ISU Athletic Department Does it Again?

[notabengalalum]

It would be really interesting to hear what people think of the "new" Women's Basketball seating/ticket policy.
How many were surprised to show up at Reed Gym today and find that now all seats in the lower bowl (seats with backs) are reserved and are $10 per ticket? Formerly the side opposite the benches was general admission. You also have to be a Bengal Athletic Booster to be able to buy a reserved seat. (Not sure at what level of giving.) If you happen to not be a Bengal Athletic Booster and opt for the purchase of a reserved seat, tack on an additional $25.00 fee (not per seat but per your purchase of tickets, as in one or more) - apparently per game! Can you say "NFL Seat License here?" :thumbdown:
According to the staff at the gym today, this was the direct result of a policy change to cash in on the success of the Women's team last season.
What also is aggravating about this is the absolutely poor communication of said policy change by the ISU Athletic Dept. Read that as "There wasn't any" until people found out when they showed up at the gym today. Surprise!! :thumbdown: That lack of information was verified by fans we talked to who were sitting around us. I heard several people express some comments about this change and you know what - no one was very happy about it. :evil:
Just another grand move by the ISU Athletic Dept. And, I'll bet new boosters are just flooding the phone lines next week to join up!
This isn't Stanford or UConn. It's Pocatello.

 

[spudbowl]

to sit in the middle section on the floor, it cost an extra $400 dollars this year for season tickets, it was an extra $225 (I think) for the sections behind the bench and an extra $75 for the section next to the walls. At yesterday's game, the bottom section on the south side had about 35 people sitting there, the north section was maybe 1/2 full.

 

[Irwin M. Fletcher]

Three different issues are raised in the previous posts. The first is whether the athletic department should increase ticket prices. In my view they should charge whatever generates the most revenue. The second is whether the changes adopted this season are actually generating more revenue. I have no idea ... probably difficult to judge without comparing numbers later in the season. The third is whether they should have advertised increased ticket prices. There should be ways to discover ticket prices, such as via their website or calling 282-fans, but it's not realistic to expect the athletic department to actively promote increased ticket prices. I haven't seen any Chilis commercials lately touting increased prices, and I don't expect Targhee to advertise increased lift ticket prices. My :twocents:

 

[E5Bengal]

The most important thing is will this still allow the girls team (Which has the most pre-season expectations and excitment of any ISU sport this year) to have a great environment to help the girls win games? It's ok to raise the price but only if the fans are lining up to buy tickets. If the are not selling out the bottom section for WBB then it was the wrong move.

Also do they still give the car dealers a bunch of free tickets to games? Does anyone know? If so that may be why some of the lower levels are empty. Tickets were given away but not used.

ISU in these dark times needs a Winter sport to rally around. MBB will get better but like football may take time. For now Women's basketball needs to be something that Pocatello can rally around. So with that said I don't think the prices should be raised. If people are expected to sit through a football games at ISU they should be rewarded by a good seat at Reed Gym.

 

[boisebengal]

I think that the car dealerships get free tickets because they still give out complimentary cars to the coaches. Plus a guy like Phil Meador has supported ISU athletics for a long time in many other ways.

 

[E5Bengal]

I guess I should clarify that. I have no problem with the dealers getting tickets. I was just saying that if ISU gives out lots of comp tickets to dealers and they don't use all of them a place might look half empty even though they have given them out.

 

[sasquatch]

I've never made sense of ISU's pricing and ticketing strategy. I don't think the staff on the hill does either.

Take football, for example. The price for a ticket is $16. ISU gave away free tickets to at least one game, as I recall. They had two games in which they provided half-off the price of a ticket. So, with my ISU math skills at work here, a smart person would have paid a total of $48 for all 5 games. That's considerably less than the $75 charged for season tickets. It's $2 cheaper than the "one day sale" they had, where they charged $50 for season tickets.

$48.00 divided by 5 games equals $9.60 a ticket.

If you are going to devalue your product throughout the season (and slap season ticket holders in the face as you're doing it), then why not just charge a price of $10 a ticket to begin with?

In a time when the economy is still rough, and when ISU is in need of any and all good publicity, why you raise ticket prices befuddles me.

That's my :twocents: .

 

[PBP]

Ask and ye shall receive:

http://www.isubengals.com/news/2012/12/5/WBB_1205120045.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PBP