I'm looking for some clarification on a few things in regards to the Ohio Bobcat Club. I'm hoping to convince my wife it is time to join, but it could be a hard sell. I might be lucky to convince her of family pack season tickets. So I need to get my information straight first.

Phillips Club seating requires a $50 per seat contribution. That's simple enough. A benefit of the Ohio Bobcat Club is preferred parking. Those who donate at least $50 annually (and who buy season tickets) get complimentary parking at The Convo. Is that seperate from the $50 seat contribution? I'm guessing yes.

Then when basketball season comes around, I would think the $50 per seat contribution would be another contribution, right? However, the $50 donation toward parking would stand toward basketball parking also (although you have to donate more to get basketball parking).

Aside from that, I'm just looking for suggestions. What's the best deal? I suppose I may have to ask the ticket office about this, but seating in the Phillips Club, how far from midfield would the best available seats be? How good are the seats for general season tickets? Any other advice?

The schedule looks promising for us to be able to make at least four and maybe all six home games, and I like the prospects for this season, so I'm thinking maybe now is a good time. Thanks for the suggestions.

Aaron made most of the points I was going to make...the big one being the need to have season tickets (but the cheaper family pack seats DO count) for the parking pass.  If you donate now, you won't have to donate until next summer.  So one donation will get you a parking pass for both football and basketball (assuming you have season tickets for both sports.)  With how cheap the family packs are, it does make it the best value in all of college sports!  It's cheaper to get the family pack that to buy individual tickets for homecoming.

I'll also point out that this year there is a "premium" family pack that is located on the 30's at the top of the tower side for an additional $50 (the light green sections.)

http://www.ohiobobcats.com/tickets/#seatingchart

I moved my family pack to the premium so I didn't have to look into the sun during the afternoon games.  I got my 5 seats in the top row in section 106 so I could use the tower club fence/railing as a back rest.  When you call, you can request a seat location and the ticket office will do their best to put you in those seats if possible.  In the past I've gotten the last row in section 115 so the kids didn't bother people by standing up and shuffling around...plus it brought me back to when I was a student and I would stand and lean on the wall at the top of the student section.

I'll note that the family pack includes the 2 youth tickets.  One year my tickets had "youth" printed on them, one year they didn't.  I think the ones with "youth" printed on them function and scan the same as an adult ticket.  I don't know if a 19+ year old could get into the game with a youth ticket.  The youth tickets are priced the same as the adult so I don't know why it would matter...but they do print "youth" on them.  Not sure if the ticket takers are paying enough attention to question an mid-aged guy using a ticket with "youth" on it.

I might be wrong, but I'm thinking that the 2 $50 seat donations count towards your OBC dues....so for another $25 you could get to the $125 level which gets you that BBall parking pass. 

Not sure where you got this information but I was told that the big three expenseareas for the obc were administration (over 100,000), coaches bonuses and summer school tuition.  I would like to see a pie chart in the brochure showing where the money goes.

OBC was restructured last year to have all fundraising efforts go towards student-athlete scholarships. It is now essentially what P.A.W.S. (providing athletes with scholarships) was back in the good 'ol days of Billy Hahn and winless football teams.

Now, one could argue that all the money goes to the same place...so really, it probably doesn't matter. But the OBC is marketing itself as having all revenue go back to student-athlete scholarships.

Realistically, it's all just part of athletics' income, and it's just a matter of which money goes to which things. I'm just glad to help out our student-athletes.

I wouldn't worry about it. You can pretty much walk into the Gardner Webb game no questions asked, and sit wherever you want.