Groo notes the rising cost of attendance.
Are fans showing some sensitivity to price? While Georgia fans can buy a 7-game season slate of home tickets for $315, it’ll cost nearly that much just to attend the three games mentioned above. Auburn raised their single-game ticket price to $115 for Georgia and Alabama, up from $95 two years ago. Tennessee wants $95 for a Georgia ticket. The Florida game has seen a steady increase from $40 just over five years ago to $70 now. That’s $280 just for those three games.
Apparently, it’s not just our fans who are being asked to give more.
Georgia fans aren’t the only ones weighing the decision to purchase expensive tickets. Hartman Fund donors received an e-mail on Tuesday with the news that South Carolina had returned a limited number of $80 tickets.
At some point, there ain’t enough WiFi in the world to give us sufficient bang for the buck. I guess they’ll worry about that day when it comes.
Get The Picture 
FWIW, I’d rather pay uga 100 bucks for tickets that are available than be subjected to the horror that is the secondary market. If McGarity sees people selling and buying tickets for 3 bills plus, why give them away for far less? As someone who would love to come to every game no matter where, but can only make 2-3 at most, I’d like the option of paying a reasonable price to the university. Weeding out people who can’t pay 100 a ticket would open the door for someone like myself who’d LOVE to pay 100 bucks to see the bama game. I haven’t looked at stubhub lately but it’s insane.
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This may make me a bad fan but after years of giving away tickets to friends for games I could not get to, this year I decided to put my Alabama tickets on Stubhub because I have to be out of town for work that weekend (same thing happened a couple years ago when LSU was in town…talk about crap luck).
I was amazed at the prices in my section and figured I would go a bit lower than everything else I saw in my section even though my tickets are a low row number. I didn’t actually think they would sell at that price and thought I would just end up dropping them in price in a few weeks.
Well….not more than ten minutes after I listed my tickets they sold…..Two tickets sold for well above my total cost for season tickets….even after the ticket price increase.
I was just amazed.
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Hopefully they went to a UGA fan!
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I agree! I hope you aren’t in my section and just put a Bammer right next to me. The a$$hole behind me did that with an Auburn fan last year. Happens all the time at the Cocktail Party. If you are going to sell your tickets, at least sell them to a Dawg.
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Agreed
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Yeah, it’s a crappy thing to do for a few extra bucks, especially if it’s people you’ve been sitting around for a few seasons. That Vol or Tech fan doesn’t give a damn about pissing the people around them off because they’ll never sit with you again but too many don’t consider anyone else but themselves. Nothing many Georgia fans do surprises me anymore, though. I’ll be perfectly honest- it’s not ticket prices or concession prices or the wait for the bathroom or the super early/later kickoffs that have made me consider going to less games in Athens. You can fix all of that. You can put new speakers in the big screen. You can’t fix PEOPLE.
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Well, since we’re ragging on fans, I’ll just say that the last few times I’ve been to Sanford Stadium, there’s always some jackass in red and black profanely complaining about every playcall. When it’s just me, I can easily ignore it. When I took my wife and daughter, it was embarrassing.
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You must sit next to me in 118 with the guy constantly screaming in my ear “GD BOBO!!!”
I really am curious to see how he handles Schotty.
Also to Jabo052. I apologize for having to work that weekend and deciding to help pay for moving expenses my wife and my new house. Good lord.
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Jaboo wants control of your tickets. Of course, he doesn’t want to have to pay for them in any way. He just wants control over them. He wants control over who is sitting around him without actually paying for all of the seats. It’s very simple.
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Considering the Hartman Fund initial buy in requirement, i would think that primary market prices are artificially inflated. So you end up paying more than top dollar for a few 12:30 games against Wheeler High School. If anything, the secondary market is more efficient…with prices better reflecting the quality of the match up.
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It’s sort of a dollar cost averaging thing. You pay the university way too much for the noon game against Nobody State and you pay under the market value for the Bama game. Unfortunately, we generally have four crap home games and two that have some value.
If we find that elusive way to lose to SC on Sept 19th, and if anybody can do it, we can, I would imagine the price for Bama tickets will drop fairly severely.
