$25 a seat -- but SLU doesn't want your money

[bonwich]

I just got this little tidbit from one of my colleagues, a photographer who went to Kent State. I was giving her trouble for not coming to the game, and it turned out she did -- and the ticket office wouldn't sell her, or her friend, or another half-dozen people, tickets.

She had to work Wed. night. It appears that if you get to our games at or after halftime, you can't buy a ticket. There were still people in the box office, she said -- they just said they could no longer sell tickets. (She did finally get in, although I never heard whether she managed to snag a stub from someone leaning or she just used her shrewd journalism skills [and worthy-of-a-pic-on-the-board appearance, although sorry Jimbo, I don't have any] to talk her way in.)

This incident also reminds me -- are there any signs up yet directing people where to buy tickets during the day, and where to park when they come to campus to buy tickets?

[Cowboy]

I just got this little tidbit from one of my colleagues, a photographer who went to Kent State. I was giving her trouble for not coming to the game, and it turned out she did -- and the ticket office wouldn't sell her, or her friend, or another half-dozen people, tickets.

She had to work Wed. night. It appears that if you get to our games at or after halftime, you can't buy a ticket. There were still people in the box office, she said -- they just said they could no longer sell tickets. (She did finally get in, although I never heard whether she managed to snag a stub from someone leaning or she just used her shrewd journalism skills [and worthy-of-a-pic-on-the-board appearance, although sorry Jimbo, I don't have any] to talk her way in.)

This incident also reminds me -- are there any signs up yet directing people where to buy tickets during the day, and where to park when they come to campus to buy tickets?

-somebody wants to buck up, take their damn money!!!!!!!!

[courtside]

I just got this little tidbit from one of my colleagues, a photographer who went to Kent State. I was giving her trouble for not coming to the game, and it turned out she did -- and the ticket office wouldn't sell her, or her friend, or another half-dozen people, tickets.

She had to work Wed. night. It appears that if you get to our games at or after halftime, you can't buy a ticket. There were still people in the box office, she said -- they just said they could no longer sell tickets. (She did finally get in, although I never heard whether she managed to snag a stub from someone leaning or she just used her shrewd journalism skills [and worthy-of-a-pic-on-the-board appearance, although sorry Jimbo, I don't have any] to talk her way in.)

This incident also reminds me -- are there any signs up yet directing people where to buy tickets during the day, and where to park when they come to campus to buy tickets?

The only sign I have seen is a small ground level sign of the $5 lot North of Lindell. it sits in the middle of the Lindell intersection between Vito's and Compton.

I know people who went for walk up tix v Kent St. and referenced an advertisement for discounted tix and they were told that was online only. The people who went for walk-up tix were mistaken, but the situation was handled in a very poor customer service manner and they were told $28 or nothing in not the greatest fashion, and they walked. I believe/pretty sure they arrived before half-time so they didn't run into the after half-time situation that Bonwich mentions above.

[tenthyearsenior]

The only sign I have seen is a small ground level sign of the $5 lot North of Lindell. it sits in the middle of the Lindell intersection between Vito's and Compton.

I know people who went for walk up tix v Kent St. and referenced an advertisement for discounted tix and they were told that was online only. The people who went for walk-up tix were mistaken, but the situation was handled in a very poor customer service manner and they were told $28 or nothing in not the greatest fashion, and they walked. I believe/pretty sure they arrived before half-time so they didn't run into the after half-time situation that Bonwich mentions above.

How do they expect to get the fringe fan or families at $28 a ticket? I first started going to bills games because it was cheap. I am now a big fan and am willing to shell out $28. If I wasn't a big fan already I wouldn't pay it.

[Clock_Tower]

How dare this Board questions the athletic department?? It if obvious they are simply following the lead of the Cardinals. Talk a good game but spend like a cheap basta$d and then gouge the loyal fans.

[AlumniFan]

How dare this Board questions the athletic department?? It if obvious they are simply following the lead of the Cardinals. Talk a good game but spend like a cheap basta$d and then gouge the loyal fans.

i agree! those cheap bastards only spent $70 million on a crappy arena and then had the audacity to spend only $1 million on an unknown, unproven coach! the arrogance!!!!

[Tonka]

i agree! those cheap bastards only spent $70 million on a crappy arena and then had the audacity to spend only $1 million on an unknown, unproven coach! the arrogance!!!!

