my bad yall.. if i offended anyone, im truely sorry.. i just feel bad because all of us who cannot afford good seats to watch a good game each and everytime we have a chance cannot have the same priviledge as to those who earn big cash. im having a hard time to earn all loose change just to get a good entertaining night. coz im just a college student and by them increasing the cost of tickets, makes me watching games live more slimmer and slimmer. watching it on tv is one thing, but nothing compares to live action. so, if ever i offended some people with my obscene and explicit words, im sorry from the bottom of my heart!
I find this terribily sad, this guy cheers and makes more noise than anyone i saw at the games i went to..... boo
Wow. $180. I'm not sure it's worth it. I mean, I've never been to a game and have never been to Houston. But $180 is a LOT of money, and man, I live in the middle east, and people here are WAY richer. How does that compare to other arenas that have been opened in the past 3 or 4 years, and arenas that will be opened (if any) next year?
Any other season tix holders get the new price chart? Safe to say I can't afford to be a season ticket holder anymore. Prices are: Individual prices / Season tix 200 / 175 150 / 135 140 / 125 105 / 95 95 / 85 65 / 60 55 / 50 40 / 35 30 / 25 20 / 18 14 / 12 10 / 9 Last year I had $20, but they had "upgraded" me to the $34. This year the $20 tix are about as high up as it can get. Even if I could afford to spend the $35 per game its just not worth it. The new arenas $35 tix seem to even further back then the Compaq Center. Oh well. It was fun while I could afford it (actually not really, watching the Rockets is pretty damn boring). Shouldn't have voted for the stupid arena referendum like an idiot. I know some rich asses will gobble up all the tickets, but I can gurantee they wont be a bigger Rockets fan then me or make even one-fourth as much noise as I used to make. Oh, and the best thing of all is that you can add $5-$10 per game for parking.
I hope Tim or Jeff will come in here and put a positive spin on this new arena because all I've been reading lately is how the true fans are getting screwed in this deal. The reason Houston looks like a joke city is because all of the fans are hanging out in the upper bowl and the suits own the lower bowl. So far, it appears that the only people that can afford to go to the games on a regular basis are the suits...which means more "empty seat" shots during the 1st and 4th quarters of games. Every time I drive by that parking garage, I can't help but think about the fact that I'll never be able to enjoy that walk along the skybridge to the game...
I could care less about any positive spin on this. The package I got in the mail today has the seating chart for the new arena. And right on top of it is the seating chart from the Compaq Center (this sheet of paper is see through, that way you can compare your seating from the CC to the seating in the new arena). Last year I was in sec 234 ($35 per game). I was in the third row. Now if I wanted to sit in the same place it would be in lower prom, but it would like row T or something. And the price for that seat is $95/$85!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean WTF! Yeah there is more affordable seating and more of them. But I am not trying to move even further back while paying a little more. Not to mention the parking!
I regret voting for the referendum as well. There is no chance in hell that I will pay that kind of jack to get a semi-decent seat. The Rockets can go to hell for turning their back on the real fans. I hope the Rockets average 6,000 people per game and that more than half the remaining suites remain unsold. Only then will Les and the Rockets begin to realize what they are doing and then they can bring the ticket prices more into line. What are they going to do, threaten to move. They are locked in for 30 years. The only good thing to come from this arena is that we fans have the leverage now if we band together to force the Rockets to lower their prices. The same bs that is going on here happened when I went to school in Philly. You could get cheap seats relatively close to the action in the Spectrum but once they moved to First Union you were stuck with upper bowl seats that were much higher than in the Spectrum. The upper bowl would be full with the rowdy fans while the lower bowl was quiet and empty. I also don't believe in the lies that there are more affordable seats. They are much worse than those at Compaq. This is so frustrating to the real fans of this team.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/1878812 According to this article less than 2/3s of the luxury boxes have been sold!! I am really depressed about the fan support for the rockets right now and this new price upgrade is just gonna put us in the tanks.....I hate going to the games and being the only loud obnoxious fan yell at everyone
Those who can afford "really good" season tickets: 1. Extremely wealthy 2. Corporate (company paid) 3. Business Owners who can write off the expense on their taxes. The Uncle Sam "discount".
