Frost Arena Capacity?

[goon]

Re: Frost Arena Capacity?

I had some enough clams layin around I would amongst many other things I would like to donate too. Im not sayin building a new arena, but to maximize what we do have by adding seats not taking um out. I know we needed to up date the old bleachers, but we could have done it with out losing as many seats. Its not just a few basketball games a year that frost is used for. Graduations, concerts, other campus events are held there. I would guess in every case, it would be better having plently of seating availiable. it seems I am the minority on this idea, but if there are going to be any changes made, improving sight lines should be about the top priority if you ask me for the GA sections. I dont want seats taken out but do want changes made to improve the viewing.

[goon]

Re: Frost Arena Capacity?

[quote author=goon link=1173939865/120#131 date=1174860274]I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but maybe if we had a big enough arena we could have had a chance to keep hosting the WNIT.  Then our women wouldnt have had to go on the road to lose.  I really thought the women could win anywhere anytime during the tourny, but it seems obvious now.  Homes teams have basically had the advantage every game so why not give our selfs the biggest advantage we could with having enough seating available in a big enough arena.  

Goon, what do you want the University do with their limited funds.  They have all sorts of priorities before we can even considering working on new arena.
-Upgrade Coughlin
-Build a Baseball Stadium
-Build a new track
-Fully fund scholarships
-New lockerroms for the football team

Even if they did build a new facility at can't believe it would seat more then 7000.  I'm tired of this thread/argument.  This is my last post regarding this issue for at least a year.[/quote]
I am completely for having all of those things done first. Maybe its more of a disapointment of what was done when they made the changes. When we were a smaller school we had just shy of a 10,000 seat arena, now we are getting bigger and growing with the town and fan base, people want a smaller arena to try to maximize the amount of season ticket holders by selling more season tickets, If we are going to get to the point of having several thousand ticket holders, the school gets its money either way and the season ticket holders get good seats every game. So why not maximize the amount of none season ticket holders who would attend games. What would the cost of season tickets be for a 6000 seat arena compared to 10,000? any guesses? I really have no idea about the money made from season tickets and if it changes the value of the seats compared to the size of the arena.

[2002jack]

Re: Frost Arena Capacity?

One more post. Question for Goon.

How do improve sight lines, and increase capacity at the same time, without an expensive renovation project?

[goon]

Re: Frost Arena Capacity?

One more post.  Question for Goon.

How do improve sight lines, and increase capacity at the same time, without an expensive renovation project?

Hindsight is 20/20, but to not have built up the student section as high as they did, The top of the student section is higher then it use to be which in turn created more of a sightline problem. same with behind both baskets. your right it cant really be done both ways, but I would hate to see more seats get lost with any "improvements" they would try to make. So the new sections they put in basically created the problems i see, not enough room and seats and making bad sightlines on top. not that hey were great before, but they are for sure worse now. Improving sight lines would help a lot for those who were at the games behind the students or baskets. Improved sightlines will improve the overall feel of Frost because then for sure there wouldnt be a bad seat in the place, everyone would be able to see good. Well, except for those who couldnt make it in cuz we could only fit 6000 in, but you know what i meant.

Im not trying to ruffle feathers or fur which have you, or make tension, I love STATE, I hear the reason to decrease the size add more chair back seating to get more season ticketholders to increase revenue but what would the actual numbers of increased revenue be? how many more season ticket holders would it take to increase the value of every seat? Those are the things Im not hearing but would like to know.

[2002jack]

Re: Frost Arena Capacity?

[quote author=2002jack link=1173939865/135#137 date=1174861952]One more post.  Question for Goon.

How do improve sight lines, and increase capacity at the same time, without an expensive renovation project?

Hindsight is 20/20, but to not have built up the student section as high as they did, The top of the student section is higher then it use to be which in turn created more of a sightline problem.  same with behind both baskets.  your right it cant really be done both ways, but I would hate to see more seats get lost with any "improvements" they would try to make.  So the new sections they put in basically created the problems i see, not enough room and seats and making bad sightlines on top.  not that hey were great before, but they are for sure worse now.  Improving sight lines would help a lot for those who were at the games behind the students or baskets.  Improved sightlines will improve the overall feel of Frost because then for sure there wouldnt be a bad seat in the place, everyone would be able to see good.  Well, except for those who couldnt make it in cuz we could only fit 6000 in, but you know what i meant.  

