New Pricing

[DiamondM]

Those prices are absurd increases. If they're anywhere near that and fans are fine with that, then lol. I don't care if it's alumni with a lot of money or recent grads, those are absurd price increases at any school. I think Duke has cheaper donor levels for good seats considering it's 5K per for lowers. And what happens when the team isn't great for a year? Every person dumps their tickets because of the ridiculous prices and a "meh" schedule.

That is not how you build a fan base to people that are loyal to you. You don't gouge them just because you can or you won't have a loyal fan base.

Yes. Exactly. Please PLEASE remember the advice of Mark Cuban:
http://blogmaverick.com/2014/02/23/my-2-cents-on-sports-marketing-and-what-i-learned-from-smu-basketball-this-week/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogmaverick%2FtyiP+%28blog+maverick%29

2. Know who your long time fans/customers are.

The delta between sell out and empty is typically 5k fans. You have to know who your ongoing season ticket holders are and respect and appreciate them. You can not do enough to reward them. It is hard to personally respond to 5k or more account holders, but it is something you have to work at. The greater the renewal rate the fewer the tickets you have to sell next year. Fans know when you care. You can’t fake it. It is hard work, but it has to be done. Know your customers and treat them like gold

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 .

[Blunt Pony]

Folks, we STILL have not played in an NCAA tournament game in over 20 years!!! Our ticket office is now acting as if we won the National Championship. We are two years removed from having 500 people in the stands and now we are debating 200% to 300% increases in season ticket prices?? I am with OBF in that this is no way to build a program. Ticket prices are such a small percentage of potential revenue and yet it creates a huge negative impression on your customers. I think there are better ways of doing this. Strike while the iron is hot works in a lot of businesses, but it really breeds contempt from a sports fan base.

Take a page from the Masters and treat the spectators fair while you gouge the advertisers and media networks who absolutely throw big money at hot commodities.

[East Coast Mustang]

Maybe the ticket department intentionally put this out there to gauge the community's reaction. Judging by the cheapwads on here, they may need to adjust prices downward

[SMU Smitty]

Any chance this website release and then subsequent removal was a mistake or trial ballon to get our reaction?
I was expecting an increase but not a 200% increase in my section (206). Was planning on purchasing football tickets but will not not be if this is what I can expect my tickets will cost next season.

[blackoutpony]

Maybe the ticket department intentionally put this out there to gauge the community's reaction. Judging by the cheapwads on here, they may need to adjust prices downward

Cheapwads? Just because I can pay for something doesn't mean I should pay for it. If a bottle of coke suddenly became $5 at 7/11 after I'm used to paying $1.29 for it and when I can go get it elsewhere for cheaper, I'm not going to buy it there. Do I have $5? Sure. Am I going to let myself get price gouged just because I love coke? Nope. F that S

[Pony_Law]

How many home games are there per year 16 or so? $25 per ticket for sideline seems really reasonable to me. Even if you factor in the mustang club donation (which you shouldn't because it is a tax write off and you get credit if you do football) it's only 56.25 per game for a ticket. As good as those seats are in moody and how good the team is seems like a really good deal sports entertainment wise.

[Grant Carter]

Maybe the ticket department intentionally put this out there to gauge the community's reaction. Judging by the cheapwads on here, they may need to adjust prices downward

Cheapwads? Just because I can pay for something doesn't mean I should pay for it. If a bottle of coke suddenly became $5 at 7/11 after I'm used to paying $1.29 for it and when I can go get it elsewhere for cheaper, I'm not going to buy it there. Do I have $5? Sure. Am I going to let myself get price gouged just because I love coke? Nope. F that S

Where are you going to watch an SMU basketball game in person in Moody for cheaper? You analogy does not hold. No problem with you [deleted] about the prices though.

