Got this in an email today:

NEW THIS SEASON!

TailGreat Park parking will ONLY be available to fans that purchase a specific TailGreat Park parking pass.
The cost will be $150 for a season pass.
Due to the limited availability, ONLY one (1) pass will be sold per account, so be sure to renew your tickets early to reserve your pass.
Passes are available for purchase over the phone or through your online application under “Additional Items."
Donor lot parking passes (Green, Orange and Blue) will no longer provide parking access to TailGreat Park.
Premium seat PSR credits and Ohio Bobcat Club (OBC) contributions do not apply to TailGreat Park parking passes.

Demand? What demand? Will there be a demand this fall?

Hard to say? I'd like to just buy two parking passes and two tickets, but that was practically impossible in 2019.

They raised the rates about 3-4 years ago and the sales dropped. They raised the rates to squeeze extra money out of it. Will spin the gerbil wheels for 3 years to get it back to pre-2017 levels.

Agree 100% SBH!

This was a community based program 25 years ago with the affordability and relationships driving it. It helped that college sports was on the rise in the 90's and 00's the whole culture around sports bars. Everything was getting bigger and better so it was easy to legitimize raising prices for "premium" stadium perks.

They maxed the prices out as high as what the markets/alums could sustain and now its against a backdrop of a pandemic (good excuse to retire out as a fan) plus sliding student enrollment to bring the atmosphere down. Its a recipe for disaster to monetize in this environment.

The question I have is why would anyone want to support Ohio Football. Solich says in articles he wants to get the team into the Top 25 but nobody cares about that anymore. For one he's already done it and for two it doesn't matter if the perception is that its based on over achievement. Winning the Peach Bowl even it wouldn't matter as quite frankly it wouldn't be a surprise at this point with all the bowl wins.

With all the success Ohio isn't even covered in MAC previews when talking about the top teams and players. In my opinion the program would have more attention if it marketed "star players" fans would want come and see. Frank has put guys in the NFL but the perception is he overachieves with his coaching when the reality is they brought in and developed good athletes.

Go back to the 2006 season winning the East title so early that was overachievement. But since then he's had better athletes on the field than all but a few teams in the MAC. Players don't get marketed properly. Perception is Frank runs conservative offense. This is why fans are tuning out.

Ohio's not the only program having problems. Attendance and general interest in college football have been down for a variety of reasons, not the least of which are head injuries and the fact that the current system allows three or four teams to dominate the playoffs every year. During the next couple seasons we can probably expect to see a surge in attendance over pre-pandemic years simply because people will want to get out again. But college football has long-term issues that need to be addressed if colleges want people to spend 3+ hours of their lives and a goodly chunk of their income on football, especially if people can sit at home or in a bar and watch the game on TV. One reason why college basketball works so well is that, at least at the start of the season, every team has an opportunity to get in The Dance and maybe win it all. That doesn't happen in college football. At least half the teams are automatically shut out. I know this post is contributing to thread drift, but the larger interest issue is helping to create some of these other issues.

I know but if only two of us fans realize it then its not true.

"I know but if only two of us fans realize it then its not true."
Good one Club Hyatt! Got a chuckle out of that. I sure hope that we are not the only two fans that recognize Ohio had a very good scoring offense from 2017-2019.

Need I mention the alleged fan who demanded a refund of his season ticket processing fee in the dark early days of Covid-19?

As I've said, I'm embarrassed for our AD.

On the other hand....I get the impression that the athletic dept is fairly pleased with the donations to "Fill the Convo".

Not sure if this is correct but I was always told there was way more demand for parking than spaces. If so, I've always thought it would be nice to open other lots like The Rideges and bus people down before the game and after to allow larger tailgate spots. Not sure it would work but if people want more parking passes, need to get creative.