Welcome to the club

I wanted to highlight a couple of comments from whb209 that you may not have seen, regarding an experience with his Georgia-Florida tickets.

Here’s the first:

A strange call from the UGa ticket office last Friday. They asked if I would like
to exchange 4 of my tickets to the GA-Fl game for 4 Club level seats. Has the game lost interest or are people and Corps. just not buying the expensive
Club level tickets (maybe the same thing). When the Gator bowl was repaired in 1996 (I think that was the year), I was in the Club level for 2 years and was then kicked out because I would not pay a dumbass amount to remain in club seats and now they are calling me asking if I would please go back to that level without an increase in payment.. Interesting…

And, in response to a question for me about why they reached out like that, the second:

I called the ticket office and they called me back today (6/14/19). This was there statement: We have cut the number of Club tickets to each person or corp. from 8 to 4. This gives more Club tickets that can go to a greater number of people, therefore if you have 60,000+ points you are given the opportunity to purchase 4 Club tickets for $40.00 per ticket when you exchange 4 of your off club tickets. The total number of tickets (club + off club) is set at 8. Only 4 maybe on club.

I have a hard time believing this is exactly true because I am sure that a few individuals and a few Corps. have paid a shit load of money and they will not be bothered by this new 4 Club limit. This is still what they told me and it is all I know about the new GA-FL Club seat deal.

My reaction to that is it seems to run counter to what they did when Georgia went to Notre Dame and the Magill Society folks were allowed to load up on tickets.  So I found it interesting to see this Q&A in yesterday’s Bill King column.

My wife and I have been contributors to the Hartman Fund since we returned to Georgia in 1987. … Our seats have gone from the attic to the lower club end zone, which we prefer. In 2018, we suffered a double shafting, the IRS changed the rules on deductions for college teams from 80% to 0, and UGA implemented UGA Magill Society privileges. At Georgia-Florida we went from eight seats together in club in 2017 to eight in club two by two, behind each other, in 2018, to only allowed four in club and four elsewhere. Parking went from near the stadium to a location … far away. We are a middle-income family living on our retirement here in Athens and the one real pleasure outside of our kids and grandkids is being slowly eroded.

— Armand L. Chapeau

I’ve heard quite a few stories like yours concerning game parking and Florida tickets. I also know it’s the big donors who largely fund Georgia’s participation in the facility arms race, so I understand the emphasis on attracting and keeping them. Still, I hope UGA’s athletics brain trust doesn’t wait until attendance starts falling before they begin thinking more about the average fan.

My first impression is that it sounds like Butts-Mehre is trying to clear space to let newer Magill Society contributors gain access to club level seating for the Cocktail Party, but whb209 doesn’t sound like somebody who’s making a MS contribution — which makes the offer to him a bit curious.  I’m sure it’s got something to do with the money, because that’s how Butts-Mehre rolls these days.  Anybody out there have a clue what’s going on here?

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