Men's Basketball Season Tickets Available For $99
Season ticket packages for the 2009-10 Marquette men's basketball season are on-sale now for as little as just $99.
http://onlyfans.cstv.com/schools/marq/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/072009aab.html
A bargin at $99 for 9 conference games even if you donate the non-conference portion to the homeless and don't mind sitting right below the rooftop pigeons.
I bought a pair. Gonna give them away and stuff. Not a bad deal at all
As a young alum, this is a great deal. My friends and I just bought 18 seats all together... needless to say, we can't wait until next year!!! We will all be cheering loudly all season long
It was a great deal for us too! We moved two sections over and one row up and were able to get 4 tickets for less than what we paid for two last year. It will be great for family and friends to enjoy the games with us this year and when my son turns 2 next year and will need his own ticket.
Great marketing in a weak economy. Marquette U offers D1 basketball for less than the price of a movie.
Looks like I'm heading to Milwaukee for a few games this year... hell, last year I dropped $100 on a pair for one game! I'd rather sit in the nose bleeds considering that's where the party is!
If I was still a student I would consider buying season tickets to begin building up your points for season tickets.
The ticket rep. I worked with said these are cheaper than Fanatics tickets this year. Anybody know what the price of those is expected to be this season?
Indeed, if you intend on buying tickets in the future .. $99 is a great deal. I'd recommend $100 to the B&G fund as well, as that gets you a point, plus a point of "consecutive donation". So .. $199 investment, three points and 19 tickets? Good deal.
Quote from: Robyrd5 on July 21, 2009, 12:27:19 PM
The ticket rep. I worked with said these are cheaper than Fanatics tickets this year. Anybody know what the price of those is expected to be this season?
3 figures
Quote from: muwarrior87 on July 21, 2009, 01:16:29 PM
3 figures
Aka $100
Quote from: TallTitan34 on July 21, 2009, 12:19:59 PM
If I was still a student I would consider buying season tickets to begin building up your points for season tickets.
That is what I did ;D
Quote from: Robyrd5 on July 21, 2009, 12:27:19 PM
The ticket rep. I worked with said these are cheaper than Fanatics tickets this year.
Interesting, and you get an assigned seat. No lower bowl possible, but might be a decent tradeoff.
I'd have to think the student section seats you'd get for all but a few games would be better than the $99 ticket seats.
Just bought 2 $99 season tickets today as well -- absolutely great deal. Last year I spent over $300 on stubhub for Wisconsin and Syracuse games and my seats weren't much better.
For the 2-3 home games a year that I travel back to Milwaukee for this is perfect.
Quote from: Tulsa Warrior on July 21, 2009, 11:50:45 AM
Great marketing in a weak economy. Marquette U offers D1 basketball for less than the price of a movie.
Maybe. It's the battle that all of us in marketing are going through. Price integrity, devaluing of the product, steep discounting, churn, etc.
When financial goals are tied to revenues, dropping prices means you need to sell more widgets to hit those revenue targets. Sometimes it canibalizes your revenue even if you do sell more widgets. It's a delicate balance and they will need to monitor it. If a bunch of folks that were playing $500 a year decide to pull back to $99 a year, that's a lot of lost revenue. The flip side of the argument that people will make is that the customer would have left anyway so at least you are getting some revenue.....I'm not so sure that is reality with a niche product like college hoops that is tied to so much emotion, it can be dangerous to introduce a lower price point like this because more than likely your hard core fan is going to find any way possible to stay with their season tickets, especially if they have points. That's not the same for other industries where emotional ties are not as strong.
Quote from: ChicosBailBonds on July 22, 2009, 06:00:59 PM
Maybe. It's the battle that all of us in marketing are going through. Price integrity, devaluing of the product, steep discounting, churn, etc.
When financial goals are tied to revenues, dropping prices means you need to sell more widgets to hit those revenue targets. Sometimes it canibalizes your revenue even if you do sell more widgets. It's a delicate balance and they will need to monitor it. If a bunch of folks that were playing $500 a year decide to pull back to $99 a year, that's a lot of lost revenue. The flip side of the argument that people will make is that the customer would have left anyway so at least you are getting some revenue.....I'm not so sure that is reality with a niche product like college hoops that is tied to so much emotion, it can be dangerous to introduce a lower price point like this because more than likely your hard core fan is going to find any way possible to stay with their season tickets, especially if they have points. That's not the same for other industries where emotional ties are not as strong.
I don't think Marquette is going to lose too much revenue from this. Its not like there are an unlimited number of $99 seats, so not all of the $500 ticket holders can downgrade. Look at the seat map, the $99 tickets are only in sections 409 - 413.
It actually wouldn't surprise me if they sold out of the $99 tickets in the next couple weeks.