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We had the same experience with SC season tickets. We have 6 tickets and sell 2 or 4 tickets for every game on Stubhub for well above market price (probably a fair price once you consider other fees). It doesn’t matter if it is Wofford or Georgia, the tickets always sell for a good price. Parents weekend and homecoming (no matter who we play) are big sellers and we ship the tickets all over the country. If I took the tickets to the stadium I would get about $20 from a scalper.
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I think the catch w/r/t Stubhub and all is the expected win games often go for lower than the face value (I see a ton of lower-level tickets for the ULM game in the $45-50 range).
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What is even more amazing is this story today in the WAPO about UMd, a program that can’t fill their stadium or give tickets away, asking their most loyal ticket holders to pay more or lose their seats.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/some-maryland-football-fans-didnt-get-memo-on-increased-season-ticket-costs/2015/08/25/49b064e0-4a80-11e5-846d-02792f854297_story.html
I thought moving to the BIG10 was all about the bucks for UM? Have they spent the money already? Good luck to them.
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Auburn did a similar thing two years ago. The article didn’t say what the “or else” was if the donors didn’t pony up for the extra tickets. I suspect the donors were instructed to “keep it down home, cuz”.
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/morning_call/2014/11/report-auburn-struggled-to-sell-tickets-to-georgia.html
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Makes me wonder what AD will try and sell PSLs on top of the donation minimum. Right now my money’s on Patterson at Texas.
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That would be it for me.
Just ask any Falcons fan trying to keep their tickets beyond next season…
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Did you notice that all people who ordered allbarn, Florida and Tennessee tickets got them? Even Georgia fans have had enough of exorbitant pricing.
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Not exactly true. You had to qualify initially with enough points to even be offered UTK or AU tix. Most donors never even have the chance at those tix. Tech is the same way.
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You are somewhat correct in that you had to have a “set” amount of points; however the amounts were much lower than previous cutoff numbers and all those ordering got those tickets………..That has not happened in the past; especially for the Florida and Auburn games.
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One day, the college athletic associations will wake up and the stadiums will be half full for even the most compelling games due to the cost of attendance. As it is now; the actual cost per ticket to a game is around $100 on average when you factor the “donation” in. That ticket price is the same for the Bama game as it is for the Southern game. There is a tipping point where fans will decided it’s not worth the cost to go and will stay home. A disappointing season or two can move that tipping point pretty quickly. Once the fans get out of the habit of going and start watching on tv, it will be very hard to get them back.
College football should ask NASCAR about continuously raising ticket prices when things are good..
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This. Alienating your core constituency to try and win new fans always ends badly. So, go ahead, cut out much loved races in the south in favor races in Kansas…and turn up the rap music in the stadium you marketing geniuses!
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+1
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I can agree on the ‘hard to get back’ point. I used to think the Dawgs couldn’t play if I wasn’t in Athens, then I was like Rusdawg and began missing games because of work (damn the retail business!). I eventually gave up my tickets. Now I throw a couple of flat-screens up under the pergola, fire up the grill, boil the peanuts, get out the corn-hole game, and crank up the tailgate music. I can catch the 12:00, 3:30, and 7:00 SEC games and no worry with a long drive home.All of this can never duplicate the Gameday atmosphere Between the Hedges, but it sure hits a comfort zone in watching college football.
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I think that is the biggest miscalculation by the folks running the college game. They think if demand drops, they can drop the prices and the seats will fill back up. They are ignoring the fact that humans are creatures of habit. Once the fans start the habit of watching at home, in comfort and much cheaper, it will be practically impossible to get them to come back. Also, once older fans stop bringing their children to the games and the kids don’t see going to the games as a great thing, the next generation never starts attending games and attendance goes into the death spiral.
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JC, this is exactly what happened to me with Major League Baseball. I loved the game from the point I was a kid. When the strike happened and they cancelled the remainder of the season, I didn’t come back. I watched the Braves win the Series in ’95, but I never loved the sport again. Now, I never watch a game much less put the money down to attend a game.