Another article quotes this: Cheaper by the dozens Ticket prices will be higher, as expected, but there will more cheap seats, too. The new arena will have 5,500 seats for $25 or less. Compaq Center offered only 3,000 discount seats. The Rockets will offer "family packages," where the price of a ticket will include food, a soft drink and a souvenir. The Rockets haven't worked out an exact price list for tickets yet. Here's something different: The Rockets want to reward longtime, loyal season ticket holders, so those fans will pay less for their season tickets next year than new ticket-buyers will. The Rockets will not use Ticketmaster. Again, the team is still working out details, but it plans to go with a relatively new ticket service called Vertical Alliance. The advantage of Vertical Alliance is that fans will be able to buy tickets online, by telephone and at kiosks in shopping malls. One possible drawback: Vertical Alliance is new. Let's see how it handles the crunch of thousands and thousands of phone calls when a major concert goes on sale. *********How are they helping long time fans out by raising prices!!!
The Rockets will tell you that the reason those tickets are increasing by 50% is "supply and demand." Fact is: the luxury box sales are dismal. The fact those sells are having no demand is impacting the demand on the prime lower bowl seats. The demand is shifting from where they want to sell, to their secondary favorite seats to sell. They are raising prices in lower bowl, because the people who should be buying the suites are choosing "cheaper" alternatives. Demand is going up in the lower bowl, when the Rockets really want demand to go up in the suites. So, they are raising your prices, because they can. I think that is stupid, if I'm right. Once you place the big business dollars in the lower bowl when they can actually afford the suites, can you ever move them out and up into the suites, later. I believe this is a very poor idea in terms of supply and demand. If they shove the affluent family and small business, small law firm/doctors out of the first 5 rows by upsetting them with the 50% increase, then they could likely be replacing them with the big bucks who they really need to buy the luxury suites. The sales strategy should be to lock int all the regulars in those prime first 5 rows, thus forcing new big bucks to choose the suites, as much as possible. This will take away the supply of those seats and force the big businesses to buy the suite packages if they want prestige seating. imo, it is bad business to maximize supply and demand on the first 5 rows, when you are having a bad time selling the suites. Does anyone follow that sales strategy? It's very basic to me. Don't even try to use the supply and demand argument when your #1 seats are not selling.
I understand what you are saying, but I would be surprised if just the "first 5 rows" were the only ones incurring this price increase. The theory of forcing people to buy suites is a stupid idea in my opinion because like you said, who in their right minds would want to leave the first 5 rows for the luxury suites. Granted the suites are nice and im sure the food is good, but I am there for the games at least.....
no, you're not following what I'm saying. I'm not saying they are forcing people to buy the suites by raising prices; I'm actually saying the very opposite. If you take supply of lower bowl prime seats away...by reselling them all to those who previously owned them, then any new big bucks who don't have prime seats right now will be forced to look at the suites as the only alternative. Look at it this way, right now Compaq Center sells out the lower bowl prime, and there are no suites. Even the corporate buyers have trouble getting more seats there. Baker and Botts (as an example) needs tickets for clients and they own at least 8. In the new stadium, if you don't allow current corporate season tickets holders to grab more lower bowl, then they have to consider the suites if they want to expand. If they lock out new purhases, or cap people at a total of 4, and don't lose anyone to increase in prices, then they will sell out all the lower bowl prime....taking away the supply of those, and forcing big business to buy the suites rather than hog the lower bowl. If they allow big business to expand their # of seats during this move into the new stadium and hog the lower bowl, it doesn't matter how much they increase those prices (now or later), they will just be making it harder for them to sell the most lucrative tickets in the house...the suites. I'm not making this up. Supply and demand is more complicated when you have varying prices. The model I like to point to is the airline model. The airlines actually use "Game Theory" to price seats. They withhold seats looking for top (TOP) dollar. The Rockets is not quite like this, but the theory still holds that they need to withhold lower bowl seats from those limited amount of companies who can afford the suites.
That explains your theory a little more clear, but I still disagree with the fact that the lower seats are sold out. When I went to the games there were plenty of seats around me for every game including the dream retirement game. The seats around me dont get much better and the prices were already high enough,so unless people are buying the seats and just not showing up which is a good possibility then raising the prices IMO will only make it worse.
