New Pricing

[blackoutpony]

OBF is 100% right.

B1G, sorry, but you couldn't be more off. Dallas has some of the most bandwagon oriented fans that exist on the planet. The second we're meddling through a crappy conference for a season or two, the fans will leave, and then what? Hope Greg Popovich is bored in retirement and wants to resurrect SMU?

We had one good year after years of being awful. Cool, we sold out 8 games. How about you try and maintain and build a fan base first before you try and run off the people that helped you sell out those games.

[East Coast Mustang]

This is the price of big time college athletics, folks.

PONY UP

[Stallion]

The fact of the matter is that SMU has a 7,000 seat facility which competes against AAC schools such as Cincy and Memphis and others with much larger facilities and revenue potential You say you're a ticketholder at Ohio St. I'm sure its a huge arena. You judge an arena/stadium on revenue potential based on preferred seating, season tickets, parking, and other revenue. Ford probably tripled revenue potential from the Cotton Bowl-Moody probably even more. But the fact is they seat 7,000 and 32,000 which is the bottom of the totem pole for big time athletics. If you want to compete with those AAC schools-if you want to compete at the highest level of the NCAA then you need to maximize revenue. SMU alumni have "to pay the price" of a private school to compete against state schools at the highest level of competition. We are already at a huge revenue disadvantage from Conference TV/ Bowl revenue. That's a fact-the issue is whether SMU fans have the stomach to play that game. We shall see.

[stl.pony]

+1 OBF.

You couldn't have said it better. I said this on another forum, but I get so pissed every time SMU offers a bs ticket special "BUY TICKETS TO 8 GAMES FOR 30 DOLLARS!!!!"

Then I rant saying that I will never renew my football or basketball seats at the actual price because everyone else gets in for so much cheaper.

If this all goes through, and when LB leaves in a year or two, we are back to where we started - discounted tickets in an empty arena.

[B1GPonyFan]

That's fine. I think there are people in the athletic department who are looking at this and all of the logistics and are a heck of a lot smarter than many of us here who think we have all the answers when we really don't.

I have no idea what the final pricing is going to be. SMU just told you that. And yet judging by these comments, everybody pretty much ignored that and assumes those numbers are valid because this thread is running wild with conspiracy theory and needless angst.

OK, do what you gotta do.

Why don't you let SMU OFFICIALLY announce what the pricing is and then react accordingly. And if it does turn out to be the same as was posted, then make your choice and move on.

And BTW, virtually every city in the USA is a bandwagon city. Dallas doesn't hold exclusive rights to that label. And it's simple, when your team wins a lot of people show up. When your team sucks, people don't show up. That has never changed regardless of the sport or the level that it's being played at.

Back to you, Brutus.

[OhioBrownFan]

The fact of the matter is that SMU has a 7,000 seat facility which competes against AAC schools such as Cincy and Memphis and others with much larger facilities and revenue potential You say you're a ticketholder at Ohio St. I'm sure its a huge arena. You judge an arena/stadium on revenue potential based on preferred seating, season tickets, parking, and other revenue. Ford probably tripled revenue potential from the Cotton Bowl-Moody probably even more. But the fact is they seat 7,000 and 32,000 which is the bottom of the totem pole for big time athletics. If you want to compete with those AAC schools-if you want to compete at the highest level of the NCAA then you need to maximize revenue. SMU alumni have "to pay the price" of a private school to compete against state schools at the highest level of competition. That's a fact-the issue is whether SMU fans have the stomach to play that game. We shall see.

THEN DONATE. Nobody is stopping anyone from writing a 10 million dollar check to SMU. Remember when recruits didn't think about coming to SMU? What happens when LB retires, the team goes through a 10-20 season, UConn leaves the conference, ticket prices for the season start at $750 and the Dallas fanbase is off the band wagon? That should be a good recruiting formula, dumpster fire. And you've destroyed any good will LB built up with the loyal fans. That's not a winning equation. I'm not arguing with ticket price increases, obviously they should be increased, but you don't raise by 200% in one year. There are other ways to get revenue, how about sell a basketball jersey? How about running over to AT&T or Southwest Airlines, getting their name on some suites, the basket, the floor, the scorer's table? There is more than one way to skin a cat or in this case get revenue. And you don't do it at the expense of your loyal fans otherwise you end up with the AAC for 3/4 of the Stars year.

If you really think they make that much off of 7,000 basketball tickets, then you are way out of touch with athletics and how they drive revenues. Basketball is barely a revenue sport to begin with at 90% of schools.

Maybe Hart needs to go meet with a few donors while they are excited about SMU athletics instead of figuring out a way to get the last 10 bucks out of someone at a basketball game. If people are excited about the product, it shouldn't be hard to get their money anyways without hurting loyalty.

