Season Ticket Sales

[Vespidae]

What’s the latest on renewals? Ahead or behind last year?

 

[stech81]

Have not heard so if I was to guess behind. If they were I would think they would have said something.

 

[jatchet]

Spoke to a coworker/alumnus today who admitted the tickets are cheap and we may be great under CGC. He won't buy tickets yet, but would have a hard time resisting if we compete for another ACC Championship soon.

I'm starting to worry Tech fans are "playing the market" on CGC. Gonna wait until the day before that upturn to buy in.

 

[LibertyTurns]

What’s the latest on renewals? Ahead or behind last year?

2019 saw $8.6M in football ticket sales & 2017 saw $9.4M. Premium seat licenses decreased same period from $9.6M to $9.3M. 2017 had the Tennessee game which netted roughly the amount of difference between 2017 & 2019’s revenue. Whether we sold more or less tickets is immaterial. Take the Tennessee game away and we were basically dead even on $$.

FY18 saw $12.0 in ticket sales and $9.4M in premium licenses. We’ll know what 2020 brought in when the audit results hit the wire in about 6 months.

I know one thing. GT cannot absorb a whole bunch of years where we’re $15M in the red unless someone has some deep pockets willing to keep our sports programs afloat. There aren’t enough $500 donors to make up the difference (30k people) so some rich dudes are going to need to fork over $8-10M per year until we can get additional revenue through a combination of raising ticket prices, ACCN network starting to crank out cash & we pick up more from the ESPN contract negotiation. 10k extra butts in the seats at current prices is worth about $3M so that’s not the answer.

 

[jacket_fan]

10k extra butts in the seats at current prices is worth about $3M so that’s not the answer.

Interesting summary.

I think the only advantage to the extra 10k butts in the seat will be improved recruiting and even some increase in donations.

I wonder how many $500 or above donors Tech has? Because I agree, the average fan probably does not give that much.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Interesting summary.

I think the only advantage to the extra 10k butts in the seat will be improved recruiting and even some increase in donations.

I wonder how many $500 or above donors Tech has? Because I agree, the average fan probably does not give that much.

The 3 biggest levers for us right now are TV, Big Donors and PSLs.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

The 3 biggest levers for us right now are TV, Big Donors and PSLs.

I'm afraid that the PSL lever would be an ejection seat for many in the fan base. Our tickets are already extremely affordable and yet here we are, begging for attendance.

 

[LibertyTurns]

I'm afraid that the PSL lever would be an ejection seat for many in the fan base. Our tickets are already extremely affordable and yet here we are, begging for attendance.

PSLs account for more ticket revenue than the tickets themselves. We rang up $9.3M in PSLs for $8.6M in tickets in 2019. $129 ticket packages or whatever they were don’t make the cash register sing!

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

PSLs account for more ticket revenue than the tickets themselves. We rang up $9.3M in PSLs for $8.6M in tickets in 2019. $129 ticket packages or whatever they were don’t make the cash register sing!

Correct, but if you raise them, you could find that a number of our fans simply choose not to renew. That's what I was referring to.

IMO, the ONLY way to really improve the finances is to put a winning product back on the field. The change in coaching staff did not create nearly as much fan buzz (in regards to ticket sales) as was hoped last season, as was born out by the ticket sales and attendance. We've got to give fans a compelling reason to show up to the games, and when the attendance goes up, additional PSLs and donations will follow.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Correct, but if you raise them, you could find that a number of our fans simply choose not to renew. That's what I was referring to.

IMO, the ONLY way to really improve the finances is to put a winning product back on the field. The change in coaching staff did not create nearly as much fan buzz (in regards to ticket sales) as was hoped last season, as was born out by the ticket sales and attendance. We've got to give fans a compelling reason to show up to the games, and when the attendance goes up, additional PSLs and donations will follow.

Not disagreeing with you at all. Until we win it’s going to be rough sledding.

Not directed at you but I see a lot of things being thrown around about our finances. We need more ticket sales, but we need the right kind of ticket sales. Trading old timers forking over $4600 for 4 tickets is not the same as getting someone to fork over $1200 for 4 tickets in the Gold Zone.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Not disagreeing with you at all. Until we win it’s going to be rough sledding.

Not directed at you but I see a lot of things being thrown around about our finances. We need more ticket sales, but we need the right kind of ticket sales. Trading old timers forking over $4600 for 4 tickets is not the same as getting someone to fork over $1200 for 4 tickets in the Gold Zone.

This is so true. I sit in the Gold Zone, but also contribute voluntarily to AT. Very few of my seatmates contribute. We need seats without PSLs, but we need to work on getting our non-PSL ticket holders contributing as well.

 

[bke1984]

This is so true. I sit in the Gold Zone, but also contribute voluntarily to AT. Very few of my seatmates contribute. We need seats without PSLs, but we need to work on getting our non-PSL ticket holders contributing as well.

