Ticket Prices are going to increase

[mpilot0705]

Originally Posted by appcenter52

This is hilarious to me. Where are all the haters? If Hyman were still here you all would have your panties in a bundle over this increase. There would be more bitching and moaning than one could handle, but since its Tanner, its a great idea! You gotta pay to compete in the SEC! Look, I think Tanner is doing and will continue to do a great job, but with facilities and ticket price increases, he's doing exactly what Hyman was doing but now all of the sudden its okay. Anyway, had to call the Hyman haters out.

Because if Hyman was here he wouldn't have just raised tickets a little and left it at that....he would have restructured the dues or something so that the "bigger" donors get better seats. The problem with that business model is they might be bigger donors now but what if they only join for a few years then quit if we have a couple of mediocre seasons down the road. Yes they might be making a larger contribution right now to the program but over a lifetime of donation there are some people who have given a lot to the university only give a little bit each year. That was the main problem with Hyman.....that and he was a Tarheel which explains about all the rest of the issues with him.

Ray Tanner was blessed with a thing a lot of us are....tact....Hyman was blessed with arrogance....just the way he went about things, particularly behind the scenes. make my stomach churn.....I'm not saying he didn't raise a lot of money for facilities and what not but that's the only positive thing I can say about the man. Ray Tanner could be the worst AD in the country but people would still respect him for being the man of integrity he is...if Hyman wasn't a phenomenal fundraiser what would you respect him for?

[cack]

Originally Posted by appcenter52

This is hilarious to me. Where are all the haters? If Hyman were still here you all would have your panties in a bundle over this increase. There would be more bitching and moaning than one could handle, but since its Tanner, its a great idea! You gotta pay to compete in the SEC! Look, I think Tanner is doing and will continue to do a great job, but with facilities and ticket price increases, he's doing exactly what Hyman was doing but now all of the sudden its okay. Anyway, had to call the Hyman haters out.

I think the difference is the time of the increases.

When Hyman wanted to raise the prices we were AT BEST a middle of the road SEC team in all sports (more towards the top in Baseball). Nobody could justify paying the extra money, because we weren't seeing the results.

Back to the present, we've won 11 games in back to back seasons, we've beaten Clemson 4 straight seasons, the winningest class in school history, greatest finish is school history ... we've won 2 National Championships in Baseball ... people have now seen what paying a little extra here and there can really do for the program, and are a little more open to the idea.

I also think that at the time of his increase, nobody really TRUELY believed we could be where we are today. Now, the fanbase believes we can be a winner

[appcenter52]

Originally Posted by cack

I think the difference is the time of the increases.

When Hyman wanted to raise the prices we were AT BEST a middle of the road SEC team in all sports (more towards the top in Baseball). Nobody could justify paying the extra money, because we weren't seeing the results.

Back to the present, we've won 11 games in back to back seasons, we've beaten Clemson 4 straight seasons, the winningest class in school history, greatest finish is school history ... we've won 2 National Championships in Baseball ... people have now seen what paying a little extra here and there can really do for the program, and are a little more open to the idea.

I also think that at the time of his increase, nobody really TRUELY believed we could be where we are today. Now, the fanbase believes we can be a winner

And what do ALL the coaches responsible for the success you mention say that helped get there? Facilities. And who was responsible for the upgrade? Hyman. You mention all that success, and you're right, but Hyman got us the facilites to compete at the highest level. How often did you hear Spurrier praise Hyman for upgrading facilities? Very often. But sure, its easier to increase prices when fans see the product on the field improving, but Hyman is the reason we got this facility thing moving.

[appcenter52]

Originally Posted by mpilot0705

Because if Hyman was here he wouldn't have just raised tickets a little and left it at that....he would have restructured the dues or something so that the "bigger" donors get better seats. The problem with that business model is they might be bigger donors now but what if they only join for a few years then quit if we have a couple of mediocre seasons down the road. Yes they might be making a larger contribution right now to the program but over a lifetime of donation there are some people who have given a lot to the university only give a little bit each year. That was the main problem with Hyman.....that and he was a Tarheel which explains about all the rest of the issues with him.

Ray Tanner was blessed with a thing a lot of us are....tact....Hyman was blessed with arrogance....just the way he went about things, particularly behind the scenes. make my stomach churn.....I'm not saying he didn't raise a lot of money for facilities and what not but that's the only positive thing I can say about the man. Ray Tanner could be the worst AD in the country but people would still respect him for being the man of integrity he is...if Hyman wasn't a phenomenal fundraiser what would you respect him for?

