tax deductible "arena fees"

[jimbofive]

No more cartels - LOL. Like there's certain sections that everyone knows has fake tickets, but they're too scared to call them on it, because last time someone caused a fuss he got blown up in his Cadillac.

[kappy96]

Let me know how that goes as I am in the exact situation as you except my father and I both have our own seats and are contemplating options. We can chat over pm's but I have some thoughts.

[Billiken Rich]

My dad is in Florida but for a a game a year or so. Having the same name we just changed the mailing address. If you are in the same boat, I'd suggest pooling your resources and priority as well.

[cheeseman]

OK here is how this can be a train wreck waiting to happen. Senerio A: Curly has 6 tix in his name and he has been selling 4 of them to Moe and Larry. Curly has a Club ranking of 50. He now wants to buy the Gold section so he had Moe and Larry write a check for $450 and $400 per seat they have. The checks are written to SLU. SLU gets the correct amount of money so they except the order and process as in the past. Now everybody who has been a Club member has been expecting to move up but find out that they are no better off then before. Scenerio B: Curly has the checks written as above and SLU rejects the order. Now Curly, Moe and Larry are pissed off and complain that they are long time season tix holders who will never come to a game again.

My point is until somebody from SLU comes out and says which Scenerio is in place then I will be leary of what can happen. You can read the rules any way you want but until the bitching starts you do not know were the school will come down. They are not going to turn away all those tix and seat donations lightly. Read above in this thread and see all the back door manipulation that people are already coming up with.

By the way, thanks for the clarification of the membership and donation fee situation.

[Clock_Tower]

Any system must have some room for "minor issues" of unfairness. If fairness and points were supreme, every ticket should belong to its own account holder. Such approach would force ticket holders to sit by themselves, or else, sit in a worse seat depending upon the points, if any, held by the spouse, child, or friend.

Spouses and kids, then, would not be able to "ride on the coat-tails" of their husband/wife. To prevent this absurdity, SLU allows a ticket holder to sit with up to 7 others (8 seats per account). As an example, a ticket holder could sit with his wife, 3 kids and their spouses - 8 seats. This seems fair to me.

For 13 years, my wife and I have been paying my parents (season ticket holders since 1983). Now, I guess we will write the checks directly to SLU. My family has 4 tickets total. Have my wife and I been riding on my parents' coattails for 13 years. Sure. At the same time, if my wife and I had formed our own account 13 years ago and sat by ourselves all these years, we'd have considerable seniority by now as well. If this is a trainwreck, so be it. If and when my parents die, I fully intend to keep purchasing our 2 seats, or possibly all 4, in my father's name. My new nickname coincidentally will become my father's name. I venture to say this is, and will continue to be, common practice in the first few rows of seating. Does anyone really want SLU to start cross-checking its season ticket holders for truthful addresses, with nursing homes and with the Bureau of Vital Statitics.

[slu72 fan]

As I understand the plan, if the tickets are in your father's name, he can continue to obtain four. In fact, he may obtain as many eight seats. However, if you sit in an area which requires an annual donation, he will have to make it. If you give him the money to make it that works too, but I disagree with Unca, the school has not indicated that they are willing to identify anyone other than the person whose place was used for seat selection to obtain a tax deduction for a contribution to the Billiken Club.

Actually, the Athletic Department is trying to be fair and reward the contributors to the program and not let others obtain premium seats on the coat tails of others. They learned from the Debbie Yow debacle.

If you'd like the definitive answer contact Mark Wright at the AD. This is basically the plan he devised.

[TheA_Bomb]

Back to the original question about the taxes the school will give each donor under someone elses umbrella a letter. My evidence for this is that recently we the Sigma Chi Fraternity raised funds to purchase one brick. The single brick was purchased with multiple checks and each person received a letter for their donation.

[drkelsey55]

The school may give a let for the donation, but the Season Ticket hold would still get the points in his name only as he is the Billiken Club Member.

