http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=5200&ATCLID=225838 LSU to Propose Ticket Price, Contribution Increases Courtesy: LSU Interactive Release: 01/17/2006 Courtesy: LSU Sports Information Mike the Tiger with the Golden Band from Tigerland BATON ROUGE -- A year earlier than planned, the LSU Athletics Department is putting forth a proposal to increase the cost of attending LSU football games. The proposal to raise prices in 2006 will be sent to the Executive Committee of the LSU Board of Supervisors next week, LSU athletics director Skip Bertman announced Tuesday. "Ticket price increases are inevitable for athletics programs such as this one that must pay its own way with the use of no state tax dollars," Bertman said. "Although the cost of running the athletics program increases each year, we didn’t plan to raise prices this season. Unfortunately, the impact of the recent hurricanes has forced us to accelerate the need to make these price increases now." LSU officials estimate the hurricanes cost the department in excess of $3.4 million, including the loss of revenue from the move of a home game to Arizona, the impact of moving the home opener against North Texas to later in the season, hurricane damage to athletics facilities and other expenses incurred during hurricane recovery efforts. "Original plans called for our next price increase to be in 2007, but events resulting from the hurricanes have prompted us to move forward with these proposed price changes," Bertman said. "We are fortunate that revenue generated from rental fees from the New Orleans Saints brought in $1 million, or otherwise we would have been looking at a bigger hole to fill." If approved by the Executive Committee, the proposal will go to the LSU Board of Supervisors for approval on February 3. The proposed price increase will be a combination of an increase in Tradition Fund contributions for the right to purchase tickets, plus a new ticket price for one game. Tradition Fund contributions will increase $100 for sideline seats and west Tiger Terrace seats, $50 for west upper deck chair back seats, and $20 for west upper deck bench back and end zone seats. Also, the ticket price for one Southeastern Conference game will cost $45, while the price for all other games will remain $36. Under the new plan, Tradition Fund contributions will go from $400 to $500 per seat per year for seats on the sidelines and in the west Tiger Terrace between the 20 yard lines, and from $350 to $450 for seats outside the 20 yard lines. West upper deck chair back seats will go from $250 to $300 per seat per year between the 20 yard lines, and from $200 to $250 outside the 20s. West upper deck bench back seats between the 20 yard lines, which are the uppermost rows of the west upper deck, will go from $100 to $120. North and south end zone seats will go from a contribution of $85 to $105 per seat per year, while all west upper deck seats with no chair or bench backs will still carry no contribution requirement. Contributions for east and west field level box seats will remain at $100. All east upper deck seating is maintained by the Tiger Athletic Foundation and requires contributions to the TAF. No increases to TAF contributions, which are already higher than Tradition Fund contributions, are anticipated.
Ticket hikes stink...but "in keeping up with the Jones'", unfortunately, they're needed. Basically, I'm not that surprised. From the ASU game being moved to an away game, and the rest of the hurricane aftermath, we lost quite a large chunk of change that we were counting on making this year.... So, yes, Tiger fans, it stinks....but if it makes you feel better, all of the other major programs do it too.
They are really going to start pricing some fans out of Tiger Stadium. Such is life, but they better keep on winning. And in addition to the price increase, we'll be playing 8 home games every other year, so add another $36 on top of those increases.
I don't know how I will afford the games once I graduate. It's like you said Boston, it's keeping up with the Jones' and it sucks alot of the time.
The demand is still there though and I expect prices to continue in the future until people stop buying them
Surcharge for my NEZ Tickets = 105x2 = $210 4 SEC games = 45 x 4 x 2 = 360 4 OOC games = 36x4x2 = 288 Total cost = 858 for 8 home games. Last year it was $170 + 72x7 = $674 for 7 home games. Extrapolated, that would cost 770.28 over 8 home games. Net increase of 88 bucks.... Not a whole lot of money but even only dropping 674 prices a lot of people out of the stadium considering parking pass and concession expenses.
It's still complete BS when you consider we're going to 8 home games next year, and you can bet it will never be less than that. They'll recoop all that money and more. So they were planing to increase at the end of next year? Who is to say they still won't do that?
Considering they lost revenue from one home game last year, this is not a surprise that the ticket prices went up for the upcoming season.
