Dayvid--I'll take your posts as an attempt at intellectual debate...and, so, I'll try to not let rancor infuse my reponse.

Let's just look at my effort pure and simple from a big, big picture level.  BobcatClub benefits, School of Accounting Benefits and the user of the seats benefits.  Any loss (someone buys my seats instead of others from Athletics) is probably pretty minimal.

Do ya really want to controvert my plan?

Stubhub would reach a different audience most likely, especially compared to BA, as far as ticket purchasing habits outside of this deal.  Also his auction format is not how stubhub works either, but the only impact i see that will have is to create more work for him to manage.



My post this morning was entirely about how I don't think those points are necessarily true.

No one knows how money is allocated once it has been received by either direct OBC donations or from ticket sales. My guess would be that if someone bought a $25 ticket from the ticket office, more of that money would go to athletics than the $12.50 you propose. But its just a guess, either way I think at best it is a wash for athletics.

As for the user benefiting - as I mentioned before that is true but it is a benefit which the ticket office has decided should not be available to that person.  Someone in that office made the conscious decision to not make one game sales of BobcatBlack seats available. Whether you are doing any good or harm overall by going against that decision is debatable, but the fact that you are going against that decision is not.

But Del is right, they are your tickets to do with what you like. In reality, your two tickets are completely insignificant even if you donated all $25 to OBC and every ticket you sold was to a fan who wasn't going to go the game in the first place. 

I just wanted to have this intellectual debate after I was met with such shock and stark opposition by those with such glowing support of something which is debatably hurting athletic revenues.

And to make it easier for you to pay, I have set up a paypal account.

Yeah.  No offense DG, but I wonder if you're the type of guy that goes to live in an active homeowner's association just so you can nitpick everything that everybody does and prove there is injustice present.  The guy has good intentions with this, clearly...Just leave it at that.

Unreal.  The guy is doing something positive and as far as I know has been a season ticket holder for basketball and football for some time, in spite of the fact that he's 3,500 miles away.  There are Columbus area residents on this board who wouldn't spring for $99 family packs because they didn't like the football schedule. Who is doing more to support Ohio athletics?

Well done Monroe!  Out of curiosity, which seats are yours?  I may want to buy a few to bring some guests/clients with me to a game and sit down low with us. 

The math on this one is pretty easy.  He already made the donation.  This is not much different than when DA bought two last year and gave them to Big Brothers/Big Sisters every game.  The only difference is that he is selling them and creating even more funds for the university. 

The seats are fantastic and the experience is worth the cost (which is peanuts compared to any big time basketball program).  I suspect in a decade or so I'll look back at the 14-15 days each year I go to games with my family and get to sit that close to the action as time and money well spent.  I am happy to write the check to the Ohio Bobcat Club in support of our student athletes. 

I'm really surprised everyone is so hard set on this being a great thing.  While I can see certain circumstances where it would be obvious - like giving to big brothers/big sisters, I don't see how you can all ignore the circumstances where this won't do any good at all or even hurt, yet still applaud him as a saint.

 Exclusively looking at the economics of it, the times it obviously is good is when the tickets go to someone who otherwise would not have bought a ticket or attended the game.  On the flip side the worst case is if someone buys who would have bought a single game ticket and instead buys from Monroe.  I don't think these two cases are debatable in their impact. Even worse would be someone who would buy a full season of bobcatblack seats, but knows they can only make a few games and buys from Monroe instead.

 The problem with evaluating the grey area between is how are we supposed to say what Monroe's bidders ticket intentions were? My points before were that if you generalize the audience of BA.com and thus the bidders, most are already planning to buy tickets of some kind from the department.  But even if you only say half of the bidders would have bought standard tickets, it's a wash and we really shouldn't give Monroe the Nobel prize for his generosity.

  Don't get me wrong I am all for what Monroe has done by purchasing the BobcatBlack seats and his dedication to his alma mater, and give him praise for that. Should he decide to donate the tickets every week to someone he feels would never see a bobcat game if not for his generosity then we can talk about his canonization.

  Until then I still see this as a half-cocked idea that, although it has the best intentions, may fall short in accomplishing the goal of increasing funding to the school.

They're sold out, so this scenario is irrelevant.

I'm gonna ignore SBH because he clearly hasn't read all my posts or he would see that them not being available on a per game basis is actually one of my arguments why this is bad.

But yes, they are sold out so my hypothetical situation is extra hypothetical.  If it makes it easier you can replace my worse case hypothetical with whatever the most expensive total cost ticket package currently available is.

Too bad your advice went unheeded.

Monroe's post was an expression of pure generosity, and he clearly stated what he was doing and his reasons for doing it. It's not a logic puzzle for us to judge, analyze and criticize.

If all of us fail to see the genius of your fascinating hypotheticals and theories, DG, it just might be because there isn't any there.

1.  You have to give at a high level to the OBC to even be allowed to purchase the seats.
2.  The offer was only made to folks on this message board.
3.  Nearly all of us on this message board are already season ticket holders and likely give to the OBC anyway.
4.  The seats are sold out, so even if someone wanted the Black seats, they would not be able to purchase them.
5.  The experience of upgrading one's seats for a game may inspire that person to want to sit lower next year.  That will indirectly create higher OBC donations and higher ticket revenue next year.

I have purchased way more season tickets than I need for football and basketball every year.  I do it for a few reasons.  First, I like to have a few extras each game to give away to family/friends/clients if they want to attend last minute.  Second, I want to introduce folks to the atmosphere hoping they will hop on the bandwagon.  This strategy has resulted in about 40 extra season tickets being sold this year for both sports because I introduced people to Ohio Athletics last year.  Last, it helps the season ticket and attendance numbers.  I take pride in helping, even in a small way, to build the regular fan base.  I have 8 tickets for basketball and 17 for football.  I have a family of four, yet nearly every ticket gets used for every game.  Monroe is simply doing the same thing.  If I buy his seats for a couple games, all my seats will still get used.  Who cares who is paying for it?

Really?  Really?  What is a fine gesture by Monroe is being argued with this type of logic?  So if someone gives their tickets to a neighbor, they are corrupting the system as well?  So when I have given tickets to a woman and her young son, knowing they couldn't afford to go to a game - I'm doing a disservice?  Really. 

And your final ideal world makes the least sense of all.  Monroe should not have bought the tickets, so that someone else could have at full price (which Monroe did) - thus leaving Monroe to buy tickets for the game or two he attends (at what, $25 a pop?)  Instead of giving $15 or more per game per ticket to the University.

Let's all agree to do the following.  End this thread - banish it. 

Monroe, then please re-post as a new thread the offer and keep it active so folks can take advantage of your offer.

Sigh



If you read anything I said you would see that the disservice only occurs when he is selling them to someone who otherwise would buy a ticket, as most people on his sales venue (Here), would. Your point is so off base I was tempted to ignore it.



The part you left off for some inexplicable reason is that Monroe should just donate the money and not buy the tickets. So they would still have gotten the same amount, and then could essentially "resell" the tickets themselves resulting in much more money for the school and all through avenues that they control themselves.  

695 and Borna are the only ones contributing anything with substance on the subject. I honestly have no explanation for why the rest of you are so blind to evaluating this with a level-head.

I fully support Monroe spending his money as he sees fit and hell if he wants to sell the tickets at a personal profit more power to him. But if you think what he is doing is worthy of the highest of praise because it raises money for the university you clearly do not understand economics.