[slu72 fan]

I'm not sure that what happened with the bricks correlates to the annual donation. I discussed this with Mark Wright several months ago. I have six tickets and my brother typically uses 2 or 3 for each game. I asked Mark if my brother made the contribution for the 2 or 3 he uses would that work and he indicated that I would have to make the donation, since it was in my name. Maybe, they've changed over the last few months, but I haven't heard anything different.

[sltom6]

Although the donation will be made in your name, and thus you get the tax deduction, will you be asking your brother to kick in?

[cheeseman]

Of course you will ask the other person to pay the seat donation. Why would you pay it and loose control of the seat. Thanks for the info from what Mark Wright said - I plan to call today and get all my questions answered. But, clearly from what others have posted they are assuming a number of scenerios that work in their favor as being OK. I am not sure how somebody can make a donation in a dead person's name and expect to use it for their tax return but I guess stranger things have happened. As you can see, this can be a very messy issue and SLU needs to clarify things to make sure everyone understands what they can and can not do. What I see happening is people assuming they can do what they have done in the past, send their $50 in and then find out next summer that they are screwed or those thinking they they are playing by the rules come to find out next summer that they are being end around by people wanting to inherit their father's tix even though the rules clearly state that only their mother can inherit the tix. To complicate matter more, if I read the stuff correctly, we will go through this again every 3 years. Sorry, but my experience tells me this is a problem waiting to explode.

[slu72 fan]

I think you're doing the smart thing by calling Mark. I did earlier this morning and posted the info he provided me. I'm not so sure people will pony up donations to their friends for payment to the AD. They will not receive any tax benefit for that.

[billiken_roy]

folks that beat the system before but were warned that this day would come are now trying to still have the cake and eat it too.

it may sound a little draconian, but sorry, the word has been out for 15 years that the priority points system would indeed be in place when a new arena came. folks chose to ignore it and sit ahead of true boosters.

i still say the best course of action is to bit the bullet and become your own booster asap, and as each reshuffling period comes up you will pass up the boosters that are not participating at your level.

either that, or the person that has been riding the coattails for 17 years needs to catch up all at once. i am sure mark wright or margo lubus will be happy to tell you the dollars a new booster needs to donate to move up the line.

but i hope slu holds firm on ending the game playing that has been going on for far too long.

[brianstl]

They still have the system beat.

[billiken_roy]

brian, it depends what is trying to be accomplished by the fan.

if they thought they were going to continue to sit in the courtside seats without bucking up more than the cost of the seat, well unless that booster that was buying all the tickets in the past was a very sizeable benefactor, that will not be possible anymore. someone is going to have to pay for the arena fee per seat and for the gold and blue seats that wont be a small amount if the cartell holder has the 8 seats. for gold you are talking about at least $3200 up and beyond the cost of the seats. for blue you are talking between $20,000 and $30,000 to have 8 seats in one person's name. that almost certainly is going to generate some money for the billiken club because i dont think we have all that many individuals donating $30,000 per year.

so the seat holder is undoubtedly going to have to buck up and slu will win in sheer revenue.

if by "beating the system" there is a way they can hold their place in line, i agree there are ways, but it involves trust in the cartell holder and likely isnt permanent as everyone indeed will someday die.

i still say instead of continuing as is, the best thing to do is everyone become their own booster now.

[brianstl]

There are groups of tickets and Billiken Club donations being made in dead peoples names already and it has been happening for a long time.

[Clock_Tower]

Agree with you about the game playing. In my case, as mentioned, my wife and I sit with my parents. Seats are often exchanged to allow kids/grandkids to attend. Often times, due to busy schedules, only 3 of us 4 can attend a weeknight game. As such, am reluctant to purchase 2 seats in my own name, not sit with parents/grandparents, and sit higher up - sometimes by myself - if the game playing is tolerated by others.

Why should I believe that 2008 is any different than moving into the old Arena and then moving into Savvis? Any system that allows 1 guy to purchase 8 tickets, IMO, is designed to allow/encourage game playing.

As for dead people, I guarantee that SLU has been, is and will continue selling tickets to dead people.