Chaifetz - New Seats

[Box and Won]

Randomness:

The seats (in the green section, at least) may end up being a tight fit for a lot of people. I weigh 175, and found the seats to be far from roomy.

The packet that they give you when you pay for your seats includes a coupon for a free Billiken t-shirt if you spend $30 at the spirit store during the seat selection process - pretty good deal.

[kappy96]

Randomness:

The seats (in the green section, at least) may end up being a tight fit for a lot of people. I weigh 175, and found the seats to be far from roomy.

The packet that they give you when you pay for your seats includes a coupon for a free Billiken t-shirt if you spend $30 at the spirit store during the seat selection process - pretty good deal.

I agree on the narrowness of the Green seats. My seats are in the last row of 106 and the cup holders actually are on the arm rests of the chairs making them even more narrow. Not sure why they couldn't just put the cup holders on the back of the seats in front of us but what ever........That is the one major complaint I have about the seats.

[Clock_Tower]

section 101 is between us. it will be nice having someone who can bring the heat and backup the band in our area!

skip, of course i am sure you will be very polite to the opposing coaches as they leave the floor. god dont you wish we still had the likes of huggy, calipari, kevin o'neil, pitino in our conference now? your seat would be gold for the chance to quietly converse with huggy a couple of times a game.

Roy. As mentioned, quite excited about Section 101. Would like to meet and buy a beer (even at $7.25 per beer - ouch) for B.com'ers in this Section.

As to the opposing teams, I asked and was told that the Bills would come in and out of the Section 101 tunnel but that the opposing team would come in and out of the tunnel on the other side of the students (by the Blue Crew). I assume this is accurate.

BTW, my 6 year old son is quite excited to be at the Billiken tunnel (though I'd love to drop a few lines to other teams over the season). Along these same lines, Kevin Lisch helped us sign our paperwork. As you would expect, KL was a complete class act, he spent a little time and talked with my son and I am certain there will be another set of eyes watching and cheering KL's every move on the Court this year. Thanks KL.

[Box and Won]

I agree on the narrowness of the Green seats. My seats are in the last row of 106 and the cup holders actually are on the arm rests of the chairs making them even more narrow. Not sure why they couldn't just put the cup holders on the back of the seats in front of us but what ever........That is the one major complaint I have about the seats.

We initially looked at the last row in 117, but chose 118 for that very same reason.

[bonwich]

Chose at 5:54. I think they were getting a little slaphappy -- they actually skipped calling us. Ended up one row behind the first rail in the endzone. Could have been really close to Nark and Box, but my daughter convinced me that our true calling in life is to yell where the refs can hear us.

I was really pleased to see that the entire lower bowl is likely to be season ticket holders. 108-110 were filled to the lower railing (row L?) -- the very last group save singles behind the basket went while we were there. Except, of course, the expensive seats: Fewer than half on the bench side have been sold, and I'd guess only about 2/3 on the other side. Oddly, two blue seats did get sold while we were there.

The other weird thing is that some adjacent seats in the same rows angle into each other. We looked a little higher in 111, but backed off when my daughter figured out that we're all relatively tall (at 5-8, she's the shortest of the four of us) and two people's knees would end up banging during the games.)

We also need to hope for a fabulous marketing campaign to the students such that they actually show up.

[Box and Won]

We also need to hope for a fabulous marketing campaign to the students such that they actually show up.

That student section seems awfully big, doesn't it? Good turnout by the students is going to be critical.

[Pistol]

"We also need to hope for a fabulous marketing campaign to the students such that they actually show up."

That student section seems awfully big, doesn't it? Good turnout by the students is going to be critical.

Bonwich and Box, you guys are spot on with this concern. Just because we built it doesn't mean they'll come. Student apathy is a tough ship to turn around, and this team is going to struggle at times to get wins. My fear is that the season ticket price is going to scare away some students, even though it is a comparable price to a lot of other schools' season tickets and it will be added to the tuition bill rather than the students themselves charged. One thing that bothered me at SLU was that even though most kids' parents were taking care of the tuition and other bills, students had a knack for complaining about the cost of things or the way money was spent by the University. I fear that a lot of them are going to be upset that tickets are no longer free- not that most of them took advantage of that, anyway.

As long as the atmosphere is fun and enough students go to games right away, I think they'll see the value in going and paying- I mean, having their parents pay.

All I can do is guarantee that section 205, row E, seats 17 and 18 are filled every game.

[FromDaEastSide]

Picked yesterday before 1:00pm, picked out some aisle seats in 110 on the 111 side of the aisle. The process was smooth and very easy. I took some pictures of the bowl for the out of towners and will add them when I have a chance. The funny thing is the older lady who picked 2 slots in front me, she was picking 2 seats for her husband and was upset that all of the Gold Seats were gone, because that is what they put down for deposit. I wanted to say "Well, you should of donated more money to the school and you would of picked earlier." I did not see her in the check out line.

[Billiken Rich]

All I can do is guarantee that section 205, row E, seats 17 and 18 are filled every game.

I'll be close by in 205 row D seats 7-10, again for EVERY game!

[Clock_Tower]

Picked yesterday before 1:00pm, picked out some aisle seats in 110 on the 111 side of the aisle. The process was smooth and very easy. I took some pictures of the bowl for the out of towners and will add them when I have a chance. The funny thing is the older lady who picked 2 slots in front me, she was picking 2 seats for her husband and was upset that all of the Gold Seats were gone, because that is what they put down for deposit. I wanted to say "Well, you should of donated more money to the school and you would of picked earlier." I did not see her in the check out line.

