Hockey season ticket holders fed a pile of hot shit

Submitted by Canadian on
This MSU game at soldier has me irate. I went and did some quick math and am even more pissed off.
Last year the average ticket price for end zone seats equates to $21.05/regular season game (not including 2 exhibition games as games)
This year with the "15% drop" we will be paying $22.67/regular season game.

HELLE

August 11th, 2014 at 10:06 PM ^

I have heard that hockey doesn't have the demand it use to, but their are still a lot of people that go and it's a great time. Shame on them for trying to trick people. Dave Brandon, you have done some great things, but a Michigan Man doesn't act like this. You lied and tried to scam your fans.

Commie_High96

August 11th, 2014 at 10:55 PM ^

There are rumblings from the athletic department that the surpluses DB has been so proud of are not as grand as thought due to some accounting shifts. He has jacked salaries through the roof ($440,000 for the new baseball coach, $120,000 for the new water polo coach), entered into a lot of capital projects and purchased a lot of real estate. if the money stops flowing in (like we are starting to see with fan disalusionment), the Ath dept could be Bear Sterns.

CriticalFan

August 11th, 2014 at 11:57 PM ^

So I think some outrage is quite warranted.

Sadly, Even if DB is gone, a candidate just as money grubbing will have to be found to just maintain the new budget and pay off the new facilities, etc. That or cut quality, quantity, or both.

Team 101

August 12th, 2014 at 1:01 AM ^

The game at the Joe is bad enough but to give up a home game vs. STAEE to play outside in Chicago is ridiculous.

 

If we had to give up a game for some stupid outdoor game they should have made it a non-conference game or one of the games against Wisky during spring break.

saveferris

August 12th, 2014 at 9:58 AM ^

The part that sucks though is that last season was our season to have our home schedule with MSU split up between Yost and the Joe.  This season we should've had two home games at Yost, which of course is what everyone is pissed off about.

Yeah, as a 10+ hockey season ticket holder, I am not happy.  Fuck this.

SCS100

August 12th, 2014 at 1:39 AM ^

4 of those 15 non-exhibition games occur during a break. The Renssalaer series is during Thanksgiving break, while the Wisconsin home series is during the first weekend of spring break. That schedule is beyond pathetic.

mgoblue99

August 12th, 2014 at 7:31 AM ^

I hate to do this, but the email the Athletic Dept. sent around isn't necessarily wrong.  All they said was that the price was lower this year, not the per-game price:

"Season ticket prices for the 2014-15 season have been lowered; this coming season, endzone locations have dropped by 15% ($400 vs. $340), sideline/mid-endzone by 12% ($450 vs. $395), and center ice by 10% ($525 vs. $475)."

That being said, the whole situation shouldn't surprise anyone, because it's the same thing happening across the board: take advantage of the most loyal fans and screw them any way the Athletic Department can.  The experience of going to games at Yost has gone dramatically downhill in the past copule of years (as someone posted above, the goal horn is a minor tweak that would make a major improvement).  

It has been common practice for at least a decade to schedule high-profile games in both basketball and hockey over student breaks, not include those games in student packages, and then sell those discounted student tickets at full price to the public, so I'm not surprised there are a bunch of games over student break.  Seems unavoidable to some extent that some of those games would fall over break, until you consider the fact that they take almost two months off between home games, for the second season in a row.  

At some point the loyal fans need to put their money where their mouths are and stop buying the tickets.  I renewed this year but after being dicked around, I'm not renewing next year.  That's the only way things are going to change.

HELLE

August 12th, 2014 at 8:53 AM ^

implies that THEY lowered the price. Promoting the drop on price implies that THEY reduced it. They should have just said "Season Tickets on sale!" and listed the prices with the schedule. That would have avoided any confusion. It's common sense. They wanted to deceive. That is an unethical marketing tactic too me.

Canadian

August 12th, 2014 at 9:06 AM ^

Exactly. I'm aware the total price dropped but the fact they cut out four or five home games and added another Canadian exhibition game pisses me off. That's like offering a bag of chip on sale but actually charging the price of a family sized bag and getting the snack sized bag

Don

August 12th, 2014 at 8:26 AM ^

at pissing off season ticket holders. I don't know whether it's because they don't care, or they actively want to get rid of long-time ticket holders for some reason, or are just cluelessly incompetent.

What's more than a little ironic is that for a guy who talks about the importance of branding so often, David Brandon has irreparably damaged his own brand—and by extension that of the athletic department—here in Ann Arbor, and among alumni across the country.

Canadian

August 12th, 2014 at 9:10 AM ^

As a non alum but a lifelong fan this whole thing has me questioning the ethics of what's being taught to the business's students at Michigan. Are they being taught to fuck everyone over to the point return business is not an option? If so then as sad as it makes me maybe I picked the wrong school to dedicate my hard earned money and free time to.

Don

August 12th, 2014 at 9:56 AM ^

I don't think you can fairly lay any of this on the business school here. According to his wikipedia profile, Brandon's UM degree was in speech communication, not business.

I'd guess what's been far more influential is his experience as a corporate exec with Valassis (junk mail and printing) and Domino's (cheap delivery pizza).

mgoblue99

August 12th, 2014 at 9:38 AM ^

Has anyone called and asked for a refund/to cancel their season ticket renewal? Contemplating doing that but curious to know if anyone has tried.