Golden Gopher Fund mailing ($700 minimum for seats in lower deck)

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SelectionSunday

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Did anyone receive theirs in the mail?

Got mine Saturday, and it appears starting in 2012-13 that most all seats in the lower level for Gopher basketball (except for the ones way underneath the upper deck) will carry a $700 per-seat licensing fee. I was expecting my seat to have somewhere in the neighborhood of a $150-200 licensing fee but this amount caught me by surprise. I think the licensing fees for the other lower-deck seats (the prime seats from end to end) are $1,025 per seat.

Two seasons from now Gopher basketball officially becomes full-fledged, welcome to corporate America. I'm sure the athletic & marketing departments are hoping the Gophers avoid another season like this one in 2011-12, right at the time (prior to the 2012-13 season) they'll be asking a lot of loyal folks to pony up more $$$ for their seats. And I'm sure with this increase Joel will demand that Tubby put together a higher quality nonconference home schedule so that folks get more bang for their increased bucks?;)
 

SelectionSunday said:
Did anyone receive theirs in the mail?

Got mine Saturday, and it appears starting in 2012-13 that most all seats in the lower level for Gopher basketball (except for the ones way underneath the upper deck) will carry a $700 per-seat licensing fee. I was expecting my seat to be have somewhere in the neighborhood of a $150-200 licensing fee but this amount caught me by surprise. I think the licensing fees for the other seats (the prime seats from end to end) are $1,025 per seat.

Two seasons from now Gopher basketball officially becomes full-fledged, welcome to corporate America. I'm sure the athletic & marketing departments are hoping the Gophers avoid another season like this one in 2011-12, right at the time (prior to the 2012-13 season) they'll be asking a lot of loyal folks to pony up more $$$ for their seats. And I'm sure with this increase Joel will demand that Tubby put together a higher quality nonconference home schedule so that folks get more bang for their increased bucks?;)
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SS- Haven't gotten mine yet. Question- is the licensing fee a one timer? Then does one pay and addition annual fee? Last question- Is the sign up next year or this year?

As the saying goes- timing is everything. Prior to this year it looked like good timing. My guess is folks in the athletic department are a tad bit nervous at the moment. This will be interesting. They may run out of folks willing to pay the extra grand in a big hurry.
 

BGA, we get one more season (2011-12) before the seat licensing kicks in, but of course we need to start giving now in order to improve our "Gopher Points" totals.

I'd like to get others' interpretation of what I read, but my understanding is you would pay those fees every year. I'm going on the the assumption that if I want to keep my (2) current seats, I'll have to pay $1,400 every year + the cost of the season tickets. Unless I run into a pot of gold before now and then, it looks like the upper deck for this guy (or no season tickets) in a couple years.

"They may run out of folks willing to pay the extra grand in a big hurry."

I suspect we're going to see a lot more empty seats, in November and December especially. The Johnny-Come-Lately corporate types are a lot less likely to show up for games vs. Cupcake U than long-time season-ticket holders.
 

SelectionSunday said:
I'd like to get others' interpretation of what I read, but my understanding is you would pay those fees every year. I'm going on the the assumption that if I want to keep my current seats, I'll have to pay $1,400 every year + the cost of the season tickets. Unless I run into a pot of gold before now and then, it looks like the upper deck for this guy (or no season tickets) in a couple years.
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Having to pay $1,400 plus ticket price every year would be a rip-off imo. A one time fee I can see, but that is a steep price to see a game.
 

I agree, that's why I hope I've misinterpreted the mailing. But I've never heard of seat-licensing fees that weren't permanent. The people with the premo seats have always had to pay additional yearly fees, and I can't imagine the U changing that now.
 


SelectionSunday said:
BGA, we get one more season (2011-12) before the seat licensing kicks in, but of course we need to start giving now in order to improve our "Gopher Points" totals.

I'd like to get others' interpretation of what I read, but my understanding is you would pay those fees every year. I'm going on the the assumption that if I want to keep my (2) current seats, I'll have to pay $1,400 every year + the cost of the season tickets. Unless I run into a pot of gold before now and then, it looks like the upper deck for this guy (or no season tickets) in a couple years.

"They may run out of folks willing to pay the extra grand in a big hurry."

I suspect we're going to see a lot more empty seats, in November and December especially. The Johnny-Come-Lately corporate types are a lot less likely to show up for games vs. Cupcake U than long-time season-ticket holders.
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It's confusing. I believe what you have received is supposed to be the Gopher Fund Update per the gophersports.com site. Here's what they say at the website:

https://www.goldengopherfund.com/On...ticle_id=43316F8F-B644-4230-9B55-8563D91EE0A2
 

This would completely contradict everything they have said. You should upload it and let us have a look, if you don't mind.
 

