This could be the worst move possible by this administration, let me explain my reasoning.

1) We haven't established a solid season ticket base with less than 2,000 season ticket holders in '13, which was an incremental ramp up from the previous 3 seasons this should be the year where we see a significant increase in the fan base keeping the fan experience around the same price point.

2) When targeting the local community, and non alums, the last thing you want to do is add what essentially becomes a "seat license", which creates an impediment to a clean purchase, I don't see a non alum making a donation to the Tiger Fund if they were never season ticket holders. However, the non alum that becomes a fan through having season tickets eventually could become a donor. Why would we derail the momentum we have built by adding this obstacle to become a season ticket holder.

3) A big part of marketing the FCS product is distinguishing the product from other entertainment options, one thing we had going for us was the fact that the pricing was a great entertainment value at the '13 levels. Adding this so called "required donation" changes the dynamic from a value standpoint. By adding this donation requirement it sure resembles what the NFL calls a "seat license", unfortunately by going in this direction we waste an opportunity to distinguish ourselves from the NFL for the same cash resources. It's a lot easier for the "average Joe" to justify spending $110 for a pair of Towson Season Tickets, not so much when they have to pay an additional $100 or $250 for the "required donation".

Horrible move on Towson's part at this point in the growth of the football program, we need to expand the fan base and get it to the point where we have a solid following which will multiply the donors exponentially. So, all the seats between the 30 yard lines require a donation, this does nothing more than gouge the existing fans and quite possible piss them off so they don't renew. I can't see how playing a home schedule of Central Connecticut, North Carolina Central and Elon will attenuate the thought of having to donate $500, $250 or even $100 if season ticket holder wasn't already a "doner".

If you are going to go down this path do it incrementally in steps, we don't have the level of interest at this point nor the marquee games this season that help generate interest to raise prices with the "surprise donation requirement".

If you want to turn quite a bit of your fan base from season ticket holders to select single game ticket holders that is exactly what is about to happen.

Uproar

Totally premature move here by the Admins. Having the big season last fall when the new AD was coming in seeing Towson Football for the first time may have given him a false sense of reality. The playoff game attendance is our brand, as that was the paying public. Take out the free students and our football program is very developmental. If we are not contenders come next mid October then the attendance will fall off just like it did in 2012. I don't think it goes to 2010 levels but again, we are a young program in terms of fans. Big 10 football is now in the neighborhood and that's a bigger audience than ever which will be sampling the Terps for the first time.

Sorry to disagree but you cannot expect a winning program on a consistent basis if you are not willing to give back to the program. The best seat in the house only costs 75 bucks A SEASON. That's a joke. Now that Ambrose makes 500k a year they'd have to sell around 6750 season tickets at 75 bucks a pop just to pay his base salary. As of now Ambrose makes 4x the total ticket revenue. Back in December everyone cheered the team and said how they wanted Tim to keep the coach, so that's what he did. Now it's time to get some money in to pay the bills. If you can't but a ticket and make a donation then quit yapping about how management should run the show cause you ain't got any skin in the game.

If you want to keep your 15 dollar a game tickets, free parking and no donation then get ready for a new coach and a return to ****** records.

(02-13-2014 06:31 PM)TowsonTexasTiger Wrote:  Sorry to disagree but you cannot expect a winning program on a consistent basis if you are not willing to give back to the program. The best seat in the house only costs 75 bucks A SEASON. That's a joke. Now that Ambrose makes 500k a year they'd have to sell around 6750 season tickets at 75 bucks a pop just to pay his base salary. As of now Ambrose makes 4x the total ticket revenue. Back in December everyone cheered the team and said how they wanted Tim to keep the coach, so that's what he did. Now it's time to get some money in to pay the bills. If you can't but a ticket and make a donation then quit yapping about how management should run the show cause you ain't got any skin in the game.

If you want to keep your 15 dollar a game tickets, free parking and no donation then get ready for a new coach and a return to ****** records.

Where do you sit. I have 4 tickets in chairbacks and pay 100 for that right A super deal I admit. Now I'm asked to pay 500 for my donation plus tickets. As I have said too many times over at the old forum. It is not just the money as it can be justified when compared to other products but marketing is failing when they want the 1000 to pay the freight because we need devotees in order to fund us not pissing off those already on board

The problem is they are going to lose the very same people that already donate and have been longtime season ticket holders. They are going about this all wrong, to me they are trying to take the easy road and place the burden on those that already support the program. Very short term thinking, and quite frankly, this makes me concerned that the administration lacks the confidence in being able to grow the season ticket base. Increasing the season ticket base is the way you build the long term financial support for the program. And I'm concerned this new administration doesn't have a clue on how to do this and they just keep going back to the same core donors that have always supported the program.


Why would you raise prices before you start getting an abundance of loyal customers frequenting your store?

Is filling the stadium any different ?

(02-14-2014 05:32 PM)FireHas..t Wrote:  

(02-13-2014 06:31 PM)TowsonTexasTiger Wrote:  Sorry to disagree but you cannot expect a winning program on a consistent basis if you are not willing to give back to the program. The best seat in the house only costs 75 bucks A SEASON. That's a joke. Now that Ambrose makes 500k a year they'd have to sell around 6750 season tickets at 75 bucks a pop just to pay his base salary. As of now Ambrose makes 4x the total ticket revenue. Back in December everyone cheered the team and said how they wanted Tim to keep the coach, so that's what he did. Now it's time to get some money in to pay the bills. If you can't but a ticket and make a donation then quit yapping about how management should run the show cause you ain't got any skin in the game.

