Man, you people are living in a dream world, and I bet most of you championing this move aren't even contributers to the Razorback Foundation in the first place.
Razorback Stadium has only sold out one time since expansion thanks to those $125 indoor club seats. That tells you the demand. So if there isn't enough demand to sell out the stadium, what makes you think there is enough of a demand to raise the donation levels?
This move by Jeff Long is going to have exactly the opposite effect. Season ticket sales will go down as more people who were previously season-ticket holders decide to just buy on a game-by-game basis and avoid paying the donation.
Long's philosophy of building a program is straight out of a management textbook and would never have been successful in establishing the Razorback brand.
Like Shields said in a recent column, if it is only about money, the Razorbacks have already lost. The UA athletic department already has plenty of $$$. What Long wants is more $$$.
If the University of Arkansas athletic department is a business, it needs to stop begging for handouts from its customers and its parent company needs to stop taking taxpayer money from the state.
Let me throw out a disaster scenario. Say Arkansas goes 8-4, which would be below most fans' expectations for the year, and then Petrino leaves to take the Michigan job.
Who is going to be buying tickets with a huge tax (donation) attached to them after that?
And after a few years when fans start grumbling that the additional money has provided no additional wins, well, we ain't seen nothing yet compared to the fan implosion that is coming on that day.
The Democrat-Gazette story says Arkansas football has only 14,116 season ticket holders. 14,116!!! And that includes season tickets at two stadiums. I wonder what is the average number of seats each ticket holder purchases. If the average is four, which I bet is too high, that's still just 56,464 season tickets sold. That number doesn't exactly tell me there is a huge demand out there willing to pay all this additional money.
Oh yeah, by the way, the football program had a $20-million profit last year, according to Forbes magazine, which put it at 17th best in the country.
Yet the UA wants more for a new locker room and Broyles Center. Sorry, Petrino, you've got all kinds of great facilities, so make due with your poor little locker room and stop complaining. And I don't see anything wrong with the Broyles Center that warrants an emergency update in this economy.
And why can the UA charge this amount for seats, yet I can't resell them at the same price without getting the attention of the police?
I love hearing all these media people, who never have to actually buy tickets or donate to the Razorback Foundation, talk about how this is such a great idea.
The UA must really be nervous about this for Jeff Long and Chris Wyrick to travel to Little Rock the day after the announcement to sell this snake oil to the media. They spent an hour on 103.7's "The Zone" in studio and probably have several other stops today. It also underscores how important Central Arkansas and the southwestern two-thirds of the state are to the program financially.
Meanwhile, I have decided to take my $3,000 that they are requesting for donations in order to get my same seats and just buy a recruit a car because that will have a lot more of an impact on winning games than a new locker room and updated Broyles Center.
And since UA athletics have become solely about money, I plan to start dressing like Matthew Lesko to games except the suit will be red with dollar signs.
2 comments:
You really have low expectations for Arkansas fans if you think they'll bail because of this increase. Some will, no doubt. But they'll be easily replaced.
The cheap donation* levels has created an attitude that having Arkansas season tickets is a birthright for all Arkansans. But if Arkansas is to be a contender in the SEC, it must monetize. If it's too much for some fans, that's fine. They can watch at home along with the vast majority of people who are Razorbacks fans.
My already required contributions to purchase football tickets have not been cheap. What they just did is price me out of the market. I simply can't afford to get season tickets anymore, and I've had the same seats for about 15 years. Even if I loved this idea, I wouldn't be able to buy the tickets and send alms to the boar. (Note: I just coined that term and must be credited for the next six months.) My problem with this is that it is the wrong move and will have a very detrimental effect. Watch and see.
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