Ticket policy to remain the same
Fans won?t pay more for marquee games, Smith says
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
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Ohio State?s Gene Smith and Texas? DeLoss Dodds, heads of the top revenue-producing university athletic departments in the country, stood together at one of the biggest events in regular-season college football history the other night.
Though each said his focus was on the No. 2 Longhorns? showdown with the top-ranked Buckeyes, neither could have been faulted for wondering how much more money could have been made.
The retail price for a single-game ticket was $85. Prices online ranged from $400 to more than $1,000.
A Texas-record crowd of 89,422 ponied up.
Clearly, UT could have charged three times its retail rate. Talk about a financial bonanza ?
"Oh, yes, and I think our Oklahoma game could be, too," Dodds said, referring to the annual Red River Shootout played in Dallas. The price on that ticket also is $85, Dodds said.
Many schools, Texas included, price tickets based on expected demand, so the Longhorns charged more for the OSU game than for their opener against North Texas ($50 tickets).
In the Big Ten Conference, only Ohio State ($59) and Penn State ($55) charge a flat rate throughout the season.
Why don?t the Buckeyes follow suit, increasing prices for premium home games such as this year against Penn State and Michigan?
"We don?t need to. We don?t have to," Smith said. "I guess I should never say never ... but right now we are financially healthy because of everything else."
Smith oversaw prorated ticket prices in his previous athletic director stops, at Eastern Michigan, Iowa State and Arizona State.
"That?s because of the markets I was in, and obviously we didn?t have the supply-anddemand issue like we have here with the Buckeyes," Smith said. "It?s a whole different ballgame."
The Buckeyes sell out every game, and the waiting list for season tickets this year was about 20,000, Smith estimated.
Smith?s real challenge is in explaining why the price for a ticket to, say, Saturday?s game against Cincinnati is the same as for Michigan. Or why the price for next year?s opener with Youngstown State, the Buckeyes? first NCAA Division I-AA opponent, is the same as for the later game with Wisconsin.
Unless he points out the price for the Michigan game is a distinct bargain. This year, for example, the Buckeyes have seven games at $59 each, or $413 for a full complement.
Texas has home tickets ranging from $45 for its game against I-AA Sam Houston State to $85 for OSU and archrival Texas A&M. It adds up to $430 for seven games, an average of approximately $61.
Though OSU?s official Web site reported no tickets are available for the rest of the year, they are plentiful on ticket-broker sites for a premium. OSU has no affiliation with those sites.
Wisconsin started a service for its Badger Fund members this season by which they can post game tickets to be resold to other Badger Fund members at face value. Penn State has a similar service.
Wisconsin associate ticket director Brian Moore said Wisconsin toyed with the idea of letting the ticket posters set their own price.
"That?s sort of moving into that gray area of scalping, and we decided we didn?t want to get into that," Moore said.
He said Virginia and Brigham Young have allowed their season ticket-holders to set a price based on the market.
Dodds said he has heard of such setups.
"We need to see what that is and see how it works, see if it is an honorable thing, whether it is something the university should get interested in," Dodds said. "But I have no clue at the moment whether we?ll do it."
Smith isn?t interested, at least for now.
"I shouldn?t say never, because five to 10 years from now, who knows what (the market) will look like ? but we?re fortunate to have the new ABC-ESPN-Big Ten Channel money coming to us," he said.
He is talking about the networks? new contracts with the Big Ten that are expected to net each of the 11 member schools $7.5 millon next year.
"So I should be able to keep our ticket prices where they are," Smith said. "That is my goal."
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