A kick in the face to thousands of out-of-state fans

[Verb]

Thank you, Mr. Holder. I've always been inclined to be supportive. Until now.

Is it smart to ignore tens of thousands of loyal, successful alums (and potential donors) living and working outside of Oklahoma? Penny wise and pound fooolish...

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/TU/article.aspx?subjectid=94&articleid=20100914_93_B1_SILAEh563218&rss_lnk=93

[Vulgar Display of Orange]

"But our No. 1 priority right now has to be finding ways to drive attendance and fill the football stadium."

Raising already overvalued ticket prices year after year will do that. I'm certain.

[fifrat]

Amen!

[PokesFanatic]

I think the thing that Holder forgets is that televising sports is as much about publicity for your school as it is revenue. By declining the TV offer (even the PPV one) Holder has denied out-of-state alumni the opportunity to support their team, the opportunity for family of players to watch their kids, and mostly the opportunity for players to gain exposure. Televised games advertise your institution not only to prospective student-athletes, but to their non-athlete colleagues as well.

Holder simply HAS to get out of the Karsten Creek/Country Club/Exclusivity mindset. Denying an offer to televise a game because the stadium isn't sold out ought only to tell him one thing: supply and demand dictate that prices are too high. Alienating the fan-base because your ticket pricing scheme turned out to fly right in the face of an ongoing economic downturn isn't exactly smart.

[Scott]

"But our No. 1 priority right now has to be finding ways to drive attendance and fill the football stadium."

Raising already overvalued ticket prices year after year will do that. I'm certain.

If filling the stadium is our "No. 1 priority right now", why are we blocking ticket sales to certain games?

[WyomingOSUAlum]

If filling the stadium is our "No. 1 priority right now", why are we blocking ticket sales to certain games?



zzzZZZZZZZZZING !!!!!

[FloridaPoke]

I believe he offered to do the PPV with an Oklahoma blackout, so out of State alumni like Verb could still get the game. The PPV company said no to that. But he tried.

[cactusjack]

Gripe all you want but we've had the two highest season ticket sales in our history the last two years.

Holder couldn't get a local blackout and OSU was not getting any money for doing it. Okstate.com will have the in house broadcast online by early 3am sunday morning.

[OSUFan]

If filling the stadium is our "No. 1 priority right now", why are we blocking ticket sales to certain games?

Because most people (OSU and ou fans) would only order the Bedlam tickets not season tickets or 3-game tickets.

My suggestion is to write Holder. Maybe if enough fans write, and it would need to be a lot, Holder would change his mind, maybe.

[Verb]

If OSU wants to be a bigtime school with a bigtime football program, it needs to recognize that some of its most successful grads are working for big corporations across the country and world. These people have the potential to be big supporters of the school, but they have to be reached out to. We can't continue to make it so difficult to be an OSU fan if you don't live in the state.

[swimscampusshop]

If filling the stadium is our "No. 1 priority right now", why are we blocking ticket sales to certain games?

Because blocking ticket sales to that certain game increases season ticket sales.

And to those of us with season tickets, it is a true blessing to enjoy a Bedlam football game where we finally have a solid home field advantage. If you haven't bought your season ticket yet, you really should. I believe there are still some available. You will absolutely love the environment, except at the completion of the singing of the national anthem when minimally require squats belligerently display why they're squats.

[MajorMike]

I don't like it but I get it.

[BigBadBen]

If filling the stadium is our "No. 1 priority right now", why are we blocking ticket sales to certain games?


Okay, here is one way to get around it.

If you want a Bedlam ticket & are willing to pay $100 each, just get a Fun Zone season ticket for $384. Sell the first 6 game tickets for an average of $42 each.

Then you have your Bedlam ticket and your only out $100.

Pretty simple.

[Scott]

Because blocking ticket sales to that certain game increases season ticket sales.


Then why is Holder so concerned with selling tickets to the Tulsa game? It doesn't make any sense.

[swimscampusshop]

Then why is Holder so concerned with selling tickets to the Tulsa game? It doesn't make any sense.

You've lost me on this one. Every athletic director at every university in the country is concerned with selling tickets to every game they host. It makes total sense to me. What am I missing?

[mankey522]

16 and 17 yr old kids want to be on tv! you gain new recruits and new fans from tv exposure! get on tv when you can its not about recouping lost money its about getting top notch recruits and more and more fans and tv accomplishes those goals. GET ON TV WHEN U CAN!