To my knowledge, no one at the SLU promised you'd get what you reserved. At the same time, that couple's expectations sounds similar to most on this Board - they are happy or relatively happy with their seats but did think that more seats have been reserved than they expected. For instance, my parents reserved 4 Gold and picked Monday afternoon (I forget but believe they were around #600??). Anyway, when it was their turn, only the last 2 rows of Gold behind the visitor's bench was available. Instead, they chose only 2 Red instead of 4 Gold. Must be quite of few who did the opposite, bought more Gold than they reserved. Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled that so many put their wallets behind their mouth and actually paid $850 per seat. Quite a jump from last year of $275, or so, per seat. Also, no sour grapes for me since I was never going to get Gold seats.

At the same time, I'm skeptical that all the Gold/Red seats were really up for sale. Recall some of the real early account holders saying they were a bit surprised that so many seats were gone when they picked. If AD May is correct in saying that we will have 5,500 season tickets, then I'd say it sure looks like we are on pace for alot more than 5500 to be taken. By all accounts, the lower bowl is nearly full, the better upper bowl seats are taken, there are approximately 2100 accounts and we started the day around account 1250 so we still have alot of groups left. If 800 groups each pick 2 seats, then 1600 more seats will be taken.

I was never going to buy Gold so this is not personal for me. Also, am not trying to start a false rumor or be Oliver Stone but I am wondering if sales are going stronger than expectations - 5500 seats. But I do ask: did the school reserve more tickets than most thought - whether for future use, opposing teams, dignitaries, media, etc.? Are groups buying more than estimated? Believe you can only buy the number that you reserved. Is the student section much larger than estimated? Do you think the student section holds approx. 1,000 seats? In short, if the building holds 10,600 and if 1000 are reserved for students, then 9,600 should be left. I'd estimate that 7,000 seats are in the lower section and 3,600 in the upper. After subtracting 1,000 student seats from 7,000 lower bowl tickets, that would mean that 6000 seats on the lower bowl have been reserved.

What am I missing? Are my estimates way off?

[davidnark]

I talked to the SLU marketing guys for quite some time Tuesday evening. They told me that close to 8,000 seats will be taken when the selection process was completed. I didn't ask whether that included the student seats.

[Clock_Tower]

I talked to the SLU marketing guys for quite some time Tuesday evening. They told me that close to 8,000 seats will be taken when the selection process was completed. I didn't ask whether that included the student seats.

Hey, that's great news! Also, makes a little more sense seeing all those seats taken. David, were they a little surprised? Or, did I mis-remember the 5,500 figure which I believe I heard AD May say on radio.

[Cowboy]

is this the thread with the most posts/replies in the history of billikens.com?

[SluSignGuy]

is this the thread with the most posts/replies in the history of billikens.com?

Yep, by about 60 posts.

[NH]

Yep, by about 60 posts.

wow, thats pretty lame. We break the record talking about seating

[MB73]

Picked yesterday before 1:00pm, picked out some aisle seats in 110 on the 111 side of the aisle. The process was smooth and very easy. I took some pictures of the bowl for the out of towners and will add them when I have a chance. The funny thing is the older lady who picked 2 slots in front me, she was picking 2 seats for her husband and was upset that all of the Gold Seats were gone, because that is what they put down for deposit. I wanted to say "Well, you should of donated more money to the school and you would of picked earlier." I did not see her in the check out line.

She and her husband might be alumni, 20 yr season ticket holders, but did not join The Billiken Club. Someone from Boston could have bought one season ticket in '07-08, joined the Billiken Club, and got ahead of them, and then bought 8 tickets, some for friends. So I do not think it is that funny.

[davidnark]

Someone from Boston could have bought one season ticket in '07-08, joined the Billiken Club, and got ahead of them, and then bought 8 tickets, some for friends. So I do not think it is that funny.

Or should could have paid the $125 to join the Billiken Club--like 1,200 other accounts did--and preserved her higher ranking. They have been communicating this requirement to the season ticket holders for nearly two years.

[kshoe]

I talked to the SLU marketing guys for quite some time Tuesday evening. They told me that close to 8,000 seats will be taken when the selection process was completed. I didn't ask whether that included the student seats.

That is great news. Much better than the alternative that could have been 5,500 seats were reserved yet when people came to actually buy the tickets only 4,000 were sold and the Gold section is largely still available.

[billiken_roy]

i want the casual fan to be frozen out. i want the billikens to be a tough ticket which will in turn likely force the media to pay attention and focus on "another sellout at chaifetz".

once we start getting that kind of print/airplay local up and comer high schoolers take notice of the billikens even more so and all at once kids are committing and saying, "i always wanted to be a billiken".

next thing we know the billikens are the main game in town.

[Clock_Tower]

i want the casual fan to be frozen out. i want the billikens to be a tough ticket which will in turn likely force the media to pay attention and focus on "another sellout at chaifetz".

once we start getting that kind of print/airplay local up and comer high schoolers take notice of the billikens even more so and all at once kids are committing and saying, "i always wanted to be a billiken".

next thing we know the billikens are the main game in town.

Well said. Even when we would routinely get 12,500 for a Saturday day/night game against Marquette, Cincy, etc., we never got the true "home court" benefit that Mizzou would get if 12,500 cheered for MU over KU. Instead, it not only affected the game result but also the atmosphere for recruits. I must say, that when I walked into the Scott his past year for XU game, I could not believe I was attending a Billiken game. I immediately joked if there was a local college around, asked what free items they were passing out to get people to the Scott and wondered why so many young people were at this Alumni event. Instead of the large student crowd and the energy in the building which nearly enabled us to pull off a huge upset, we would have had a normal 15 point loss against X with our typical 25 Blue Crew die-hards. In the past, no one ever needed to plan in advance to get tickets, no one was ever turned away if they wanted to go to a game, etc. Cannot blame the media too much in that the program did get some respect when we did well; however, the media was no different than the casual fan - no one really took our Bills seriously. Hopefully, that is changing.