Season Ticket Upgrades -- Opinions? Strategies?

Submitted by CTSgoblue on

(Sorry if this has already been covered) 

For everyone that has gone through the new upgrade process for season tickets, what are your thoughts?  Any strategies you want to share?  Here are few quick musings I had after doing it this morning:

1) I liked having more control over my seats.  I ask every year to be placed by an aisle and I always end up smack dab in the middle of a row and have to climb over 10 people to get to my seats.

2) It sucked watching the tickets I had an eye on get snagged literally 60 seconds before my time window opened.

3) Upgrading four tickets will seemingly be a fair bit harder than upgrading two because blocks of four don't seem to be prioritized for those with four already.  By that, I mean an open spot of four seats together can be broken up into 2x2.  If you have four tickets, you're not just contending with others that have four, but also all those looking to break up seats of four.  If you have 3 tickets, it can be both a blessing and a curse (pro: 3 seats can't be broken up; con: you can only book where there are 3 or 5+ available, heavily restricting your options).

4) I took an interesting approach for my two seats.  I grabbed two seats directly in front of a stranded single in the row behind.  My bet was that the stranded single will remain open and will generally be in low demand and that I can go book it when the public sale opens.  That way, I can bring a guest to some games by just paying face value for that seat and not having to mess around with selling my season tix and finding 3 new ones somewhere else (a hassle everytime my wife and I want to go with a friend).

5) If you're looking for endzone seats, options seem pretty extensive.  As of today, it's really the sideline seats closer to midfield that are sparse/nonexistent.

Jacklee86

May 4th, 2018 at 11:55 AM ^

One year I requested aisle seats, because my wife was pregnant (she doesn't go to the games, but they don't need to know that). It worked.

CTSgoblue

May 4th, 2018 at 11:58 AM ^

Ha, I tried that too but it didn't work for me.  Looking at the seat chart, I now see why aisle seat requests aren't commonly filled: they're definitely prime seats and I think most people who have them don't give them up as easily.  The most available seats seem to be on the edge of a section (which tends to be mid-row)...lots of stranded singles on front end and back end of a section #.

FauxMo

May 4th, 2018 at 12:02 PM ^

Sit in front of the oldest people you can find, then stand the whole game while cheering and yelling profanities. They LOVE that... 

Jacklee86

May 4th, 2018 at 12:13 PM ^

Yep. I sit in 39. In the 4th quarter of the MSU game, we were the only section that was sitting. My dad and I decided to stand anyway and the guy behind us told us to sit. I turned around and pointed out that we were the only section that was sitting, and he said "yeah, I know." I think he was mad at me though because I accidentally socked him in the face once.

tjohn7

May 4th, 2018 at 12:12 PM ^

Best thing I can say is getting to know the people at the ticket department. They hooked me up by adding a couple extra seats this year, as they're able to do manual overrides of the system.

I'm a fan of the new system, as it's nice being able to see exactly what is available. Wish you could strand single seats though, as I could've moved my seats to a better spot if that was possible.

JamieH

May 4th, 2018 at 12:14 PM ^

Logged in a few hours later.  Still moved my 4 seats one section towards the 50 at about the same row without leaving my donation level.  I figure same price, one section closer to the 50 can't be a bad thing. 

bringthewood

May 4th, 2018 at 2:08 PM ^

I could not improve my seats without leaving my donation level, so I stayed put. I am about as close to the edge of my donation level as I can.

I prefer being in the middle of the section and not the aisle- because your sight lines are better when people walk up and down.

For basketball I had our aisle and people going up and down during the game were a pain.

ItsGreatToBe

May 4th, 2018 at 12:19 PM ^

I'm wondering if anyone has insights into why the Athletic Department is prohibiting seat additions (with the exception of stranded singles)?

There are two seats in front of mine I've been trying to get for three years now. I see that they are availble in the upgrade system. However, per the FAQ and disclaimer when accessing the upgrade site, additions are not permitted this year due to "limited availability."

I know new season ticket holders are being told they'll likely get to purchase seats once the public period opens.

Seems odd that the AD would shut out existing (10+ year) ticket holders to accommodate new ticket holders who may not renew next year, may reduce their PSD, etc.

 

UESWolverine

May 4th, 2018 at 3:14 PM ^

I was going to post about this the other day. You are 100% correct. This pretty much penalizes people who have seniority and want more tickets - and gives people with way less seniority the option to move seats into MUCH better seats, as long as they are willing to up their PSD contribution. And who wouldn't do that for some of the seats I saw available! This means that way less desirable seats are going to be available when the ticket office decides to let people with seniority add seats to their existing orders. 

I wanted to update my order from 2 to 3 seats in my own price tier on Wednesday - and they were available! But because of this year's policy, I had to stick to my two. (I actually have 2 on each side of the field). Oddly, the very next day (Thursday) two fantastic seats opened up in the Valiant section (that weren't there on Wednesday) that I snagged. It was technically a downgrade because my original seats were Victors - but they are so much closer to the field, I couldn't resist even though I already paid the higher PSD for my original tickets.

My wife likes sitting high towards the center - but I love being much closer to field anywhere between the 30 yard lines. So to go from Row 48 at the 40 to row 5 on the 30 seemed like a no brainer to me.

BTW - this process really displays how wonky the section numbers are rows are set up! You can have just about any numbered seat and potentially be on the aisle, If you have seat number 1 though, there is a great chance you are in the middle of the section! LOL. Why is it set up like this?!

 

doughboy

May 4th, 2018 at 12:23 PM ^

Just a reminder to give IMG a call once you transfer seats.  They will need your new seats in order to transfer your cushions.  

Bluegriz

May 4th, 2018 at 1:02 PM ^

The system worked well and is long overdue. I can't imagine processing all those seat moves manually.

Here's how to go from 2 to 4 within the rules:

This Year: Keep your existing 2 and add a random single. Pick a single that will be attractive for resale.

2019: Move your 2+1 to 3 together during the upgrade process. Add another random single.

2020: Move your 3+1 to 4 together during the upgrade prcoess.

will

May 4th, 2018 at 1:13 PM ^

If anyone is looking to unload 4 to wmu or smu please let me know via the ticket spreadsheet. taking my son and his friend to their first game at the big house, so hoping not to break the bank in case he tires out by halftime.

A2MIKE

May 4th, 2018 at 1:18 PM ^

Long overdue.  Some schools have been using this system for 10+ years.  It is still flawed.

They separate everyone by 5 minute increments.  Therefore, unless you have a whole day to devote to constantly hitting F5, you are only going to see a snapshot of what was really available in your "relative" time frame.  People who have more points but not as good of seats get screwed in this situation because you essentially get locked in to picking from the best availble at your time slot, when there could be better seats that open up a couple minutes/hours after your time slot when someone else moves.

CTSgoblue

May 4th, 2018 at 1:26 PM ^

Yeah, I questioned whether it was best to take the small incremental upgrade of seat location available to me now or roll the dice and wait for something better to possibly open up later.  I took the former but gave serious thought to lurking on the site 10x/day for the next week or so in hopes something better opened up.

J_Dub

May 4th, 2018 at 2:15 PM ^

Once your window opens and you pick new seats can you go back later and pick even newer ones? Seems like you should be able to keep changing any time after your window opens. Obviously a total free-for-all and no benefit to priority if the last guy to get the open window moves from nice seats, but that is unlikely to happen right?

pbmd

May 4th, 2018 at 5:57 PM ^

upgraded my pair- - went up a donation level

and

added 2  that were together but back to back- seat 21 in row 5 and row 6- think that will be ok sit behind my kid