[East Coast Mustang]

Maybe the ticket department intentionally put this out there to gauge the community's reaction. Judging by the cheapwads on here, they may need to adjust prices downward

Cheapwads? Just because I can pay for something doesn't mean I should pay for it. If a bottle of coke suddenly became $5 at 7/11 after I'm used to paying $1.29 for it and when I can go get it elsewhere for cheaper, I'm not going to buy it there. Do I have $5? Sure. Am I going to let myself get price gouged just because I love coke? Nope. F that S

I think I paid like $125 for my cheap seat last year, which was a damn bargain for 10 games at Moody and a bunch of crap games in Garland. So if I'm reading this right and only new STHs need to pay the MC donation and it's $250 this year for a full home slate at Moody to see the most anticipated SMU squad in any sport since the early 80s? That's what, $15 a game or something? Yeah, really being gouged.

[diamond_tom]

My ticket in 204 was $300. That was a $120 increase from the previous year. This year it only goes up $100. I'm OK with it.

[CoxMustangFan]

SMU has become big time. You want SMU to become big time. What we paid three years ago was fair for the product on the court; it appears they're attempting to charge top 15 school prices. Most schools ease into price increases, but most schools gradually get better. SMU has shot straight up and apparently so have the prices. I'll deal...

[East Coast Mustang]

I mean we sit around here and post thousands of times about SMU athletics 52 weeks a year, and some of you are [deleted] and moaning about parting with an extra 200 bucks or so to see the most exciting SMU team in over 30 years? Huh?

[ponyboy]

It appears as if my $125 seat in 210 will now cost me quadruple that. If the draft holds, my $125 seat goes to $250 and there's an additional $250 Mustang Club donation.

I'm not whining, btw. Just attempting to describe.

[East Coast Mustang]

It appears as if my $125 seat in 210 will now cost me quadruple that. If the draft holds, my $125 seat goes to $250 and there's an additional $250 Mustang Club donation.

I'm not whining, btw. Just attempting to describe.

It said at the bottom that NEW season ticket holders would pay the MC Donation "per seat." What does that mean, and how does it relate to current STHs? I wasn't sure how to interpret that.

[OhioBrownFan]

Maybe the ticket department intentionally put this out there to gauge the community's reaction. Judging by the cheapwads on here, they may need to adjust prices downward

Cheapwads? Just because I can pay for something doesn't mean I should pay for it. If a bottle of coke suddenly became $5 at 7/11 after I'm used to paying $1.29 for it and when I can go get it elsewhere for cheaper, I'm not going to buy it there. Do I have $5? Sure. Am I going to let myself get price gouged just because I love coke? Nope. F that S

Where are you going to watch an SMU basketball game in person in Moody for cheaper? You analogy does not hold. No problem with you [deleted] about the prices though.

It really does. He'll take his money to go watch the Dallas Stars or Mavericks. Or watch it at home. Nobody wants to pay 56 bucks to see SMU play ______ from some BS conference. Take it from an Ohio State season ticket holder and plays plenty of crappy non-conference games. Nobody goes to those, after SMU is good every year, expectations change and enthusiasm for the crap games is lost. Plain and simple, it happens everywhere that is successful. I'm sorry but charging like Duke is not a good business model for a team that just won their most games in whoever knows how many years. The other thing to remember is this board is die-hards and I'm guessing most on the board would pay whatever they could to go to a game, that's not the average fan. The average fan doesn't sit on a message board, just not reality.

[blackoutpony]

Maybe the ticket department intentionally put this out there to gauge the community's reaction. Judging by the cheapwads on here, they may need to adjust prices downward

Cheapwads? Just because I can pay for something doesn't mean I should pay for it. If a bottle of coke suddenly became $5 at 7/11 after I'm used to paying $1.29 for it and when I can go get it elsewhere for cheaper, I'm not going to buy it there. Do I have $5? Sure. Am I going to let myself get price gouged just because I love coke? Nope. F that S

Where are you going to watch an SMU basketball game in person in Moody for cheaper? You analogy does not hold. No problem with you [deleted] about the prices though.

I think I phrased my analogy poorly. My bad. What I meant to say is that I can go to a bar and watch the game for free with cheaper beer if need be, ie buying a pepsi instead. No, it's not the same, but it's still good and I still enjoyed myself.