No...it's when you said season ticket holders shouldn't be allowed to resell their tickets. First, don't forget it's just the price of the tickets they pay. They're also required to make a donation to the Longhorn Foundation in order to have the right to buy tickets. There's no reason they shouldn't be allowed to resell them should they not be able to attend. Would UT rather empty seats? Life happens and sometimes you can't do stuff that you planned for. Doesn't mean they should get screwed holding on to tickets they can't use.
Well, look, I admit that I'm not an expert on the season ticket situation. If you have time, I would probably benefit from your looking at the reply I made to Major regarding season tickets on the previous page. To me, I made a pretty strong case, but maybe I don't understand certain facts about the situation. That certainly wouldn't be the first time. Thanks! Some of the statements I made are probably too strong. If everybody hated Patterson, he probably had to go. Sounds like he was more of an Operations guy, and the University may have overlooked the Sales angle of the position. I just haven't seen a decision that he made that really made my jaw drop, but I may not have paid enough attention. Like, everybody complained about charging the Assistant Coaches for lunch. From what I know, they are overpaid anyway. I paid for my lunch in school. I pay for my lunch now. I don't think it's absurd that the Assistant Coaches pay for their lunch too. It's not that outrageous of an amount. That should have been a non-issue, and the Assistant Coaches should never have gone around b*ching about it. Even this charging the bands for tickets. That sounds bad, but then it comes out that all of these other schools are doing it too.
This is a huge part of being an AD job at any P-5 school, even more so at a place like Texas. Patterson came in with the mindset that he wasn't going to play this game and that was his downfall. Him and Powers completely underestimated this aspect which is truly surprising and dumb IMO.
The athletic department operated at a smal loss last year due to quirky accounting things. They are nowhere close to actually operating at a loss. And your view of ticket sales is an extremely myopic short-term view. You create fan demand by creating a great fan experience - not by trying to gauge the fans out of money. Tickets were more accessible to non-season-ticket fans when they could be resold - you could get better seats and for better prices. That means more families coming and more new fans coming, and those people having a great time in a crowded and lively stadium are more likely to try to come again, thus raising demand. ADs should be looking at the long-term health of the program rather than simplistic short-term "how do I maximize revenue this year?". Except season tickets aren't cheaper. Yes, and people also have emergencies, vacations, weddings and other things going on in their life. Those things don't move for UT football. Or sometimes people might be unable to attend for a whole season (relocating, etc). If they've been loyal fans for a few decades give up their 50-yard line seats, they can't get them back. So as a result, they basically eat the cost and a bunch of 50 yard line seats are pointlessly empty. No other professional organization or school restricts season ticket resales like that. UT actually worked with StubHub specifically to encourage it a few years ago. The idea that it's a logical thing to do is absurd.
You would - not because of "warm fuzzies", but because you apparently have no idea how to engender goodwill of a fan base or look at anything beyond a one year time frame.
If you look at the changes Patterson made, most of them had good reasoning behind it. However, they were terribly implemented and often came off as petty/cold. Charging the band for tickets is the most recent and perfect example. This was first reported as a Texas decision when it was actually agreed upon by all Big 12 Texas schools. Inaccurate reporting is partly to blame but we didn't even see a statement from Texas until 2-3 days later after the damage was done. This is a big reason why you have a SID which we have yet to hire since Patterson canned John Bianco earlier this year.
I read your reply and it's still lacking logic. The reason there were so many empty seats is because there are 10,000 fewer season ticket holders this season...because of Patterson's new policies. I don't know the reasoning behind every one of those who didn't renew but I'd be willing to bet that not being allowed to resell them played a big part in it. They weren't going to throw their money away if they weren't going to be able to go to all of the games. That's, as Major said, the height of stupidity on Patterson's part. All of those little things he keeps doing might, on their own, seem insignificant. When you add them all together, you're pissing off the people who's names are on the buildings they report to every day. Those are the wrong people to piss off. It's not about being above the fray. Being the AD at a school like Texas means glad-handing the Red McCombs (of Red McCombs School of Business) and Joe Jamails of the world. It's a HUGE part of the job.
From a strictly moral/ethical/(can't think of the right word) point of view, I still don't have a problem with their restricting the resale of season tickets. Regardless of whether the tickets are cheaper (I'm surprised they aren't), you obviously get some benefits from purchasing season tickets, or you wouldn't buy season tickets. In exchange for these benefits, you forego flexibility. Seems like you are saying season ticket holders are ENTITLED to have their cake and eat it too. Nevertheless, it obviously was a HUGE oversight if no one adequately considered the impact this policy change would make on ticket sales. If it really is the reason there were 15,000 empty seats, then I would certainly agree that would be grounds for firing an AD. For those of you who think it's clever to point out that I would make a bad AD, I just want to remind you that I already volunteered that. I totally suck at kissing up. I detest it.
Please allow me to make one qualification - if UT is going to sell out anyway - which I think you suggested if the policy is the same - then yeah, it definitely makes sense to allow reselling of season tickets, b/c the University wouldn't be competing with the resellers. So maybe, we actually agree after all in some way.....
Correct...Horry and Cassell were Rudy's picks. Before those picks there were years of first round busts. Patterson also insulted Hakeem and said no one would trade Shaq for him.
The band thing is fine for the Big12 schools / games. But Rice is not part of the Big12 - there, it was just a money grab. Sure - the benefit of season tickets is that you know what seats you're getting every year and don't have to find tickets to every game. But you already pay a price for that benefit - either LHN Foundation donations, or at the very least, you generally pay MORE for the tickets than their street value. UT has already raised prices year after year, and you can almost always get tickets on Stubhub cheaper than the face value. Again, no other organization has this type of policy. So whatever you think is ethical, UT fans are getting less for their money this year than last, and less for their money than season ticket holders at other schools or sports all around the country. Basically, Patterson is a greedy b*stard and is hurting the fans in his quest to make money. El Arroyo is great:
Texas released a statement a few days after stating that they had actually provided 300 comp tickets to both Rice and Cal. Whether it was misinformation or done after the fact, just another example of a poorly implemented change. http://www.texassports.com/news/2015/9/11/GEN_0911155248.aspx
From my understanding, that press release was misleading. They always provide those tickets (for VIPs and other such things) - but they also provided separate band tickets in the past. This year, they only gave the 300 from what I've heard, though the information out there does all seem to be contradictory. But yeah, especially with 15000 empty seats, the whole thing comes off as looking really terrible. Interestingly, the band is another example of Patterson's nonsense. Band members now have to pay for their own gear. To save money, the full band won't go to all the in-state away games.
Fair enough. A lot of my assumptions when making my initial argument were obviously wrong. I probably should have sought to understand more of your argument before taking such a bold stance opposite it. I am really interested in what you said about the Athletic Program's only losing money due to accounting issues. I need to look that up. Thanks.
Hah, El Arroyo is always great. Like you said earlier, Major, it's all about the fan experience. You have to make people want to go experience it, enjoy it, and make them want to come back. Hell, even the students kind of stayed away. There were, what? 15K empty seats at the Rice game?
