another seat selection question....

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CentralMNGopher

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What is the U going to do with all of the "extra" $500 and $250 seat license seats? Is there a contingency plan?

What will happen to someone who pays for one of those seats now and cannot continue to pay the extra fee in the future?
 

We had this same conversation. I know that there are 2000 people on the waiting list, are they willing to pay 500 bucks extra per seat to get in?
 

That's a great mystery, but I think in reality there won't be many of those seats left. I'm too lazy to look it up, but there's a guy who posts seat selection stats periodically and over half of the $500 tickets are gone. I'd guess the U really did their research ahead of time (I, for one, got asked in at least 1 phone survey how much interest I had in paying extra $500, $250 or $100 for my seats), and so those seats will all be sold out or nearly sold out.

That said, the rate of selection of the $500 seats has slowed, but it's obvious why this is - in general the people picking now have been fans for less time, so they're less die-hard than previous selectors AND the advantage of picking a $500 seat versus a $250 seat aren't that great in many cases now that most of the choicest $500 seats are gone. As the choicest $250 tickets get taken, the gap between what $500 will get you versus $250 will grow, and the people who have money, but haven't been around as long will start picking those seats.

In summary, it's possible they'll be seats left with seat licenses attached, but I doubt that they'll be any significant number of them. If so, I imagine they'll use them to hand out to big donors or recruits or other VIPs. Perhaps a more interesting question - that hopefully we'll never see - is what would happen say 3-5 years down the road if the team doesn't win and ticket demand goes way down. Then you may see big pockets of seat license seats go vacant - do they make the seat license areas smaller or how do they handle that without ticking off people already paying licenses and still getting as much cash as possible?
 

I didn't want to start another thread...

How much will the chair-back rentals cost for the bench seating? Per game? Or is it for the whole season?
 

Golden Elephant is right on.

I haven't posted the stats from last week, but over 50% of all donation seats have already been taken, with around 9,600 total seats selected. As more free seats continue to get chosen, the gap in quality of seats will grow and paying an extra donation per seat will likely become more appealing. I'd be shocked if more than a few hundred donation seats are left when all is said and done.
 


And those should go quickly to people on the waiting list.
 

CentralMNGopher said:
What is the U going to do with all of the "extra" $500 and $250 seat license seats? Is there a contingency plan?

What will happen to someone who pays for one of those seats now and cannot continue to pay the extra fee in the future?
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If you can't pay the fee you will get moved to a non-fee area (I think). I don't know the process but I'm pretty sure you don't lose your season tickets...just the really good seats.
 

GoAUpher said:
If you can't pay the fee you will get moved to a non-fee area (I think). I don't know the process but I'm pretty sure you don't lose your season tickets...just the really good seats.
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Though we can afford it now, we are not going with the pay seats for a couple of reasons. I expect to win more, I expect the costs to go up. With a family I don't want to "bank" on the ticket prices staying the same. (little word play for you folks playing at home). In addition I am not sure where my finances will be when family planning is finished :).

I am torn between visitor side near the big screen or visitor side near the student section. We still see options we would take between the 0-20.
 

Section 100 said:
I didn't want to start another thread...

How much will the chair-back rentals cost for the bench seating? Per game? Or is it for the whole season?
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Section 100. I emailed the ticket office this exact question because I am thinking I will end up in bleachers by the time I pick next Friday and this was the response they sent me:

"We don’t have the exact price for the temporary chair back seats for the bleacher seats in the stadium, we are in the process of doing so. Other college football schools sell them for a price range of $50-$250 per season, so I would guess ours will be toward the lower end of that range. All football season ticket holders who will sit in the bench seats will be contacted via the mail when we have the price and distributor determined."

So if it is important to have a chairback for everyone in your group it may be worth it to pony up the extra cash for the seat license fee. But since I am with a bunch a cheapskates I will not be doing such a thing.
 



I would be shocked if the rental seat back add ons are not between $40-$70 extra per season. There is no way the U would charge over $100 extra unless they really don't want to sell or have to install any extra seat back cushions on the benches.
 

Lakerfootball Quote: "So if it is important to have a chairback for everyone in your group it may be worth it to pony up the extra cash for the seat license fee. But since I am with a bunch a cheapskates I will not be doing such a thing."

Laker, you might have to consider getting a new set of friends.
 

So if you're willing to pay $50 extra to rent a chairback for bleacher seats in the end zones, then why wouldn't you just pay another $50 and get an actual seat with a chairback that's in the middle of the field in the $100 donation zone?
 