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This is exactly how I used to be. I would move heaven and earth to get to Athens for games, then I had kids who started playing sports. It’s amazing how much more a 9 year old’s football game or 12 year old’s swim meet means more than trekking up to Athens every weekend. I have a nice man cave with a couple of big flat screens, a full wet bar, no line at the bathroom, and a grill/fire pit in the backyard. It doesn’t duplicate the gameday atmosphere but as far as I am concerned Adams killed that shortly after the 2005 season. It got to the point where we fought traffic into town, parked in our assigned garage, ate at Snelling (or somewhere on the way in), walked to game, walked back to the car, sat in traffic and missed all the other good games.
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They’re passing the cost of their old coach’s buyout to the teams that caused them to lose their coach. That’s good business.
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Good one. Probably a bit of truth to that statement as well.
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We should be applauding McGarity and the athletic association (as well as other universities) for raising ticket prices. Think about the consequences if the fund dips below $70 million or so! Do we really want our players not to have the best slush fund in the SEC?
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Big Ass fans ain’t cheap.
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The ideal stadium 2020:
1 – A boisterous student section for TV shots. Small, but boisterous.
2 – Everything else luxury suites. Eliminates parking issues, etc. Half the audience at twice the price.
3 – Lots of HD cameras for the 50 million people at home paying $3 a month to watch.
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I get the complaining.. but until the demand goes down this is par for the course. UGA has the third highest avg resell ticket price this season (behind Notre Dame and Bama). So complain all you want, but until demand goes down this is simple economics.
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Lol. I was gonna post that but waited to read all the posts first. 😉
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Exactly, it’s all economics. However, when it reaches the tipping point it is generally not recoverable. Once the customer decides there is not enough value in the game attending experience to justify the outlay of money there is very little that will bring them back. This is especially true for college football games since the customer can still watch the game on tv. Once they stop going to games their entertainment dollars will find another home.
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The free market is a beautiful thing
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Indeed
“The flamethrowers are marketed not as weapons, but as fun devices”
https://twitter.com/GerryDuggan/status/636417586176000000
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The above picture is the Auburn stadium security force practicing up for the next UGA-Auburn game since the Auburn administration determined that fire hoses weren’t draconian enough.
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Jay Jacobs signs huge purchase order for fun devices
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I’d be nice if they either switched to fully first-come, first seated for student tickets, or return to physical tickets (so students could enjoy the fruits of scalped tickets, or regret at not selling a lower-level seat for the ’98 UT game for $250 when I had the chance because I was sure we were going to win with Jamal Lewis out.)
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Yeah I thought that my UGA tickets were bad until I talked to my friend the Redskins season ticket holder.
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I had this discussion with my wife the other night. We were talking about which game we wanted to go to and while Bama would be great, paying what it will cost to go just doesn’t make a ton of sense. It’s hard to argue with your couch, TV and food/booze when you compare it to a $300 (minimum) day.
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Maybe they can throw in some dogs and a couple sodas.
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It’s ‘two tickets, two hot dogs, and two Coke’s’, BD. Get it right or be gone with you… 😉
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Is UGA’s policy still to mirror the ticket prices of the opposing team? If Auburn wants to charge us $115, we’ll charge their fans the same amount for the return trip to Athens next year? If so, does our charge to USCe fans of $80 not equate to UGA raising the ticket price, but more to what USCe charged our fans last year? If so, I like this policy as we’re not driving the new higher prices, but also not allowing other schools to gouge our fans in their house and still take advantage of our $45 tickets in Sanford.
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That’s exactly what the policy is. We charge the same price in the visitors’ allocation of seats what they charge us as the face value of their ticket.
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Man, I miss the $3 student tickets. I saw some great games for less than the cost of a Coke.
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I and others have been saying for quite a while that this essentially is Atlas Shrugged, where many of us are no longer to pony up the bucks while having to put up with all the headaches of getting to/from the game as well. With 60 inch HDTV’s, man caves, perfect 72 degree indoor weather, Big Green Eggs, and a good sound system (Bose excluded for obvious reasons)…its just so hard to get excited about attending games anymore, regardless of how special Athens is.