If you want to keep your 15 dollar a game tickets, free parking and no donation then get ready for a new coach and a return to ****** records.

Where do you sit. I have 4 tickets in chairbacks and pay 100 for that right A super deal I admit. Now I'm asked to pay 500 for my donation plus tickets. As I have said too many times over at the old forum. It is not just the money as it can be justified when compared to other products but marketing is failing when they want the 1000 to pay the freight because we need devotees in order to fund us not pissing off those already on board

$500 is absurd at the FCS level, unless you are in an area geographically, where there is no other competition for the entertainment dollar. JMU has the same requirement, however, it's a stadium that has a real club and no track around the field. But they also have attendance and demand which allows them to assess these "seat licenses".

(02-14-2014 06:06 PM)LoneStar Wrote:  The problem is they are going to lose the very same people that already donate and have been longtime season ticket holders. They are going about this all wrong, to me they are trying to take the easy road and place the burden on those that already support the program. Very short term thinking, and quite frankly, this makes me concerned that the administration lacks the confidence in being able to grow the season ticket base. Increasing the season ticket base is the way you build the long term financial support for the program. And I'm concerned this new administration doesn't have a clue on how to do this and they just keep going back to the same core donors that have always supported the program.


Why would you raise prices before you start getting an abundance of loyal customers frequenting your store?

Is filling the stadium any different ?

I'm not going to disagree with anything aside from raising prices. When a team goes to a national championship, it's time to increase prices. Is it better to raise prices next season if we don't make the playoffs? You have to strike now while the iron his hot.

100% agree Matt. If not now, when? 3 straight winning seasons and the ticket prices have been the same, save for a $5 bump since we were 1-10 in 2010. If we cannot see a big bounce in upward ticket sales this year we are in big trouble. It's not just attendance, because you have to sell tickets to keep the program moving forward. Based on the current level of sales you could have 10,000 students show up for free and still have room for the less than 1,200 season ticket holders from 2013. Trouble is that is not adding to the dollars in the bank that are needed now to pay the added salary for Rob Ambrose and the other coaches, whatever that total is.

Put up or shut up time for sure. If you cannot buy tickets and make a stand for the program then it will surely fail.

No one would argue with raising prices on the tickets which I'm sure will happen and is entirely justified. The thread concerns mandating the TAF Required donations.

Why would we not start a 2014 season ticket campaign during the playoff run and strike while the Iron was hot?

I found events at the Fordham Game disturbing and had me questioning if we have the right leadership.

Why did the Fordham Alums have a fundraiser in the new SECU arena while many of our Tiger Alums have never had the opportunity to step inside the arena? Why would you not use the arena to do a fundraiser for Towson? I felt like this was insult, factor in the squandered opportunity to sell 2014 season tickets during the playoff run, and now the required donation mandate.

I've seen enough and I'm flat out disgusted.

TCU Season tickets and donor levels from 2012

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/tcu/..._final.pdf

Pittsburgh 2014

http://www.pittsburghpanthers.com/ticket...tbl.html#1

Delaware 2014

http://www.bluehens.com/ViewArticle.dbml...=209261591

Madison 2014

http://www.jmusports.com/ViewArticle.dbm...=204978555

Wow, so you have to pay more to sit between the 30's at Towson than you do at Pitt, which plays in the ACC? Who was in charge of this plan? Not very well thought out of this is the case.

A smarter way to go about this would have been to take the prime sections of
Unitas Stadium (210-212) and raise the donation from $50 to $250 across all three sections. I would have then raised the ticket prices from $12 per game to $18 per game in 210 and 212 while going from $18 to $25 per game in 211, which is the Gold Seat section.

In 208-209, 213-214 I would have made the tickets $16 per game and made the donation level $175.

All other sections would be a $10 per game charge on average with a $50 donation.

This would have been a significant increase, but not something so out of whack with the market place that it caused an uproar. Couldn't resist that one.

Unitas Stadium Seating Chart

(02-17-2014 12:04 PM)TigerNation82 Wrote:  Wow, so you have to pay more to sit between the 30's at Towson than you do at Pitt, which plays in the ACC? Who was in charge of this plan? Not very well thought out of this is the case.

A smarter way to go about this would have been to take the prime sections of
Unitas Stadium (210-212) and raise the donation from $50 to $250 across all three sections. I would have then raised the ticket prices from $12 per game to $18 per game in 210 and 212 while going from $18 to $25 per game in 211, which is the Gold Seat section.

In 208-209, 213-214 I would have made the tickets $16 per game and made the donation level $175.

All other sections would be a $10 per game charge on average with a $50 donation.

This would have been a significant increase, but not something so out of whack with the market place that it caused an uproar. Couldn't resist that one.

Unitas Stadium Seating Chart

Or they could just raise the ticket price to $25 per game and introduce a nominal donation of $25 if you sit in the sections that previously had no requirement. Bump section 111 to $75 from the current $50 and the chair backs to $150 from the current $100. Incremental steps while increasing the season ticket base is the right way to go about this step, the way they are approaching this really seems forced and desperate. I would rather have season ticket holders that haven't donated to the Tiger Fund around me in my section than empty seats.

http://www.towsontigers.com/ViewArticle....M_ID=21300

for the second time, I'm posting this link. Why would anybody delete this?