2015 non student season ticket prices not going up..... or down.
My apologies if discussed previously as I know that redundancy is akin to the apocalypse around here.
Season football ticket holders were resently sent solicitations via both email and regular mail for 2015 seat donations. I had not seen an announcement for 2015 ticket prices and since I'm on the fence for renewing, I replied to the email message and asked if season prices were set.
Ticket office response:
Thank you for your support of Michigan Athletics and the 931 student-athletes wearing the Block M. Season ticket prices will remain at $455/ticket ($65/game) for the 2015 season.
Ticket prices versus value has been discussed ad nauseum here so I'll refrain from ranting. I will say that I do expect a pretty decent turn over in season tickets purchases next year. There will be some non renewals from those who no longer feel that the product validates the price. However, it is an attractive home schedule so there will be some new interest, especially if we land a certain coach.
November 26th, 2014 at 12:07 PM ^
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November 26th, 2014 at 4:02 PM ^
I am a sucker too but will wait till the last instant to send in my $'s
November 26th, 2014 at 12:12 PM ^
Would have the balls to charge 450 bucks for season tickets to a team that won 5 games the previous year?
November 26th, 2014 at 12:16 PM ^
"Sorry, I'm new here."
November 26th, 2014 at 12:27 PM ^
We have to be realistic here. We're going to buy out Hoke's contract, then hire a new guy (hopefully a big name), so we'll be spending a lot more on coaching. Then we're reducing student ticket prices, so revenue from there will be down unless far more students buy tickets. They could have argued that they needed to increase non-student tickets to cover up the cost. They are choosing to keep them stable instead. That's reasonable.
November 26th, 2014 at 2:16 PM ^
Budget for this year was about a 5M$ surplus. If students go back to 21,000 from 14,000, that is about 2M$ in lost revenue and adding in Brandon's buyout of 3M$, that makes us break even. Coaching buyouts will be about 5M$ and it is unclear whether the new staff will get paid more or less. So, our AD is now in a break even situation for the next 2 years. Even worse, if they drop the price of water.
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November 26th, 2014 at 2:36 PM ^
May actually go up with increase in amount of tix sold
November 26th, 2014 at 8:14 PM ^
November 26th, 2014 at 3:24 PM ^
Coaching buyouts will be about 5M$ and it is unclear whether the new staff will get paid more or less.Hoke's salary for 2014-15 is $2.8M. A big-name coach will get more than that. We also likely will have to pay for the coach's buyout from his old job, unless it's Harbaugh - but Harbaugh will command more money than anyone else, too.
November 27th, 2014 at 1:32 AM ^
He has an out clause in his contract for Michigan doesnt he? So no buyout for him either, I would assume.
November 27th, 2014 at 11:15 AM ^
It's the opposite: he has a larger buyout for Michigan than anyone else.
November 26th, 2014 at 10:37 PM ^
November 26th, 2014 at 2:32 PM ^
November 26th, 2014 at 3:08 PM ^
Not bad... an offensive nickname, and -38 points in a mere two days of membership.
Welcome to the blog. Don't let the door hit your rear end on the way back out. :-)
Go Blue!
November 26th, 2014 at 4:29 PM ^
November 26th, 2014 at 10:44 PM ^
People are just plain ignorant in this fan base.Passive-aggressive, and a retread of the old schtick. Certainly, this IS David Brandon!
November 26th, 2014 at 11:00 PM ^
...he does read blogs!
November 26th, 2014 at 12:12 PM ^
is not the same as saying that season ticket prices did not go up. Since MSU and OSU are at home and they will designate at least one other game as "premium" there will be three games or more at $95 per ticket, The overall cost could be higher but the face value of each ticket may not change. In reality, they cannot raises proce considering the crapfest on the field this year. There is nothing to show it will be better next season at this point.
November 26th, 2014 at 12:18 PM ^
...pay $65 per game for all games, be they "premium" or cupcake. However, season ticket holders also pay the seat donation.
November 26th, 2014 at 12:37 PM ^
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November 26th, 2014 at 12:40 PM ^
dad who had season tickets for over 30 years, the price per game for season ticket holders was always $65 regardless of which game it was...
November 26th, 2014 at 2:26 PM ^
November 26th, 2014 at 12:14 PM ^
On the surface, $65/ticket isn't unreasonable (disregarding the current stench of the on-field product). However, I despise the Personal Seat DONATION of $142/game ($284 for the pair).
November 26th, 2014 at 12:35 PM ^
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November 26th, 2014 at 12:46 PM ^
You can always go the Craig's List route or, if you know someone who wants to buy, you can do an online ticket transfer. That's what we do when we can't use our tickets. Any cash that gets exchanged behind the scenes is unknown to the AD. The big problem is that during the RR years, the Club Seats could be on Stub Hub and the last few games, the Club was totally overrun by opposing fans. This was not very nice. So it's still possible to sell them, just more difficult.
November 26th, 2014 at 12:13 PM ^
Much, much better schedule coming in 2015. Genuinely excited for next year with new coach coming and changes in the department. Change isn't always good, but with the way everything's gone, change most certainly can't be much worse.
November 26th, 2014 at 12:15 PM ^
November 26th, 2014 at 12:20 PM ^
I swam in their conference in college and whenever we competed against them, we entered the venue to AC/DCs "Hells Bells." It freaked them the fuck out. I think it'd work against the football team, too.
