I'm done supporting Stanford - Printable Version
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Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - 2006alum - 01-13-2017
(01-13-2017, 10:38 AM)StanfordMatt link Wrote:May be time for some new blood in the shady side seats.
How is raising prices going to attract new blood? Shouldn't the failure to fill the stadium suggest demand is too low and prices should go DOWN?
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - StanfordMatt - 01-13-2017
(01-13-2017, 10:40 AM)2006alum link Wrote:[quote author=StanfordMatt link=topic=16439.msg186258#msg186258 date=1484329125]
May be time for some new blood in the shady side seats.
How is raising prices going to attract new blood? Shouldn't the failure to fill the stadium suggest demand is too low and prices should go DOWN?
[/quote]
Attendance isn't down because tickets in the shady side are going unsold. It's down because they're going unused.
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - larkinforever - 01-13-2017
Maybe Stanford is trying to do what some night clubs do - long line at the velvet rope outside the doors to create an aura of exclusivity and generate demand...
only to walk inside the club after waiting 30 minutes to find the club mostly empty.
[In this case, Larry and others have already been inside the club...]
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - Leftcoast - 01-13-2017
StanfordMatt, we've heard that tune before, again at the Maples repricing. Specifically, "older fans had the best seats and repricing would increase turnover in favor of younger, louder fans." I also heard that about the 49ers pricing at their new stadium.
News flash - Price increases didn't build more seat sales and they CERTAINLY didn't bring rowdier, more loyal fans if that is your argument. And, by the way the less expensive shadyside sideline seating is ALWAYS the most filled in seating. Stanford isn't hoping for new blood they just hope they can turn up the screws and get more plasma from the old blood fans.
Maybe they can but this blood donor is feeling like a vampire victim at one of Dresden's Red court ragers. Drained and anemic.
(Addition - per our renewal letter our section 115 is increasing by either $250 or $500 per seat depending upon your row. We have four seats so this is a large increase for a family with kids in college. Much priority rethinking going on today.)
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - BurgXXIII - 01-13-2017
(01-13-2017, 10:45 AM)StanfordMatt link Wrote:Attendance isn't down because tickets in the shady side are going unsold. It's down because they're going unused.
That was last year. Next year it will be because they are unsold.
Arrillaga could have saved money by building a six-seat stadium.
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - StanfordMatt - 01-13-2017
Food for thought...
1) There is currently a wait list for shady side seats
2) The price increases simply bring the cost for the shady side seats up to the average for sideline seats in the rest of the conference (sunny side seats are still below the average)
3) The product on the field has decidedly been above average for the past decade
4) The average household income for the Bay Area is significantly higher than it is in any other PAC-12 locale
If BurgXXIII's prediction is right and shady side seats go unsold next year then the AD will have to answer for that. My money (no pun intended) is on them continuing to sell out.
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - 82lsju - 01-13-2017
from an email exchange with the ticket office
>> Donation area expanded to include west sideline 111-115 and 211-215.
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - BostonCard - 01-13-2017
(01-13-2017, 09:45 AM)OutsiderFan link Wrote:This is true. But you get a tax donation for a donation regardless of whether you buy tickets, no?
From Stanford's (and fan's perspectives), it makes economic sense to charge a nominal price for tickets (which are expenses and thus not tax deductible) and require "donations", which are considered charitable and at least partially tax deductible. Than to have high ticket prices and no donations. In essence, the federal government subsidizing season tickets for Stanford football fans.
From a fiscal/economic perspective, this is absolute lunacy. Whatever you might think of tax policy, using it to subsidize season tickets to college football games makes zero sense.
BC
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - BurgXXIII - 01-13-2017
The other consequence of this is that, by making the tax entity the explicit ticket holder, Stanford actively denigrates extended families, affinity groups and any other arrangement where funds are pooled to buy a bloc of seats.
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - 2006alum - 01-13-2017
(01-13-2017, 11:19 AM)StanfordMatt link Wrote:Food for thought...
1) There is currently a wait list for shady side seats
2) The price increases simply bring the cost for the shady side seats up to the average for sideline seats in the rest of the conference (sunny side seats are still below the average)
3) The product on the field has decidedly been above average for the past decade
4) The average household income for the Bay Area is significantly higher than it is in any other PAC-12 locale
If BurgXXIII's prediction is right and shady side seats go unsold next year then the AD will have to answer for that. My money (no pun intended) is on them continuing to sell out.
I still don't see how charging larger and larger donations fills seats. It just rewards people with more disposable income, and above a certain threshold those people may have lots of competing demands on their time and can throw money to hedge that they *might* want to go to some Stanford football games. This is largely similar to how courtside seats at tennis matches go un-used because the corporate sponsors don't care about attending most of the matches; they want to preserve options to entertain clients when it's Federer v. Nadal final.
And let's be honest: if Stanford really wanted to increase attendance, they'd base seat selection for next year's season tickets on your attendance the prior year and whether all your tickets were scanned. That's how Six Man used to work when we were good and over-filled: the more Oregon State and UC Davis games you went to, the higher likelihood you got a spot at the Arizona and UCLA games. That approach gets people to attend the Rice-in-the-rain games and rewards the true diehards who will come out rain or shine. But that system doesn't reward venture capitalists with limited time and commitment to Stanford Football but who will pay $1000 per seat to preserve the option to entertain friends or business colleagues.
I simply don't believe this isn't about filling seats; it's about making money.
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - Phogge - 01-13-2017
Love my large plasma display.
