Ohio State: Major ticket price increase for "premium" games

Submitted by wile_e8 on

Ohio State football: Big hikes on some tickets likely

Tickets for the best Ohio State football games are likely to become much more expensive.

If recommendations by the university’s Athletic Council are adopted next week by the board of trustees, the cost of the best home games will rise much more than the 13 percent that so-called non-premier tickets are expected to go up.

The Athletic Council will ask that two games for the 2013, ’14, ’15 and ’17 seasons be designated as “premier” games. Those games’ costs will range from $110 to $150. The price of the 2016 premier game, undoubtedly against Michigan, will cost $175. That’s 21/2 times the cost of last year’s $70 ticket.Wisconsin and Penn State are the most likely targets for premium status in 2013.

Although this is Ohio St., it will probably affect Michigan fans in a couple ways. First, anyone directly purchasing tickets to the 2015 UM/OSU game will be paying a lot more. But mostly I see this as a start of a trend that probably come to Michigan once DB sees another opportunity for more revenue. Not that I necessarily think that's a bad thing - when tickets were going on secondary markets for several times face value, that is a lot of money the athletic department could use going to people outside the organization. It'll also help deter ticket brokers buying blocks of tickets to resell if the profits won't be as big, leaving more tickets to actual Michigan fans.

Stuff like this could really hurt season ticket sales though - why pay a ton of money for the crappy games when you're going to be paying almost as much for tickets to good games as the guy buying them on the street?

BlueInWisconsin

January 24th, 2013 at 12:23 PM ^

All we hear about is how Big Ten athletic departments are swimming in money because of the BTN. It would be nice if they used some of that revenue to ease ticket prices, but predictably it is the fan that gets screwed once again. The money all goes to a handful of administrators and coaches and ever more elaborate facilities that in turn are used to justify raising ticket prices even more.

Two Hearted Ale

January 24th, 2013 at 1:42 PM ^

"Easing ticket prices" just increases profit margins for scalpers. Ohio State is simply making the cost/benefit analysis a little tougher on scalpers. Season ticket holders are collateral damage but as long as there is a season ticket waiting list it doesn't matter.

This pricing is coming to Michigan. As someone who frequently deals with the secondary market but prefers dealing with the university I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing. The good news is that four tickets to a premium game now costs as much as a really nice HDTV. Where would you rather watch the game? That question isn't as easy to answer as it once was, is it?

mGrowOld

January 24th, 2013 at 12:25 PM ^

Mock if you will but the facts are that a ticket to a Buckeye's game is hard to come by and there is a robust secondary market out there for them far greater than in Michigan.  Their stadium is not that much smaller than ours but for some reason tickets go at a premium to face value and nobody is giving any away like you'll see before some of our games.  

lexus larry

January 24th, 2013 at 1:08 PM ^

Living in central OH during the 90's, it was amazing then, too, how vibrant the secondary market was.  IIRC, recent alums at that time were allotted ticket opportunities for exactly ONE game per season, not of their choosing.  Yikes!  Full season ticket packages were doled out only to the big dollar donors of the day.  Don't knowif that's changed since or not.

Zoltanrules

January 24th, 2013 at 12:27 PM ^

in the Big House to spoil the virtue of college football (which is somehow okay at Crisler and Yost). Seriously how much revenue could be generated with tastefully executed ad revenue? 

Brandon probably would raise ticket prices the same amount though because until people say "no thanks" we will get increases to stay "competitive".

MileHighAnnArborite

January 24th, 2013 at 2:19 PM ^

"Seriously how much revenue could be generated with tastefully executed ad revenue?"

 

You mean like a giant red Arby's logo all over the Big Chill signs/merchandise?  I don't necessarily disagree with your point, I just have zero faith that's how it would be executed, and so I'll take the no advertising rule for as long as I can.

clarkiefromcanada

January 24th, 2013 at 12:36 PM ^

It's not like Gordon Gee's million dollar salary needed more scrutiny, is it?



