Pony_Law wrote:The reason they are doing this is to stop people from making a one time donation to jump the line. For instance if you want to sit low section 212 and have 4 seats your seat donation requirement is 4k, Mu stand club leaves switch though at 5k+. So if you donate 5k you move up a level in order in mustang club tiers for only a 1k difference in donation (if you are willing to pay 4k you probably have another 1k in discretionary spending). They want to stop the person who only wants to buy 4k seats but is willing to pay a onetime increase to make sure he gets them because now that person has to donate 5k each year.
Considering how many people are worried about the rich donor swooping in and taking their seats, this system discourages that exact type of behavior.
I understand that. I guess I'm not one of the people worried about rich donors swooping in and taking my seats. I'll be bummed if SMU basketball becomes too expensive for me, but that's life. It's the multiple layers of gambling required to figure out if I can get my seats (or similar) that bothers me.
That policy does have some advantages, but to me it's just another sign that SMU has no idea how to fairly price/allocate the commodity that SMU basketball has become and wants to push that burden on the fans. (Despite all the "research" and "comparables" they cite in the re-seating pamphlets.)
FWIW, which I know is little, Arkansas is having a good season and are very impressive so far other than laying an egg in Houston. They are having the same argument over reseating. They have 18,000 seats and the students are saying they deserve the best seats at the lowest cost. I love the minds of the college kids who have yet to experience the outside world.
All those who believe in psycho kinesis, raise my hand
mrydel wrote:FWIW, which I know is little, Arkansas is having a good season and are very impressive so far other than laying an egg in Houston. They are having the same argument over reseating. They have 18,000 seats and the students are saying they deserve the best seats at the lowest cost. I love the minds of the college kids who have yet to experience the outside world.
mrydel wrote:FWIW, which I know is little, Arkansas is having a good season and are very impressive so far other than laying an egg in Houston. They are having the same argument over reseating. They have 18,000 seats and the students are saying they deserve the best seats at the lowest cost. I love the minds of the college kids who have yet to experience the outside world.
Well, in all fairness, I agree that current students should have (deserve is a bit strong) the best seats at the lowest cost. Does that make me a Communist or something?
Do we want to move the MOB to the rafters? And someone should tell Duke about this...
mrydel wrote:Well when you have 30,000 students and 18,000 seats it gets difficult. The MOB has very limited seating and is a well deserved student section.
Yeah, I guess I don't really know what the Arkansas students are clamoring for. Students should get always first shot at a good number of cheap (or ideally free) first level seats; which is basically the way it is done everywhere. If they're expecting to take all 18k seats for cheap, that is pretty stupid.
I would bet that there are plenty of good deserved seats for the students. But they are almost demanding them all. It is no big deal. Just nice to hear that we are not the only ones with reseating issues.
All those who believe in psycho kinesis, raise my hand
mrydel wrote:I would bet that there are plenty of good deserved seats for the students. But they are almost demanding them all. It is no big deal. Just nice to hear that we are not the only ones with reseating issues.
Definitely not. It's a mess even at established programs like Duke (or the other big boys), but they have a much better read on what the product is worth and more confidence that the value will hold. (My FIL recently gave up his Duke tickets out of frustration w/ the constant donation requirements.)
Upstarts like us (or probably Arkansas right now) are infinitely more difficult to value/project and simultaneously staffed by less qualified people. Not a great combo for fan satisfaction.
I hope the whole process turns out for SMU. At my house it's a win/win... either I get to keep my tickets or I'll have more money in my account. Either way I'll see the same number of games. (Maybe I'm secretly hoping SMU forces my hand so I don't have to be "responsible".)
The two floor seats I leased went from $4600 to $12000 - the front row back up seats went from 0 donation requirement in 202 to $500 per seat. I was priced out of the floor - but I choose not to pay $1,500 for two seats in 202 even if I was guaranteed the same seats.
If I pop up solo for say five home games $1,000 will buy me seats anywhere I want to sit. But more than likely I eliminate the 80-mile drive $10 parking fee and $40 worth of $10 cans of beer.
