New SDSU Football Stadium Site Plan

[jackmd]

Re: New SDSU Football Stadium Site Plan

I thought the "one time donation" was only for premium seats (Suite, Loge, Club). I didn't think it was for the regular season tickets (2016). I didn't think you needed to sign anything if you were not signing up for the premium seating option. If anyone can clarify please do so.

That makes more sense and is almost certainly correct.

For season tickets nothing changes right now. No contract needed, no increased seat fees. However in the new stadium they will become a much greater premium.

I need to wait and see what the new seats and stadium look like.

[SF_Rabbit_Fan]

Re: New SDSU Football Stadium Site Plan

That makes more sense and is almost certainly correct.

For season tickets nothing changes right now. No contract needed, no increased seat fees. However in the new stadium they will become a much greater premium.

I need to wait and see what the new seats and stadium look like.

Tongue in cheek: can someone please explain how an increase in supply (seats available) coupled with a slightly increasing demand (fans willing to buy those seats) equates to a premium price? /sarcasm

Either myself or the Athletic Department is making severe mis-judgements about this whole affair. I really hope its me.

[OldHare]

Re: New SDSU Football Stadium Site Plan

It appears that the annual stadium gift is equal to the price of the ticket. That is what I understand when reading the annual commitment. If your annual ticket is $750 and the "one time" gift is $750, you still need to have an annual gift equal to the price of the ticket. See the example on the bottom of page 5 in literature sent under the *Stadium Gift.

[NorCalJack]

Re: New SDSU Football Stadium Site Plan

Tongue in cheek: can someone please explain how an increase in supply (seats available) coupled with a slightly increasing demand (fans willing to buy those seats) equates to a premium price? /sarcasm

Either myself or the Athletic Department is making severe mis-judgements about this whole affair. I really hope its me.

Well you are paying for a better game day experience when there are 16,000 fans at the game. You don't have to stand, you actually get a seat, and not just a wood splintered bleacher with porta potty's. Concession stands that are actually within reasonable distance from your seat that you don't have to go down 50 steps and then back up 50 steps to get back to your seat. Or better yet if you are seated on the east side, you don't have to walk halfway around the stadium to get a hotdog and then walk the other half way around the stadium to get back to your seat and miss some of the game. The new stadium will also have concourses that will allow you to get out of the cold. No more mud bowls because the local high school team played in the rain the night before and reduced our big game into a mud slinging contest. I am sure there are more amenities in the new stadium that will make the game more enjoyable to watch, like being able to recruit better athletes and therefore having teams competing for MVCF Championships and getting 1st round byes, with 2nd round home games.

[SF_Rabbit_Fan]

Re: New SDSU Football Stadium Site Plan

Well you are paying for a better game day experience when there are 16,000 fans at the game. You don't have to stand, you actually get a seat, and not just a wood splintered bleacher with porta potty's. Concession stands that are actually within reasonable distance from your seat that you don't have to go down 50 steps and then back up 50 steps to get back to your seat. Or better yet if you are seated on the east side, you don't have to walk halfway around the stadium to get a hotdog and then walk the other half way around the stadium to get back to your seat and miss some of the game. The new stadium will also have concourses that will allow you to get out of the cold. No more mud bowls because the local high school team played in the rain the night before and reduced our big game into a mud slinging contest. I am sure there are more amenities in the new stadium that will make the game more enjoyable to watch, like being able to recruit better athletes and therefore having teams competing for MVCF Championships and getting 1st round byes, with 2nd round home games.

Not trying to be a jerk, but by this logic GM shouldn't waste its time on anything but Cadillac.

Regular seats in the new stadium are a commodity. Box seats and suites are not. It doesn't matter how shiny your wagon is when you take your corn to town, you won't get a higher price for your commodity.

[filbert]

Re: New SDSU Football Stadium Site Plan

I sent an email off to Adam at the ticket office.

What? Seek actual information from an authoritative source to factually inform a discussion?

That's a bannin' offense on a message board!





/just kidding

[filbert]

Re: New SDSU Football Stadium Site Plan

OK, ok, I suspect the price-sensitive posters may take my flippancy amiss . . .

But really, you didn't see fairly dramatic ticket price increases (and eventually seat license fees) coming the day SDSU went D-I? Especially given the BOR's adamant demand that the D-I move basically pay for itself?

You didn't really think that big donors and corporate sponsors would pay the entire freight here, did you?

And yes, I know that this is exactly why some people were against the move to D-I in the first place--they were well aware that this day would come. They are fully justified in saying "I told you so" in that case.

