Priority point bonus announcement
Just received an email from the AD.
If you convert both PSC and ticket payment to a Champions Fund donation, you get 100 points and 20% off of next years PSC/tickets (based off of this years prices)
Just PSC gets you 75 points and 20% off of PSC
Applying to next years costs gives you 50 points.
August 6th, 2020 at 11:05 AM ^
Aren’t there less home games next year? So, if you already paid this season’s tickets in full, would you received a refund for the difference in tickets?
August 6th, 2020 at 11:51 AM ^
I think if MSU goes to an away game, that would only leave them with 3 conference home games. So someone else will need to flip as well (Indiana?). With 4 conference games, that would put them at 7 home games. Western Michigan, Washington, and Northern Illinois are all at home next year.
Indiana is flipping too.
Michigan will host MSU even years now, Indiana odd years.
August 6th, 2020 at 11:55 AM ^
*fewer
I thought the loud voices on the board decided that the English language is constantly in flux & that standardization is a tool of oppression. Did you not get the memo?
Oops. Misread completely
August 6th, 2020 at 11:06 AM ^
The email does say "up to", not sure if the discounts and points bonuses are same for everyone then or different for various levels.
August 6th, 2020 at 11:38 AM ^
It says 'up to ' on the discount, not the points and they better clarify that quickly because I just called the ticket office and they said the person who has 6 tickets in the Victors section will be getting the same amount of points as the person who donates their 2 endzone seats.
August 6th, 2020 at 11:40 AM ^
I re-read the email and it doesn't say anywhere about it being a different bonus or discount based on where your seats are. Seems to be completely based on your choice of what to do with your money. I took the "up to" portion to be more related to the fact that there's different point values or discounts depending on how you chose to apply your money.
For endzone folks like me, converting the PSC only for 75 points seems like a fantastic value if you care at all about your point level.
August 6th, 2020 at 11:49 AM ^
It's the best deal possible - you are getting $7,500 worth of priority points for $160! A guy with 4 tickets in the Maize section will have to donate $1,560 to get those same 75 points. It makes no sense.
August 6th, 2020 at 11:53 AM ^
That $1560 is normally worth 15.6 points... so still a pretty good deal for someone in the Maize section.
August 6th, 2020 at 12:53 PM ^
At the end of the day the AD's goal is to keep everyone's money so it makes some sense from that perspective. The 75-100 bonus points is a big enough carrot to get people sitting on the 50 or in club to do it and makes it a no-brainer for people in the cheaper seats.
If there was a sliding scale and endzone seats got 5 bonus points while people on the 50 got 75, I would be much more likely to say screw it, just give me a refund.
August 6th, 2020 at 10:23 PM ^
Better than that--the $160 gets him a 20% discount on next year's $160, so it really only costs him $128 in the end.
But the baseline is 50 points (for applying the $160 toward next year), so it's really only 25 more points. But still! $5 a point instead of the usual $100?!
August 6th, 2020 at 11:12 AM ^
Ridiculous request when millionaires Stephen Ross, J. Ira Harris, Ron Weisers, Donald Shepherds (etc etc there are many more) have more than enough money to all pitch in and cover financial losses.
I’ll increase my monthly donation if things are cancelled but I am in no way gonna put down a $700 MBB season ticket payment in a donation when I’m trying to have a family within the next handful of years.
This is just for football but I have a hard time believing MBB is gonna happen with fans in the stands.
August 6th, 2020 at 11:32 AM ^
Thanks for spending someone else’s money.
August 6th, 2020 at 11:35 AM ^
What's the point of having wealth if you're not going to spread it around?
August 6th, 2020 at 12:29 PM ^
Oh I agree, the most miserable people in the world are the richest that just sit in their fortresses complaining about all the people that don’t work as hard as they do.
But to assume that the wealthy Michigan donors aren’t “spreading it around” just because they don’t let you know what they do with it, or their spreading doesn’t affect you directly, is you being a little ignorant.
I didn't realize you were so progressive Vladimir. A true man of the people.
We're all in this boat together, Lou!
August 6th, 2020 at 11:39 AM ^
If they can afford to attach their name permanently to Jim Harbaugh’s job title and have their name all over the facilities, I think U-M can go to them for help instead of the general season ticket holder population.
August 6th, 2020 at 11:43 AM ^
Don't you know rich people's money is sacred?
