Jake's Take: Preferred Location, Single-Game Basketball Ticket Pricing
1/27/2003 5:14:55 PM | Men's Basketball
Since 1980, Syracuse University has had a preferred seating season ticket plan in place for the best available seating for SU football and men's basketball games in the Carrier Dome. What are considered to be the best seats for football and men's basketball are divided into four preferred sections: A, B, C, and D, with the A section representing the very best seats, the B section the next best, etc. An SU fan wishing to purchase a season football or men's basketball ticket in one of the four preferred locations must contribute a separate amount to the University for the right to purchase a ticket in that preferred location for one or both sports. The preferred seating contribution prices for 2003-04 for each of the four levels on a per-seat basis are: A - $450; B - $250; C - $140; and D - $90. To the extent permitted by the law these contributions are tax deductible in that every penny goes toward scholarships for our student-athletes. One annual preferred seating payment of the appropriate amount permits the payer to purchase a season football AND/OR a season basketball ticket within the appropriate preferred location. The cost of the season ticket for both football and basketball is in addition to the preferred seating contribution and is invoiced to the season ticket holder at a later date.
Prior to the 2001-02 SU men's basketball season, the general public was not permitted to purchase any unsold season seats on an individual game basis within any of the four preferred locations for men's basketball. This policy was implemented to protect the preferred seating investment of the season ticket holders in these preferred seating areas.
For many of the higher profile SU men's basketball games the general public had a significant interest in obtaining advance sale individual game tickets in these preferred locations, but was unable to access them because of our long established policy. This left areas closer to the court, where fans could become more a part of the game, unoccupied. It didn't make much sense to us that for games with heightened interest and intensity, seating areas proximate to the court remained empty and silent. As a result, during the 2001-02 men's basketball season a new policy was established to attempt to address this demand while being mindful of protecting the investment of the preferred seat ticket holder. Individual game tickets in selected and limited preferred seat locations were made available to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis at a cost that included the price of the game ticket plus a prorated preferred seat contribution. The prorated preferred seat contribution was calculated by dividing the full contribution relative to the preferred seat location by the number of premium games in a season (traditionally nine, comprised of eight Big East Conference games plus one major non-conference game). The price for these tickets is considerably higher than the cost to preferred seat season ticket holders on a per game basis in each preferred seat location. The following chart shows the results of those calculations.
2002-03 SU Men's Basketball Premium Non-premium Exhibition
Preferred Level Game Game Game
C and D - Lower level end-court $35 $20 $5
B - Lower corner & second level $50 $25 $5
A - Lower & second side-court $70 $30 $5
By comparison, regular individual game Adult prices are as follows:
$20 $13 $5
Among the many benefits that a preferred seat season ticket holder has is that the season ticket holder sits in the same seat all season long. The person who purchases multiple single game preferred location tickets sits in a different seat location each game. The location of the single game seats can be anywhere within the various preferred seat locations and it is very likely that the location of the seats will be quite different from game to game.
On another somewhat related topic, you may have noticed that for a few of the early season non-premium men?s basketball games we have invited fans sitting in the higher, third level seats to move down to the first level and fill in any unoccupied seats in the lower level. Historically, we have experienced a high percentage of season ticket holders who do not attend these early season, so-called "lesser" opponent games. As a result, we have many unoccupied seats in areas closer to the court, where fans could (and should) become more a part of the game. Our intent in doing this is to create a more intense, exuberant home-court atmosphere closer to the court for the benefit of our team. The results of our invitation for fans to move down during non-conference games have been positive for both the Orangemen and the fans. I would categorize it as a WIN-WIN-SU WINS situation - which is the goal for all of us. But, I would like to assure our season ticket holders that this practice will not apply to any of our premium games, which traditionally are the eight BIG EAST conference home games and the one major non-conference home game. You should note that we did not invite any fans down to the lower level for the recent Georgia Tech game and will not for any of the remaining BIG EAST conference home games.
