Ticket prices

[RiseAndGrind]

Hey, here's a guy who went to a school other than SLU and is willing to adopt the Bills as his second favorite team and even buy a ticket for a game every once in a while. Let's crap all over him!

+1

Welcome, BeBrave. Go Bills. Please don't let your support of the Billikens be tempered by '05 and Roy attacking you for stating how ridiculous expensive some of the seats have become. Sometimes, it seems to me, Roy only wants diehards and '05, is well, just, '05. Riled up.

[BeBrave]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="BeBrave" data-cid="334332" data-time="1357165192"><p>

<br />

I submitted my complaint through LivingSocial ... since I know you're deeply concerned.</p></blockquote>

The Fuok does that do? If you really give a flying Fuok and are interested in being helpful I really urge you to email or call SLU.

1) Do you know how to use the quote function correctly?

2) LS sends a survey about the event you attend. That info is sent to the merchant. In this case, I'm guessing Ahearn will receive the survey results.

[BeBrave]

Just went on to buy tickets at Dayton and X . Both places that have much better attendance by total and by % of seats filled.

At Dayton I could sit in the upper half of the upper deck center court for $100.00 with fees

At X who last year had 99% of their seats filled I could sit in the corner upper deck for $140. with fees.

Both of those are cheaper, (Dayton almost $12 per ticket cheaper) than SLU. X is only a couple of bucks per ticket cheaper, but they are 99% sold out. SLU is around 75% sold out.

I also looked at Bradley and theirs aren't even in the ballpark of SLU, though I think they are a fair comparison. In actuality X and Dayton also aren't equal comparison's as they don't have 25% of their seats left vacant on a normal basis.

Skip, if we were selling out the $10 and $12 tickets I could see your point but we aren't (except for maybe the RI game). I can't believe there are all that many people that are in a world where the most they will pay is $12 a ticket but they require it to be center court or near center court. If people want the cheap ticket they should be willing to sit in the end-zone. Not to mention that just about anybody that attends these games knows you can buy the cheap ticket and move down to better, open seats if you desire.

Thus, I don't believe that offering some tickets at $32 and others as low as $12 is meaningfully hurting attendance. Rather, I believe the problem is there simply aren't enough people willing to come out for blood donor games or NYE games no matter what the price. I offered FREE tickets to 150 co-workers on Monday and only 1 accepted. There inlies the problem.

I don't know of anyone -- and certainly no one in this thread -- expecting center court, near court for $12.

[BeBrave]

Yes the prices are high. What is he expecting to accomplish by whining to us? Like I said if he really wants to help he should call/email the AD, not loving fuoking social.

Bradley guy,

Using a Bradley themed user name and avatar is not the best way to make fans on this board (I could care less as long as you post meaningful things). Neither is only posting negative things about SLU. I liked your early posts you provided some great info comparing SLU and Bradley fan bases & ticket pricing. Later when you just complain about prices again it starts to get annoying. You seem knowledgeable about college basketball. Share some of that knowledge rather than just complain. Maybe now that you know about the pricing, you can buy some $12 tickets and just move down if you decide to go to future games (maybe get there early and enjoy some $2 beers to help you forget about the price of tickets). I hope you do and you post some good insights on the board.

Fair enough.

[kshoe]

Just went on to buy tickets at Dayton and X . Both places that have much better attendance by total and by % of seats filled.

At Dayton I could sit in the upper half of the upper deck center court for $100.00 with fees

At X who last year had 99% of their seats filled I could sit in the corner upper deck for $140. with fees.

Both of those are cheaper, (Dayton almost $12 per ticket cheaper) than SLU. X is only a couple of bucks per ticket cheaper, but they are 99% sold out. SLU is around 75% sold out.

I also looked at Bradley and theirs aren't even in the ballpark of SLU, though I think they are a fair comparison. In actuality X and Dayton also aren't equal comparison's as they don't have 25% of their seats left vacant on a normal basis.

Skip, if we were selling out the $10 and $12 tickets I could see your point but we aren't (except for maybe the RI game). I can't believe there are all that many people that are in a world where the most they will pay is $12 a ticket but they require it to be center court or near center court. If people want the cheap ticket they should be willing to sit in the end-zone. Not to mention that just about anybody that attends these games knows you can buy the cheap ticket and move down to better, open seats if you desire.