August 6th, 2020 at 12:27 PM ^
It’s not that it is sacred, it’s the idea of saying someone else should deal with the problem so I can continue without any disturbances to my life.
I just think if enough of us think something isn’t right, and we stop spending money on that thing, the people in power will have to change it if they want to have customers. Forcing someone else to pay money to keep up a system that obviously doesn’t work and no one wants just causes more problems down the road.
August 6th, 2020 at 11:45 AM ^
They aren't forcing you to do anything. Who says they're not going to them and asking them for funds?
Seems like a nice option for us season ticket holders. If you want a refund, there's no penalty - you just pay the same amount in 2021. People have choices. What they decide to do is their decision, not something forced down their throat like StubHub/Ticketmaster did.
This seems like an odd position to take: (1) nobody is making you donate--if you want, you can get a full refund; (2) universities and athletic departments routinely seek donations from everywhere and from everyone; (3) just because some exceptionally rich alums have donated huge amounts of coin in the past doesn't mean they should ante up again just because you think they can or should; (4) some of those millionaires you were talking about are already season ticket holders who might be excited to take advantage of this program; and (5) as with a lot of things, the small donations can add up and make a difference.
But I thought you were one of the super-wealthy too. How about we get you to cover it?
August 6th, 2020 at 11:16 AM ^
and here I thought this post was about MGOBLOG points.....
August 6th, 2020 at 11:20 AM ^
I'm sure the AD would be willing to give us all MGoBlog points for our money too.
August 6th, 2020 at 11:33 AM ^
This is not well thought out. Somebody who has 4 tickets in the Valiant section will need to defer $2100 (PSC for 4 tickets in that section $525 x 4) in order to get 75 Priority points, while somebody with two Endzone tickets only need to defer $160 (PSC $80 x 2) to get those same 75 Priority points. What sense does that make!?
August 6th, 2020 at 11:37 AM ^
Big point numbers for donations jump off the page, IMO. For as much as people complain about not "helping the little guy" (people with endzone seats), this is a big win for them.
No penalties if you don't want to donate and want a refund, you're just subject to whatever the 2021 pricing is.
August 6th, 2020 at 11:35 AM ^
August 6th, 2020 at 11:35 AM ^
Whistling past the graveyard.
AD is really saying "we don't really want to refund your tickets".
I see next year's season ticket holders drop by 25% - roughly the same amount as the current unemployment. Then they will will be selling tickets with a 6 pack of Coke in gas stations again.
I wonder how long season ticket holders will keep paying hundreds and hundreds to subsidize the rest getting in for nearly free?
August 6th, 2020 at 11:39 AM ^
If you're a business would you want to do refunds? Some give store credit, or gift cards. They'll still process a refund, they're just making people think a little harder. I went from wanting a refund to rolling it over because of the locked in pricing (OSU and Washington next year).
August 6th, 2020 at 12:11 PM ^
I’m shocked Michigan has been able to hold the attendance numbers they’ve had. I know there was quite a bit of lying towards the end of the Hoke/Brandon era but even if 70,000 people went to watch that trash that’s still highly impressive.
I’ve never owned season tickets to anything or really considered it, but for all of those that do: When do you decide that paying the ridiculous amounts you to do for Michigan football tickets ends?
For some, it’s a long standing tradition, I’m sure. Others, although they won’t admit it, it is kind of a social status thing. But wow, the ticket costs, the ‘donations’, the time, the parking, the hidden expenses (food, gas) coupled with a program that has been shooting itself in the foot for going on 15 years seems like a hard sell to me. I enjoy going once in a while but would never make it a regular thing.
I mean everything is relative right? If you gave me a boat and allowed me to use it for free, I'd probably go out a couple of Saturdays in the summer and that would be it. Would never, ever consider buying a boat, paying storage costs, dock fees, gas, insurance, etc.
Do you golf? I can't believe how expensive that is.
If you own a cottage or summer home, do you really go there every weekend? Don't you feel chained to it, like you have to go even when you don't want to? If you don't use it, it's just sitting there costing you money and no one's even there.
And so on. I love football, obsess over it, and season tickets give me and the family of rabid fans around me a regular appointment for it. We add food, drink, being in beautiful Ann Arbor, and win/loss emotion. We feel like we help the team win if we cheer loud enough. I'll never give them up.
Trying to figure out if Bodogblog is my wife. Any time I question whether we need to be spending money on certain things she asks "How much was your last round of golf" and the convo ends right then and there.
