College Football's most expensive season tickets

Submitted by Quail2theVict0r on

Rivals did a chart of ticket costs at all 120 FBS schools. Michigan comes in at #3. Is it just me or are these numbers wrong? I think I only pay a $100 donation per ticket and my seats are in section 40. In fact, I know that's right because my two tickets come out to like $750 and then it's $100 donation to keep your seats every year and more if you want to move in towards the 50, which would bring the total somewhere around $850.

http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1094191

Team Minimum donation Season ticket Total
Ohio State $1,500 $607 $2,107
Notre Dame $1,250 $490 $1,740
% Wisconsin $1,000 $294 $1,294
* Michigan $550 $375 $925
Auburn $220 $445 $665
@ Nebraska $150 $378 $528
@ Oklahoma $100 $394 $494
@ Georgia $250 $240 $490
Tennessee $100 $360 $460
& Alabama $80 $375 $455
& Virginia Tech $100 $336 $436
+ Penn State $50 $385 $435
a-South Carolina $105 $320 $425
Texas $0 $400 $400
Oklahoma State $0 $384 $384
Iowa $0 $360 $360
USC $0 $355 $355
@ LSU $0 $350 $350
California $0 $325 $325
West Virginia $0 $325 $325
& Florida $100 $224 $324
Clemson $0 $309 $309
Michigan State $0 $308 $308
& Arkansas $50 $255 $305
N.C. State $0 $305 $305
Minnesota $0 $275 $275
North Carolina $0 $270 $270
Georgia Tech $0 $260 $260
Oregon State $0 $256 $256
Texas A&M $0 $250 $250
Kentucky $0 $237 $237
Colorado $0 $235 $235
Florida State $0 $231 $231
Indiana $0 $230 $230
Rutgers $0 $230 $230
Oregon $0 $211 $211
Missouri $0 $209 $209
Boise State $0 $201 $201
Duke $0 $200 $200
Ole Miss $0 $200 $200
Kansas $0 $199 $199
Kansas State $0 $199 $199
Washington $0 $190 $190
Cincinnati $0 $185 $185
Wyoming $0 $182 $182
Connecticut $0 $180 $180
Boston College $0 $175 $175
Fresno State $0 $175 $175
Washington State $0 $160 $160
Baylor $0 $150 $150
East Carolina $0 $150 $150
Iowa State $0 $150 $150
UAB $0 $150 $150
Texas Tech $0 $149 $149
Purdue $0 $147 $147
b-Navy $0 $145 $145
Stanford $0 $145 $145
Louisville $0 $143 $143
Maryland $0 $135 $135
Louisiana Tech $0 $130 $130
Colorado State $0 $125 $125
Utah $0 $125 $125
Vanderbilt $0 $125 $125
Houston $0 $120 $120
Marshall $0 $120 $120
TCU $0 $120 $120
c-Virginia $0 $120 $120
Miami $0 $119 $119
Mississippi State $0 $115 $115
Utah State $0 $110 $110
Buffalo $0 $108 $108
Idaho $0 $107 $107
Memphis $0 $100 $100
Rice $0 $100 $100
San Jose State $0 $100 $100
Syracuse $0 $100 $100
UNLV $0 $100 $100
Arizona State $0 $99 $99
Army $0 $99 $99
BYU $0 $99 $99
UCF $0 $99 $99
Southern Miss $0 $99 $99
Tulane $0 $99 $99
UTEP $0 $99 $99
Wake Forest $0 $99 $99
Louisiana-Monroe $0 $95 $95
Nevada $0 $95 $95
Northwestern $0 $95 $95
UCLA $0 $95 $95
Arizona $0 $92 $92
Akron $0 $90 $90
Miami (Ohio) $0 $90 $90
North Texas $0 $90 $90
Temple $0 $90 $90
Hawaii $0 $89 $89
Ohio U. $0 $88 $88
Pittsburgh $0 $87 $87
Northern Illinois $0 $85 $85
Tulsa $0 $78 $78
Illinois $0 $77 $77
Louisiana-Lafayette $0 $75 $75
USF $0 $75 $75
New Mexico $0 $72 $72
SMU $0 $72 $72
Western Michigan $0 $66 $66
Bowling Green $0 $65 $65
Middle Tennessee $0 $65 $65
Air Force $0 $60 $60
Ball State $0 $60 $60
Central Michigan $0 $60 $60
San Diego State $0 $56 $56
Arkansas State $0 $55 $55
Toledo $0 $55 $55
Troy $0 $50 $50
Eastern Michigan $0 $45 $45
Florida Atlantic $0 $44 $44
New Mexico State $0 $44 $44
Florida International $0 $40 $40
Kent State $0 $30 $30
Western Kentucky $0 $30 $30
NOTES: % - One-time donation allows for purchase of multiple tickets

