I'm a long time reader but first time poster.  I'm typically not one to engage in message board banter but I felt compelled to respond to this topic.  I have seen multiple times on this board the conversation around Penden expansion or renovations.  Believe what you want but I can in fact tell you there is a plan in the works to raise money to do just this (both an expanstion and renovations).  I'm fortunate to have a source that works at the school who confirmed this to me several months ago.  The campaign has already begun with the large donors (it has a specific name that I won't share).  I would be shocked if this didn't become public at some point this year. However, they may wait a little longer for the dust to settle (literally and figuratively) with the indoor facility project.

The problem is that once you start something, it's hard to take it away.  All of those family packs have put people in seats on sunny Saturday afternoons.  They go unused during goofy season.  It's not hard to throw away $15 especially when you can watch it at home on TV.

The family plan really has built the brand to me. A lot of people will buy family passes because a season of Ohio Football is cheaper than a Browns or luckeyes ticket. They go to a game, they see the team, they get to feel Athens, and they are hooked, this has lead to numerous people in my family becoming fanatical Bobcats fans in Hockey, Basketball, and Football. If Ohio's family plan costs $150, I still might spend $300 to get 4 adults and 4 kids, but if it goes up to $200 a piece, then I would likely cut back to just 1 family pack, and thus having friends and family come down to Athens for a game is less likely if at all.

The quality of the games has changed?  Have you looked at our home schedules lately?

Well there should be a noticeable increase next year simply because of the 7th home game.

The corner family plan was $109 ($4.54/ticket), upgraded family plan $160 ($6.67) and $88 ($14.67) for a regular individual ticket.

The first thing I see is that it is cheaper to get sideline seats for 2 adults and 2 children than it is for 2 adults. Tells me either the individual season tickets are overpriced (which they not) or the family plan for that location is underpriced. I'm not saying charge the children full ticket price, but the plan needed to be at a minimum $176.

Also, is there any monitoring of the family plan? It says it's supposed to be two adults/two children, but can you really get four adults in on it?

If they hold prices for next year, you'd be looking at $127 for the corner family plan, $187 for the upgraded plan and $102.70 for the individual.

I don't see anything wrong if the athletic department bumped up the ticket prices from $4.54 to $5 (plan would be $140), $6.67 to $8 (plan would be $224) and the regular ticket to $16 ($112). At least now the two kids are simply free and not coming at a discount compared to the guy who buys two regular tickets.

It is still hard to beat those prices anywhere in I-A football.

So this year you paid $160 for your four seats?

My amateur theory on football marketing at which the professionals may now point and laugh:

I just want a way to incentivize people to attend more than one or two warm-weather games. I don't know the best way to do that. Maybe charge more money for the family pack, but offer a rebate for next year's season tickets based on how many games they actually physically attended? Maybe for Ohio, maximizing revenue isn't about selling more actual tickets, but getting the people who bought tickets to come to the stadium later in the year to buy concessions, to buy merchandise and to patronize area businesses (who then will be willing to advertise when they see what Ohio football is doing for them).

I just wonder if those billboards advertising $5 tickets for games against Big East schools and the high school football-level season ticket prices don't undercut bigger things like building a market and a value for Ohio football tickets.

I think people are going to show up no matter what for a good Bobcat football team in September on a 75 degree day with sun streaming into Peden Stadium and a rainbow shining off the Convo dome and the whole campus looking like a freaking national park it's so green and verdant. Those are no longer tough sells around Athens. We've got those down. I don't think we need to subsidize those games. And when you offer too cheap of a ticket packet, you're letting fans in for cheap prices for some primo games and then they simply don't show up for October's and November's freezer bowl games.

I don't think missing mid-week games is anything to apologize over. (I sure don't make the four-hour drive to Athens on a Wednesday night often. It'd better be for  division title or a Miami game)

That's the devil's bargain the MAC made to get national exposure (something we've debated long and loudly over the years here).

I just want Ohio to get a small fraction of those weekend fans to show up for one or two games. That can mean real growth.

Of course, the rebuttal Ohio's marketing department would shout at me is that the people who show up for mid-week games are from Athens and Southeast Ohio, the very people who are most likely to purchase the family pack... a family pack I denigrated two posts up.

I understand how difficult the job of selling MAC football to the masses is. I'm just throwing darts at the board here.

Good point.  Individual campaigns are like old high school booster club fund raisers.  The model today is to go after funding for a project or program not just new uniforms.

Student Side needs updated regardless of selling more season tickets or not. We have no permanent store that sells merchandise, old bathrooms, old scoreboard, and concessions. The complete student side should be torn down and rebuilt with some club seating, make the lower section all students and Marching 110, and second deck can be sold to general public. Plus have updated concessions, a permanent store that can be open during the week, new bathrooms, and new locker rooms for visiting teams. Also during the weekday games we play we can move people from the the two corner bleachers onto the upper deck to make the stadium look larger and more people showing up. 

The results would argue that the whole "$4.50" message is working, though. We just led the MAC in attendance and had 3 sellouts. All this with maybe the WORST home schedule in program history. What does "building a market and a value for Ohio Football" accomplish? I'd rather have the sellouts.

If you ask me, it appears the core of the recent marketing strategy is drawing in the casual fan from SE Ohio. Joe Six-Pack from Albany, McArthur, Logan, McConnelsville, etc. who's looking for something to do. The type who, dare I say, wears O$U stuff to the game...and probably couldn't name one of our players. Joe Six-Pack also doesn't have lots of $$$$...and hence you have to keep the product cheap.

But, in a place like Athens, this is EXACTLY who you have to bring to the games to achieve sellouts. I think they've hit a home run with this strategy, and that's where much of the attendance increase is coming from. I've seen more groups at the Convo and Peden this year than maybe the past 5 combined. Everything from 4H kids to Canal Winchester football teams and the Morgan County basketball leagues. None of these "new" fans I've seen, though, are the type of folks that will (or would be able to) fork out big $$$ for tickets.

Give me cheap tickets all day if it brings in the masses. Hopefully, as these "new" fans get to experience more of our games, they'll all grow to love the teams as we do....and ultimately become bigger fans and season ticket holders. And maybe then, they'll start complaining about cheap tickets on a message board.

Kidding aside though, all interesting points to discuss!

I can personally confirm that fans were turned away at the New Mexico State game. I know someone who came to the game and was unable to get a ticket at around 6:45 that night. So, at least one game was a true sellout. I can't confirm whether that was the case for Akron, but Peden was pretty darned full.

Now, the question of "was every seat filled" is completely different. I'm sure there were probably at least 500 fans with tickets that elected not to attend. You're never going to have every single seat filled. At the same time, you certainly can't sell their ticket if it's already paid for.

Check out this picture from the New Mexico State game. If that's not a sellout, I'm not sure what is:
http://ohiobobcatphotos.com/p941501888/h42447600#h42447600

Likewise for Akron:
http://ohiobobcatphotos.com/p1069151724/h475941fa#h475941fa

Plenty? Again, I'll give you 500-1,000 "no shows", but that's it. There were a number of people turned away at the NMSU game. I doubt they did that just for the heck of it.

Edit: Found a similar photo online. Fire away!