U ticket office to provide update this week on 2012-13 ticket changes

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I just received this email from the U:

January 2011

Gopher Points Update

Earlier this year we wrote you about the expansion of Preferred Seating and the use of Gopher Points to reseat Williams Arena in 2012. We have received comments, calls and emails from many of you regarding the implementation of the Gopher Points system for Gopher Men’s Basketball. We have used your feedback to help guide our decisions on the structure of our Gopher Points system moving forward.

Staying Competitive
When it comes to revenue from donations, we trail our rivals in the Big Ten. By making these changes we will generate additional revenue needed to stay competitive. This will also standardize the financial commitment made when purchasing season tickets. We have hundreds of season ticket holders currently making a Preferred Seating gift each year in order to get their season tickets. We now ask that a higher percentage of season ticket holders share that level of commitment.

Preferred Seating Donation
Preferred Seating donations will be $100, $250, or $500 per seat, annually, in addition to the price of the season ticket. Not all seats will require a donation. Additionally, as part of the Gopher Points program, we are planning some major facility improvements for Williams Arena.

Gopher Points Details
Similar to the criteria used for Football Gopher Points, criteria will be categorized in three segments - loyalty, financial support, and affiliation. Consecutive years of season ticket purchase (loyalty) will be weighted heavily in the system. All final details, including donation maps, point criteria, and individual point totals will be mailed to you this spring.

We want to thank you for your passion of Golden Gopher Basketball and loyal support of the University of Minnesota. Please visit the Gopher Points homepage and follow us on Facebook or Twitter. We welcome your comments and questions at 612-624-8080 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 612-624-8080 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or [email protected].

Sincerely,

Gopher Athletics
 

What is your feeling on the breakdown of donation seat tier levels?

I am guessing
2nd deck endzone chairbacks 100 bucks extra
2nd deck chairbacks on sides – $250
Lower level sides $500
Lower level endzone opp of student section $250

Where do you think one stands in the picking queue with season tix since '91?
 

GopherLady said:
Preferred Seating donations will be $100, $250, or $500 per seat, annually, in addition to the price of the season ticket.
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steffyboy previously reported that he is already paying a Preferred Seating donation of $1,025 for his center court seats and $700 for side/corner seats. I wonder if this new announced pricing structure refers only to new Preferred Seating locations. I expect the U ticket office to continue to "spin" their own version of the truth to make it look like the increase is warranted.
 

Southpaw said:
steffyboy previously reported that he is already paying a Preferred Seating donation of $1,025 for his center court seats and $700 for side/corner seats. I wonder if this new announced pricing structure refers only to new Preferred Seating locations. I expect the U ticket office to continue to "spin" their own version of the truth to make it look like the increase is warranted.
Click to expand...

Curious about this myself.
 


I'm a firm believer endzone seats opposite of the student section should not require any kind of seat donation. However, I don't think the U will agree with me.
 

Southpaw said:
steffyboy previously reported that he is already paying a Preferred Seating donation of $1,025 for his center court seats and $700 for side/corner seats. I wonder if this new announced pricing structure refers only to new Preferred Seating locations. I expect the U ticket office to continue to "spin" their own version of the truth to make it look like the increase is warranted.
Click to expand...


The new range of donations ($100-$500) is what confused me a bit. They have a ton of seats in the center court level that don't carry the current donations requirement ($700-$1025). These holders are older and were there long before the current seat fees were initiated. These holders pay only the ticket price (the same as the nosebleeds). They must assume that by charging fees on all those seats it will far exceed what they obtain currently. Why would the donation levels go down for us? I would assume they are going to charge a tiered ticket price for different seats but this is pure speculation. For example, center court seats would cost $60 face value and carry a $500 per seat annual fee and corner seats would cost $40 and carry a $250 seat fee. I can only assume. If my fees are decreased I can't complain.
 

steffyboy said:
The new range of donations ($100-$500) is what confused me a bit. They have a ton of seats in the center court level that don't carry the current donations requirement ($700-$1025). These holders are older and were there long before the current seat fees were initiated. These holders pay only the ticket price (the same as the nosebleeds). They must assume that by charging fees on all those seats it will far exceed what they obtain currently. Why would the donation levels go down for us? I would assume they are going to charge a tiered ticket price for different seats but this is pure speculation. For example, center court seats would cost $60 face value and carry a $500 per seat annual fee and corner seats would cost $40 and carry a $250 seat fee. I can only assume. If my fees are decreased I can't complain.
Click to expand...

It will interesting to watch this play out. This could be a whopping success or it could backfire. We got a nice kick in attendance when Tubby arrived but we have remained stagnant in the 12,500 range (give or take) for the last few years. That's a fair amount of empty seats. It's hard to ask thousand more to contribute when the demand is a little weaker than it once was (late 90's and prior). I'm guessing they were looking at the tea leaves and figuring we would have a banner year on the court this year and that it would pump up demand. I hope it works out that way.....

I wonder what happens if they designate 7000 seat (to pick a number out of the air) and only 5000 ticket holders agree to the extra donation. All of the suddden you will have someone who paid sitting next to someone who didn't and it won't be based on seniority anymore, but rather based on who played chicken with the athletic department and who ponied up.
 

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