Asking their fans to choose between trailer mortgage payments and tickets is too much. I bet Ramzy "he who can type" among them will have something to say about his until he cows to the meme that such costs must be accepted.

Don

January 24th, 2013 at 12:40 PM ^

that's been laying the golden eggs all these decades, and they're squeezing harder and harder in an effort to get it to lay bigger eggs. Eventually that goose is going to expire from a crushed trachea and interrupted blood flow to the brain.

Mgoscottie

January 24th, 2013 at 12:50 PM ^

paying a bunch for good games and cutting back on the delaware state games.  Whenever I need to get rid of a ticket to one of those people are in shock at the face value ticket prices....

StateSmells

January 24th, 2013 at 1:00 PM ^

I don't think this matters too much at all, and is just a silly shell game of moving the dollars around, from the perspective of the school.  OSU (and UM) attendance is dominated by season ticket holders.  As a season ticket holder, I look at how much TOTAL I pay for the season ticket, and decide for myself if it is worth it to pay that much.  The "face value" written on the ticket is not what I paid for it:  I get a discount to that price, but then pay my PSD on top of it.  The Face Value only serves me one purpose - as a starting point if I want to try and sell it to someone else.  I assume OSU season ticket holders are similar.

If you buy individual game tickets to the premium games from the ticket office, this could affect you, but how many people are able to do that?  You at least have to buy one of the mini-pack things, and you can then look at it the same way as a season ticket holder, looking at the total cost.

If you are NOT buying tickets from the ticket offices, you are just subject to the secondary market demand.  And I don't think this changes that at all.

This WILL be a big impact to UM fans that buy the away tickets through the ticket office.  Currently, for big games, those face value tickets are relatively cheap compared to the secondary market - but you get crappy seats in the visitor section.  With this change it might be worh it to pay full secondary market prices and get a better seat. 

 

Soulfire21

January 24th, 2013 at 1:01 PM ^

People over profit!

Actually, if the plan all along is to increase 'premium' game tickets significantly and then also reduce the crappy non-conference games, that's a bearable tradeoff.

HarBoSchem

January 24th, 2013 at 1:05 PM ^

More games on t.v. = http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/eye-on-college-football/2…

I know what it's like paying a fortune for a 'premium' game. 'Under the Lights' on the secondary market was refuckingdiculous. I still paid for the tickets. Fans will still pay to watch their teams. They may see a slight decrease in attendance for 'premium' games, but it won't be enough that they lose money over the long run.
But I also see more fans giving up the game day experience to sit in their own home to watch the games.

Ed Shuttlesworth

January 24th, 2013 at 3:45 PM ^

I don't know that I'm nostalgic for the late 70s/early 80s, as much as going to a bunch of sporting events then sort of gave me an immutable mindset of how much tickets to sporting events *should* cost.  Which in turn makes me scratch my head at how much people (including me) pay to go to the things in 2013.

Yes, I know, this isn't the right way to look at it, supply and demand yadda yadda, but if anything, with the RAWK and TV timeouts and all the rest, a game at Michigan Stadium is less appealing (particularly in relative terms) in 2012 than it was in, say, 1980, yet the real price of a ticket has at least doubled, and probably more.  Pro sports are even worse.  It's hard to see what people are paying for now that they weren't willing to pay for 30 years ago.

cozy200

January 24th, 2013 at 7:53 PM ^

Im cool with low 100's it weeds out the half ass fans. But im not ok with 200 a pc face value. Thats just going to drive stubhub prices and then this becomes one large merry go round. After moving 7 hrs away as opposed to 1.5 i am selective about games taken in anyway. Bama was fun but i only went because it was well... Bama. After that it was only the staee game. My point is that if i only go to the premium games, it will soon be as expensive as an entire season.

maizenbluenc

January 26th, 2013 at 9:40 AM ^

Maybe they'll figure out that quality opponents bring in more revenue, and well stop getting crapy home schedules like last season.

(If they fix nothing else in the division reshuffle, they somehow need to fix our home and away strength of schedule rotation.)