Season Ticket Holders Changes 2025-26


This is the broader landscape St. John's and the Big East has to compete in. I'd say figuring out ways -- including reshuffling and repricing season tickets -- to get more wealthy donors to help the program is just fine.
 
That's right.

But there is a factor about what will happen on the flip side. Could blow up in the administration's faces.

LOL I told Mrs LMF this morning that it will be interesting to see what they do with reseating at Carnesecca. The section to my right is all administration and SJU employees. If I were the school I would redeploy those non-donor seats to donors - not what you meant but still amusing to think about. But somehow I don't think that will happen.
 
Fyi.....

Really good article that gets to the heart of not only college athletics but the business of a university.

AD Greene is of course dead on when he states the cost of athletic talent acquisition and its value to the university. He calls the athletic department the greatest marketing arm of the university and that's accurate.

To an extent, though, so is academic scholarship. Provide enough free education to the very best and brightest, and more not as bright students will want to attend. Academic scholarship then, differentiated from financial aid, is not really charitable, nor is paying athletes.

The difference of course is athletes in revenue producing sports actually earn money for their schools. 19,000 fans at MSG to watch the #15 ranked Johnnies were doing nothing charitable. We were paying for a product, and generating revenue for the school to produce and maintain that talent.

NIL then, is not charitable. Sure, wealthy entrepreneurial or high ranking executive alums csn support NIL as a business expense. I would imagine, more often than not, supported athletes don't provide commensurate value to those companies. It simply supports talent acquisition, which generates revenue and is a marketing arm of the university.

More than likely, the IRS doesn't have a high interest in examining exactly what is and isn't charitable about university expenfitures. But it is all there, in black and white and shades of gray.

Athletes are a product, ones that in certain sports at certain universities and levels of competition generate both direct revenue (from tickets, broadcasts etc) and indirect revenue in terms of tuition and donations. Revenue sharing, compensating athletes for their role in bringing that revenue to the university, as distasteful as it seems to some fans, is basically a right that reveals what college athletics is all about and always has been.
 
Ed Kull will be joining me next week on the podcast to discuss the reseating plan, house settlement and what's going to happen for season ticket holders.

If you have any questions that you'd like Ed to answer please fire away and I'll do my best to have him answer them.
 
Ed Kull will be joining me next week on the podcast to discuss the reseating plan, house settlement and what's going to happen for season ticket holders.

If you have any questions that you'd like Ed to answer please fire away and I'll do my best to have him answer them.
Tell him virtually all of us in the sections with the foam seatbacks hates them.
 
Ed Kull will be joining me next week on the podcast to discuss the reseating plan, house settlement and what's going to happen for season ticket holders.

If you have any questions that you'd like Ed to answer please fire away and I'll do my best to have him answer them.
Thanks, looking forward to listen.

I'd also be curious to hear:
  • What he thinks of realignment and how the Big East figures into it
  • Calculus for deciding games at MSG vs. Carnesseca & how many more games will be at MSG in future years (I'd love to hear about the nuance of tickets sold vs. tickets out and profitability but I understand that's not something you're getting on a podcast, lol)
  • NIL in terms of how they manage & balance the outsourced work from Flat Top and Storm Marketing, his role with finding donors, and if there's any plans in terms of trying to find additional "whales" like Repole
 
will be asking about this for sure
Just some thoughts:

It would be helpful if he could give a sense of whether they think this will result in major moves in seat location (particularly at msg).

Relatedly, will people in certain locations be more like to be moved? Will people in certain plans (eg Gold, Silver, etc) be more likely to have their seats moved? (Obviously I know everyone is “moving” but talking more about competition for seats in those areas)

How do we find how many priority points we have at any given point? How do we ensure that’s accurate?

Can they provide us with a sense of what any given amount of priority points equals in actual priority (ie if you have 5,500 priority points you are #600, etc)?

Can they provide an estimate of priority points needed to sit in certain areas?

Can they accept conditional donations (ie I’ll donate $10k if I get section 117 rows 10 or lower)?
 
Just some thoughts:

It would be helpful if he could give a sense of whether they think this will result in major moves in seat location (particularly at msg).

Relatedly, will people in certain locations be more like to be moved? Will people in certain plans (eg Gold, Silver, etc) be more likely to have their seats moved? (Obviously I know everyone is “moving” but talking more about competition for seats in those areas)

How do we find how many priority points we have at any given point? How do we ensure that’s accurate?

Can they provide us with a sense of what any given amount of priority points equals in actual priority (ie if you have 5,500 priority points you are #600, etc)?

Can they provide an estimate of priority points needed to sit in certain areas?

Can they accept conditional donations (ie I’ll donate $10k if I get section 117 rows 10 or lower)?
The school should be able to.tell you how many priority points you have.

I think the best they could tell you is where you rank and what 10,000 more points would put you on the list.

The simple answer is once ticket demand surges, in a reseating announcement 3 or 4 months in advance, the idea is to generate donations. Donations will put season ticket holders in better shape than they would otherwise be.

Question for Dave to ask Kull: At 100 points per year and zero donations, is it fair that a 25 year season ticket holder get bumped for a $3000 donor?
 
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