Saw this on Lance McAlister blog from UC game notes -

"Mick just said he's alarmed by UC's ticket sales for Crosstown Classic , 700 WLW "we need to start selling our allotment."

Read more: http://www.espn1530.com/pages/lancesBlog...z2mVnQijxN

I went to the U.S. bank website to consider getting tickets for this game.

Two tickets will set you back $87.52.

$32 per ticket
$8.50 service charge per ticket
$3.00 "facility charge" per ticket
$0.26 tax per ticket

Gee - I wonder why sales are slow.

There is another thread discussing a future potential move by UC basketball to US Bank Arena. If these are the kinds of ticket prices UC fans could expect if UC were to do that then I would definitely say no way to moving downtown.

The ticket is $32 but they tack on $11.76 in additional fees? Absurd.

Through the ticket office they were $55 a piece for the lower seats.

You really needed to get them at the ticket office earlier in the season to avoid all those crazy ticket fees. Not sure if they still have them, but you could always call the UC ticket office and see if they are still selling them. We paid $38 with no fees last month for tickets in the 1st row of the 2nd deck.

I have decent tickets because I bought through UC because we are season ticket holders. I looked online last week to see what tickets were left and its just the really bad seats in the lower bowl that you can't see from and sections in the upper with bad angles too. I am not too worried because its going to a good crowd and I don't blame people for buying seats that you can't see the game from.

(12-04-2013 09:14 AM)BigDawg Wrote:  You really needed to get them at the ticket office earlier in the season to avoid all those crazy ticket fees. Not sure if they still have them, but you could always call the UC ticket office and see if they are still selling them. We paid $38 with no fees last month for tickets in the 1st row of the 2nd deck.

Ticket office sent back their allotment. Need to go through US Bank/Ticketmaster at this point.

Just my .02

But this has nothing to do with a decline in interest in the game or the programs.

The fact is the people in that the majority of people in the target demographic (middle and upper middle class) for tickets like this have considerably less disposable income than they did last year.

You tack on $100- $300 dollars a month in a single spending item, like Health Care premiums. Which is a very typical increase range over the last 18 months. And people are, by reaction or necessity, going to adjust (reduce) their spending in others areas.

Add in the reset of the payroll tax rate and you have an $100 to $200 decrease in monthly take home income for a lot of people in this group,

This is not intended to be a political post. Or to encourage political commentary.

People are going to look for a reason why and cite thing like the change in the series, the arena etc. IMO none of these are significant factors - IMO people are making tougher decisions with disposable income because the majority have less of it (many far less) than they have in years past.

I haven't done this for UC games at US Bank yet, but I do my best never to deal with ticketmaster because of their absurd fees. So for concerts at riverbend or downtown, I will go to the box office and buy tickets before the event and there won't be a fee. I would recommend looking into that.

I understand why they schedule the game in December but I would love to see it move to after New Years again. The December date competes with football, vacations, and holiday shopping. One the key demographics, students are also on break. The American and the Big East are good conferenced but not to the point where putting this game in the middle of conference play would make XU's and UC's schedule too difficult.

(12-04-2013 11:00 AM)Eastside_J Wrote:  Just my .02

But this has nothing to do with a decline in interest in the game or the programs.

The fact is the people in that the majority of people in the target demographic (middle and upper middle class) for tickets like this have considerably less disposable income than they did last year.

You tack on $100- $300 dollars a month in a single spending item, like Health Care premiums. Which is a very typical increase range over the last 18 months. And people are, by reaction or necessity, going to adjust (reduce) their spending in others areas.

This is not intended to be a political post. Or to encourage political commentary.

People are going to look for a reason why and cite thing like the change in the series, the arena etc. IMO none of these are significant factors - IMO people are making tougher decisions with disposable income because the majority have less of it (many far less) than they have in years past.

Completely agree. I also have to wonder if these tickets are priced somewhat higher because of the tie-in to the Freedom Center. My guess is they get a portion of each ticket sold in the deal cooked up by former President Williams for the neutral site game. UC and X aren't in a position to underwrite this so it's passed along to the fans.

Nothing against the Freedom Center at all but I thought the whole idea of associating this game with that museum made no sense; there is no connection. And it's not like the Freedom Center is sponsoring the game and adding revenue.

(12-04-2013 11:06 AM)bearcatlawjd Wrote:  One the key demographics, students are also on break.

They are kind of on break. That is the Saturday of exam week and the day of commencement. There will still be quite a few students in town.

(12-04-2013 11:21 AM)subflea Wrote:  

(12-04-2013 11:06 AM)bearcatlawjd Wrote:  One the key demographics, students are also on break.

They are kind of on break. That is the Saturday of exam week and the day of commencement. There will still be quite a few students in town.

And how many students would be buying these $45-$50 tickets anyway?

The student seats at US Bank are terrible. You can't see the game. We had free students seats and moved to the empty section in the upperdeck. I would pay the money to have a better seat but I am not a student anymore.

(12-04-2013 11:44 AM)bearcatlawjd Wrote:  The student seats at US Bank are terrible. You can't see the game. We had free students seats and moved to the empty section in the upperdeck. I would pay the money to have a better seat but I am not a student anymore.

Wow. I really enjoyed sitting in the student section at US bank last year. Sounds like I'll be doing it again this year.

Being a recent graduate and a season ticket holder as well (albeit the cheap ones), $55 a ticket after the fees seems a bit ridiculous. I can't really justify paying almost 1/3 the price of my entire season tix for one game even if it's X.

We will not buy our 10 seats until they play on campus...this is our silent protest UC did not cause this
and they cannot duplicate our seats at US BANK...I hope we win in front of an empty arena... They took our most valuable home game away! Why would we support XU by going this year to their home game when thye caused the problem....Don't play at all or play on campus!

I still predict this game will have more fans than either home arena can hold. Its Cincinnati, people assume you can walk up to box office and get the best seats in the house.

I am in the 3rd row upper deck, Section 236, Tixs were $32 and a print at home fee
of $3. (guessing that is what it is). Was not charged the other fee.

(12-04-2013 12:21 PM)Bearcat T Wrote:  We will not buy our 10 seats until they play on campus...this is our silent protest UC did not cause this
and they cannot duplicate our seats at US BANK...I hope we win in front of an empty arena... They took our most valuable home game away! Why would we support XU by going this year to their home game when thye caused the problem....Don't play at all or play on campus!

You are not supporting XU by going to the game this year. They are the designated home team, but all the revenue is not theirs.

Just buy seats in the UC section.

And I think there is a strong case that it actually benefits UC to have the game downtown every year, where we will have more fans than X every year. But that relies on UC fans buying tickets. Maybe I was too confident in that idea.

More from Lance McAlister. We can debate all we want about his love/hate for UC or his radio shows (but let's not and try to stay on the topic), but I think what he wrote here has some good ideas that many on here have talked about.

http://www.espn1530.com/pages/lancesBlog...e=11879522