[EconPony'10]

The fact of the matter is that SMU has a 7,000 seat facility which competes against AAC schools such as Cincy and Memphis and others with much larger facilities and revenue potential You say you're a ticketholder at Ohio St. I'm sure its a huge arena. You judge an arena/stadium on revenue potential based on preferred seating, season tickets, parking, and other revenue. Ford probably tripled revenue potential from the Cotton Bowl-Moody probably even more. But the fact is they seat 7,000 and 32,000 which is the bottom of the totem pole for big time athletics. If you want to compete with those AAC schools-if you want to compete at the highest level of the NCAA then you need to maximize revenue. SMU alumni have "to pay the price" of a private school to compete against state schools at the highest level of competition. We are already at a huge revenue disadvantage from Conference TV/ Bowl revenue. That's a fact-the issue is whether SMU fans have the stomach to play that game. We shall see.

Judging by the increased chart that was shown, SMU stands to make a few million bucks more for next season... That is not going to change anything in the grand scheme of things.

The only thing that will make us big time money is a big time football team with expensive tickets and a demand for them. Price gouging for bball is not the way to treat fans. Especially the young ones (like myself) who plans to donate good money as soon as I am able to down the road.

[Big12Mustang]

We've got to help out young alumni and younger fans somehow, I'm hoping they are grandfathered in, or that the price increase isn't by like 300%.

We just can't screw over the one demographic we so desperately need to win back, and I think this is a group that is just starting to trust and believe SMU can produce a winner and create a really nice fan experience.

Yup yup. Even as an out of town pony, I was going to buy one of my buddies season tickets in 214 since he's moving and I'm in Dallas a lot. I'd gladly fork over $250 or $300 since they paid $175 last year. I'm probably not going to throw down for $500. Obviously my situation is different, but still.

And B12, I'm still not sure what you're getting at. All I'm saying is don't bite the hand that feeds you. You [deleted] enough young alumni off who feel they got nickeled and dimed all throughout college and you'll see them watching SMU bball games at barley house and not moody. Sure some older more affluent people will buy then, but do you want to chase away the rowdy fans that made moody a mad house?

I was referring to our fans that [deleted] about Football games being too expensive. Newsflash: They are not. Students get in free and young alumni pay $60 for a season ticket in the young alumni section. Stubhub usually has our games at $10-20 a pop.

Basketball is different. They should do some sort of plan for young alumni so that they can afford the donation (maybe $75-100 per season) and the seats be 10-15% off regular price. Young alumni are definitely our most important growth demographic and I prefer having more alumni sections open than stubhubbers leaving empty slots or filling them in with visiting fans.

[Stallion]

Memphis season tickets aren't cheap especially for Plaza/Club levels ($765 per seat) and above which is probably similar seat as Moody's sideline seats-not sure it requires donation level


http://www.gotigersgo.com/tickets/mem-m-baskbl-tix.html

[Pony147]

I don't live in Dallas, so I bought the weekend package last year. Any chance I am considered a returning season ticket holder?

[Stallion]

interesting I've seen comments that those on the Waiting List are expected to purchase Football Season Tickets.

Comments?

My View: Hey if there's a waiting list give them to our best, most supportive fans

[Chnash318]

I don't live in Dallas, so I bought the weekend package last year. Any chance I am considered a returning season ticket holder?

Haha I'm in a similar boat. I had a season ticket for the 2012-2013 season (even though I was a grad-student, still wanted to support the program for LBs first year vs the free student ticket. Used both for every game though to count as two people for attendance figures haha), but last year I donated the $250 to the mustang club instead of buying a ticket since I moved to LA and couldn't make it to any games..that'd suck if I wasn't able to buy season tickets this year because of that decision...

[Big12Mustang]

http://blogmaverick.com/2014/02/23/my-2 ... this-week/

3. Price to the market, not to maximize revenue.

The sports industry is changing. TV is becoming a growing revenue source while ticket sales are a declining percentage of total revenues of TV sports. IMHO, it is far more important to know the price points that will enable you to fill the arena than to know the price points that will max out your total revenue. Why ? Because winning matters. It is important to have fans in the stands. They impact your winning percentage. And personally, I believe that winning increases long term profitability.

It is also because fans know the pricing trends of your tickets better than you do. THey know how to use travel sites to get best pricing. They know how to use ticket sites to get best pricing. Teams try to be democratic when it comes to game pricing. Thats an inefficiency that some fans and many ticket brokers know how to take advantage of. We hired a full time Data Analyst to continuously examine and review online pricing for us. It has resulted in us changing pricing for 7k season tickets for this coming year.

The market told us that for season tickets we need to price to the current actual pricing market in order to attract new season ticket customers and to maximize our season ticket renewals. We paid attention . We did it only for season tickets because those are the tickets we have to price in anticipation of the next season. Our hope is that for single game tickets the game experience, our team performance and big games will push our prices even higher and make our season tickets and even more attractive value .

[NewAgeMustange]

I work in science, not business. Looks like the top deck for me. Maybe young alumni won't be to bad again.

[diamond_tom]

When I graduated and joined the mustang club as a young alum, I got credit for twice the amount of my donation. My $150 donation got me the same benefits as the others in the $300 level.

Do they still do that for young alums?