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - jacketree - 01-13-2017
Looks like my son and I were about 8 years ahead of our time. Buy almost always available GA tix for face value at the last minute and roam the more premium empty seats like vagabonds throughout the game, leaving for a different empty seat a few sections away if you get kicked out. ("Oh geeze, sorry, misread our seats.") We watched an OSU game years ago from about 11 different sections; both sides, upper and lower, and the north end zone.
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - French Rage - 01-13-2017
(01-13-2017, 11:27 AM)eric link Wrote:from an email exchange with the ticket office
>> Donation area expanded to include west sideline 111-115 and 211-215.
So this only applies to those sections? I haven't gotten any letter yet, and from the sounds of all of this I hope I don't. I'm in 101, though, which I guess wouldn't count as premium since it's behind the endzone. I like it though, it's right next to the tunnel and being in the front-row assures that I get on TV almost every second or third game.
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - BigEasyCard - 01-13-2017
I'm in Section 234, Row BB. Just called the Ticket Office and was told that the required donations don't apply to that section.
Geaux Cardinal!
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - CrazedZooChimp - 01-13-2017
So many of you really can't bear the thought of sitting on the sunny side or in the corners? I pay pennies to sit in section 208, the sight lines are great, and the AD never raises my prices because there's enough demand from rich folks to sit under the pressbox. Embrace rest of the stadium,one of the best things about it is that it has good sight lines from every corner! Plus the section is usually empty so you can spread out and stand up and such, and at 7PM the sunny side isn't sunny.
I would actually argue that the way raising prices on the small section of the shady sideline helps fill the stadium is that it undoubtedly helps keep the prices for the rest of the stadium low. Compared to every other sports team in the Bay Area, Stanford season tickets are absurdly cheap (except between the 30s on the shady side). Not to mention all those teams raise prices basically every year no matter how bad they are (I believe the best the Sharks did was to not raise prices after one of the lockout seasons). Just slide down a little bit and join the rest of us. You can still tell the AD why you're paying less, save money, and also going to football games.
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - Goose - 01-13-2017
I sit on the sunny side by choice. I started on that side in 1967 and I believe it is the right side for the team to be on. They have moved, but I have not. Someday, they will "see the light" and return ;). The old people sit on the shady side.
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - Duck Tears - 01-13-2017
Write Muir. CC everyone in ticket office. The tone-deafness is unacceptable. Instead of taking careful steps to fix attendance, they soaking you and other consistent ticket-holders for the ultimate want/get ($$$). Talk about putting the cart before the horse.
Let's not mince words: Empty seats are one of the biggest internal threats to Stanford football.
The new stadium was not supposed to decrease supply AND DEMAND of seats. But that's what's happened, despite Shaw's incredible run of success.
When Homecoming 2015 at Stanford Stadium looks pretty much identical to Homecoming 2007, there's a problem.
When you can't sell out the USC game (48k last year, officially) there's a problem.
When a you experience a giant difference in attendance from odd-numbered years (UCLA, UW, Oregon, Cal, Notre Dame and all their fans) to even-numbered ones (lesser marquee opponents), there's a problem.
Stanford's 2012 and 2016 featured November tilts against Oregon State. Both games kicked off at 12:30 p.m. Coming in, the 2012 team (7-2) had one fewer loss -- and three fewer recent Rose Bowl trips to its name -- than the 2016 version. Yet, attendance dropped from 47,127 to this year's "official" tally of 38,818.
These are first world, as top-tier of college football, problems. But they need addressing.
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - stupac2 - 01-13-2017
(01-13-2017, 01:04 PM)French Rage link Wrote:[quote author=eric link=topic=16439.msg186288#msg186288 date=1484332036]
from an email exchange with the ticket office
>> Donation area expanded to include west sideline 111-115 and 211-215.
So this only applies to those sections? I haven't gotten any letter yet, and from the sounds of all of this I hope I don't. I'm in 101, though, which I guess wouldn't count as premium since it's behind the endzone. I like it though, it's right next to the tunnel and being in the front-row assures that I get on TV almost every second or third game.
[/quote]
Funny, I'm a few rows behind you. I'll try to throw some streamers your way.
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - French Rage - 01-13-2017
(01-13-2017, 02:17 PM)stupac2 link Wrote:[quote author=French Rage link=topic=16439.msg186303#msg186303 date=1484337864]
[quote author=eric link=topic=16439.msg186288#msg186288 date=1484332036]
from an email exchange with the ticket office
>> Donation area expanded to include west sideline 111-115 and 211-215.
So this only applies to those sections? I haven't gotten any letter yet, and from the sounds of all of this I hope I don't. I'm in 101, though, which I guess wouldn't count as premium since it's behind the endzone. I like it though, it's right next to the tunnel and being in the front-row assures that I get on TV almost every second or third game.
[/quote]
Funny, I'm a few rows behind you. I'll try to throw some streamers your way.
[/quote]
I'm probably the one throwing them at (or over) you!
Re: I'm done supporting Stanford - 82lsju - 01-13-2017
(01-13-2017, 11:27 AM)eric link Wrote:from an email exchange with the ticket office
>> Donation area expanded to include west sideline 111-115 and 211-215.
some more details
>>
We have expanded our Buck/Cardinal Priority Seating program to incorporate all chairback seats on the west sideline (Sections 111-115 and 211-215) and the 50 yard line sections on the east sideline (Sections 133 and 233).
The gift per seat ranges from $250 to $2,000 depending on location.