TW:OSU discusses price increase

[JimBob]

OSU discusses price increase


By BILL HAISTEN World Sports Writer
12/23/2007


Attendance has declined for three straight seasons.


STILLWATER -- In advance of each of the previous three football seasons, Oklahoma State has increased the price of its basic season ticket.

There was a $64 increase before the 2006 season and another $64 hike before the 2007 season.

And since 2004, when the Cowboys set a school record with an average-attendance mark of 46,805, the attendance has steadily declined.

The 2005 average was 44,860, the 2006 average was 40,954 and this year's average stands at 40,024.

Oklahoma State currently has the Big 12's smallest venue -- 44,700-seat Boone Pickens Stadium.

In the conference this season, the Cowboys rank 11th in attendance.

OSU has not played before a home sellout crowd since its 2004 Bedlam battle with Oklahoma.

As of next season, the Boone Pickens Stadium ca pacity will increase to 60,000, making it the Big 12's sixth-largest stadium. OSU athletic director Mike Holder says the university administration has not decided whether ticket prices again will be increased.

"I would say this to any Oklahoma State fan -- we feel your pain. I'm concerned about it," Holder said.

"We've probably had a dozen meetings already, trying to decide what our price structure is going to be. We'll probably have quite a few more meetings before we finally decide what the price is going to be."

Added Holder: "If there's any way that we can afford to do it, I don't want to raise the prices."

For six home dates, the 2007 basic season ticket went for $359.

On a per-game basis, the cost amounted to $59.83.

The total cost of a 2008 season ticket definitely will increase, Holder explained, because Oklahoma State will be playing seven home games. If the per-game price remains the same, the 2008 season ticket would go for about $419.

In 2009, unless OSU and Texas Tech officials forge an agreement to play their game at the new Dallas Cowboy stadium in Arlington, Texas, the Cowboys will have eight home dates.

"The popular thing would be to cut prices, but the reality of the market place is that we're still ninth (in the Big 12) in our operating budget," Holder said. "That's not the way to compete with Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Nebraska. Our constituency expects us to compete with those schools.

"We want to compete for championships in all sports. Right now, with our $40 million budget, we don't provide all of our coaches and teams a fair shot at being conference champions or national champions.

"That's got to change. The only way to get that revenue is from our fans. The two primary sources we have are (ticket sales) in football and basketball. So we have to be aggressive in those two venues -- especially football."

For a club-level seat on the south or north side of the stadium, the season-ticket price is the same as it is for any other seat, but the buyer is required to make a $1,500 donation to the Posse Club.

Holder said a decision on 2008 pricing should be made soon after the Cowboys face Indiana in the Dec. 31 Insight Bowl at Tempe, Ariz.


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SEASON TICKETS


2004

Price: $225 (six home dates).

Season-ticket sales total: 38,674 (school record).

Attendance average: 46,805 (school record).

2005

Price: $231 (six home dates).

Season-ticket sales total: 37,000.

Attendance average: 44,860.

2006

Price: $295 (six home dates).

Season-ticket sales total: 32,903.

Attendance average: 40,954.

2007

Price: $359 (six home dates).

Season-ticket sales total: 33,400.

Attendance average: 40,024.


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BIG 12 FOOTBALL 2007 ATTENDANCE


(Capacity in parentheses)

School Average

1. Texas (79,866)........85,144

2. Oklahoma (82,112). 84,858

3. Nebraska (81,067).. 84,515

4.Texas A&M (82,600)82,207

5. Missouri (68,349).... 60,232

6. Tex. Tech (52,882).51,912

7. Colorado (53,750)...50,509

8. Iowa State (55,000)49,462

9. Kansas St. (50,000)47,383

10. Kansas (50,071)..... 46,784

11. OSU (44,700)......... 40,024

12. Baylor (50,000)....... 34,378

[CaliforniaCowboy]

another crappy article... we will not have 60,000 seats next year.

he makes it sound like something bad is happening.

