Link: UA Offering Season and Mini-Package Tickets

theBIGyowski

All-American
Aug 4, 2005
3,645
35
67
42
Cumming, GA
The biggest hurdle for Tide Pride and the Athletics Ticket Sales group is that most of our home games have tickets available below face value if the fans are willing to wait until an hour before kickoff. It makes it very tough to justify spending that much money on games you know you will overpay just to attend.

Case in point...the kickoff game last year in Orlando. You could have gotten in for a tiny fraction of face value...to watch the defending National Champions...minutes away from an easy vacation over Labor Day weekend. And that's not even a home game.

The rest of the CFB world had Bama fatigue years ago...and I am starting to think our own fans are suffering the same symptoms. I don't think the University is going to be successful selling ticket packages at face value...and not including extra perks. It's just the way things are.
 

Vinny

Hall of Fame
Sep 27, 2001
8,243
213
187
55
Rockaway, NJ
The biggest hurdle for Tide Pride and the Athletics Ticket Sales group is that most of our home games have tickets available below face value if the fans are willing to wait until an hour before kickoff. It makes it very tough to justify spending that much money on games you know you will overpay just to attend.

Case in point...the kickoff game last year in Orlando. You could have gotten in for a tiny fraction of face value...to watch the defending National Champions...minutes away from an easy vacation over Labor Day weekend. And that's not even a home game.

The rest of the CFB world had Bama fatigue years ago...and I am starting to think our own fans are suffering the same symptoms. I don't think the University is going to be successful selling ticket packages at face value...and not including extra perks. It's just the way things are.
That ticked me off last September. I purchased 3 face value tickets from TP and for the location of where my seats were under the overhang in the lower lever just up and to the left of the MDB, they were not worth the price. We ran into folks on the way out that paid pennies. We were in Orlando and thought it would be neat to go to the Alabama game instead of the Disney parks that night.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Bamabuzzard

FB Moderator
Staff member
Aug 15, 2004
30,570
18,353
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Where ever there's BBQ, Bourbon & Football
MLB also has an entire different fan base as well, and an entire different season ticket holder situation. Most of your casual MLB fans don’t go for Wins and Losses, but go for the feel of the game, the promotion that night, or just something to do. Promotion nights (especially concerts, thirsty Thursdays, and bobble head nights) drive huge crowds. You also have those 50/50 raffles every night in which a fan can walk away with anywhere from 6k to 25k depending on the pot. MLB games are also typically at decent times of the day where you can go and not worry that much about work the next morning and are not burning up unless you go on a Sunday or that rare week day game.

Also there are far different options to be a season ticket holder, and many incentives to be one as well. For example, if you wanted to be an A-list member for the Atlanta Braves right now then you could get a partial season ticket package and choose to make it a personal package, a business package, or a premium package. With all of them you get free parking, discounted food, meet and greets with players and staff throughout the year, first options for post season and the 2021 All Star game, and discounted merchandise. If you only wanted to go to certain amount of games, we’ll say 8 out of 30, then you can donate those 22 tickets back to the Braves for upgraded seats with no extra cost. Also like I’ve hinted at, there really isn’t a wait list unless you get into very specific seating.

The MLB goes out of its way to make casual fans and season ticket holders extremely happy like no other sport with perks and overall experience. But also consider the number of games, types of people going, and type of game. The Atlanta Braves can take more financial risks for fan happiness than Alabama because you are talking about 80 plus games vs 8 games.

But I do think Alabama should do some things like the Braves do to make the fan experience better, like maybe have fan zones because your casual fan is only going to go and see the Bryant Museum only so many times. The Braves built an area behind the stadium with bars and shops called the Battery in which fans could mingle before, during, and after the game and get a 1st class experience. They have made bank because of it. I have came around to UAfan4life’s ( sorry if misspelled) idea of a concert or something after some of the cream puff games, but the problem with that is that you have no idea if that game is a 11 am, 3pm, or a 7pm game while the Braves know 95% of the game times in January already.
You're describing exactly what a buddy of mine has continued to say over and over about today's sports fan. The game has (in many aspects) become secondary and not the main reason fans attend. It is the exact reason the Braves did what they did. Just attending and watching the game isn't enough anymore for today's fan.
 

Bamabuzzard

FB Moderator
Staff member
Aug 15, 2004
30,570
18,353
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Where ever there's BBQ, Bourbon & Football
All due respect, but this is a weird argument. We've never had consistently strong OOC games at home - UCLA in 01, Oklahoma in 03, Penn State in 10. Beyond that - what? The schedule is no different now than it has been for thirty years! The problem, it seems, is that our SEC foes have been woefully inconsistent.
And I'd venture to say that Alabama (outside of Coach Bryant's hayday) has never been this dominant where the gap between Bama and the SEC team across the field was as wide. I'll admit, Tennessee has been in the dumpster fire for a while. But I think the strength of Bama during Saban's time has made them look a lot worse than other teams. We simply have destroyed them and it has been due to how strong our teams have been compared to pre Saban.
 

81usaf92

TideFans Legend
Apr 26, 2008
35,306
31,375
187
South Alabama
You're describing exactly what a buddy of mine has continued to say over and over about today's sports fan. The game has (in many aspects) become secondary and not the main reason fans attend. It is the exact reason the Braves did what they did. Just attending and watching the game isn't enough anymore for today's fan.
The issue with Alabama is that Tuscaloosa offers very little as an attraction. Think about everytime someone on here makes a thread along the lines of “ swinging by T-town for the weekend advice on what to do”. Then think about the common responses ... 1) go to museum 2) go to the Strip 3) go to the walk of champions 4) go to dreamland. Now analyze those 4 things. 2 of them you can do once and will never have to do them again, 1 is a decent BBQ joint that may or not be a good suggestion depending on the person, and the other is an overrated bar scene. The university allows very few shops and restaurants in the “game day” area that isn’t directly feeding the university. Parking is atrocious.

Compare that to the Braves. The Battery is an area with all sorts of restaurants, bars, and shops surrounding condos and hotels. Just about everything is decently priced, and everything is in walking distance in the game day area. Parking is super easy and super affordable.

Alabama’s most committed fans are the tailgating fans and the hardcore football fans. Tuscaloosa itself doesn’t offer a lot for the casual fans to justify fighting traffic, weather, parking, and donkey fans to come to more than 2 games a year.
 
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