I know a number of alums in the DC area that bought season tickets like I did just to have a guaranteed ticket for the 1-3 games that we travel to a year. A bunch are also planning on making at least a $100 Blue and Gold Fund donation.
This is really a great deal for alums who don't live near Milwaukee and never considered season tickets or trying to build up some low level points.
Just curious, but does anyone remember what season tickets for these seats (uupper deck behind the basket) were last year? $150? $199?
Personally, last year I bought two seats for both 5-packs to have extras for family and friends. This year I bought two of these $99 season tickets instead. This is all in addition to my lower level seat for myself.
Pretty sure those tickets would have been (and still are) $9 each, times ~20 games = $180.
409 and 413.. anyone know how many seats are in Row T... and how many rows are in these sections (pie-shaped sections on either edge of the $99 seating)?
Quote from: Jay Bee on July 23, 2009, 03:58:11 PM
409 and 413.. anyone know how many seats are in Row T... and how many rows are in these sections (pie-shaped sections on either edge of the $99 seating)?
Row T has 16 seats. The re-seating link is still active if anyone would like to check out what seats are still available. Are you sure you want to look
down on the Bucks blimp while watching a game? Perhaps you might want to sit a few rows lower.
https://www.seats3d.com/ncaa/marquette_university/bradley_center/srms_5/php_exit.php
Quote from: SCdem@MU on July 22, 2009, 10:46:17 PM
I don't think Marquette is going to lose too much revenue from this. Its not like there are an unlimited number of $99 seats, so not all of the $500 ticket holders can downgrade. Look at the seat map, the $99 tickets are only in sections 409 - 413.
It actually wouldn't surprise me if they sold out of the $99 tickets in the next couple weeks.
I know a number of alums in the DC area that bought season tickets like I did just to have a guaranteed ticket for the 1-3 games that we travel to a year. A bunch are also planning on making at least a $100 Blue and Gold Fund donation.
This is really a great deal for alums who don't live near Milwaukee and never considered season tickets or trying to build up some low level points.
Hopefully that is the case.
In graduate school we used to talk about the marketing of tickets and sales for events \ sports \ etc. In it's simplest terms, you have a couple ways to reach your revenue target.
Say the revenue target is $1,000,000 per game
a) Sell 1 ticket for $1,000,000
b) sell a crapload of tickets that bring in $1,000,000
Not trying to be overly simplistic, but that really is the deal for tickets or widgets or anything else. The one potential advantage on the sports side being the limited number of widgets (seats) available for each game. You basic supply and demand model.
We always struggled then of trying to maximize that revenue while also putting as many butts in the seat to help the team with a home court advantage. You can discount tickets in the hopes of increasing bodies but it hurts your revenue numbers. A delicate balance, especially in today's environment.
Wow .. these things are selling extremely well:
MU on their facebook page: "We're now up to 832 season tickets sold in the new $99 price level... 167 more to reach our goal of 999. "
Last year the base was something like 13,000 plus or minus. An extra 900*20 .. will push a new attendance record, although there may not be the # of sellouts versus two top BE teams.
Pretty amazing in a recession year.
Quote from: mu_hilltopper on July 26, 2009, 08:52:11 AM
Wow .. these things are selling extremely well:
MU on their facebook page: "We're now up to 832 season tickets sold in the new $99 price level... 167 more to reach our goal of 999. "
Last year the base was something like 13,000 plus or minus. An extra 900*20 .. will push a new attendance record, although there may not be the # of sellouts versus two top BE teams.
Pretty amazing in a recession year.
Would selling out the budget seats, even at discounted pricing, actually increase per game or total season revenue?
I think this deal will put us in the top 10 nationally for attendance. Very impressive. ;D
Quote from: mu_hilltopper on July 26, 2009, 08:52:11 AM
Wow .. these things are selling extremely well:
MU on their facebook page: "We're now up to 832 season tickets sold in the new $99 price level... 167 more to reach our goal of 999. "
Last year the base was something like 13,000 plus or minus. An extra 900*20 .. will push a new attendance record, although there may not be the # of sellouts versus two top BE teams.
Pretty amazing in a recession year.
I don't think that's necessarily the case. A lot of what is making the $99 seat sell so well is that people in the $275 and $450 sections are deciding the slightly better seats aren't worth the extra expense. So the amount of tickets sold is around the same, but the revenue is lower.
For example, last year my brother that lives out of town picked up a set of seats in what is now the $99 section in early August and was able to get Row F. Those same seats have been unavailable since very early on in the seating process, but the slightly more expensive seats in the corner and on the sides still have a ton of seats available that weren't available last year at this time.