[frankeaton]

another crappy article... we will not have 60,000 seats next year.

he makes it sound like something bad is happening.

I read the lower section of the west end zone will be ready

[OSUFan]

Holder just doesn't get it. If he raises ticket prices again, OSU's attendance will go down even further even with an increased capacity of 60,000. There's no way people will want to pay for higher ticket prices when the product on the field is so average. It might be different if OSU was winning the Big 12 South and competing for national titles. He might be able to raise the prices then but not now.

Here's what I would propose:

Current prices
$59.83 per game = 40,024 X $359 = $14,368,616

Future prices
Keep current prices
$59.83 per game = 40,024 X $359 = $14,368,616
West Endzone prices
$25 per game = 19976 X $150 = $2,996,400

He'd make an additional $3 million. The stadium would be full and everyone would be happy (for the most part) because ticket prices didn't go up.

The secret for this program to begin building a national contender is to win every home game. It sure helps when you have a soldout stadium. Holder needs to be more concerned about putting butts in the stands than where OSU's operating budget stands in the Big12.

[Lewis the Pike]

Holder needs to be more concerned about putting butts in the stands than where OSU's operating budget stands in the Big12.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/22/images/2007042201460201.jpg

[CaliforniaCowboy]

what do you mean, go down further.... the objective is to increase SEASON tickets... they went up last year, not down (slightly).

overall attendance was down slightly, because of 1) the students, and 2) the crappy home schedule... the key games were sell-outs for all intents and purposes.

[Pokevette]

another crappy article... we will not have 60,000 seats next year.

he makes it sound like something bad is happening.


Umm, yes I think we will have the full 60,000 seats next year. The seating will be complete prior to the opening game.

[frankeaton]

this is the only one published that I could find by
googling it and it was before the last two
increases... so where does Holder come up with 9th??

2003-2004 Spending Football Budget Athletics Budget
Texas $12.9M $70.6M
Nebraska $12.9M $55.8M
Oklahoma $13.7M $47.8M
Oklahoma State $8.7M $45.3M
Texas A&M $9.8M $43.8M
Texas Tech $15.3M $41.2M
Missouri $6.8M $38.7M
Colorado $9.6M $36.7M
Kansas State $11.4M $35.7M
Kansas $7.7M $34.7M
Baylor $7.7M $28.1M
Iowa State $7.2M $27.7M

[CaliforniaCowboy]

Umm, yes I think we will have the full 60,000 seats next year. The seating will be complete prior to the opening game.

thanks pokevette, but I was stating fact not opinion.

we will NOT have 60,000 seats next year... that is a fact.

the WEZ bowl is reported to be 13,500 capacity... we now have 44,700 seats, so that is max of 58,200, IF WE WE WERE NOT reseating folks and LOWERING the number of North and South side seats, which we are.

Full capacity will not be until we complete the WEZ suites in 2009. There're adding about 60 suites with about 20 seats per suite (I'm guessing at these numbers, but they're about right); but even those numbers don't add up to 60,000.

I would not be surprised if final official capacity is something less than 60,000.

[Pokevette]

Actually, I don't think you can state "fact" unless you are involved in the building process and attending the construction meetings with the project managers. So actually, you are just stating your opinion...

Anyway, what I was basing my belief on was the following statement from a Tulsa World article dated 6/6/2007 (see link below):


"In 2008, fans will have access to seating, restrooms, concessions, escalators and elevators in the west end. Stadium capacity will jump from 43,500 to nearly 60,000."

Now, I'm not going to try to claim I know more about the issue then does the Tulsa World. I'm just saying the best information that I have been able to find on the issue states that "nearly 60,000" seats will be available come 2008.

