Old Man Rant About Ticket Prices

[bamacpa]

I've been attending Bama games for 50 years now. I just got a Tide Pride email informing me I could request additional home and away tickets and the cost in some cases absolutely floored me. $ 175 for Wisconsin at home, $ 215 at Georgia...and $205 at Auburn. I guess I can almost understand Georgia asking such a number given their recent success but the Barn exceeding $200 ? Seriously ? CFB seems to view their demand as infinite and I'm not sure I agree.

I'm glad I already decided to cancel my Tide Pride after this year. I am fortunate that I could pay these prices if I wished but the toll of 14 hour gameday trips just isn't worth it to me anymore.

 

[mdb-tpet]

So that's $3.42 per minute of game clock time for Auburn, and if you consider ball in play time of average 11 minutes (average from the NFL), it's $18.63 per minute of ball in play time, and roughly a dollar per minute for seat time for a normal game. That's a lot of dough to sit far, far away from the action with 100,000 other people.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

I feel your frustration. But it’s a different system for funding collegiate athletics.

You have eight figure head coaches, another eight figures for on field staff, another $5M for non-coaching support, another couple million for the AD and staff, a million for the GM position that didn’t even exist three years ago, $20 million+ for revenue sharing with players, and not a penny of any of that addresses facilities or recruiting or simple maintenance on a $1Billion+ asset base.

We can all pine for pre-O’Bannon days, but we might as well yell at clouds.

Believe me, I’m reaching my financial choke point. But the reality is that if I (or you) give up Tide Pride, there’s someone else filling our spot in about a nanosecond.

No, it’s not the way it was when we were in school. That’s as gone as the T-Rex.

Pay up (a lot) or walk. It’s not an easy choice.

 

[dtgreg]

I feel your frustration. But it’s a different system for funding collegiate athletics.

You have eight figure head coaches, another eight figures for on field staff, another $5M for non-coaching support, another couple million for the AD and staff, a million for the GM position that didn’t even exist three years ago, $20 million+ for revenue sharing with players, and not a penny of any of that addresses facilities or recruiting.

We can all pine for pre-O’Bannon days, but we might as well yell at clouds.

Believe me, I’m reaching my financial choke point. But the reality is that if I (or you) give up Tide Pride, there’s someone filling our spot in about a nanosecond.

No, it’s not the way it was when we were in school. That’s as gone as the T-Rex.

Pay up or walk. It’s not an easy choice.

Price Discovery. I'm afraid it's going to take some real boycotting and General Striking to get some sanity back; not just in College Sports.

 

[AlistarWills]

I feel your frustration. But it’s a different system for funding collegiate athletics.

You have eight figure head coaches, another eight figures for on field staff, another $5M for non-coaching support, another couple million for the AD and staff, a million for the GM position that didn’t even exist three years ago, $20 million+ for revenue sharing with players, and not a penny of any of that addresses facilities or recruiting or simple maintenance on a $1Billion+ asset base.

We can all pine for pre-O’Bannon days, but we might as well yell at clouds.

Believe me, I’m reaching my financial choke point. But the reality is that if I (or you) give up Tide Pride, there’s someone else filling our spot in about a nanosecond.

No, it’s not the way it was when we were in school. That’s as gone as the T-Rex.

Pay up (a lot) or walk. It’s not an easy choice.

Wonder what ol Ed is doing these days.

 

[tusks_n_raider]

I've been attending Bama games for 50 years now. I just got a Tide Pride email informing me I could request additional home and away tickets and the cost in some cases absolutely floored me. $ 175 for Wisconsin at home, $ 215 at Georgia...and $205 at Auburn. I guess I can almost understand Georgia asking such a number given their recent success but the Barn exceeding $200 ? Seriously ? CFB seems to view their demand as infinite and I'm not sure I agree.

I'm glad I already decided to cancel my Tide Pride after this year. I am fortunate that I could pay these prices if I wished but the toll of 14 hour gameday trips just isn't worth it to me anymore.

Yeah no way would I pay those prices with the way the quality of play has dropped and with the roster turnover from year to year.

Those Gameday treks are brutal too and for the young.

I waited on the Tide Pride waitlist from 2007 to 2013 before I got tickets and I gave them up after 2013.

I wouldn’t mind attending a game here and there but it becomes a chore week after week when you can watch in 4K at home.

Again though these NIL payment amounts are not sustainable because fans aren’t going to financially support the funding with the dip in quality of play and roster turnover.

Boosters will eventually get tired of spending Millions with no on field hardware because everyone is spending Millions and only 1 team can win the NC.