[mdpoke]

If OSU wants to be a bigtime school with a bigtime football program, it needs to recognize that some of its most successful grads are working for big corporations across the country and world. These people have the potential to be big supporters of the school, but they have to be reached out to. We can't continue to make it so difficult to be an OSU fan if you don't live in the state.

I work for a pretty large organization on the east coast and it doesn't keep me from supporting the Pokes. I can understand his (Holder) reasons and I went to the Troy game so I could see my daughter. You should send a letter to Holder arguing your case, doing it on this forum makes it sound like your whining. The crowd we had at Troy caused them all kinds of problems in the second half a larger crowd would have helped even more.

[Verb]

You should send a letter to Holder arguing your case, doing it on this forum makes it sound like your whining.


Er...I'll bear that in mind.

But forums are for discussions!

[orangeo]

It is being presented as a case of OSU choosing not to televise the game. I think it is more likely that nobody was willing to pay for it. Afterall, this is not a game that has a lot of interest outside the state, and even locally the market it pretty small. I doubt if anybody could come out ahead even with PPV. All decisions are now made with money as the sole criteria. What fans, in state or out, think doesn't matter in the least. And that is probably true at every school in the country, not just OSU.

[Ivan]

For those of you implying that this will hurt/not help recruiting, this game would be on one of 2 things, pay per view or a fox college sports channel, that is only on dtv/dish.

Either one of those would not help recruiting one bit. What kids is going to spend $20-$30 to watch Oklahoma state vs Tulsa. And that FCS (fox college sports) channel is on so few TV's it wouldn't help much either, that is even if kids found the game on the tv guide.

Not to mention that FCS said they would carry the OSU feed, so it would be poor quality and production value for TV.

Do I like it? no cause I can't go to the game, but you know what, I understand what Holder is trying to do and respect it.

[BigBadBen]

16 and 17 yr old kids want to be on tv! you gain new recruits and new fans from tv exposure! get on tv when you can its not about recouping lost money its about getting top notch recruits and more and more fans and tv accomplishes those goals. GET ON TV WHEN U CAN!



Ivan said what I was thinking.

The only option for this game was for PAY PER VIEW.
How many 16-17 year old kids would pay the money for Pay Per View?
A few more than none, maybe.


This game isn't on Network TV because THE NETWORK didn't pick it up. Holder had nothing to do with that.

The television contract through the Big 12 determines which teams are on Network TV. The only time the schools have any say is when a Network asks them to move a game for TV, The OSU v A&M game on Thursday Night for example.

Holder was in the position that would have them weigh selling a PPV or tickets. My guess it OSU will make more money on ticket sales that PPV revenue, so it was probably a wise decision.

[Lewis the Pike]

It truly is petty that this game wasn't released to PPV, if it was offered to OSU.

I am sure there are two sides to every story, but I know a few CaliPokes that would have enjoyed some Orange Fellowship!

Have fun at the game for us guys!

[GoPokes83]

Tulsa fans are staying away in droves because we're gouging them 90 bucks for the worst seats in the house. There will still be a ton of Tulsa fans there, but they'll buy tickets at well below face value from a broker or Craigslist. Out of state Pokes fans are staying away because it's Tulsa, it's the last game before B12 play, (BTW we're not going to sell out a Thursday night TTU game either.) or because it's so expensive to take a family to a game that they're saving that one or two game trip a year for a better game. So let's drop the chance for PPV and make sure we get absolutely none of that revenue.

We won't sell out until Nebraska, and then Bedlam and those will be in a big part because of traveling fans from both those teams.

FCS is on a lot more TV's than you think.

[Verb]

(BTW we're not going to sell out a Thursday night TTU game either.)

I don't care if the TTU game sells out or not--since it's in Lubbock.

[GoPokes83]

I don't care if the TTU game sells out or not--since it's in Lubbock.

LOL you have a good point! I need to adjust my meds.

[GoPokes83]

My point is that we may be forced into buying season tickets in order to buy "premium" game tickets, but people aren't going to the games. The number of season tickets being bought by brokers so they can sell the home game seats to whatever teams fans wants to buy them and still make a fortune reselling Bedlam tickets does the school absolutely no good. IMO it's short term thinking. It puts some cash into the coffers today, but does little or nothing to grow the fan base. I say affordable tickets make fans, fans make students.