I’m a former season ticket holder who now only attends 1 home game yearly at the most. This year I don’t plan on attending any, and I’m not upset about it in the slightest.
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Your story is becoming more and more common. Games in Athens that aren’t compelling matchups generally have more than a handful of empty seats in the stadium. If we have a couple of disappointing seasons in a row, look for the bottom to drop out of attendance at most games. Noon kickoffs against crap opponents don’t help either. If the cupcake games were able to be scheduled at 7:00 in order to give people time to tailgate, enjoy Athens and take their time getting to the game, attendance would be much better. The lord and master, tv, prevents that.
Between the price increases from the AA and the university and the City of Athens treating fans like an unwelcome nuisance, actually attending games is becoming less and less attractive. I still go to most of the home games but the reason I go is; it’s become more of a social event than the appeal of actually attending the game.
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“Atlas Shrugged”
She’s an Aynstein!
“I Was Shitting You People – A Message From Ayn Rand”
http://paulbibeau.blogspot.com/2012/01/i-was-shitting-you-people-message-from.html#.Vd3XSflVhBc
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So hard the lulz…people who dont attend games complaining about how hard it is to go to games.
If going to athens for a football game is too difficult for you, you are definitely doing it wrong
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I’ve attended around 60 UGA home games since my freshman year, so I think that qualifies as having at least some experience on the matter even though for some of you I suspect 60 games is nothing.
I never said it was too difficult; I simply said that the typical headaches getting to/from games is more and more offset by the luxuries of home, particularly with the advancement in technology in recent years. Not exactly a bold statement or something that is hard to understand.
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still the lulz. doing stuff is more difficult than not doing stuff. I will just sit at home and watch tv.
good luck with that.
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You’re not making a lick of sense. We’re not talking about deciding to get or remain out of shape by not working out, choosing not to put in 50-60 hours a week at work but instead skirting by at 35-40, or anything else that most would consider a chore or a tough sacrifice in life. We’re talking about whether you choose to attend or not a football game, which pretty much everyone would consider a recreational activity that they’d look forward to.
For me, it has nothing to do with laziness or viewing UGA football games as too difficult to attend, but rather what’s the best overall use of my time. I have just as much, if not more enjoyment of watching the games at home with my family and friends than I do making it an all day affair by attending the game; particularly with kids in tow. Again, I’m amazed why this seems to be beyond your grasp and why you have a hard time ascertaining this.
If you decide that you’d rather stay home with your family and cook meals instead of going through the hassles of going out to eat at a much higher cost and time, the last thing anyone should do is impugn you for that. Heck, you probably should be applauded.
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I would rather have the experience rather than watch someone have the experience.
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Watching the game with friends and family is still an enjoyable experience. It is not like he is missing out on a once in a lifetime opportunity, it is just another game when he has been 60 of them. I love going to games but I don’t need to spend all my money attending every game. Some people like to have other experiences too.
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Exactly. When I upgraded from a standard TV to a large HDTV, bought a Big Green Egg, had two kids, bought a nice home with a huge back deck/yard/pool, etc, and developed great friendships with neighbors…suddenly attending in person wasn’t vastly more fun than it was previously.
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Great, that’s your prerogative that you’re certainly entitled to, and many would absolutely agree with you. I, on the other hand, no longer share that stance, and some perhaps might agree with my viewpoint. I was simply expressing as such and why; nothing more or less.
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I am with you on all this until the “Bose excluded for obvious reasons”. Not obvious to me, am I missing something. I have about 15 Bose speakers built in, or on decks/porches from which I get, what I consider, pretty good sound, do I need an upgrade?
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If you’re an audiophile, Mac, there are better choices than Bose.
But as long as you’re happy with the sound you’re getting, why worry about it?
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Living too far away?
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We were so spoiled with the gift of Munson, we just got use to doing other things and listening to Larry. At the lake early in the season and then in the deer stand later on with 3 sons. With all due respect to Zier and Howard, there will never be another broadcast experience like listening to Munson. Not even close, but I’m still not going back more than once a season.