$200 a game

LOL

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Yeah no way would I pay those prices with the way the quality of play has dropped and with the roster turnover from year to year.

Those Gameday treks are brutal too and for the young.

I waited on the Tide Pride waitlist from 2007 to 2013 before I got tickets and I gave them up after 2013.

I wouldn’t mind attending a game here and there but it becomes a chore week after week when you can watch in 4K at home.

Again though these NIL payment amounts are not sustainable because fans aren’t going to financially support the funding with the dip in quality of play and roster turnover.

Boosters will eventually get tired of spending Millions with no on field hardware because everyone is spending Millions and only 1 team can win the NC.

$200 a game

LOL

I had a good time in 2016 and 2017 going to (almost) all the home games, usually skipping the obvious wipeout games like Kent State, UTC, and 2017 Mercer. But go look at our HOME game scores for those two years; seriously, not one game I paid to see was worth a damn with the possible except of the Aggie game in 2016 (where Eddie Jackson's career ended on the field at Alabama). OK, 2017 LSU was okay but more frustrating than anything else. It was necessary to recover from my divorce, but I sat down and really looked at how much I was spending to come over from Dallas, and I wasn't getting the bang for the buck that I wanted. Figure tickets followed by either a 10-hour drive (no hotel usually as I stayed with friends) OR (more commonly) flew Southwest to Memphis and rented a car. You can probably figure what that ran; my favorite was to fly in on the morning of a Saturday night game and fly back Sunday morning. Now think how rare that actually was those seasons, when we had so many damn day kickoffs. Drove me nuts (that meant I had to fly in the night before).

 

[dWarriors88]

I'd rather take that money and stick it in an investment somewhere and forget about it.

 

[Valley View]

Someone has to pay for the salaries of the players. Another benefit of NIL. Greed, envy, filthy lucre will always ruin everything!

The NIL was supposed to be the players negotiating with outside entities for their NIL monies, and the Coaches/Universities would not be affected. Obviously, that changed.

 

[DawgAlum2054]

Tickets selling for what they have on the secondary market is what has got us here. It didnt take long for them to realize that they could keep some of that money instead of letting scalpers get it.

 

[cdub55]

College AD's have seem to forgot that I get to watch the game from the comfort of my couch in 4K for free. The beer I drink also drops from $10 a can to around a dollar. I will do as I have done the last ten years and act in a disorderly manner in my living room and continue to not get arrested for doing things that are illegal in 49 states in public while rooting for the Tide. Don't get me wrong, I'll catch an Iron Bowl or another big game every 5-8 years just because I can but they can make their payroll off someone else other than me.

 

[Crimson1967]

Don’t like the prices, don’t buy the tickets. Every game is on TV and you can watch it a lot easier at home. You have a better view, cheaper concessions, clean bathrooms, and you can stop the game anytime you want if you want to go get a snack.

 

[BamaMoon]

Not to seem like too much of an "old man" but when I remember my ticket stubs pinned to my bulletin board in my room, I remember many of those tickets for home/away being $15 to $20. That'll make you real sad real fast!!!

 

[BamaMoon]

Don’t like the prices, don’t buy the tickets. Every game is on TV and you can watch it a lot easier at home. You have a better view, cheaper concessions, clean bathrooms, and you can stop the game anytime you want if you want to go get a snack.

Of course this is true, but there is NOTHING like being inside of BDS and feeling the shared excitement with another 100K as the MDB plays "Yay Alabama" and the Crimson Tide runs in. It's one of the few experiences in life when I feel the hair stand up on my neck.

At least for me, it's the said reality that current exists, which means I will probably not get to experience this too many more times for the rest of my life.

Two seasons ago, I bought tickets for the Vandy game and took my wife, son, daughter and their spouses. Got those tickets for $70 each. Sadly, that feels like a "good deal" now days. But even still, that's a $500+ day aided by being able to stay with parents who still live in the area. Throw in hotel, travel, food and time to make that trip from very far away and it would be $1000 minimum. To see Vandy???

 

[CaliforniaTide]

I've never been a Tide Pride member, but hearing about these prices/surges in pricing confirm to me that it is a totally different lifestyle to do that on a yearly basis. My parents are season ticket holders at USCw, and had to be moved around due to the construction of the media box at the Coliseum. After that, they faced the increases in pricing to keep their newly assigned seats (albeit, a little bit better than previously).

Like others have said, it seems to be the new normal in college athletics. I remember when the Quad was way more "homegrown"/not-corporate, and then the transition it made to what it is now. It's an easy decision for me, thankfully. I'm not sure I would feel differently if I lived in Tuscaloosa/Northport now. I can afford 1 game per year for my family and I, and I'm happy with that.