The Thomas the Train Show is coming and tickets are $45, $27, $21, and $15. Something tells me that they will sell all the good seats. I don't believe they are gouging anyone on the price of the Billikens. I wonder what the price of seats in other D1 schools with on campus arenas are?

As far as knowing where to park during the day. I am guessing most people would look close to the arena and see ample parking meters on the streets. Or, I am guessing you could even call the Chaifetz and ask. Am I oversimplifying things?

[bonwich]

The Thomas the Train Show is coming and tickets are $45, $27, $21, and $15. Something tells me that they will sell all the good seats. I don't believe they are gouging anyone on the price of the Billikens. I wonder what the price of seats in other D1 schools with on campus arenas are?

As far as knowing where to park during the day. I am guessing most people would look close to the arena and see ample parking meters on the streets. Or, I am guessing you could even call the Chaifetz and ask. Am I oversimplifying things?

Well, yeah, you are. If you pull up next to Kielvis, there's a big sign that says "Tickets" or something similar. At Busch, there's even a special parking area. And in any large institutional complex -- corporations, hospitals, universities -- there's signage pointing to where things are. This is just another case of SLU athletic marketing ignoring the details.

And if you read back a few threads, you'd find that you can buy endzone Mizzou tix for $199 for the whole season. $25 for every seat in the arena for every game except when you know the secret online password to buy tickets for the Little Sisters of the Poor game has not been a well-thought-out pricing policy.

[billiken_roy]

well one thing to consider, at least our halftimes havent been two sixth grade teams scrimmaging yet this season. both the unicycling bowl stacker and the quick change couple were very entertaining. obviously some of our money is going to our vegas halftime shows.

[Clock_Tower]

i agree! those cheap bastards only spent $70 million on a crappy arena and then had the audacity to spend only $1 million on an unknown, unproven coach! the arrogance!!!!

Relax Alumni. Fr. Biondi and the University finally built the arena they promised nearly 20 years ago. I have applauded them, and continue to applaud them for such efforts. The million dollar coach is another example of SLU stepping up. That is not my point. The Cardinal owners did the same thing with the new Busch stadium and rehiring TLR. Just like the Cardinals fans, Billiken fans (and that is my point) have stepped up to the plate and performed. The Cardinal fans continue to support their team as they sell out the stadium including luxury boxes and 3 million people walking through the gates. Billiken fans have opened their wallets, made donations, bought bricks and have renewed season tickets (at nearly double the price) as well as paid "annual arena fees" on top of that price. In return, the athletic department reward its fans with $7 beers at the Tip Off Club and $28 for the worst seats in the building. FYI, the Blues are selling their upper bowl tickets at $11.99 per seat an their lower bowl seats for $25. When buying a seat for Billken game against UMSL, Kent State, etc. is more than the price of a Blues ticket, there is a problem. If you don't see that, I'm sorry.

BTW, my family has renewed its seats, donated money and bought a brick. In return, I am a little pissed that SLU wants $28 from me if I want to bring another family member/friend to a game. Attendance would greatly increase if SLU had a better ticket pricing plan. Additional game day tickets at Savvis were $10 or so - not $28. I stand by my gouging comment.

[billiken_roy]

i have no problem with the courtside blue seats being $28. in fact, i think those seats should not even be available to the public. let select students or the athletes from other sports sit there. no casual fans deserve to sit there unless they want to buy season tickets.

now the upper deck ends, $28 is ridiculous. sell em for $5 and fill the ends. $28 there is indeed gouging.

[thefan]

"I wonder what the price of seats in other D1 schools with on campus arenas are?"

don't know how to put on the quote boxes sorry.

but at Mizzou the cheapest was 14 dollars. I would pay 14 to see kent state but not 28. My family has always had season tickets. I could never afford them so always bought single game tickets. Its going to be tough to pay 28 dollars. I'll watch them on tv and on the internet but doubt i'll make it to more then 2 games.

I know bill fans don't want to hear this and i hope the ADepartment realizes this but with Mizzou tickets being cheap (i'm sometimes up there for business) and Mizzou being on tv more then SLU, Slu may be loosing someone who was willing to spend money on there program.

[courtside]

At SLU's NCAA playoff soccer game, instead of the usual 3 concession stands, there was one. And that one stand had ZERO food items, and for most of the game, the only item they had was $2.00 bad coffee. Considering a pretty decent crowd showing for a 20 degree game, it was beyond my comprehension that they were not only badly unprepared, there wasn't much in the way of adjustments, a small rush of hot chocolate that came and went in a matter of minutes.

