OSU-DNA
01-15-2008, 02:12 PM
and generating money is the key for an AD. Mike Holder has done a phenomenal job of generating the money from the large donors but has really been a bust in terms of increasing attendance for games. It is water over the dam to discuss the ill timed and poorly presented ticket price increases.
Enhancing the non-conference schedule has been one avenue he has acted upon in the belief this will increase attendance. In my mind this is a debateable tactic since most premier non-conference games automatically are televised and it hard to imagine that we will generate significant more season ticket holders via improving the non-conference schedule. I wonder if someone has access to the KU numbers to determine what was their home attendance in 2006 vs. 2007. My guess is that there was a significant per game attendance increase and their non-conference schedule as we all know amounted to playing 5A High School games.
Mike will also take a PR hit with the stadium reseating that will occur this year. I for one will not nail him on this issue. My interpretation is that the suit filed for better handicap access necessitated the addition of new asiles. If we are going to need to move the fan base for asiles then doing it one time and getting it over makes sense. Will we take another attendance hit driven by the reseating, possibly, Mike will really need to focus on the PR aspect to smooth the reseating issue.
I recently had a discussion with a North Carolina State Wolfpack fan who lives in Oklahoma. He owns season tickets which led to a little comparison. We both focused on the premium seats and what each school was doing. At the end of the day the big difference in my mind was certainty. They have to contribute $6000-8000 per seat and they need to make this contribution over a 10 year period. However, this then means they have the right to purchase the same season ticket for 20 years. This certainty of price has allowed them to sell their premium seats. This is one area that Mike must address to resolve the Club level and the reseating that will occur this year.
The opening of the West end zone and the need to bring families back in full force is critical to generating long term attendance improvement. Trading TV games and poor dates is diametrically opposed to our long term goal of increasing attendance and revenue.
From my point the short version for Mike:
-No to non-Saturday games
-Review scheduling, if we need to eliminate UGA for example, do so.
-Create certainty in the pricing structure
Enhancing the non-conference schedule has been one avenue he has acted upon in the belief this will increase attendance. In my mind this is a debateable tactic since most premier non-conference games automatically are televised and it hard to imagine that we will generate significant more season ticket holders via improving the non-conference schedule. I wonder if someone has access to the KU numbers to determine what was their home attendance in 2006 vs. 2007. My guess is that there was a significant per game attendance increase and their non-conference schedule as we all know amounted to playing 5A High School games.
Mike will also take a PR hit with the stadium reseating that will occur this year. I for one will not nail him on this issue. My interpretation is that the suit filed for better handicap access necessitated the addition of new asiles. If we are going to need to move the fan base for asiles then doing it one time and getting it over makes sense. Will we take another attendance hit driven by the reseating, possibly, Mike will really need to focus on the PR aspect to smooth the reseating issue.
I recently had a discussion with a North Carolina State Wolfpack fan who lives in Oklahoma. He owns season tickets which led to a little comparison. We both focused on the premium seats and what each school was doing. At the end of the day the big difference in my mind was certainty. They have to contribute $6000-8000 per seat and they need to make this contribution over a 10 year period. However, this then means they have the right to purchase the same season ticket for 20 years. This certainty of price has allowed them to sell their premium seats. This is one area that Mike must address to resolve the Club level and the reseating that will occur this year.
The opening of the West end zone and the need to bring families back in full force is critical to generating long term attendance improvement. Trading TV games and poor dates is diametrically opposed to our long term goal of increasing attendance and revenue.
From my point the short version for Mike:
-No to non-Saturday games
-Review scheduling, if we need to eliminate UGA for example, do so.
-Create certainty in the pricing structure