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?
Thanks 695, you make some good arguments. I think the fact that the Black seats are sold out makes understanding their demand more difficult and as I've said many times, the prior purchasing intentions of the bidders is the deciding factor of financial impact. Here are my thoughts though on your points:
- By creating an avenue to get the seats without making the donation this may actually lower the demand for the seats as sold in the structure via the ticket office since a cheaper more flexible option now exists.
- Agreed, although I'm not sure where you are going with this as far as impact.
- I agree, although it is hard to say if anyone would donate more to OBC to have access to the black seats if they were not made available by Monroe. I would suspect they would.
- This is the interesting wrinkle. The supply is fixed, so really the only thing we can change is the demand.
- In point 1 I mentioned one way this might lower demand, however I see your point that a "trial" can increase demand. My only thoughts on this are that it is a little over reaching to have fans managing trial upgrades of seats to drive demand, and to not do this was a decision that was made by the ticket office.
I also want to applaud you for what you do in your season ticket purchases. Getting new fans in the seats is something I think everyone on this board strives for and you are doing a great job. As it pertains to this debate what you are doing is very different. You are giving tickets away to those who would otherwise not purchase tickets in an attempt to gain fans and involvement. Very different from selling restricted access tickets as a way to circumvent the official pathway for accessing a premium experience, for those who would normally buy a standard ticket.
I think in an ideal world. Monroe would have just donated the money and not bought the tickets. Thus freeing up the tickets for full price purchase by someone else assuming the demand is there, which since they are sold out I suspect there is the demand. Or better yet, instead of just donating the money Monroe could buy 20 non premium season tickets and donate them to local businesses or charities and try to build the fan base.