SLU also decided to not print programs. But this has been a problem all season long.

[Tonka]

Well, yeah, you are. If you pull up next to Kielvis, there's a big sign that says "Tickets" or something similar. At Busch, there's even a special parking area. And in any large institutional complex -- corporations, hospitals, universities -- there's signage pointing to where things are. This is just another case of SLU athletic marketing ignoring the details.

And if you read back a few threads, you'd find that you can buy endzone Mizzou tix for $199 for the whole season. $25 for every seat in the arena for every game except when you know the secret online password to buy tickets for the Little Sisters of the Poor game has not been a well-thought-out pricing policy.

Wow. I guess the people who can't find out where to buy tickets or figure out where to park and the people who don't know what times the games are because they are not printed on the ticket are just not going to make the games. That's too bad.

[courtside]

How do they expect to get the fringe fan or families at $28 a ticket? I first started going to bills games because it was cheap. I am now a big fan and am willing to shell out $28. If I wasn't a big fan already I wouldn't pay it.

They don't expect to get the fringe fan or families. They also don't care if thousands of seats go empty that could be had for half the price of $28 upper endzone.

I've seen other schools with high prices, but those schools have won at a much higher rate, at higher levels than SLU. You usually win first, then jack your prices. SLU's approach is to build a shiny new building and jack the cost to everyone.

I know you can get tix at Xavier for at least $10 less, Marquette has $9 and $15 seats. BC's tix are much cheaper. And this is with similar like schools who have been more successful than SLU in recent memory. Xavier's building is similar size and newer. Marquette is routinely top 20 in attendance and sells out many Big East home games at 19k. These are just top of head examples.

9100 announced for today's game and it could have been a little more.

[brianstl]

Part of the thought of building a smaller building was to increase demand for tickets. When you have a 20,000 seat building everybody believes they will have cheap ticket waiting for them at the last minute. It doesn't help the bottom line of a program much when you are selling a bunch of tickets for under ten bucks in addition to giving a bunch of tickets away for free. It cheapens the perception of your product. I have no problem with the way SLU has decided to price tickets this year. I have been told that SLU has already made more money off ticket sales/donations this season than the past two combined.

Don't tell me about how Mizzou sells tickets cheaper. SLU has out drawn Mizzou for each of the last three seasons and most of the last 15. SLU is a better draw than Mizzou basketball.

If you want to know how big crowds built on cheap seats and people having the expectation of free seats can kill a team look no further than the Blues. They are barely serving despite big crowds every night. Nobody believes they have to pay a price for Blues tickets that will keep the team in business. The Blues are on the verge of going out of business and have already fired twelve office staffers. They are one or two money people deciding to cut their losses and forcing SCP to put their assets on the auction block.

If you let let the public have the perception that your product is cheap you will never be able to produce anything but a cheap product.

[thefan]

brian,

First off there isn't a high demand for tickets that's the problem, the game should have been sold out.

how exactly does that cheapen the product by having cheaper seats? If that is your thinking then you (not saying you have) can not complain about people not showing up for games. Remember when the rams moved here? Going to a rams game was like visiting a country club. Is that how SLU wants it?

If more people come they will more then likely become a bigger fan, and even buy some merchandise. Let me give you an example. I went to a NIKE sale at Parkway South the other day. I had the choice of getting a mizzou or a SLU sweatshirt. I chose the Mizzou one. I have been to more football games and more mizzou basketball games this year (only one).

At the high school i teach at, every senior wants to go to Mizzou not SLU. they are doing great in enrollment because of the football team and because the public is excited about the program (not to mention they don't out price their customers). And don't say that we don't want Mizzou students at SLU. I went to SLU and its all hype. Meremac (when i took summer classes) had some better teachers then SLU.

Bottom line is cheaper tickets might get more people in the building, more people excited about the program, and may raise freshmen enrollment.

[jp18]

Bottom line is cheaper tickets might get more people in the building, more people excited about the program, and may raise freshmen enrollment.