The $64k question is how many of the $99 tickets are being purchased by new accounts. I think that number is high, like 75%+. I think "downgrading" does happen, but I believe it's the exception and not the rule.
I'll see what I can find out.
Quote from: mu_hilltopper on July 26, 2009, 07:15:44 PM
The $64k question is how many of the $99 tickets are being purchased by new accounts. I think that number is high, like 75%+. I think "downgrading" does happen, but I believe it's the exception and not the rule.
I'll see what I can find out.
The other question, which is literally impossible to answer, is the forgone revenue. How many new people purchased at $99 that would have purchased at $250 but have now settled at the lower rate. In this economy, it's probably a low number but that also goes into the equation. It would be very interesting to know how many of the $99 purchasers were at a higher price point last year....remember that for every one that is, you have to land 2.5 of the $99 folks to make that revenue just for the $250 purchasers.
True dat.
Two things. There's no guarantee that MU won't bump it from $99 next year back to $180. In which case, it could be considered a loss-leader. Get them in the door, hope they buy something at the higher rate next year. (Cough, cough, just like those DirecTV promotional deals, 3 months at a great rate, then whammo.)
Second is .. new folks who bought in at $99, love going to games, and realize how crappy their seats are, so upgrade next year.
Quote from: mu_hilltopper on July 26, 2009, 07:15:44 PM
The $64k question is how many of the $99 tickets are being purchased by new accounts. I think that number is high, like 75%+. I think "downgrading" does happen, but I believe it's the exception and not the rule.
I'll see what I can find out.
I think the number of previous season ticket holders that transferred into those sections is a lot higher than you'd think, just based upon how it looked during reseating. Seats that were available for new accounts at this time last summer were gone within the first week of reseating, and by the end of the reseating process the best seats available were several rows worse than what was available the previous year. And that's without any new accounts being able to select seats. Certainly a good portion of it is new accounts, but this has been a very strange year. Good seats are still available in the center sections of the upper level, but you have to go to the last row in the endzone to get anything.
Quote from: mu_hilltopper on July 26, 2009, 10:45:44 PM
True dat.
Two things. There's no guarantee that MU won't bump it from $99 next year back to $180. In which case, it could be considered a loss-leader. Get them in the door, hope they buy something at the higher rate next year. (Cough, cough, just like those DirecTV promotional deals, 3 months at a great rate, then whammo.)
Second is .. new folks who bought in at $99, love going to games, and realize how crappy their seats are, so upgrade next year.
Actually not an apples to apples example. A promotional deal like DIRECTV uses (your example) is to lure someone from another provider (i.e. cable, DISH Network, etc) so they're not canibalizing their own revenue from their own customers....in other words, it's new found revenue because you didn't have it when they were paying Time Warner monthly. You get them over on a promotional offer. It's when you start cutting into your own customer revenue streams where it gets tricky and that's what MU is doing now....potentially. Unless they have a policy where it's for new season ticket purchasers only as a promotional first time offer.
Quote from: bma725 on July 27, 2009, 02:37:46 AM
I think the number of previous season ticket holders that transferred into those sections is a lot higher than you'd think, just based upon how it looked during reseating. Seats that were available for new accounts at this time last summer were gone within the first week of reseating, and by the end of the reseating process the best seats available were several rows worse than what was available the previous year. And that's without any new accounts being able to select seats. Certainly a good portion of it is new accounts, but this has been a very strange year. Good seats are still available in the center sections of the upper level, but you have to go to the last row in the endzone to get anything.
Wouldn't this imply that Marquette was actually driving in more revenue with the higher priced seats? I thought that part of this was because MU was allowing people to purchase additional tickets, and lower bowl folks were snapping up some extras.
The lower bowl price sensitivity is far more inelastic, and that has to be where the bulk of the revenue is. Upper bowl buyers are a lot more price sensitive.
I bet that MU ended up driving more revenue by allowing people to buy more lower bowl tickets, and the $99 deal helps offset people that were likely to drop.
Quote from: Henry Sugar on July 27, 2009, 07:28:44 AM
Wouldn't this imply that Marquette was actually driving in more revenue with the higher priced seats? I thought that part of this was because MU was allowing people to purchase additional tickets, and lower bowl folks were snapping up some extras.
Yes and no. Lower bowl folks were snapping up extras, but on the opposite side you had people leaving the other sections upstairs. Seats in the center and corner sections that were taken at this time last year are in many cases still available today for a new season ticket holder.
Does MU get a cut of the beer/food/merch sales too?
More butts in the seats = More money $ in concessions
Quote from: reinko on July 27, 2009, 08:47:49 AM
Does MU get a cut of the beer/food/merch sales too?
More butts in the seats = More money $ in concessions
Nope.