Wow...If my math is correct then for your 2 seats it will be about $150.00 per game counting non conference and for my 2 seats it will be about $190.00 per game.

There have not been very many games over the past 10 years that I would have been willing to pay almost $200.00 to see and I certainly would not be willing to spend that much to see Eastern Tennessee or SDSU.

It really doesn't make economic sense unless you are a corporate sponsor and then you still might have a hard time justifying it.

I can't imagine this seat license program adding ticket holders to the Barn but I can see it driving some away.

Likely what will happen is long time ticket holders will give up their seats. When the Barn is half empty the Admininstartion will adjust or abandon the seat license program. That will leave good seats avaibale but the long time ticket holders who gave up their seats for economic reasons will be out of luck and at the end of the line to get anywhere near the seats they had when they were loyal 30 to 60 year season ticket holders. It happened in '90. it will likely happen again.
 

This sounds like a train-wreck waiting to happen. The atmosphere at the Barn has by all accounts been slipping. This will simply push it off a cliff. At minimum, this should be shelved until the new AD is in place and re-evaluated in a year or two.
 



I don't even want to think about this right now. At the moment I feel like somebody else is welcome to pay through the nose for my seats.

"Preferred Seating donations for the best seats in each venue will be the same as they are in football at TCF Bank Stadium and have been set at $100, $250, and $500 per seat, annually. And like TCF Bank Stadium, not all seats in Williams and Mariucci will require a donation."
 

"According to Crum, the final details of the new Preferred Seating system, including donation maps, point criteria, and individual point totals will be mailed to season ticket holders in the spring."

Would you consider now spring? It looks like this link is pretty old? This doesn't match the thing I just received. There is no mention of $100, $250 and $500 preferred seating fees. What I saw was a map of Williams Arena with two prices for preferred seating. ... $700 per ticket and (I think) $1,025 per ticket. It covered almost the entire lower deck and what looks like the chairback seats in the first few rows of the upper deck.

Somebody please prove that I'm hallucinating because these fees are really steep. My folks are season-ticket holders for Michigan State basketball -- a much more successful program than ours -- and my dad said their lower-level seats at Breslin carry about a $150 per-seat fee. Plus, I don't think MSU season tickets cost as much as ours do. The $150 per-seat fee would be a tad bit more reasonable than a minimum of $700.

I sure hope I haven't screwed this up with a misinterpretation and scared the crap out of some of you, my apologies if I have. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Nadine, if you're reading this, can you find out the real poop for us?
 

Even if it is what you have, I wouldn't count on it being accurate. This is the Gopher ticket office after all.
 

From the myGopherSports web site:

"Preferred Seating requires a yearly per-seat donation in addition to the cost of season ticket in order to purchase the season ticket. The Preferred Seating program has existed on a smaller scale since 1993 when it was known as 'Assured Seating' and introduced as an option for football, men’s basketball, and men’s hockey season tickets."
 



So how much will badger joel maturi's per seat charge be...

for HIS pam borton inspired Woman's Hoops season tickets? ; 0 )
 

SelectionSunday said:
"According to Crum, the final details of the new Preferred Seating system, including donation maps, point criteria, and individual point totals will be mailed to season ticket holders in the spring."

Would you consider now spring? It looks like this link is pretty old? This doesn't match the thing I just received. There is no mention of $100, $250 and $500 preferred seating fees. What I saw was a map of Williams Arena with two prices for preferred seating. ... $700 per ticket and (I think) $1,025 per ticket. It covered almost the entire lower deck and what looks like the chairback seats in the first few rows of the upper deck.

Somebody please prove that I'm hallucinating because these fees are really steep. My folks are season-ticket holders for Michigan State basketball -- a much more successful program than ours -- and my dad said their lower-level seats at Breslin carry about a $150 per-seat fee. Plus, I don't think MSU season tickets cost as much as ours do. The $150 per-seat fee would be a tad bit more reasonable than a minimum of $700.


I sure hope I haven't screwed this up with a misinterpretation and scared the crap out of some of you, my apologies if I have. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Nadine, if you're reading this, can you find out the real poop for us?
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If this is Spring....

Okay I'm just thinking about this. Could it be that they combined the normal cost of a season ticket with the upcharge and gave it to you as one price. Ie. a $550 season plus $150= $700 and $550 + $500 = $1050??
 

bga1 said:
If this is Spring....