* - Price includes an estimated $500 necessary donation for opportunity to buy and $50 preferred seat donation (PSD) for an end zone seat

@ - A donation will be required to buy season tickets, but the minimum for this season has not yet been determined

& - Minimum donation required to be eligible to purchase tickets, but realistically isn't enough to get opportunity for purchase

+ - Donation includes $50 for Nittany Lion Club membership and $100 to get into lottery to purchase tickets

a - Donation includes $55 for Gamecock Club membership and $50 for seat license

b - Standing room only

c - For access to grass hillside, no seats

lexus larry

June 15th, 2010 at 2:26 PM ^

tells a lot of the story. That one-time, non-refundable $500.00 hurts. But once that's done, it's obviously not an annually recurring thing. (Holy redundancy, Batperson!)

Section 1

June 15th, 2010 at 6:30 PM ^

a "$50 preferred seating donation" is for an endzone seat.

If $1000 to UW gives you a chance to buy season tickets forever, (I'm not at all sure that it does), then that's really cheap compared to Michigan's tiered PSD levels, which max out at $500, per ticket, per year, every year (to say nothing about how those seats might have been historically assigned in the first place).

It must be hard for Rivals, since there are not just apples and oranges, but also grapes and berries and kumquats and coconuts in this massive, weird calculation.

And I am not sure, but I am guessnig that 50-yard line seats in the Yale Bowl might be more expensive than my 50 yard line seats in Michigan Stadium.

James Burrill Angell

June 15th, 2010 at 2:51 PM ^

Miami (both the school and the city) are like L.A. The people have too much other crap going on to be too into sports so unless they're undefeated and a big deal, people don't go. I was getting my law degree there in the mid/late 90's when they had Ray Lewis and Warren Sapp (pre-probation) and the only game that would fill the Orange Bowl was Florida State. Most of the other games were 1/2 to 1/4 empty. Miami sports fans are foul.

Quail2theVict0r

June 15th, 2010 at 2:34 PM ^

I still don't get it, it says that it used to be a donation of $1500. I got my tickets in '08 after being on the list for about 8 years. I paid $20 to get on the list, it was free when I first signed up, and then I paid $100 every year to stay on the list. I got odd packages of like 3 tickets per year until 2008 in which they offered me season tickets. In 2009 I paid the same $100 per ticket and got the same seats. So I'm still not sure where they are getting these $500-$1500 donations.

lexus larry

June 15th, 2010 at 2:38 PM ^

She who must be obeyed (and her mom) would have fired me, if I dropped that kinda cashola, ever.
I think I had a $125/seat PSD since day one, since I'm not in endzone seats, and transferred m-i-l tickets for a one time fee, several years ago. Don't remember, but I think that was $500, also a one time dealio.

Noahdb

June 15th, 2010 at 3:09 PM ^

I was getting my law degree there in the mid/late 90's when they had Ray Lewis and Warren Sapp (pre-probation) and the only game that would fill the Orange Bowl was Florida State. Most of the other games were 1/2 to 1/4 empty. Miami sports fans are foul.

It didn't help that they played in the Orange Bowl for so long...which was not the best part of town. I got into a long conversation during a rain delay once about the stadium in the US that was in the worst part section of town.

