-and guess what its just going to get worse which brings up the Point--those looking for a magic money machine from the "administration" don't get it-SMU will only have the athletic department that its ALUMNI are willing to pay for. The question is whether that is going to be realistic for a school like SMU with 1800 donors when other school's have access to greater and alternative sources of income to support their programs like large alumni bases, corporate naming rights, student athletic fees, Conference/TV/Bowl/Tournament revenue.

[One Trick Pony]

Well there's the thing about 500 Ball too.

[PonySnob]

For Thursday




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[Stallion]

seems like they are selling only a handful of tickets a day with regard to say $1,000+ donation levels. Does it end Friday because it looks like half the seats in Moody are going to be available after Friday

[Stalled Brisket]

No kidding. Any idea what happens to those of us who kicked it up to a thousand seat and haven’t picked yet, seeing as all the thousand dollar seats are basically gone? I realize nothing this year, but next year can we go back to 500 a seat since that’s all we had to choose from? Not saying I would do that, but giving because you want too is always a little different than giving because you have too.

[skyscraper]

I believe it does end COB Friday. I only say that because I opted to drop my seats, but I gave the minimum $75 just to keep an annual MC gift streak going. I was given the renewal appointment time of 4 pm Friday.

[Grant Carter]

There is a simple reason there are sooooooo many seats available.

People took advantage of the price and ability to purchase unlimited tickets. There were a lot of people and corporations that bought 10 tickets with their donation previously. Not possible anymore, you get a max of 4.

It is not correct that you get a max of 4 tickets. I renewed 6 tickets Monday morning.

[SMUstangs22]

Based on that chart I am not sure things are going well. I am surprised that 203-205 and 211-213 still have as much open as they do.

[RGV Pony]

People are scheduled across 5 1/2 days going into next week and so far they're 2 1/2 days into the seat selection bit

[BUS]

102 and 106 have seats on the top rows. Those are pretty swanky.
111, 113 and 114 get you on the floor.

[Pony ^]

remember the days when the whole arena was sold out?

[Mustangsabu]

Sounds like there is a long way to go with a lot of people left to pick their seats.

[JoeKidd]

I kept my donation the same and get better seats....if I had wanted to pay more for the tickets could have gotten 111. So I am glad I didn't b*tch because it seemed fair to me.