Well and to be quite frank, why would someone pay for for upgraded seats when they can just buy the cheap ones and then walk over to sit in the empty expensive ones?

 

[bke1984]

Oh, and one more thing. We complain about prices, but that’s primarily because the product isn’t good. Start winning more and demand goes up and people don’t complain about prices. Pretty simple.

 

[684Bee]

Interesting summary.

I think the only advantage to the extra 10k butts in the seat will be improved recruiting and even some increase in donations.

I wonder how many $500 or above donors Tech has? Because I agree, the average fan probably does not give that much.

To give you somewhat of an answer: So far, the average donation through GTFAM has been just shy of $6k over a 5 year pledge period, so about $1,100/year. That’s pretty much in line with what I’ve been told is the average across the board.

We are very grateful and excited about these numbers. Just need more people. And, again, an amount of $600 per year is awesome, as well.

 

[TechCubed]

I think the days of using season tickets sales as a barometer are gone -- it's harder and harder to get people to commit sight unseen, or date/time unknown, to 6 or 7 games (or 15-18 in basketball). The key lies in affordable single game tickets and good gameday experience.

For football, there are only 15-20 mins of actual action, so the experience for the other 3+ hours on campus and in-venue are the key to getting people to attend. Winning definitely matters, but when you look at what MBS or the stadium-formerly-known-as-SunTrust offer, it goes well beyond the game. Not saying that BDS can mimic that, but having easy access (car, uber, marta), efficient entry, quality concessions and well-produced sound/video goes a long way to getting people to attend and keep coming back.

 

[chris975d]

I think the days of using season tickets sales as a barometer are gone -- it's harder and harder to get people to commit sight unseen, or date/time unknown, to 6 or 7 games (or 15-18 in basketball). The key lies in affordable single game tickets and good gameday experience.

For football, there are only 15-20 mins of actual action, so the experience for the other 3+ hours on campus and in-venue are the key to getting people to attend. Winning definitely matters, but when you look at what MBS or the stadium-formerly-known-as-SunTrust offer, it goes well beyond the game. Not saying that BDS can mimic that, but having easy access (car, uber, marta), efficient entry, quality concessions and well-produced sound/video goes a long way to getting people to attend and keep coming back.

Yes, it’s most definitely about the overall game day experience for me. In visiting other southeast college football venues, I think that’s something that we at Tech sorely lack.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Yes, it’s most definitely about the overall game day experience for me. In visiting other southeast college football venues, I think that’s something that we at Tech sorely lack.

Part of the reason for that is Tech's location in the middle of a large city, and there's just limited contiguous space to do things. The experience at Clemson is awesome, but they have so much space there to do things, and there's a lot of space really close to the stadium. I really enjoy going there. I just wish we would start winning there again. LOL

 

[chris975d]

Part of the reason for that is Tech's location in the middle of a large city, and there's just limited contiguous space to do things. The experience at Clemson is awesome, but they have so much space there to do things, and there's a lot of space really close to the stadium. I really enjoy going there. I just wish we would start winning there again. LOL

Clemson is one of my favorite places to go. Another fun time I’ve had is FSU. Super nice people. And yes, our lack of space makes it a killer. And the parking fees are crazy expensive when you actually want to try and do an all day tailgate. Love that atmosphere at Clemson (and other places) where there’s enough space (and they don’t have to charge an arm and a leg for it) to start tailgating first thing in the morning for an afternoon or early evening game. The elaborate tailgating experience is just really fun to me. When Clemson has a home game and we don’t, I have been going there to hang out with friends and watch the games.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Clemson is one of my favorite places to go. Another fun time I’ve had is FSU. Super nice people. And yes, our lack of space makes it a killer. And the parking fees are crazy expensive when you actually want to try and do an all day tailgate. Love that atmosphere at Clemson (and other places) where there’s enough space (and they don’t have to charge an arm and a leg for it) to start tailgating first thing in the morning for an afternoon or early evening game. The elaborate tailgating experience is just really fun to me. When Clemson has a home game and we don’t, I have been going there to hang out with friends and watch the games.

The only times I have been to Clemson were for Tech games. I have Clemson friends in Irmo who stay with me each year for the Masters and invite me up for the Tech games. I was impressed from the very first time I went there as to how organized the whole thing is there.

 

[GTJake]

The only times I have been to Clemson were for Tech games. I have Clemson friends in Irmo who stay with me each year for the Masters and invite me up for the Tech games. I was impressed from the very first time I went there as to how organized the whole thing is there.

Same here, I have Clemson friends on Lake Hartwell and in Seneca, who coincidentally have also invited me to the Masters. For Tech games we would go up on Friday Afternoon and spend the weekend with an all-day tailgate on gameday.
Great folks and always, win or lose, great times !