Thus, I don't believe that offering some tickets at $32 and others as low as $12 is meaningfully hurting attendance. Rather, I believe the problem is there simply aren't enough people willing to come out for blood donor games or NYE games no matter what the price. I offered FREE tickets to 150 co-workers on Monday and only 1 accepted. There inlies the problem.

I don't know of anyone -- and certainly no one in this thread -- expecting center court, near court for $12.

@JMM28 and @BEBRAVE

Fact: There are $12 tickets available for every game already.

Fact: We have not been selling those tickets out.

To me, that tells me the price of the $20 and $32 tickets is not the problem, its that there aren't enough people willing to spend $12 on a ticket to see us play some directional state school that we will beat by 20 or come to a game on NYE. If all of the $12 tickets were sold but we couldn't sell the $20 or $32 tickets, then you'd have a point.

People that are price sensitive to the cost of the ticket have a lot of options on which price range to purchase so I'm just not buying the argument that the pricing structure is causing all these attendance problems.

[BeBrave]

Just went on to buy tickets at Dayton and X . Both places that have much better attendance by total and by % of seats filled.

At Dayton I could sit in the upper half of the upper deck center court for $100.00 with fees

At X who last year had 99% of their seats filled I could sit in the corner upper deck for $140. with fees.

Both of those are cheaper, (Dayton almost $12 per ticket cheaper) than SLU. X is only a couple of bucks per ticket cheaper, but they are 99% sold out. SLU is around 75% sold out.

I also looked at Bradley and theirs aren't even in the ballpark of SLU, though I think they are a fair comparison. In actuality X and Dayton also aren't equal comparison's as they don't have 25% of their seats left vacant on a normal basis.

Skip, if we were selling out the $10 and $12 tickets I could see your point but we aren't (except for maybe the RI game). I can't believe there are all that many people that are in a world where the most they will pay is $12 a ticket but they require it to be center court or near center court. If people want the cheap ticket they should be willing to sit in the end-zone. Not to mention that just about anybody that attends these games knows you can buy the cheap ticket and move down to better, open seats if you desire.

Thus, I don't believe that offering some tickets at $32 and others as low as $12 is meaningfully hurting attendance. Rather, I believe the problem is there simply aren't enough people willing to come out for blood donor games or NYE games no matter what the price. I offered FREE tickets to 150 co-workers on Monday and only 1 accepted. There inlies the problem.

I don't know of anyone -- and certainly no one in this thread -- expecting center court, near court for $12.

@JMM28 and @BEBRAVE

Fact: There are $12 tickets available for every game already.

Fact: We have not been selling those tickets out.

To me, that tells me the price of the $20 and $32 tickets is not the problem, its that there aren't enough people willing to spend $12 on a ticket to see us play some directional state school that we will beat by 20 or come to a game on NYE. If all of the $12 tickets were sold but we couldn't sell the $20 or $32 tickets, then you'd have a point.

People that are price sensitive to the cost of the ticket have a lot of options on which price range to purchase so I'm just not buying the argument that the pricing structure is causing all these attendance problems.

That's certainly possible.

I would contend walk up business is looking for a good value though. I know what to expect from a $12 ticket (and the lowest price on the board): upper bowl, endzone.

However, I purchased the $32 ticket (highest price on the board I saw when I purchased) because I perceived a better value for the seat ... I'll always pay $16 for a good seat to a college basketball game. That's a great value in my mind. And having been to enough sporting events, I have a pretty good grasp on how much seats costs.

Your theory very well could be true. But it could be that $12 is over priced for upper bowl endzone at SLU to the general public. Likewise with the other sections/pricing.

[JMM28]

Just went on to buy tickets at Dayton and X . Both places that have much better attendance by total and by % of seats filled.

At Dayton I could sit in the upper half of the upper deck center court for $100.00 with fees

At X who last year had 99% of their seats filled I could sit in the corner upper deck for $140. with fees.

