STH -- Do you break even on games you don't attend?

[wheatonMU]

Potential first-time buyer for Lower-Level Season Tickets, usually attend 5-7 games yearly due to work/kids, etc.   

Curious how everyone fares when it comes to selling games they don't attend.  Do you manage to break even or are you taking a loss?  Certainly like the idea of controlling my own schedule but would appreciate some candid feedback on if re-selling the rest each year is worth the headache or not. 

Thanks!   

[BrewCity83]

You can make some good $ on the good games.  The December buy games, not so much.  Usually the bad opponents, especially on weeknights, are near giveaways.

If you can only attend less than 8-10 games a year, you might want to look for a season ticket partner(s) to split the season with, where you each get half (or a third) of the games.

[Warrior of Law]

It has been my experience that I have gotten a little more than I paid for them for weekend conference games, less than for a weeknight conference games, and substantially less, to nothing, for a weeknight nonconference game.

[MUbiz]

Buying MU season tickets is generally not a money making opportunity.  From my experience, you would be lucky to break even and even then you would have to sell the marquee weekend games to do so. This year, you would have to sell Notre Dame, national Marquette day, and Uconn imho.  The Saturday, Dec 30th game against Creighton would be a game you might break even on due to holidays and families travelling.

Since the games I listed above are all weekend games, are those the games that you could attend?  As people previously mentioned, you will take a loss on all buy games, all weeknight conference games and maybe or maybe not make a bit more on weekend conference games depending on how the team is performing.

You have to keep in mind that for the casual fan, they can buy tickets directly from the MU website for pretty much every game.

[MUbiz]

I would go to the ticket resellers websites and see how much the tickets are selling for in the section you want to buy your season tickets.

For example:

1. Section 114 is about $53 a seat per game for season tickets
2. For 3rd party ticket websites, the ND game is selling for $175 but the Rider game is selling for $40

Now assume plus or minus 10% if you are to sell a game on a ticket site from my experience.  Map out the 16 games on spreadsheet of your cost and projected cost of selling tickets on the open market. Then choose which games you can attend and which ones you cant and see how the financials project.

[Mu8891]

Everyone above is correct…

I’ve found it almost impossible to sell weekday games.  It’s actually even tough to give away NC weekday games

The only ones you might make money on are the big games … ND, TX … Nova, UCONN, but I’m sure you don’t want to sell those

[wheatonMU]

Thanks All.  Great Insight. 

[MUbiz]

Thanks All.  Great Insight.

I do not know what your situation is, but I have many friends and family that appreciate going to MU games. Generally, I gift away the games I cannot go to as Christmas gifts. It makes sure MU fans end up in seats and lets me also check the box of giving a gift. LOL.

[StillAWarrior]

I’ve found it almost impossible to sell weekday games.  It’s actually even tough to give away NC weekday games

I can relate...sort of.

I'm sure I'd have a different experience if I lived near Milwaukee and had an opportunity to get MU season tickets, but a few years ago when Cleveland State had a somewhat improved team, I decided to buy season tickets. I'm not really a fan of CSU, but I love college basketball.

I couldn't even give the damn tickets away for games that I didn't want to attend. Just dealing with the tickets became a chore and I swore I'd never buy them again. I'd like to think that if I lived in or near Milwaukee, I'd attend every game. But I might feel differently if going to an MU game was more than a "once every few years" treat for me (although I did see them play four times last year -- without a doubt the most since I was a student).

[Dickthedribbler]

I have  my own 2 season tickets so I never have to buy for myself. But I do have friends and relatives that like to come to Milwaukee for MU games, mostly on weekends, and I buy for them.

A trick that I learned a long time ago ( back to the Bradley Center days in the 1990s) is that by allowing season ticketholders to select their own seats every year, that produces some interesting possibilities for others, and maybe for you.

Some rows have an odd number of seats and some have an even number. And at selection time the rows generally start to fill from the bottom up toward the top. And while 2 seats and 4 seats are probably the most common combination requested by season ticketholers, a few want 3 or 5, etc. The result is this produces rows where not every seat is sold to a season ticketholder and there are rows here and there where 1 or 2 ( side-by-side) tickets remain for every game. They're then offered to the general public when single game tickets go on sale later in October.

This MIGHT be for you if:
  1. You're only looking for 2 side -by-side
       tickets per game.
   2. You want to pay face value for only
       the tickets you use and don't want
       to have to sell the bad games.
    3. You don't mind sitting in the middle
        of a long row.
I usually go to the McGuire Center as soon as single game tickets go on sale in late October and ask the person at the ticket window to bring up the Fiserv seating chart and presto up pops little pockets of available seats ( downstairs and upstairs !!!). I buy for 7-8 games for the entire season and I'm on my way, my Christmas shopping completed.

[BrewCity83]

I work in a downtown Milwaukee office of about 70 people and have found that it's very easy to give away tickets to even the weeknight buy games with an interoffice email, even on gameday.  Of course, I only do this for games I can't sell or don't have friends or family that want them.

[We R Final Four]

STH are afforded the opportunity to purchase additional tickets for games before the public…i buy as many UW…..ND…..NMD….as I can. Sell those and pay for my season tickets.

[warriorchick]

You can also donate tickets you don't want back to the University and take a charitable tax deduction.  They ask that you do that far enough ahead of time that they have the opportunity to use them.

Or buy the two miniplans which all are decent games.