Im not trying to ruffle feathers or fur which have you, or make tension,  I love STATE, I hear the reason to decrease the size add more chair back seating to get more season ticketholders to increase revenue but what would the actual numbers of increased revenue be?  how many more season ticket holders would it take to increase the value of every seat?  Those are the things Im not hearing but would like to know.[/quote]


I don't have exact figures on revenue. I'm trusting our atheltic department does due dilegence on facility upgrades and changes.

[Jacks02]

Re: Frost Arena Capacity?

[quote author=2002jack link=1173939865/120#134 date=1174861120][quote author=goon link=1173939865/120#131 date=1174860274]I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but maybe if we had a big enough arena we could have had a chance to keep hosting the WNIT.  Then our women wouldnt have had to go on the road to lose.  I really thought the women could win anywhere anytime during the tourny, but it seems obvious now.  Homes teams have basically had the advantage every game so why not give our selfs the biggest advantage we could with having enough seating available in a big enough arena.  

Goon, what do you want the University do with their limited funds.  They have all sorts of priorities before we can even considering working on new arena.
-Upgrade Coughlin
-Build a Baseball Stadium
-Build a new track
-Fully fund scholarships
-New lockerroms for the football team

Even if they did build a new facility at can't believe it would seat more then 7000.  I'm tired of this thread/argument.  This is my last post regarding this issue for at least a year.[/quote]
I am completely for having all of those things done first.  Maybe its more of a disapointment of what was done when they made the changes.  When we were a smaller school we had just shy of a 10,000 seat arena, now we are getting bigger and growing with the town and fan base, people want a smaller arena to try to maximize the amount of season ticket holders by selling more season tickets,  If we are going to get to the point of having several thousand ticket holders, the school gets its money either way and the season ticket holders get good seats every game.  So why not maximize the amount of none season ticket holders who would attend games.  What would the cost of season tickets be for a 6000 seat arena compared to 10,000?  any guesses?  I really have no idea about the money made from season tickets and if it changes the value of the seats compared to the size of the arena.  [/quote]

Throwing out some round numbers to describe what the athletic department is trying to do, SDSU had roughly an average attendance of 2000 this year for basketball.  I don't know the number of season tickets being sold now or what the possible season ticket numbers are, but I'd guess its probably similar to that 2000 number.  Assuming 50% of the season tickets are used on average for a game, that puts 1000 on average in attendance that are not from season tickets.  Then consider half of those remaining 1000 are students and you have 500 walk-up paying customers for a game.  So your total game ticket revenue is approximately the 2000 season tickets plus the 500 walk-up customers who paid for one plus any student GA fees collected no matter how many students are at the game.  So basically 2500 paying customers plus student fees.

I'll make another estimated guess that there are about 1000 seats in Frost designated specifically for students.  This leaves roughly 3000 (6500 capacity - 2000 season tickets - 1000 student seats - 500 in attendance) possible revenue generating seats that aren't making you any money for an average game.  If you can turn 1500 of those 3000 bleacher General Admission seats into chairback seats that you can sell as reserved season tickets instead of staying empty as bleacher GA seats, your average game ticket sales increases from the 2500 per game listed above to 4000 (2000 initial season tickets + 1500 added seasons tickets + 500 at the gate) with more chairback reserved seats.  An extra 1500 tickets per game in revenue over 30 games in a men's and women's basketball season is alot of tickets.

The only time the athletic department loses money in this scenario this year is the 2 games of the WNIT where they didn't have the capacity to handle demanded tickets.  The other 29 home games between men and women the athletic department comes out ahead because of the higher number of season tickets sold.

Obviously, the season tickets need to be sold for all of this to work out right for the athletic department.  But you can't sell a seat if it isn't there and noone is going to pay good money for a bleacher seat with bad sight lines for a season ticket.  This is why they are decreasing the capacity in Frost Arena to add more chair-back seats.  It might not make much sense when we are in a tournament and sell it out in 3 hours, but for the 99% of the time when we are playing in front of 2000, its pretty much a no-brainer.