I've asked myself that very question so many times. It isn't cheap by any means to carry season tickets year in and year out, especially adding everything else to the tab. In the end though no matter how much I may fret about the decision, I always wind up buying the next season's tickets and parking and everything.
I guess it comes down to that it is a long-standing tradition. We also love the tailgating atmosphere (even when there's 8" of snow to tailgate around or a monsoon forcing people inside canopies) and then as noted in a previous reply - there's the in-person win/lose emotion. You simply cannot duplicate that watching from a bar or your couch. The contagiousness of emotion is palpable. We've been there through some of the highest highs (UTL 1, '97 OSU) and the lowest lows (those games...) and still come back for more.
Will there come a day when it is time to call it? Yeah - that is inevitable. Will it be anytime soon? No.
August 6th, 2020 at 11:18 PM ^
My feelings exactly. That's why, after having the same seats for over 40 seasons (we started with 4 seats and upped our order to 6 about 15 years ago), we decided earlier this summer to add 2 more adjoining seats to our existing order.
We tailgate each gameday with good friends we met 30+ years ago. "Dave" was then a recent Michigan grad who started with 2 season tickets two rows down from us back in '88; as his family grew he increased his order to 4, then his son (who graduated 2 years ago from U of M) bought his own two seats, and Dave increased his own order to 6 seats this off-season.
All told, our tailgating bunch now controls a block of 16 tickets over 4 adjoining rows in section 36.
As for us, we're taking the 75 point option that's on the table. That's one helluva point bonus gained on $450 that was paid out months ago (we're obviously in the "cheap" seats), money that, until today, wasn't even on my radar anymore. And it'll cut next year's seat license fee 20% on our 8 seats. Very easy decision to make.
August 6th, 2020 at 11:51 AM ^
I think a better way for us all to make money would be for some of you to give me some points, but then you get like 10 people to give you some points, and then tell those people that if they just
August 6th, 2020 at 12:00 PM ^
I have some discounted Amway & Melaleuca products if you are interested.
August 6th, 2020 at 11:53 AM ^
Can I use the points at Speedway?
August 6th, 2020 at 11:55 AM ^
This is pretty wild.
I'm a graduate and I've had 16 years of season tickets consecutively.
I have fewer than 70 priority points at the moment.
Just deferring my PSC more than doubles my points.
*though most will also do this so I won't "move up" at all*
August 6th, 2020 at 11:27 PM ^
I bet you will move up some in the pecking order, as I'd guess a sizeable minority of football ticket holders will simply roll their money over and get just 50 points, and some will even opt for the refund.
And then there are the rest who have accounts with the ticket office but no football season tickets: There's no points being handed to them at all.
August 6th, 2020 at 11:57 AM ^
I'm here for the Posbang.
August 6th, 2020 at 12:05 PM ^
Why does purchasing tickets to an amateur sporting event have to sound so complicated?
August 6th, 2020 at 12:10 PM ^
Bernie Sanders wrote that email
August 6th, 2020 at 12:29 PM ^
My initial takeaway is this:
(1) encourages people to at least transfer to 2021 due to the 50 extra priority points (worth $5,000 donation). [Note that this becomes important since if the majority of other season ticket holders take this option, then it effectively dilutes the ones that don't.]
(2) the fixed priority points bonus amounts helps those who have cheaper seats and fewer seats. I.e., someone w/ 8 Maize seats will be donating or deferring a much larger amount, then someone w/ 2 Blue seats.
(3) the donation option is only really useful to those that itemize their federal taxes (and note that after the latest round of tax reform, that is a smaller group of people). Theoretically, someone can get the 37% federal (plus some state) credit for the donation, and the 20% discount for next year, therefore, roughly a little more than half of the donation could be netted back to you, but in any case, the donations are going to be made by the people who want to donate since the economic incentive isn't nearly as strong for that option.
while I agree with your assessment; has anyone missed out on not getting tickets to something because they didn't have enough points? I mean maybe I am not trying for enough events, or there hasn't been a worthy (bowl) event in a while, I just don't care about my point total now.
I'll take my full refund
This is where I'm at, and given the deep consideration people seem to be giving this, I'm worried I'm missing something.
I don't really care about points. What can I use them for that has real value? If Michigan goes to a B1G title game I suppose, or national championship I might get priority? But I always assumed there are going to be a line of richer-than-me folks ahead of me anyway that points won't matter.