Okay I'm just thinking about this. Could it be that they combined the normal cost of a season ticket with the upcharge and gave it to you as one price. Ie. a $550 season plus $150= $700 and $550 + $500 = $1050??
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That would make a lot more sense, and fall under their already released donation levels.
 

I hope that is correct BGA. Then I could at least think about keeping both tickets, for sure 1.
 

I just spoke with someone in the ticket office (Cici, she's been at the ticket office for two years and does not recall that the U sent out communication about there being $100, $250 or $500 seat fees). She verified that the ticket fees will be $700 and $1025 per seat per year and that is the lowest amount. The third option is $0 fee and that is for all bench seating. Any seat with an actual seat will be either $700 or $1025.

I have a message into the men's hoops ticket office head to ask what happened with the previous communication of $100, $250 and $500 and I will let you know what I hear back from him. What else would you like me to ask?

Go Gophers!!
 


BleedGopher said:
I just spoke with someone in the ticket office (Cici, she's been at the ticket office for two years and does not recall that the U sent out communication about there being $100, $250 or $500 seat fees). She verified that the ticket fees will be $700 and $1025 per seat per year and that is the lowest amount. The third option is $0 fee and that is for all bench seating. Any seat with an actual seat will be either $700 or $1025.

I have a message into the men's hoops ticket office head to ask what happened with the previous communication of $100, $250 and $500 and I will let you know what I hear back from him. What else would you like me to ask?

Go Gophers!!
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That's total out the door price (ticket + contribution) or is that just the contribution/donation level? Edit - oh never mind I got screwed up. It has to be the donation only otherwsie there couldn't be a $0 level.

I'd be willing to be a whole lot of money right here and now that they will get slaughtered on this deal publicly and perhaps at the cash register as well. I'd pretty much guarantee you that there will be a ton of chair back seats that end up going for no fee as season tickets or else sold game by game. This is a much better product than the Wolves -even this year- but the Gophers are not viewed as a corporate venue like the Wolves or the Wild partly because of the Barn. The Barn is a homey, die hard fan sort of venue without all the frills that you normally get with the corporate market.
 


Now I just spoke with "Jake" in the ticket office and not surprisingly he had a different set of facts than Cici did a few minutes ago. He said nothing will be official until May when they set the prices.

Hopefully Jake and Cici are reading this thread and can figure out internally their key talking points to provide consistent information.

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Now I just spoke with "Jake" in the ticket office and not surprisingly he had a different set of facts than Cici did a few minutes ago. He said nothing will be official until May when they set the prices.

Hopefully Jake and Cici are reading this thread and can figure out internally their key talking points to provide consistent information.

Go Gophers!!
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Okay - so maybe this is just a trial balloon being floated out there to see what kind of reaction they get. Good idea to wait until May to finalize, maybe the news will look a little better and the intense pain will have worn off. Right now I think you could fit the waiting line for that deal in a phone booth.
 

I just received a phone call from Gopher Points as they read this thread and want to clarify the issue - the $700/$1025 pricing will go down and that is for existing contributors.

When the final communication is sent out later this Spring, it will be for the already discussed $100, $250 and $500 per seat fee per year. So in other words, nothing has changed from what we thought we knew a few months ago.

Thanks to Gopher Points for their clarification.

Go Gophers!!
 


This seems like a bad time to be rolling this out (unless Tubby somehow starts turning things around in a big hurry). It seems like they'll have a hard time holding on to their current season ticket numbers without any additional fees. Does anyone know what the renewal rate was for this season?
 

this is beyond insane, but sadly not suprising at the U. I gave up tickets several years ago and now don't see anyway I will be a basketball season ticket holder as long as this policy is in place. And as far as I've heard, there are no plans to upgrade the non conference schedule, this year will be pretty standard.
 


JG

JohnnyGopher said:
this is beyond insane, but sadly not suprising at the U. I gave up tickets several years ago and now don't see anyway I will be a basketball season ticket holder as long as this policy is in place. And as far as I've heard, there are no plans to upgrade the non conference schedule, this year will be pretty standard.
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OTOH it is not hard to get seats to games you want to see.

:)
 

I don't understand the system. The communications about it are baffling. The ticket office personnel seem not to understand it themselves.

Do I need to pay an additional "$700 PER SEAT, plus ticket cost" as it states in the link to keep my seats?

Just not buying Gopher basketball tickets seems much easier and less expensive.

Edit: I realize I should probably be able to figure it out and have a better attitude. Maybe I my outlook will improve when the team stops losing home games.
 

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