I bet only about 25% of the fans will elect to buy a seat back if they have bench seating. Many people don't care if they have a seat back and won't pay even an extra $ if they don't have to.

I agree that it's worth it to me to pay a $100 donation if required to get a seat back but hopefully that $100 required donation will jump up way up after the team gets better. If you have bench seating you don't have to worry about donation levels increasing in the future. I'm surprised the U didn't say that donation levels will be guaranteed to not increase for 3 or 5 years but I bet the U is hoping they can increase them quickly if the team has success and TCF is a tough ticket to get.
 

monk10 - curious why you think that?

Do you realize the upper $100 seats on the visitor side equate to the exact same view as the Outdoor club seats on Home side?

I'd much rather be there than lower level at the goalline. I guess everyone has different preferences though! :D
 

MNCH said:
So if you're willing to pay $50 extra to rent a chairback for bleacher seats in the end zones, then why wouldn't you just pay another $50 and get an actual seat with a chairback that's in the middle of the field in the $100 donation zone?
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The 3 most likely reasons that jump to my mind are as follows:

1) Budget. While $50 may not seem like much, if you add it up over 4 seats that’s $200 you might not have lying around or might have budgeted for other things.
2) Related to #1…not everyone in the group plans to get chairbacks. Thus, the “$50 more” scenario only applies to a few of the seats.
3) Also related to budget…you may be able to afford the premium seats now but may not be able to do so moving forward. Better to pick seats that you like in the benches then end up somewhere random if/when you can no longer afford to pay for priority seats.
 

monk10 said:
The 100 donation zones kind of suck, imo.
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There are some pretty decent $100 seats in 209 and 212 that I would snatch up in a second if they came available to me May 20th, but being a recent grad, I don't think I will have a shot at any of the preferred seating.
 

I don't have the seating charts available to me right now, but the $100 dollars were basically in the $250 section but either at the top or at the very bottom. My preference is to be in the middle, so as not to feel too far away from the action, and also not be too close that players get in my way. It appeared to me it was something to the effect of be closer to the 50 yard line, but crappier seats so they reduced it from 250 to 100 dollars.

It is strictly my opinion. I sat up high at the Wiscy game and I sat on the field at the Iowa game. Both of those experiences weren't as good as sitting in row 3 of the second deck at the dome. Unfortunately my row 3 choices are pretty popular and they are being gobbled up by the people who are choosing before me.
 

I agree, I'd rather be closer to the field. I am going to be high up no matter where I am looking based on my priority number. So I'd pay the extra $100 a ticket to get to midfield with a chairback if that is an option.
 

CentralMNGopher said:
What is the U going to do with all of the "extra" $500 and $250 seat license seats? Is there a contingency plan?

To go back to your original questions:

1) I don't think that there will be very many seats left once they go through the wait list, but I was told that if there were any, they would be used internally for sponsors, donors, etc. and that they would not be offered to the public at a lower rate. (It's the only way to protect the integrity of the pricing system.)

2) I think that they will handle things the same way they do now. You will get a renewal form with the option to retain your seats. If you want to move, they will try to accommodate you if they can. If demand is high enough, it's possible that you may not be able to move to a no donation seat. I would expect that they will work very hard to accommodate as many such requests as possible and I anticipate that there will be many people who want to move up or down the donation scale over time.

As for increased donation levels, I don't think they will do that soon or on a piecemeal basis. Instead, I think they will wait at least 4-5 years and then re-do the whole scheme if they can justify increases. I don't see them raising donation levels on a few sections and risk pricing folks who have been making donations out of the market and then not having places for them to move. If they really can't sell all the donation seats this year, they may lower donation levels in some spots for next year since no one will object to paying less than they do now.
Click to expand...
 

One theory that I thought made some sense was someone suggested all chairbacks would become donations and current donation amounts could be raised at the time the 2nd deck is added. This way, there are plenty of seats to move people around to if they don't want to pay.

Of course, this all depends on the Gophers winning significantly more games than they have over the past decade. :clap:
 

Another Question: Can you get bumped from your seats next season? Or, are these your seats until you give them up?
 

Your seats

I believe that it will work the same as in the past. If you want the same seats, and you are willing to pay for them including any donation, they are yours. The literature indicates that there is no current plan to do a wholesale re-seating, but that they may do so at some point. In other words, we could go through this process again at some point. From what I have heard, and read here, they expect to implement similar programs for hockey and basketball before taking on football again.
 

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