From strictly a dollars-and-cents standpoint, and kind of like buying a new car (as opposed to used) or majoring in Art History (which you love, but doesn’t prepare you for a job that pays much), there’s no way to make Tide Pride membership and purchase of season tickets make sense. The numbers simply don’t work.
You do get the big games at face. If you have enough points, you get post-season tickets at face. But you also pay face for the directional schools. Then you have to apportion the TP membership fee over 7-8 games. And that doesn’t count travel expenses. And the post-season venues have definitions of which seats are the best that might not agree with your definition.
So you have to value intangible benefits: The feeling of contributing to the support of the program, the feeling of being in the stadium, getting to know your neighbors over years and watching their kids grow up. Not having to worry about where you’ll get tickets and dealing with brokerage sites. Invitations to the occasional University event. Yes, I know those events are really recruiting for more donors and bigger donations, but they’re still pretty cool.
If none of that resonates with you, there’s no need to howl at the moon about how the Athletic Department is gouging loyal alumni. You’re far better off just buying the tickets you want in the secondary market.
While mostly true, there are combinations of years and seating locations that are exceptions - and this year happens to be one of those.
You have four games this year where premium seats (say, 45-ish yard line, West Uppers, under cover, in the shade) will all demand a premium price: Ole Miss, Texas, LSU, and Tennessee - in that order.
The cheapest of those - when Lane Kiffin comes to town - would likely run somewhere from $200-$250 a seat and the Tennessee tickets could top $500 a seat for a similar location on the secondary market.
So, from my perspective, my Tide Pride seats this year are likely going to cost me less through Tide Pride than those seats - just for three or four games - would have cost me through the secondary market.
And, even though this year is the exception that proves the rule, so to speak, the ancillary benefits are always there. We know where our seats are going to be for each game. We have a parking spot right on the shuttle route. My parents can come to any game with us they wish. I've been able to take my dad, at least, to a number of games that he almost certainly never would have gone to by himself - his first Tennessee game, his first Iron Bowl, his first SEC Championship Game, his first National Championship Game (hopefully one day we'll get to watch us win one of those).
My dad introduced me to a love of Alabama football. Back before every game was on TV, we'd often turn the radio on and throw the football around in the yard while listening to the game. I've been lucky enough to be able to introduce him to experiencing Alabama football in a way that many don't and he never would have imagined being able to do.
Sure, these things theoretically could have been possible through the secondary market. However, I already have to threaten my dad at least once a season that if he mentions once more how much money I can get by selling certain tickets instead of taking him that I might just cancel all my tickets for the next season. I can effectively "hide" the cost of the tickets from him by saying that we get the tickets at face value by being in Tide Pride and we get to be in Tide Pride by donating to the University (which helps because he assumes there's some sort of financial benefit to the donation). If I were trying to buy tickets to singular games, I know I would have missed out on a lot of the memories I've made with my dad.
So, while some may wish to whine and moan about whatever they feel the University might somehow owe them for being a fan or even an alumnus, I'll continue to happily pay for the privilege to be in Tide Pride for as long as I can afford it and be grateful for the opportunities and memories that would have otherwise never come to fruition...