November 26th, 2014 at 2:42 PM ^
November 26th, 2014 at 12:15 PM ^
November 26th, 2014 at 4:00 PM ^
I have a question I am wondering if folks can answer here- could dynamic pricing backfire?
1. Could people start to expect used ticket prices to be much lower
2. Which leads to lower season ticket orders
3. Which leads to a greater supply of tickets on the used market and lower prices?
I would think some have really felt burned after this season with the prices they paid for tickets and seeing others go to the same game for $10
November 26th, 2014 at 12:22 PM ^
I'm OK with this given that the schedule gets upgraded significantly. The value for the tickets should be a lot higher than it was this past season, where a .500 PSU team was our marquee opponent.
November 26th, 2014 at 12:27 PM ^
... it doesn't mean that I wouldn't go to games. I'd just purchase from the secondary market and would be able to take my kids to a couple and fund at least one road trip for the amount I saved.
Look at 2016. How do you feel about paying the same price for that schedule?
November 26th, 2014 at 12:50 PM ^
You can do that, but there is no guarantee tickets to MSU/OSU will be easy to come by on the secondary market. If we're in B1G title contention, other games might be tougher tickets as well.
The other problem with scalping tickets is that you don't know who you'll be sitting near, or whether they'll be good seats. I enjoy the people I sit near currently. For one game this year I sat elsewhere and let my friends have my normal seats, and I didn't like it as much - there were some annoying people nearby.
As for 2016, that's too far away to know what ticket demand will be like. If we hit the home run and hire Harbaugh, fan enthusiasm will be high for awhile.
November 26th, 2014 at 2:57 PM ^
November 26th, 2014 at 3:28 PM ^
We were in the B1G title hunt in 2011 and 2012: we finished one game out of first both years. The way we've recruited, it's possible we can be very good in 2015 - if we can find a QB.
November 26th, 2014 at 8:46 PM ^
November 26th, 2014 at 12:22 PM ^
As long as people buy the tickets, the prices won't go down. There is no incentive for the school to lower prices when they are going to sell over 100,000 tickets even with a mediocre football team.
While David Brandon is lauded for improving facilities, Michigan is now locked into a lot of debt service. The money has to come from somewhere: "somewhere" would be the fans.
November 26th, 2014 at 12:25 PM ^
So the announced attendance of 101K at Senior Day should scare the shit out of them. Because we all know they didn't even sell all of those tickets, as many were given away to charities and schools.
November 26th, 2014 at 12:40 PM ^
People aren't commenting about that number either because (a) they think that because it has 6 digits, it's all good, or (b) they don't understand how attendance is calculated.
101,xxx means that there were about 10,000 unsold seats. Think about that--I'm not talking about 10,000 unused tickets, because a sold ticket counts whether or not it is used. It doesn't mean that 101,xxx tickets were sold, because attendance also counts the people inside the stadium gates who did not have to purchase a ticket to get there. A sold-out stadium would have an attendance of 111k or more.
So almost 10 percent of the tickets to that game never even left the ticket office, even though unsold tickets were selling for $15 a piece the last I saw.
November 26th, 2014 at 12:27 PM ^
To clarify: next year is going to be great becuase of the excitement of a new coach and both Sparty and OSU at home. If Michigan becomes Michigan again, 2016 will sell out. But if the team continues to sink further into mediocrity, we may see season ticket sales decrease sharply, especially during even years.
Now that Brandon is gone, Maybe Hackett or a new AD can convince the Big Ten to repair the damage they did by arranging Sparty and OSU to both be on the road in even years and at home in odd years. That schedule is so fucked up that it had to be something personal.
November 26th, 2014 at 12:31 PM ^
These ticket prices will work simply because the home schedule is SO much better, coupled with the fact that Hoke is gone. As long as we don't hire an outright villain most Michigan fans will be--if not hopeful--at least intrigued by just what the team will look like with a new coach/system in place.
November 26th, 2014 at 12:58 PM ^
Except he's not gone. As we speak he is coaching Michigan football and has a contract, which I am sure he will honor, to coach again next year.
For everyone (and to me it seems like everyone but me) who believes Hoke's dismissal is merely a formality ask yourself this. How's that new AD search going? Has Hackett found his guy yet?
November 26th, 2014 at 2:20 PM ^
"Coaching" is used VERY loosely here. :)
But to your point. I would argue that the AD serach is on the backburner because the head coach search is happening in earnest. The notion that an AD must be found first is not a requisite of finding a coach in any practical sense. It is ideal to be sure, but then we aren't exactly in the ideal place right now either.
November 26th, 2014 at 3:35 PM ^
anyway.
November 26th, 2014 at 3:20 PM ^
This athletic department hasn't done anything right recently and I have no faith in Schlissel when it comes to athletics. He seems like a guy that could easily be swayed to keep Hoke. You can already see the Hoke supporters bringing up things like the "100% graduation rates."
November 26th, 2014 at 5:03 PM ^
November 26th, 2014 at 12:32 PM ^
November 26th, 2014 at 12:39 PM ^
Season ticket prices for non-student seating are NEVER going to go down. The best we should hope for is that prices remain unchanged for the near future.
Now questioning whether these tickets are a good value at these prices is a perfectly legitimate thing to consider.
November 26th, 2014 at 12:53 PM ^