Great post. I totally agree. They need to get some excitement going for this program. And charging a guy that isn't a die hard fan $25 for a cheap seat in our building is asking too much. You are not going to get many newcomers aboard with that gameplan. Heck, I have trouble justifying myself spending $450 for season tickets - just ask my wife

[The Dude]

They need to offer deep discounts on gameday. Take a page out of the Cards book and offer a portion of the unsold tickets on a lottery basis 2 hrs before gametime. Charge $10-15 per ticket. Need to fill those upper tier ends and that will be hard against the A10 schedule with the exception of Dayton or the X-Men.

[Tonka]

They need to offer deep discounts on gameday. Take a page out of the Cards book and offer a portion of the unsold tickets on a lottery basis 2 hrs before gametime. Charge $10-15 per ticket. Need to fill those upper tier ends and that will be hard against the A10 schedule with the exception of Dayton or the X-Men.

I like that idea as well. If the demand is there, they will sell out at the price they want. For the games that do not draw big, they can let people buy tickets on game day.

I am not sure if a lottery would work or not. On a bigger campus it may work alright but I would think that the students would traditionally be the ones willing to wait out a lottery. I am not sure I see fans / casual fans from the suburbs driving in without tickets in the hopes they would get tickets. I don't see that working at SLU right now.

[AlumniFan]

I have noticed that many of you are very upset with the University on a variety of issues. Here is a suggestion: Show your displeasure by boycotting the games and everything Billiken including Billikens.com.

That's what I thought....

[The Dude]

I like that idea as well. If the demand is there, they will sell out at the price they want. For the games that do not draw big, they can let people buy tickets on game day.

I am not sure if a lottery would work or not. On a bigger campus it may work alright but I would think that the students would traditionally be the ones willing to wait out a lottery. I am not sure I see fans / casual fans from the suburbs driving in without tickets in the hopes they would get tickets. I don't see that working at SLU right now.

True. It will probably take a little while for the AD to determine what sort of gameday walkup they can expect. At $28 per I doubt it is very much. Last year I knew of several folks who would to drive down to Scottrade last minute to pick up $14 tickets. Even better, if you hung around the ticket window there were folks frequently offering a free ticket now and then.

I'm sure SLU will figure it out. Just would be nice to see a full building especially with the talent Majerus has brought in so far.

[SluSignGuy]

boycotting the games and everything Billiken including Billikens.com.

That's what I thought....

[brianstl]

Enrollment has not been a problem at SLU. The number of applicants is already far more than can be accepted.

I am not shocked that more kids at a high school want to go to Mizzou. They are probably just being realistic about which school they can get into. SLU should never aim to be like state U where every average kid wants to go and expects to get into. SLU by being a selective Jesuit institution is by design not that kind of school.

I could really care less about the sweat shirt you picked. Would it be nice for SLU to be everyones first choice when it comes to sweatshirts? Sure, but that shouldn't be the goal. If SLU becomes successful they will never be everyones favorite team in town. It just doesn't work that way for private schools. Ask Duke and Notre Dame about that. Marquette is not even the most popular program in Milwaukee, but they seem to do fine. Marquette has to price tickets differently because they play in a 20,000 seat building.

There is no reason for SLU to discount tickets anymore than they already have for a number of games. The fact that they have made more money off tickets this year than ever before is proof of that. Now they just need to win and the rest will take care of itself. SLU's goal should be to maximize the money they can make off the current ticket price structure. Every seat in the house is worth the price if the team on the court produces results. There isn't a bad seat in the house.

The people that are complaining about ticket prices are for the most part not people that will ever become season ticket holders. It is basically the same people that like college basketball, but never have been SLU fans. They have been going to some SLU games for years. They are pissed off now because they have to pay a lot more to get into see a product that they were use to seeing for little or no cost in the past. I am sorry, but I am not really worried about those "fans".

If you start making it cheap for them to come into the new building they and others will expect it to continue . It is best to make a clean break from that group now. If we don't want to be mom and pop.........we have to stop acting like we are mom and pop.

[GOSLU68]

I like that idea as well. If the demand is there, they will sell out at the price they want. For the games that do not draw big, they can let people buy tickets on game day.

I am not sure if a lottery would work or not. On a bigger campus it may work alright but I would think that the students would traditionally be the ones willing to wait out a lottery. I am not sure I see fans / casual fans from the suburbs driving in without tickets in the hopes they would get tickets. I don't see that working at SLU right now.

"the extra ticket men" today, were going begging as those that came used all of their tickets; it still surprises me that 40 or so >no shows" could be counted in the gold section across from players' benches but in the middle of our house. Were they home in bed with colds?