[Snorlax94]

I'm not a tax person so what I write below could be complete nonsense

it would seem one solution to tax deductibility of the "required" donations could be

1.  have no required donations
2.  re-seat the stadium every 3-5 years based on "engagement with the University" using criteria similar to what they use for bowl game tickets

My concerns with occasional re-seating center around the social aspect of keeping your seats and the uncertainty of using an engagement level.

1) I feel very fortunate in that I have gotten to know the season tickets around me -- largely because one of them takes a community leader role. Each season, I look forward to seeing my seats mates around me. If I felt like I was going to lose my community every 3-5 years, and maybe like my new section, maybe not, I would be far, far less likely to renew every time a re-seating rolled around. And there would be no reason to renew during a Buddy-Ball type of era.

Second, and maybe this is some people, but I am a shopper who very much values transparency in pricing. If I am looking for a service online, and some sites list their prices, and others tell me to request a quote, for the most part, I'm going to walk away from the places without visible prices. Alums with kids might donate for years because maybe it will help their children get in, maybe not, but I don't think alums will donate to the AD for 5 years hoping that 5 years later, maybe their stadium seats will get better, maybe they will get worse.

It is like rain on your wedding day that Stanford finally gets around to implementing preferred seat donations after so many years of not doing it, and then within the same year, the deduction is suddenly taken away. I empathize that this is a difficult problem. I think it's actually under-covered in the sports world, because I imagine that over the course of 2-5 years, this will be the biggest game-changer in college football in many years.

[Snorlax94]

I'm not a tax person so what I write below could be complete nonsense

it would seem one solution to tax deductibility of the "required" donations could be

1.  have no required donations
2.  re-seat the stadium every 3-5 years based on "engagement with the University" using criteria similar to what they use for bowl game tickets

My concerns with occasional re-seating center around the social aspect of keeping your seats and the uncertainty of using an engagement level.

1) I feel very fortunate in that I have gotten to know the season tickets around me -- largely because one of them takes a community leader role. Each season, I look forward to seeing my seats mates around me. If I felt like I was going to lose my community every 3-5 years, and maybe like my new section, maybe not, I would be far, far less likely to renew every time a re-seating rolled around. And there would be no reason to renew during a Buddy-Ball type of era.

Second, and maybe this is some people, but I am a shopper who very much values transparency in pricing. If I am looking for a service online, and some sites list their prices, and others tell me to request a quote, for the most part, I'm going to walk away from the places without visible prices. Alums with kids might donate for years because maybe it will help their children get in, maybe not, but I don't think alums will donate to the AD for 5 years hoping that 5 years later, maybe their stadium seats will get better, maybe they will get worse.

It is like rain on your wedding day that Stanford finally gets around to implementing preferred seat donations after so many years of not doing it, and then within the same year, the deduction is suddenly taken away. I empathize that this is a difficult problem. I think it's actually under-covered in the sports world, because I imagine that over the course of 2-5 years, this will be the biggest game-changer in college football in many years.