Both of those are cheaper, (Dayton almost $12 per ticket cheaper) than SLU. X is only a couple of bucks per ticket cheaper, but they are 99% sold out. SLU is around 75% sold out.

I also looked at Bradley and theirs aren't even in the ballpark of SLU, though I think they are a fair comparison. In actuality X and Dayton also aren't equal comparison's as they don't have 25% of their seats left vacant on a normal basis.

Skip, if we were selling out the $10 and $12 tickets I could see your point but we aren't (except for maybe the RI game). I can't believe there are all that many people that are in a world where the most they will pay is $12 a ticket but they require it to be center court or near center court. If people want the cheap ticket they should be willing to sit in the end-zone. Not to mention that just about anybody that attends these games knows you can buy the cheap ticket and move down to better, open seats if you desire.

Thus, I don't believe that offering some tickets at $32 and others as low as $12 is meaningfully hurting attendance. Rather, I believe the problem is there simply aren't enough people willing to come out for blood donor games or NYE games no matter what the price. I offered FREE tickets to 150 co-workers on Monday and only 1 accepted. There inlies the problem.

I don't know of anyone -- and certainly no one in this thread -- expecting center court, near court for $12.

@JMM28 and @BEBRAVE

Fact: There are $12 tickets available for every game already.

Fact: We have not been selling those tickets out.

To me, that tells me the price of the $20 and $32 tickets is not the problem, its that there aren't enough people willing to spend $12 on a ticket to see us play some directional state school that we will beat by 20 or come to a game on NYE. If all of the $12 tickets were sold but we couldn't sell the $20 or $32 tickets, then you'd have a point.

People that are price sensitive to the cost of the ticket have a lot of options on which price range to purchase so I'm just not buying the argument that the pricing structure is causing all these attendance problems.

FACT: Living Social deals are terrible ideas.

FACT: Most tickets in the arena are overpriced.

FACT: Our non-con home slate isn't good, but it is rarely good.

FACT: The athletic department does a piss poor job of marketing their Top 25 caliber basketball program.

Instead of doing the living social deals where SLU receives 50% of the sale price, they should be just discounting those tickets to that level for those same games. The benefits are multiple. SLU can handle the transactions which prevents unknown complaints from falling on deaf living social ears. There is a stronger likelihood of people purchasing multiple tickets if they are on a SLU website or the SLU box office. You get rid of the "Oh I will just wait for the next living social deal" crowd. Oh and of course the big one - you actually keep the money you sell the damn ticket for. Again whoever approved that should be fired.

When I was at SLU, the AD did a poor job of marketing to the students and faculty let alone the general public.

KShoe, in your infinite wisdom, what do you think the attendance problem stems from? Should we not expect a crowd of more than the season ticket base to show up for a non-conference game? Especially in a canceled NHL season and a top 40+ team?

[billiken_roy]

i percieve the problem is that the univesity is more about a long term vision of selling out the arena for season tickets and are willing to sacrifice a few single game sales to get people to see the value of buying a season ticket vs only coming out for the more appealing games.

i also believe that the university doesnt want to upset the season ticket holder that paid the price of a season ticket holder only to see missouri or illinois or bradley sweatshirts sitting in as good of seats or better just for the big games. what's the incentive for that season ticket holder that probably is somewhat indifferent for those buy games as well.

those $32 tickets you are upset about would sell to you at just over $20 a game if you bought the season ticket. that is a pretty good discount. go buy the season ticket.

[kshoe]

The attendance problem stems from a multitude of things (many of which are discussed in the other thread at the top of this board) but imo the main culprits are a lack of passion across the country for November and December college basketball and a horrible home schedule. Other factors, imo smaller in importance, certainly include weather, long walks to parking garages, people being confused about how to order a $12 ticket, lack of local players, lack of Majerus, games being on t.v., etc.

I haven't defended the living social deal in this thread, yet, and your points are all well taken, but the fact is that living social and groupon have the ability to reach a broad group of casual fans that would otherwise have no intention of going to the game. There is no way the SIUE would have had has many people as it did, without living social. None of those fans were going to randomly come to the SLU website and find tickets to purchase. The obvious service those groups provide is free marketing and distribution that would not be possible otherwise.