Where do I begin? He got us on par with the rest of the SEC when before we wer way behing. He hired Frank Martin, Dawn Staley, and yes Horn, whcih we know didn't work out. What you are saying is basically even if Tanner was a terrible AD (I think hes done a great job and will continue to do so) as long as he kissed asss and wasn't arrogant you'd be okay with it. All i'm saying is i don't care how much i get my ass kissed, i want someone who will do the best job. Unfortunately, there are many in the fanbase that are more concerned about how nice someone is to them than they are about the final result.

[Nureye]

Originally Posted by mpilot0705

Because if Hyman was here he wouldn't have just raised tickets a little and left it at that....he would have restructured the dues or something so that the "bigger" donors get better seats. The problem with that business model is they might be bigger donors now but what if they only join for a few years then quit if we have a couple of mediocre seasons down the road. Yes they might be making a larger contribution right now to the program but over a lifetime of donation there are some people who have given a lot to the university only give a little bit each year.

Absolute, 100%, Grade A, garbage. Do you even have season tickets?

It's was Hyman's policies that made it so that the little people (me) could get seats in the West Lower. Before PSL's the long time donors had a monopoly on tix in the good areas. Even though they weren't giving as much money as some people in the East Upper.

The PSL's freed up seats that were being held hostage by donors that had been giving roundhouse level support for 50 years.

You argument is based on "what if's" and "maybe's".

Also,the "bigger" donors should get the best seats. They give the most money. What kind of stupidity is it to argue otherwise?

[ElectricCock]

Originally Posted by Nureye

Absolute, 100%, Grade A, garbage. Do you even have season tickets?

It's was Hyman's policies that made it so that the little people (me) could get seats in the West Lower. Before PSL's the long time donors had a monopoly on tix in the good areas. Even though they weren't giving as much money as some people in the East Upper.

The PSL's freed up seats that were being held hostage by donors that had been giving roundhouse level support for 50 years.

You argument is based on "what if's" and "maybe's".

Also,the "bigger" donors should get the best seats. They give the most money. What kind of stupidity is it to argue otherwise?

boom

well said sir

[mpilot0705]

Originally Posted by appcenter52

Where do I begin? He got us on par with the rest of the SEC when before we wer way behing. He hired Frank Martin, Dawn Staley, and yes Horn, whcih we know didn't work out. What you are saying is basically even if Tanner was a terrible AD (I think hes done a great job and will continue to do so) as long as he kissed asss and wasn't arrogant you'd be okay with it. All i'm saying is i don't care how much i get my ass kissed, i want someone who will do the best job. Unfortunately, there are many in the fanbase that are more concerned about how nice someone is to them than they are about the final result.

Not at all what I'm saying......read it again...I'm just saying sometimes there are things more important....like loyalty. Hyman is known as a fundraiser/AD and that's all he's known for. Tanner is far from an ass kisser but he is a good man who keeps his word and has integrity. If you only heard some of the shit behind the scenes you might have a different view of the guy.....a bit of an elitist if you ask me. Honestly Tanner has been able to raise money to get projects done on a much quicker timeline than Hyman was able to do....a lot of the projects that are upcoming are ahead of the timeline Hyman set out because Tanner went out on his fundraising junket. He was able to use his personality to appeal to all levels of our fandbase not just the top tier who were willing to dump large sums. There is more than one way to skin a cat and from what I can tell so far Tanner's way is the right way. There is a compromise between raising money to improve a program and not being a dick about it. There are nicer ways to say sorry we are taking your seats than if you can't afford them then too bad...we will give them to someone we can.

[cack]

Originally Posted by appcenter52

And what do ALL the coaches responsible for the success you mention say that helped get there? Facilities. And who was responsible for the upgrade? Hyman. You mention all that success, and you're right, but Hyman got us the facilites to compete at the highest level. How often did you hear Spurrier praise Hyman for upgrading facilities? Very often. But sure, its easier to increase prices when fans see the product on the field improving, but Hyman is the reason we got this facility thing moving.

I wasn't complaining about Hyman ...?

I was simplying saying the reason people complained THEN and not NOW is because we couldn't see the benefit of raising the prices and now they can.

I'm not a season ticket holder, so I don't have a dog in the fight.

[Nureye]

Originally Posted by mpilot0705

Not at all what I'm saying......read it again...I'm just saying sometimes there are things more important....like loyalty.

This is SO "Old" Carolina it makes me sick.

Loyalty didn't do squat for this program for over 100 years.

You want to be loyal? Then open up your checkbook.

[mpilot0705]

Originally Posted by Nureye

Absolute, 100%, Grade A, garbage. Do you even have season tickets?

It's was Hyman's policies that made it so that the little people (me) could get seats in the West Lower. Before PSL's the long time donors had a monopoly on tix in the good areas. Even though they weren't giving as much money as some people in the East Upper.

The PSL's freed up seats that were being held hostage by donors that had been giving roundhouse level support for 50 years.