But the fact remains that facilities have to be improved--and the stadium is a wretched, awful facility even for a D-II facility nowadays (seen Augie's or USF's stadiums recently?) Those improvements have to be paid for somehow, and the State won't pick up the tab, and there are apparently not enough big donors to pay the entire bill.

And so, gentle fans, it falls to you. My totally uninformed guess is that the athletic department is fully aware of your discomfort (and if not, why haven't you called already?) but there aren't a lot of other turnips to get blood out of, if SDSU is to have facilities worthy of a Division I institution.

I fully understand why people aren't happy about the additional costs. But what, realistically, are the other available options?

[JackJD]

Re: New SDSU Football Stadium Site Plan

Not trying to be a jerk, but by this logic GM shouldn't waste its time on anything but Cadillac.

Regular seats in the new stadium are a commodity. Box seats and suites are not. It doesn't matter how shiny your wagon is when you take your corn to town, you won't get a higher price for your commodity.

I don't agree. I think there are occasional fans who will come just to see the place and some of them will catch the excitement and decide to come back. I think there's a group who say "why bother" going to CAS out of concern there are not very many "good" seats (I've always thought the sight lines in CAS were good no matter where one sat) and those people will start showing up for games in the new stadium. I'm in the "why bother" crowd when it comes to going to Fargo to watch football. I've been to three games in the FargoDome and had poor seats two of the three times. I believe them when they say everything's sold out so, why bother.

I understand the comment about regular seats being a commodity. But, in this case, the commodity has a higher value because it's all shiny and new and I think the comparison to the farm wagon is off the mark.

Keep in mind this stadium is being constructed with the idea that we will grow into it. I hope that well inside of 10 years people will be grumbling because it's nearly impossible to get a seat.

[slosho]

Re: New SDSU Football Stadium Site Plan

It appears that the annual stadium gift is equal to the price of the ticket. That is what I understand when reading the annual commitment. If your annual ticket is $750 and the "one time" gift is $750, you still need to have an annual gift equal to the price of the ticket. See the example on the bottom of page 5 in literature sent under the *Stadium Gift.

Perhaps My understanding is different then all of you, but the new pricing in the seating chart as I understand it is the new (2016) Yearly required per seat donation (the one time donation as I understand it is for the box and club seats). And once again the students are given the crap seats, but this time they are being asked to cough up more money for that honor.

And I guess after re-reading the post for the above, OldHare had it 100% correct, but previous posts make me think others were confused.

So here is the breakdown for me for 1 Seat in my current section (I purchase 7 Season tix currently)
2014
$140 ticket + $50 Donation = $190 Actual Per ticket Cost.

Fast forward to 2016 Same area I sit now.

2016

$165 ticket + $200 Donation = $365 Actual Per ticket Cost. (a dollar a day)

My total cost would go from 1330/year(2014) to 2555/year(2016) a 92% increase in 2 years for the same seating location.

Edit: My donation could/would be a large one... Let me value engineer the field turf out of the project "poof 2 Million dollars is available/not needed" (I'm fine with the mud bowls and the turf advantage).

[goon]

Re: New SDSU Football Stadium Site Plan

I guess the aspect I think we will miss out on is the family friendly confines. Sure the bleachers suck to sit on but the current angle and sight lines are pretty darn good. New consessions and restrooms are great but the unique aspect of cas was the family and kids could run around cound wonder down to the tree line find a nice spot and watch kids to the side and the game from a great pov. I get that going D-1 would change some of that but I feel the new stadium might lose some of that charm that the current cas provided. I guess those with out kids might not think it matters but to me I want to build a culture of sdsu for my kids and I think a lot of families did that because its one of the more kid friendly stadiums around. That and the bird cage in sf for the canaries.

What I see happening is some probably like my family we pretty much have to budget for the season tickets now. Since the new stadium will rarely sell out aside from ndsu and usd games imho the first couple years it will be easy enough to get individual game tickets with out the extra cost of the donation. So we can continuee to go to games just probably not in season tickets. Since the seating we could afford would be the end sections in the endzone I would rather get individual tickets that are 25-25 yardline like my current tickets are which is still decent. So as some are probably waiting for the new stadium to get season tickets or come to more games since it will be a more comforable experience with better seating and consessions and restrooms. I will miss the grass field. As much as others hate it I think its a unique thing to sdsu. For an ag school to have fake grass field just seems ironic to me.