I'm fairly certain I heard Rammer and Earl say at the end of the SIUE broadcast that SLU was selling $5 tickets to the New Mexico game for any fans that walked up day of. Why didn't fans take advantage of that offer? Part of it was undoubtedly that it was cost prohibitive for SLU to heavily advertise that deal. How much does an add in the Post dispatch cost? How much does a radio spot cost? Even if you got 1,000 extra fans that's only $5,000 in ticket sales (admittedly I'm ignoring concessions, parking, etc.) Those values have to be compared to the cost of advertising the deal. Groupon and Living Social eliminate that cost.

[kshoe]

i percieve the problem is that the univesity is more about a long term vision of selling out the arena for season tickets and are willing to sacrifice a few single game sales to get people to see the value of buying a season ticket vs only coming out for the more appealing games.

i also believe that the university doesnt want to upset the season ticket holder that paid the price of a season ticket holder only to see missouri or illinois or bradley sweatshirts sitting in as good of seats or better just for the big games. what's the incentive for that season ticket holder that probably is somewhat indifferent for those buy games as well.

those $32 tickets you are upset about would sell to you at just over $20 a game if you bought the season ticket. that is a pretty good discount. go buy the season ticket.

This is the key to the tiered pricing. SLU HAS to price some tickets above the $25 that most season ticket holders pay or they risk alienating the season ticket base. It's a delicate balancing act and no its not perfect, but their key job is to keep the 4,000 season ticket holders happy that they are paying $25, $20, or $10 per while still offering cheap tickets to some portion of the walk-up crowd. If they offered all available seats at $12 per, then the season ticket holders would say why the hell am I paying $25 for mine? Plus, I don't think they'd sell all that many extra tickets as evidenced by the fact we aren't already selling out the $12 tickets.

[JMM28]

The attendance problem stems from a multitude of things (many of which are discussed in the other thread at the top of this board) but imo the main culprits are a lack of passion across the country for November and December college basketball and a horrible home schedule. Other factors, imo smaller in importance, certainly include weather, long walks to parking garages, people being confused about how to order a $12 ticket, lack of local players, lack of Majerus, games being on t.v., etc.

I haven't defended the living social deal in this thread, yet, and your points are all well taken, but the fact is that living social and groupon have the ability to reach a broad group of casual fans that would otherwise have no intention of going to the game. There is no way the SIUE would have had has many people as it did, without living social. None of those fans were going to randomly come to the SLU website and find tickets to purchase. The obvious service those groups provide is free marketing and distribution that would not be possible otherwise.

I'm fairly certain I heard Rammer and Earl say at the end of the SIUE broadcast that SLU was selling $5 tickets to the New Mexico game for any fans that walked up day of. Why didn't fans take advantage of that offer? Part of it was undoubtedly that it was cost prohibitive for SLU to heavily advertise that deal. How much does an add in the Post dispatch cost? How much does a radio spot cost? Even if you got 1,000 extra fans that's only $5,000 in ticket sales (admittedly I'm ignoring concessions, parking, etc.) Those values have to be compared to the cost of advertising the deal. Groupon and Living Social eliminate that cost.

Because nobody knew about the $5 tickets because they were only mentioned on the radio broadcast of a Billiken game that was being shown on TV locally? The amount of casual fan listening to that broadcast was probably little to none?

$5 tickets are a terrible idea as well. Talk about devaluing the product. That is even worse than living social or groupon. Of course people aren't going to randomly come to the website to purchase $12 or $20 tickets. But they would if SLU had any sort of marketing plan in place for it. It really isn't terribly expensive to advertise effectively in St Louis.

I agree with you on the delicate balance of the season ticket holders and such, but the season ticket holders should be sold more so on the you get the same seat every game by people you know, you're being good to the school you support, jerk them off a little bit to make them feel special for buying season tickets, and you get access to special private perks that others don't. Season tickets are not a good value from a strictly price per ticket perspective and they never will be.

I also agree on the bad non-con slate. But we have had that in years past with worse teams and drawn more than this year. At least this year featured some of the local bad teams that people have clamored for.