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Maybe it’s just me, but I’m addicted to the game and the stadium. The game isn’t played on TV, it’s played in a stadium where no one can here the make believe memes the announcers are spewing out.
What I would like to see is taking out the bleachers and putting in chair-backs, decreasing capacity and increasing comfort. Have prices match the section. I’ve never been able to figure this out. NFL teams and concerts do it. 25th row on the 50 ought not have the same face value as a seat in the 600 level.
But mind you, as the dollars from the SEC network roll in, it’s only a matter of time before we see a retractable roof in the SEC. Cool weather for those September nooners, no rain games. Now we’re talking.
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Totally agree. Rip out the bleacher in the lower level and replace them with seats. I am sure you would lose a couple thousand seats (probably not a bad thing) and then increase the price of the lower level tickets by $10 or something. I would be much happier in a seat than the weird seatback on a bleacher.
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Hmmmm…sounds a lot like any NFL stadium/game. You’re probably right in your prediction, but that doesn’t increase my desire to attend in person. Quite the opposite, actually.
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Agree totally – I am such a degenerate, I am even addicted to the games in the other teams stadia. But paying over $100 to sit at the top of most of these other stadiums is ridiculous. 2 years ago I had to eat 2 Tenn tickets when I couldn’t get half of face 30 mins before the game, so was/am not doing that again… That said, every dollar I have spent on tickets at historic Mark Richt Field on North Avenue has been money well spent!!!
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I’ve been trying to figure out for years how to fast forward from the stands of Sanford stadium through ‘TV timeouts’. I still can’t do it. However, it’s easy with a DVR.
Precis: Tell the wife to go (preferably with a loquacious friend) and buy a new pair of shoes, handbag, or other therapeutic necessity that costs the price of tickets, food and trip to Athens (~$350).
1. Wait for halftime
2. Start the game at the beginning
3. Fast forward through commercials and almond milk ‘color analyst’ comments. They are all predictable and Frank Giffordish anyway.
4. Depending on the number of attempted passes, at 2 mins left you will catch up and can watch the rest live.
5. If we win…it is a win-win-win.
Then again, you can’t sit in Athens traffic 4 hours or listen to obnoxious Auburn fans run their mouths if you use the DVR.
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All the above.
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“Frank Giffordish”
How did he go before Y. A. Tittleish?
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Screw the greedy bastar@# no more trips to the stadium it’s TV from now on!!!!
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I’m going to sell my tickets to whoever pays the most.
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Me too. I’ve invested a lot of money over the years to get the tickets that I have and I’ll be damned if I’m going to subsidize somebody’s ticket buying. People who cry and whine about this crack me up. Maybe they should look in the mirror and admit to themselves that they should have spent more money to get tickets if they really wanted to go. But I guess it’s easier to just throw a reactionary temper tantrum when they see ticket prices on Stubhub.
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+1 funny how people complain about Obama’s government subsidies, but find it offensive that we would sell our UGA tickets for top dollar on stubhub. I usually sell half of my tickets for face value ($45) to UGA friends and try to recoup my contribution from the marque game tickets. My cost with the minimum annual contribution and and ticket purchase price is approximately $825 per ticket, so every little bit helps.
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In 25 years I think I have paid a total of $500 for all the tickets to every game I go to which is usually 4 home games a year and one road game every other year. And that includes $150 for the 2012 SEC Championship. Paying for season tickets (unless you sell some to cover the cost) is just a waste of money. Instead invest it in an index fund and see where it is in 30-40 years. The prices are a joke, sorry. They have gone up exponentially in 20 years. Wages haven’t. It’s all about value and time and the opportunity cost. When I was 22 I would go to every game. Driving in bad traffic for 3 hours back and forth, sitting in 90 degree heat with terrible concession lines and a patsy team was fine at 22 with all the time in the word on your hands, not so much at 40. With the popularity of the SEC Network and following all the teams I would much rather watch our game on TV and then watch LSU-Auburn or TN-FL and a few other games than pay $100 (season tickets) for some crappy scrimmage. Times have changed. That is why every team in the SEC at times has empty seats for these patsy games. And lose a few games and its even worse. That is reality.
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