You argument is based on "what if's" and "maybe's".

Also,the "bigger" donors should get the best seats. They give the most money. What kind of stupidity is it to argue otherwise?

Yes. My grandfater has season tickets, my mother and stepfather both have a set of season tickets, my father used to buy half of a guys season tickets but the seat licenses ran both of them off, and my wife and I will buy our first set of season tickets this year....so.....yeah......

The PSL's also ran off a lot of families that donated money outside of the 55 a year you are mentioning. I'm not sure how much money you gave to get that low but you must be pretty well off to be able to lay down that kind of coin. Truthfully, my wife and I probably could but there is no way in hell I will. I just can't justify that type of expenditure on 7 days a year. I think when we looked it was at least one of the Spur levels to get a decent shot a lower level. Glad you can lay down the cost of a good used car every year on tickets, donation, psl, etc.....but that doesn't make you "the little guy."

This is the problem with our society as a whole....sometimes there is more than being entitled to something just because you make more money or have more disposable income than someone else. Don't forget those people who "didn't deserve" those tickets were the ones that sat through over 20 years of being an independent when our team sucked most years....and those first 10 years in the SEC where we were pretty bad....but they don't deserve those tickets because you can give more money. The way he did it was calculated to run those people out and that was wrong....had he increased things incrementally, which is what is being done with the tickets, then people could have tried to prepare for it but to jump some tickets up 300 a piece in one year was too much to absorb for a lot of people.

To be honest Hyman's plan won't be shown as a success or failure for 10 years or so. If the gamble pays off and those fans jumping on the bandwagon (and a lot of corporations unfortunately) keep buying and, more importantly, actually using their tickets then it worked. If they have ran off all these people and we fall back to a 6-8 win team yearly and these people bail it will be hard to get a lot of these donors you ran off back.

[mpilot0705]

Originally Posted by Nureye

This is SO "Old" Carolina it makes me sick.

Loyalty didn't do squat for this program for over 100 years.

You want to be loyal? Then open up your checkbook.

As you see from above post mine and my families checkbooks are open...and have been since way before it was cool. I hope you are still around when we inevitability have a few down years but I think that the novelty will wear off when we have a few barely .500 or losing seasons down the road and you will drop the tickets. You my friend are the reason that business is no longer about a handshake and a smile but now about contracts and lawyers. Hope you are happy.

I also want to state this before it is attacked......none of my immediate family were caused to lose the tickets because of the seat licenses only so I am not one of these sour grapes people who had 87 seats. In fact, none of the seats mentioned were in the "old" fans west lower. I just think it is a travesty with our society basing everything on what have you done for me lately. I bet you are in the same group that veterans shouldn't get free medical care through the VA because they aren't paying for it.....

[ColaCock]

So the proposed incremental increases for the GCC giving levels is no longer going to happen?

I do think it is shady to install an increase that happens immediately. I know it's only $45, but still...I'm sure there are some folks who ponied up enough to join the GCC at Roundhouse this year and budgeted it all out.

It is getting expensive, that is for sure. Since this will be my 3rd season living in Tampa, I am not sure I will purchase season tickets this year unless a friend wants to pay the price. I will keep my GCC membership and order tickets to the Central Florida game. I purchased a partial Season Ticket package with the Tampa Bay Rays on 30 games for about $450 less than what Gamecock tickets will cost me.

[robgusc76]

If you can pay $300 bucks for seats $45 isnt going to kill you. If you struggle with that, you may want to re-evaluate your spending on tickets in the first place. Welcome to the top.

[Cocktober Surprise]

Originally Posted by mpilot0705

As you see from above post mine and my families checkbooks are open...and have been since way before it was cool. I hope you are still around when we inevitability have a few down years but I think that the novelty will wear off when we have a few barely .500 or losing seasons down the road and you will drop the tickets.

It's ALWAYS been cool to be a ticket-holding Gamecock...and always will be, goshdarnit!

[mpilot0705]

Originally Posted by robgusc76

If you can pay $300 bucks for seats $45 isnt going to kill you. If you struggle with that, you may want to re-evaluate your spending on tickets in the first place. Welcome to the top.

That's actually a 15% increase....that's pretty substantial percentage wise. Imagine one of your other yearly expenses (vehicle/property tax for example) going up by 15%. Since most people have 2-4 tickets that could be as much as a 180 increase. I know that isn't a lot to all of us but to be quite frank there are a lot of season ticket holders that give up vacations and other luxuries and this is really the only superfluous expenditure they have every year. As Cola said there are a lot of people who budget all year just to be able to get their tickets, particularly some of the older fans on a fixed income that have done everything they could to keep buying tickets despite all of the increases.