So to sum it up some will probably go to more games or get season tickets becasue of the new stadium while some will probably stop season tickets to just get individual tickets since getting those seats shouldn't be an issue for most games.

Oh and talk of season tickets and filling the stadium don't mean hoot if the product on the field doesn't perform to near top of the confrence most years.

[Jacks-02]

Re: New SDSU Football Stadium Site Plan

With a 2 year old at home and another on the way, the rising costs have me questioning if I will continue to get tickets. When I first started buying season tickets they were around $100 a seat. Then they added a required $50 donation, now they are slowly raising prices, with it being $140 per seat this year. Add in the full day commitment to drive up from Sioux Falls, gas, etc. its getting pretty hard for me to make that work.

Sorry if this came off as complaining as that wasn't my intention. My only point is that younger families will be priced out of the market. I understand that a new stadium needs higher revenues and this is a part of going DI. I still plan on attending plenty of games in the future, it just likely won't be as a season ticket holder.

[goon]

Re: New SDSU Football Stadium Site Plan

Sorry if this came off as complaining as that wasn't my intention. My only point is that younger families will be priced out of the market. I understand that a new stadium needs higher revenues and this is a part of going DI. I still plan on attending plenty of games in the future, it just likely won't be as a season ticket holder.

We are in the same boat. Would be nice to keep um but probably won't bring kids to every game due to weather and cost so getting individual game tickets just would be our best option.

[SF_Rabbit_Fan]

Re: New SDSU Football Stadium Site Plan

I don't agree. I think there are occasional fans who will come just to see the place and some of them will catch the excitement and decide to come back. I think there's a group who say "why bother" going to CAS out of concern there are not very many "good" seats (I've always thought the sight lines in CAS were good no matter where one sat) and those people will start showing up for games in the new stadium. I'm in the "why bother" crowd when it comes to going to Fargo to watch football. I've been to three games in the FargoDome and had poor seats two of the three times. I believe them when they say everything's sold out so, why bother.

I understand the comment about regular seats being a commodity. But, in this case, the commodity has a higher value because it's all shiny and new and I think the comparison to the farm wagon is off the mark.

Keep in mind this stadium is being constructed with the idea that we will grow into it. I hope that well inside of 10 years people will be grumbling because it's nearly impossible to get a seat.

I think your post is fair, and reality probably lies somewhere in the middle.

The commodity of more seats may have a higher value, but if there isn't enough demand it doesn't matter how fancy the place is.

I have little to no understanding of these matters on a macro scale. I was under the impression (looking like naive hope) that regular ticket prices would go up slightly, with the hope/plan that drawing in more season ticket holders would make up the difference.

[SF_Rabbit_Fan]

Re: New SDSU Football Stadium Site Plan

Perhaps My understanding is different then all of you, but the new pricing in the seating chart as I understand it is the new (2016) Yearly required per seat donation (the one time donation as I understand it is for the box and club seats). And once again the students are given the crap seats, but this time they are being asked to cough up more money for that honor.

And I guess after re-reading the post for the above, OldHare had it 100% correct, but previous posts make me think others were confused.

So here is the breakdown for me for 1 Seat in my current section (I purchase 7 Season tix currently)
2014
$140 ticket + $50 Donation = $190 Actual Per ticket Cost.

Fast forward to 2016 Same area I sit now.

2016

$165 ticket + $200 Donation = $365 Actual Per ticket Cost. (a dollar a day)

My total cost would go from 1330/year(2014) to 2555/year(2016) a 92% increase in 2 years for the same seating location.

Edit: My donation could/would be a large one... Let me value engineer the field turf out of the project "poof 2 Million dollars is available/not needed" (I'm fine with the mud bowls and the turf advantage).

Excellent post, thank you. Anybody know how much ticket prices have increased since the move to DI? I know there was a significant jump in the early years, and it seems to be incremental almost every year since then.

I think most "regular" folks would pause at the idea of a 92% increase in price.

Like I said earlier, I hope I'm proven wrong and the athletic department is proven right.

[jackmd]

Re: New SDSU Football Stadium Site Plan

Excellent post, thank you. Anybody know how much ticket prices have increased since the move to DI? I know there was a significant jump in the early years, and it seems to be incremental almost every year since then.

I think most "regular" folks would pause at the idea of a 92% increase in price.

Like I said earlier, I hope I'm proven wrong and the athletic department is proven right.

I don't disagree that the increase seems to be too great for the market right now. Remember these are "proposed" numbers that can and I guess I expect will be adjusted.