Link:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/article.aspx?articleID=070606_238_B1_hWest54155

[AggieSpice]

""The popular thing would be to cut prices, but the reality of the market place is that we're still ninth (in the Big 12) in our operating budget," Holder said. "That's not the way to compete with Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Nebraska. Our constituency expects us to compete with those schools."



to quote chad vader: "this...is...bull$h!t" learn how to spend your money more wisely as texas tech, kansas, iowa state, k-state etc are having way more success than us in football AND basketball lately and they AREN'T having to bleed their fans dry and see yearly drops in attendance due to said fans being priced out of their seats to do it. work smarter, not harder is my advice to mr. holder.

[Verb]

With all due respect, I think spending our tiny little athletic budget "more wisely" is not going to get us nearly far enough in the ultra-competitive Big XII south. It would be nice if it would, but it won't. We need a budget comparable to the schools we compete against. It's painful, but it's reality.

[wickerbill]

I don't see how we could possibly get our athletic budget to compare to Texas. That school is more than twice the size of ours. I fear what my basketball and football tickets will cost if Holder's ultimate goal is to get our total athletic budget equal with UT's.

[CaliforniaCowboy]

well, pokevette, that article does say NEAR 60,000....

I don't claim to know anything about specifics except what I posted was straight out of every article written so far... the WEZ bowl will be 13,500 (accroding to the newspapers), current capacity is 44,700 (according to the newspapers), we are reseating the North and South sides REDUCING the number of seats there (notices have been sent by OSU), and the Suites will not be finished or available until the 2009 season (a whole lot of Suites, since there is no WEZ club level).

It's not to hard to duduce that the stadium (Suites) will not be finished in 2008, and hence we will not be at capacity (reported to be around 60,000 when finished in 2009).


From what I've read, there is no way we will have 60,000 seats for opening 2008.

From the numbers that have been published so far, I'm starting to doubt whether the final capacity will be 60,000... but it should be pretty close.... I have not heard how many seats will be in the WEZ suites, but the North and South Suites have either 20 or 16 (the Founders Suites near the 50 have the larger number).

No rocket surgery being applied, just simply math and some deductive reasoning.

[CanadianCowboy]

No rocket surgery being applied, just simply math and some deductive reasoning.

WARNING! Reading CCWest's last line will invoke 'Monitor Spew' :D

By the way, invoking quotes from ANY newspaper and inferring as fact is a dangerous thing, as we have seen repeatedly from the words spouted forth from our state's WPOS journalist wannabe's. But you don't have to attend the project manager's meetings to learn how many seats the stadium will have. In fact, I doubt seriously you would learn much of any interest to the ordinary observer from those meetings! Trust me. Unless you have an interest in how they're going to transport the structural iron into town, approach from which direction and enter the site by which gate, and whether pulled in or backed in so that the iron on the trailer is oriented properly relative to the crane setup. The number of seats aren't decided there.

Now, the Spark's Collaborative knows, you can rest assured, and knew how many seats there would be from the very beginning. It would have been in their proposal to O-State, and therefore an item of public information. Just because the state rags are too lazy to go find out doesn't mean the number isn't already determined.

But, like CaliCowboy demonstrates, we can apply a little of what we call on my jobsites "Cowboy Math" and get a pretty close estimate of what those seats will be. If we knew the current number of seats in the North and South sides - CCWest claims the public knowledge to be 44,700 (I know - it came from a newspaper, but bear with me) - then we can multiply that number 14/18 to determine the new number of seats that accomodate our ever-expanding asses...roughly 34,767. Add the 13,500 for WEZ to get 48,267. Then the WEZ club seats....what did CCWest estimate?...1200? and we are up to a whopping 49,467. Now I've got to be thinking...the seat widening must not have been part of the original formula...leaving the width of the seats alone yields 59,400 - believe it or not, almost 60,000 as the paper says. But subtracting the number of seat sacrificed for "comfortablization" (9933), we are almost back to where we started from, but with an infinite amount of style & class over ol' Rustoleum Stadium.

All done with Cowboy Math, sans Rocket Surgery.:D