[mpilot0705]

I think raising ticket prices is the right thing to do, and honestly should have been done in lieu of (or at least to reduce) the seat licenses. It pisses me off every year that after all is said and done visiting fans can come in and snatch up packs or whole season tickets with no scholarship dues or license fees. Also, there are 10k visting tickets every week that were not subject to any sort of price increase. Vanderbilt actually charges visiting fans around $5 more for tickets than the home seat face values which I think is brilliant. I would have loved to see an across the board ticket price increase when this all first started as it would be a way so that everyone sitting in the stadium carried part of the burden of increased cost and it wasn't all just placed on season ticket holders.

[M.C.]

happily will pay that

[803scdantes]

Originally Posted by cack

I think the difference is the time of the increases.

When Hyman wanted to raise the prices we were AT BEST a middle of the road SEC team in all sports (more towards the top in Baseball). Nobody could justify paying the extra money, because we weren't seeing the results.

Back to the present, we've won 11 games in back to back seasons, we've beaten Clemson 4 straight seasons, the winningest class in school history, greatest finish is school history ... we've won 2 National Championships in Baseball ... people have now seen what paying a little extra here and there can really do for the program, and are a little more open to the idea.

I also think that at the time of his increase, nobody really TRUELY believed we could be where we are today. Now, the fanbase believes we can be a winner

I think you're right regarding the timing, but for a different reason. Right when Hyman raised prices, the economy took a dump and a lot of people, with the down economy fresh on their minds, just decided to forego tickets altogether.

[Spartan]

Originally Posted by b381l

The GC prices were going to go up, but Tanner said because ticket prices were increasing, he said the GC prices would stay the same.

Thanks for this information... though I now want to know why it matters where they get the extra cash from. I am assuming that GCC funds can't be used for capital improvements, and if that's true then what was the intent of raising GCC dues in the first place?

Originally Posted by appcenter52

Where do I begin? He got us on par with the rest of the SEC when before we wer way behing. He hired Frank Martin, Dawn Staley, and yes Horn, whcih we know didn't work out. What you are saying is basically even if Tanner was a terrible AD (I think hes done a great job and will continue to do so) as long as he kissed asss and wasn't arrogant you'd be okay with it. All i'm saying is i don't care how much i get my ass kissed, i want someone who will do the best job. Unfortunately, there are many in the fanbase that are more concerned about how nice someone is to them than they are about the final result.

I just want to point out that while Horn was a bust, he and Devin Downey did get us an SEC East title in 2009, so it wasn't a complete loss.

Originally Posted by mpilot0705

Yes. My grandfater has season tickets, my mother and stepfather both have a set of season tickets, my father used to buy half of a guys season tickets but the seat licenses ran both of them off, and my wife and I will buy our first set of season tickets this year....so.....yeah......

The PSL's also ran off a lot of families that donated money outside of the 55 a year you are mentioning. I'm not sure how much money you gave to get that low but you must be pretty well off to be able to lay down that kind of coin. Truthfully, my wife and I probably could but there is no way in hell I will. I just can't justify that type of expenditure on 7 days a year. I think when we looked it was at least one of the Spur levels to get a decent shot a lower level. Glad you can lay down the cost of a good used car every year on tickets, donation, psl, etc.....but that doesn't make you "the little guy."

This is the problem with our society as a whole....sometimes there is more than being entitled to something just because you make more money or have more disposable income than someone else. Don't forget those people who "didn't deserve" those tickets were the ones that sat through over 20 years of being an independent when our team sucked most years....and those first 10 years in the SEC where we were pretty bad....but they don't deserve those tickets because you can give more money. The way he did it was calculated to run those people out and that was wrong....had he increased things incrementally, which is what is being done with the tickets, then people could have tried to prepare for it but to jump some tickets up 300 a piece in one year was too much to absorb for a lot of people.

To be honest Hyman's plan won't be shown as a success or failure for 10 years or so. If the gamble pays off and those fans jumping on the bandwagon (and a lot of corporations unfortunately) keep buying and, more importantly, actually using their tickets then it worked. If they have ran off all these people and we fall back to a 6-8 win team yearly and these people bail it will be hard to get a lot of these donors you ran off back.

One of the key pieces of information that gets lost in this type of discussion is that one of the main complaints that season ticket holders had before YES was instituted was that it was impossible to get better seats, even after year upon year of loyalty. The point structure in place today actually rewards loyalty in terms of dollars spent, and it creates more equity amongst all Carolina fans - not just those who are fortunate enough to have generations of family that used to pay into the BAM Club in 1937. I like knowing that if my financial situation changes and I increase my donor level that I can be rewarded with a chance at getting much better seats.

[STEPHONGILMOREFAN!]

if the extra 90 bothers you. sell your coastal tix and another slack game u think we will win and you will break even or in the money