Keep in mind this is based on this years 2000 attendance, and the disparity wouldn't be nearly as high if we were drawing 4000-5000 a game with the same number of season tickets. We'd be making alot more money on GA ticket sales, but the per ticket price on chair-back reserved seats is higher than GA bleacher seats, so it still makes sense to do it.

[1bunnies]

Re: Frost Arena Capacity?

Lets raise the student activity fee to $5000.00 next year. 5000 x 11000 students= $55,000,000 dollars. They can sit in on the planning session for the new arena. We can do this each year until the arena, football stadium, track, baseball and softball complexes, and everything else is taken care of. Take the ball and run Goon.

[Haldersham]

Re: Frost Arena Capacity?

Jack02

I pretty much agree with your analysis and the advantage of season tickets. Since we have one more year before being eligble for the NCAA, and given the same success next seaon, we will see how much fervor about the WNIT continues. Will the novelity of this year be the same as next year? Will attendence for both programs pick up because of the WNIT host games? There is in my mind more questions than answers. If we can sell out for big opponents at 6500, I beleive there is opportunities for TV revenue, meaning the games could be televised, and will there be takers in the media for these type of events? Just another question.

We have to wait and see how it all plays out next year.

[Jacks02]

Re: Frost Arena Capacity?

Jack02

I pretty much agree with your analysis and the advantage of season tickets. Since we have one more year before being eligble for the NCAA, and given the same success next seaon, we will see how much fervor about the WNIT continues. Will the novelity of this year be the same as next year? Will attendence for both programs pick up because of the WNIT host games? There is in my mind more questions than answers. If we can sell out for big opponents at 6500, I beleive there is opportunities for TV revenue, meaning the games could be televised, and will there be takers in the media for these type of events? Just another question.

We have to wait and see how it all plays out next year.

I think this WNIT postseason opened up alot of eyes regarding the future of basketball at Frost Arena. I know its made me think long and hard about buying a season ticket next year for the first time. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

[goon]

Re: Frost Arena Capacity?

So know one really knows the break down of how much money is made from each season ticket holders, walk up ticket sales and student general activity fees? I agree its a safe bet buying season tickets, so, an equation could look like, 2000 season ticket holders at the cost of X equals how much money for the year? what is a single season ticket cost? what is the value of approx 500-1000 ticket sales for every game= how much money for the year, finally, the percentage of student fees are use? Any one with exact numbers or closer figures it would be interesting to know. What is the cost the season tickets divided by every home game? how much different is it compared to acual ticket booth prices?

[HoboD]

Re: Frost Arena Capacity?

You can sell season tickets for bleacher type seats. Memorial stadium at Nebraska is mostly bleacher type seats and they are all reserved.

[goon]

Re: Frost Arena Capacity?

lets say we get 4000 season ticket holders in the future, wouldn't an arena with 10,000 seats make more then an arena with 6500 seats if season tickets are the same amount and relative price. The potential for more money seems to me it would come from the ability to sell more walk up tickets with 10,000 then 6500.

[89rabbit]

Re: Frost Arena Capacity?

Just my personal opinion, but this horse is just as dead as it was a few days ago. To try and resuscitate it by bringing up Wyoming hosting today's game is ludicrous. Wyoming had more in actual attendance (11,253) then Frost has ever been able to hold (9,456 Frost Arena Record), no matter the configuration, and they still had seats they could have filled. Flail away if you must but this valiant steed has gone to a better place.


Go State!

[joeboo22]

Re: Frost Arena Capacity?

I would much rather see them spend a few thousand and fix the bleachers so they can fill them all... 7,000 could probally be done if they fix a few things... Fix the balcony, go to all plastic bleachers-- you will loose a 100-200 but it will look alot more profesional.. I wouldn't mind seeing the bleachers go right to the floor like they use to, I don't like how its 4-5 feet where they start I always like being able to talk to the players/refs... New Arena though, lets get realistic
SDSU has done a great job though in there steps to D-I

on campus baseball field-- being built
on campus softball field-- being built
scholarships-- being filled
football field upgrades-- being planned
track-- who cares

[tattoo]

Re: Frost Arena Capacity?

SDSU needs to continue to play where they are at until we sell out 80 % of our games. Sell bleacher seats as season tickets.