Memorial Stadium in Baltimore was pretty bad. RFK in DC is right next to some sketchy places. I never made it to old Tiger Stadium, but  I remember someone nominating it. But everyone agreed that the Orange Bowl was the pits. One guy said that he made sure to rent a car and always roll the windows down whenever he had to cover a game there, because it was going to get broken into.

Quail2theVict0r

June 15th, 2010 at 3:12 PM ^

heck, I would go to their games if I lived in the area. DVR the Michigan games and spend the day at a Miami game. Good football is good football, it's odd that they can't fill that stadium.

James Burrill Angell

June 15th, 2010 at 3:17 PM ^

So much so that the new stadium for the Florida Marlins is going up in that location. If it was really that awful I'm sure they would avoid the area. Its just Little Havana and a decent part of it at that. The Overtown and Jackson (where the UM Hospital is) areas of Miami are infinitely worse. I've lived in the NYC, D.C., Miami and now Detroit areas and had to go into the urban areas of each (I currently go into downtown Detroit two or three times a week) and the Orange Bowl area is still probably one of the less intimidating of all the areas. Frankly, my car was stolen in South Beach and broken into in Coconut Grove and once on campus in Coral Gables, but nothing ever happened on any of my trips to the Orange Bowl.

Mr. Robot

June 15th, 2010 at 3:20 PM ^

Are probably a tad off due to the whle luxury box thing. I don't remember any specifics, but I know that was a throwing a monkey wrench into season ticketing, and that includes the pricing and availability.

Hopefully after the rich old dudes who like to sit the whole game move on up to the boxes and such, we can add some fresh blood to the bowl and make sure '09 OSU doesn't happen ever again.

Getting back to winning would probably help too.

Section 1

June 15th, 2010 at 4:48 PM ^

at the 2009 game in Ann Arbor.  I was there; I didn't sell my seats. 

No, the problem was that Michigan fans who have had historic opportunities to sit in good seats for a couple of years haven't snapped them up!

It's been explained before, in these here web-pages:  For many years, with the Stadium renovation plans and then construction in the works, the Michigan Ticket Office has been "banking" all discontinued season ticket subscriptions.  And the reason that they have "banked" those tickets is because after this year, they will do a minor reshuffling of all seats in order to accomodate the widening of aisleways, the building of handrails, etc. 

That construction will actually reduce the number of seats in the bowl.  (This year might see the biggest-ever recorded attendance numbers in the Stadium for that reason.)  And the way that the seat losses will be accomodated will be via discontinuance of the "banked" seats, which have been sold for the last few years as single game tickets or else as mini-package tickets.  If sold as season tickets, they would be non-renewable season tickets.

So that thing with the 2009 OSU game will likely never happen again, and the reason that it happened at all was because some die-hard visiting fans bought the tickets and not the casual Michigan fans.

Indeed, I had several friendly conversations with OSU fans at that game; I asked them all how they got their tickets.  The stories varied, but most just bought them through some pretty ordinary channels.  (I also attribute some of it to the development of online ticket outlets; how much I can't say, but there is no doubt in my mind it is a large part.)

Mr. Robot

June 16th, 2010 at 1:17 AM ^

Didn't mean to do that. You said exactly what I couldn't remember about why, that being the whole reserving them for not existing anymore.

I know the current holders didn't sell out anymore than they normally do. As much as you guys sometimes pay for them, I'd be surprised if you could count the sellouts on your fingers...

Six In A Row

June 15th, 2010 at 4:09 PM ^

I think that luxury boxes aren't figured in. It looks to me like it's not what you're "grandfathered in" at ... but what it would take a new person applying today to get season tix.

mgovictors23

June 15th, 2010 at 5:26 PM ^

I've actually gone to a game there and it must be the only college football stadium where half the stadium is for the home team and the other half is for the away team. I'm surprised their not 120 on that list.

leftrare

June 15th, 2010 at 6:03 PM ^

Would have been nice for Rivals to say maybe just what season this was based on... last year or the coming year.  Also, it doesn't really help to know what the "minimum" season ticket is to know the overall gate revenue, which at the end of the day, is the more important number.  I would think that with the addition of the suites, Michigan's overall gate will be right up there with tOSU.