Anyone interested in splitting up new club level season tickets?
So I've been interested in getting 2 new season tickets at the club level. But despite my rationale to the wife that 1- the expansion has created a rare opportunity to get M season tickets (to anyone willing pony up the cost) that may not be available again without going on a wait list, and 2- the cost may be tax deductible, she is not completely convinced. The fact that she's a Purdue grad may have something to do with that. Or that because of the license fee one game ticket ends up costing a couple hundred dollars. Anyway, so I hit on the idea of splitting the tickets up, taking 4 games for myself and 4 for a friend. But since most of my M grad friends are now out of state, I struck out. Now I turn to mgoblog. Would anyone be interested in splitting them with me?
Here is my thought. I'm going soon to check out the new seats. I would hypothetically purchase the seats sometime after. I would purchase them in my name and control their future, but for that privilege I would also pay more than half of the total purchase price. Given 8 games this year we could split them up evenly, 4 apiece, on an alternate choice system. I would get first pick (MSU, but I may be willing to negotiate that) and you would have the next, and so on.
Cost breakdown: the cheapest zone of the club level (roughly located at each end zone corner) is $3,000 for two tickets, plus approx. $400 for the season tickets themselves. The next level of club seats are $4,500 (all the info is at mgoblue). If for example, I bought the lowest level of club seat, the total cost would be roughly $3,400. I would pay $1,800 and you $1,600. Higher for the next level up obviously. So that's my thinking.
An email address will be below if anyone is interested, One major caveat upfront: I'm soliciting this and then, if I get an offer that we both agree to, will discuss it with the aforementioned wife. I cannot absolutely guarantee that after that I'm not forced to cancel, or that something else unforeseen (plane crashing into house, financial emergency, etc) occurs to prevent this. We might verbally agree and then two days later you hear from me with my regrets. So don't count on anything until we shake hands, and I accept your check. But the chances are good that acceptance and agreement equals season tickets.
If more than one person responds I'll get back to you in the order that they came in. Email is [email protected]. If I've overlooked something in this I'm sure it will be pointed out. I may hear new info when I go take my tour as well.
sorry left mgoblog up and my cousin posted that
Another notable benefit to getting the club seats this season is the ease you have in selecting the exact seat(s) you want. I don't expect that luxury will still be there after the 1st generation of seat holders are established.
How will you work out the tax deduction?
I'm not interested. I'm happy with my corner endzone, non PSD, seats. And I'm not aware of what the maximum deduction is, but this is certainly need to know info for someone who might be interested.
Bosch's tax deduction point is spot on. I have a hard time believing you'll find someone to pay that much without being able to get the tax deduction themselves.
Might I suggest instead of you buying both seats, pair up to get a seat next to someone else. You each would pay the cost of your own seat (thus each getting the 80% tax deduction on the amount of the PSD). Then you could split up who goes to which games. You could alternate years or something where one year one of you gets first, third, and fifth dibs on the two tickets and the other guy gets the second, fourth, and sixth pick, alternating each year.
I have two club tickets for this upcoming season and probably will not be able to renew them both for next season so I'll be looking for someone to do something like this with eventually.
I'd be very interested in doing that with someone as an alternative to what I suggested--I simply didn't think of that option. If this doesn't work out please keep me in mind for next year.
No. and this was really long and hard to read cause it was so badly formatted.
part the fact that you expect someone else to subsidize your tickets until some time in the future when you will either take them over yourself or stop doing this. Why wouldn't the other person just get the all-in package or individual game tickets if they wanted seats that were essentially non-renewable (to them anyway)?
I'm not trying to be a dick here but if you look at this from the perspective of the other person in this arrangement, I think you'll see that your offer would be difficult to justify.
And why is it "troubling?" I certainly understand that my desire to have the tickets in my name is something that is an advantage, but it is an advantage I'm willing to pay money for, as laid out in my post, and negotiate for, as also laid out. I don't know, that seems pretty upfront and fair to me. Apart from the ability to renew next year (BTW I'd be perfectly happy with this arrangement forever-- for me, this is not a monetary thing necessarily--I'd find it very difficult to attend 8 games in any season, and 4 games is much more doable) the other person has every bit the same enjoyment and ability to enjoy quality games as I do. I don't see at all how this would be a bad deal for someone, if it was offered the other way I'd be tempted to jump in.
to renew is worth the money they charge as a mandatory donation fee. If I didn't have the ability to renew my seats, why would I put money toward this donation? Again, without the ability to renew, the other person would be MUCH better just getting the individual game seats and not pay the donation fee to hold seats that they have no ability to actually hold.
One, there are only seven home games this year, so your split isn't going to work. Obviously that isn't a deal killer, but it's something to compensate for.
Two, I just don't see the appeal of club seats. They are still outside, they're far from the field, and they're really expensive. I realize there's a prestige factor to having them, but I don't see them as being tangibly better for actual football watching.
I think the price issue is why these aren't selling and the University is resorting to trying to push them here. If you get by the prestige and chair backs, you are asking someone to spend $3400 for two seats that aren't in a great location. You can deduct 0.8*3000 = $2400. So say your overall tax bracket is 25%, so that ends up saving you $600 on your taxes, bringing the actual total to $2800. These are just guesses, but here's my estimate of what you could get decent (between the 10s) tickets for the season through stubhub or from a game day scalper (I'll try to estimate high).
UConn - $125 a piece = $250 total
UMass - $40 a piece = $80
BG - $40 a piece = $80
MSU - $150 a piece = $300
Iowa - $150 a piece = $300
Illinois - $100 a piece = $200
Wisconsin - $150 a piece = $300
Season Total = $1510
I'm pretty confident a good / patient customer could do better price wise than I just guessed. So basically, to get two poor club seats, you have to be willing to pay $1300 for a chair back and some prestige. I'm not surprised they aren't selling.