[RUBillsFan]

FYI - Living Social now has a deal for SIU-E tickets. $7 gets you a general admission ticket and a $5 concession voucher.

2 things:
1. This means that another D-1 program thinks using Living Social is a worthwhile marketing tool.
2. I'm not sure SLU should be marketing their program the same way SIU-E does.

[JMM28]

I was about to post that "Hiring someone with marketing in their job title would be a nice start." Apparently there is now a director of marketing, Trae Roberts (Reggie Cleveland All-Star name), who started recently in December. Hopefully he will get a quick jump on doing something or anything to market the program. Best of luck.

[FromDaEastSide]

$5 tickets are a terrible idea as well.

The $5 tickets were GA only for the student section of bleachers. I would rather have the AD offer this deal to fill up these sections with anyone (as long as it is not Missouri State fans) if school is not in session. It seemed to work as this section mostly full or the local students showed up.

[Quality Is Job 1]

I haven't defended the living social deal in this thread, yet, and your points are all well taken, but the fact is that living social and groupon have the ability to reach a broad group of casual fans that would otherwise have no intention of going to the game. There is no way the SIUE would have had has many people as it did, without living social. None of those fans were going to randomly come to the SLU website and find tickets to purchase. The obvious service those groups provide is free marketing and distribution that would not be possible otherwise.

I think the fact that it was CYC Family night had a lot more to do with the attendance bump than Living Social (unless there's some connection).

[bonwich]

I haven't defended the living social deal in this thread, yet, and your points are all well taken, but the fact is that living social and groupon have the ability to reach a broad group of casual fans that would otherwise have no intention of going to the game. There is no way the SIUE would have had has many people as it did, without living social. None of those fans were going to randomly come to the SLU website and find tickets to purchase. The obvious service those groups provide is free marketing and distribution that would not be possible otherwise.

I think the fact that it was CYC Family night had a lot more to do with the attendance bump than Living Social (unless there's some connection).

Thanks, Hicks. That was my impression as well.

[Bishop]

Does Chaifetz still offer $2 beers and nachos before the game?

[BeBrave]

Does Chaifetz still offer $2 beers and nachos before the game?

Yes, but I learned they close that deal promptly 30 minutes before tip.

[Clock_Tower]

$5 tickets are a terrible idea as well.

The $5 tickets were GA only for the student section of bleachers. I would rather have the AD offer this deal to fill up these sections with anyone (as long as it is not Missouri State fans) if school is not in session. It seemed to work as this section mostly full or the local students showed up.

Sorry to offend, but I have two (2) season tickets and brought my family of four (4) to the New Mexico game intending to buy 2 extra tickets. I went to the season ticket counter guy at Chaifetz because I mistakenly had brought only 1 of my New Mexico tickets (had mistakenly brought my SIUE ticket which I didn't use). The season ticket guy looked up my account, printed out a duplicate season ticket for me so now I had 2 tickets. Then, I bought 2 more tickets from the same guy who asked if I wanted the best available or just cheap tickets to get in the door - he suggested the $5 tickets to get inside. I then spent $10 and my son and I sat in empty seats directly behind my wife and daughter who used our season tickets. In fact, there alot of empty seats all around our section.

[GOSLU68]

<p></p><blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="BeBrave" data-cid="334447" data-time="1357239135"><p><blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Bishop" data-cid="334444" data-time="1357238975">Does Chaifetz still offer $2 beers and nachos before the game?</blockquote>

<p> </p>

<p>Yes, but I learned they close that deal promptly 30 minutes before tip.</p></p></blockquote><p></p>

How much whiskey is sold at Bradley?

Do they have a 50-50.

You are talking about two different places- Peoria and St.

Louis

I used to exhibit at the Earthmoving Show put on by ASAE and people from Kubota would come but rarely would Cat employees attend

So they discontinued the show. Caterpillar was two-four blocks from the event site.

If you went to the New Mexico game you would have gotten $32 worth of basketball fun.

Try us again and as we try to at the Cardinals games move down if you see something open; people understand and you may have to move if they show up late

[willie]

I'd give that ticket seller a pat on the back for doing a good job.