The ADs seem to want to squeeze out every penny out. I can't imagine what it'll look like if my kids attend Alabama in 10+ years.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

By the way for those not old enough to remember: what made Tide Pride necessary in the first place was the drastic reduction in TV rights fees paid to FBS schools when the Supreme Court ruled in 1984 that the NCAA was restricting interstate commerce by denying the schools the right to put their product on television more than five times every two seasons. In 1983, the last year of the NCAA package, ABC and CBS paid a combined $66 million for the rights to college football - but those contracts became void by the decision.

So what happened?

The renegotiated 1984 contracts of the Big 10/Pac-10 combo and the other schools (collectively called the CFA) netted $23 million. Yes, a 65% drop in revenue all by one SCOTUS decision. But then it got worse - once all those games were on TV, the price of a 30-second spot dropped from $57K in 1983 to $15K in 1984 - because there were enough games on that advertisers could wait and make last minute buys rather than have slots locked in before the season started.

1983 Revenue:
Big 8 - $6.1 million
SEC - $11.2 million

1984 Revenue:
Big 8 - $3.8 million
SEC - $7.5 million

You're correct it's not 65%, because the counter weight was to negotiate regional contracts like (eventually) Jefferson Pilot Sports.


The University of Alabama had no choice but to come up with some way to raise money - and forcing some fans to pay FOR YEARS before they moved up enough to buy seats was what they did. Alabama actually TRIPLED what was coming in in the ten years preceding Tide Pride...but figuring in nonrevenue sports (women's in particular to avoid running afoul of Title IX)....and they built the new practice facility and upgraded Bryant-Denny Stadium in 1987, which put them in the crimson, er, red.

What happened?

It priced fans out of the market.



Guess what?
Here we go again....on our own.....

 

[4Q Basket Case]

If you want to go to only a game or two each year, it also be a lot cheaper to buy the tickets you want online.

Yeah, the price of that one game is higher, but there is no TidePride fee, and you don’t pay for 5-6 tickets to other games you don’t want or can’t use.

 

[BamaNation]

Tickets selling for what they have on the secondary market is what has got us here. It didnt take long for them to realize that they could keep some of that money instead of letting scalpers get it.

This is the correct answer.

 

[GboyBama]

Tide Pride since 97 here and I finally dropped out this year. It was mostly a good run, but the time had come.

On the rare times I was able to make it up there and pay the insane rates for lodging, I found myself having so much fun bar hopping and socializing that I dreaded the trudge to the stadium and my seats. I left at halftime of the UGA and AU games this last season.

I mostly view the stadium as uncomfortable and exhausting. Everything is a money grab. I think it's safe to say the fire is burning a little dimmer for me these days.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Tide Pride since 97 here and I finally dropped out this year. It was mostly a good run, but the time had come.

On the rare times I was able to make it up there and pay the insane rates for lodging, I found myself having so much fun bar hopping and socializing that I dreaded the trudge to the stadium and my seats. I left at halftime of the UGA and AU games this last season.

I mostly view the stadium as uncomfortable and exhausting. Everything is a money grab. I think it's safe to say the fire is burning a little dimmer for me these days.

Agree with this.

It’s one thing to do what I did in 2015 - go to the LSU game as a treat. (Even that was offset some by the fact it rained all day). But it became a chore to leave my lodging an hour away at least 3-5 hours before the game, find affordable parking, walk a mile to the stadium, wait in line, elbow to elbow on the concourse, packed like a sardine in the stands (always near an obnoxious drunk who views the team as an extension of his personal masculinity), game ends and do all of this in reverse, taking 45 minutes if you’re lucky to reach your car and escape to the 4-lane quickly…..it just got to be too much. And in my case l often had to get maybe 3 hours’ rest and race back to Memphis for the return flight.

Stadium experience is good once or twice but even now it’s a more synthetic experience than l figure it was in the 80s or 90s. The exceptions in recent years were the 2010 Iron Bowl, 2012 Aggies, and maybe 2019 LSU. Oh…..and we lost all 3 of those.

I’m not sour on college football, it’s the fact no such animal exists. This is minor league football with guys who haven’t learned the basics but in some cases fetch millions of dollars. We are about to see a plethora of guys making millions at 18, knocking up 4 different girls after the lifetime security, demanding more to not transfer and committing suicide or bring prosecuted for gambling on their own games by 27. We already have this happening up to a point, where what I’ve described is basically a conflation of the stories of 2 or 3 players.