SteaminWillieBeamin

"Along with season tickets over 85% have renewed in the HUB Club and suites are trending higher as well." This is some serious astroturfing right there. I imagine in their old model of seat license they had 99% renewal, because you didn't want to lose your seats or your paid in license fee. In their new model, they were supposed to sell like hot cakes because after after all, it is a STEAL because it is cheaper than UT or TT. Another way of saying their stat line is "There has be a 15% decline YoY for the HUB club sales." Not sure how you can say that is "trending higher." It's great that the ticket sales for the lower bowl where they didn't gouge the hell out of people is seeing some increase. It's sad that we have had the new stadium and moved into two new conferences, but we are "within range" of all time season ticket sales.

I felt that Wren's staff (and Wren himself) had no hustle to them. They didn't work any to get more people interested. I noticed a *massive* drop off to engagement from what we got with RV's staff. Wren's people stopped calling, stopped any dinner invites or really any relationship development. It was all very transactional, and when your product is fairly lackluster, you really do need to keep the personal side engaged to keep the money flowing. Since the relationship became merely transactional, I started looking at the bill closer. When they would send a generic email and say something like "Give $5000 more dollars to park in the White lot!" -- I'd divide that out over 5 games quickly realize that I am not going to pay $1000 per game to park closer in an otherwise empty game day. Multiply that toward everything they send out and you see the problem with being purely transactional program. This program does not warrant the amount of money they are were charging. That is just the fact. Houston is bringing real programs in to play and have for many years. We play the scrubs of CUSA (lose half the time) and throw in some random religious small private school that no one has heard of. Now they are leaning hard on the fact that we are going into the AAC (which is still just a G5 conference) and trying to make the whole selling feature. Anyone without a goldfish brain sees that this is just like when we went into the CUSA - the top teams are leaving - the scrubs are staying and backfilling with worse teams. AAC is the new CUSA and the TV dollars will change dramatically when the new contracts are negotiated with the new lineup. I have not seen any change in this area with the new AD. It is still very transactional. So yes, I agree, there is a lot of work to be done.

Need to worry about people showing up. Or we can just paint our seats green and cut the chase.

Jeff was one of all our favorites. I drink to his success.

Just like federal taxes, California state taxes can't be quoted with the marginal rate, since no one pays that. It's the effective rate that matters. When I lived out of state and i bought a new car, i didn't pay sales taxes, but in Texas I pay 6.25% if i remember correctly. That's a hard difference to compare, since maybe you're a person who never buys a new car, you ride your bike. However, I paid income taxes in that other state and a lower property tax. All in all, I definitely pay a higher tax rate here in Texas, though there's no income tax. It's not enough of a difference to really matter in the end though. Agree, taxes are hard the compare, especially when it's just a shell game pulling from different sources, but ending up around the same amount in each state.

Not here nor there, but interesting via FloriaRealtors.org. California tax burden is nearly the same as Florida, whereas Texas is pretty damn high.

I look forward to your reaction when they send you and email out of the blue saying that they will start charging you that price, since after all, it is the going rate for top rate football (ahem, like we have here at UNT). Especially when you look around and see a wide open plain of open seats.

Right. Honor what was sold.. gradually increase minimum donations over time. Don't send a vague email saying that everyone gets their prices nearly doubled within two years. I'm not sure they will get those replacement people at the higher price. They sell weekly tickets at face value for all the unsold hub seats. They *never* sold out. Ever. So even at the lower price, they can't draw (without seat license). They need to improve their product.

No, it is a one time donation per seat. It is a "seat license" model but they would let you pay it off over five years. Therefore the ticket prices were lower historically, since you paid so much upfront. It nearly guaranteed you being there long term, since it plays on the sunken cost fallacy.

One of my friends just paid off his two seats last year. He had priced in how he can afford to up here on some stable price. Now he will be paying out the nose. He is furious. He is not coming back, I don't know how UNT can reclaim him as a fan. He is so mad that he won't even tell the AD how mad he is. He is just leaving.

Also man, it seems like you are willfully ignoring the total cost people had already paid. A person bought 4 seats, they paid $12,500 each seat for the "seat license". Cool, they wrote a check for $50,000 to the AD and then bought their $140/seat tickets and their minimum MGC donation $500 per seat. Let's do that over 5 years (since the last increase in minimum donation). $50,000 [seat license cost] $3360 [tickets + donations] x 5 years = $16,800 Over five years the total cost has been $66,800. Since you like to price it yearly, that is $13,360 per year for 4 seats or $3340 per seat. Which is $556 per seat each game. That is not a bargain. But that $50k upfront makes the long term price to gradually balance out to a more reasonable per game price (for those keeping score in their heads). But this change makes it so all of that is just a sunk cost and broken promises, kind of insult to those that ponied up for UNT when they were in need to get a real stadium. I've said my fill, nothing more to add. But the true cost over 5 years is $556, not what you are listing for SMU and Houston.

So has the attendance. There is no waiting list. The reason our club level has been 'low for years' is because all of those people shelled out (upfront) tens of thousands of dollars. You bring up SMU and Houston, which have been ranked in the last few years and have hosted larger schools. Perhaps there is more excitement, I can't speak to them and theirs. I can only speak to what is has been going on at our club level.

We have a better TV deal? We pay our coach less. Pay our AD less. Have more regional opponents. When I look at who is in the American now, it looks a lot like CUSA v3.0. We just follow Tulsa, Tulane, ECU around while dragging our SBC and CUSA v2.0 along with us. Once SMU is gone, this AAC "upgrade" will not really be much of an upgrade. It will be a lot like the name of "CUSA" but with the teams of "SBC" once all the good teams left (when we joined). This feels most like groundhog's day for a higher price.

My bad, you're right. I was doing faulty cell phone typing mental math. My point doesn't change with $250 per ticket instead of $300. You are mixing up fair market value versus ticket price. The equivalent seating at the Mavericks game is Platinum level. https://www.mavs.com/clubmaverick/pricing/ The per ticket price for 'club level' at the Mavericks sets me back $140/seat per game. I get a parking pass in the garage across the street. I can sell my tickets EASILY for more money for the majority of the games. I never have to grovel to get someone to actually use my tickets. People know they get a kick ass game day experience with music, lights, atmosphere, concessions that are all open, real game day traffic management .... dancers, fat dudes, drum line, NBA superstars. It is a *show*. Sure, for a "big game", you will pay higher on ticketmaster 3rd party, but let's just use apples to apples (the list price). My ticket per seat last year at UNT was around $140 per game. When my fellow hub club friends (and myself) can't make a game, we've all scrambled to get someone to to just USE the ticket. I've never once been able to sell a ticket. There is no fair market for the tickets. I transfer my tickets to a friend of a friend who has kids at UNT and hope they use them. Most of the the time, they don't get used. Some of my true football fan friends will ask if they can watch other games on the hub club if they use my tickets and I say it is unpredictable. Sometimes they gave games on the TV, sometimes they don't, sometimes they have the UNT game on, most the time not. There is no WiFi and the cell service is spotty. But you know, hey, maybe they can see last year's NCAA rankings or game day stats on the stadium screens. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Over the years the perks of being a donor have significantly dropped. There is no longer an awards ceremony at the end of the season. The parking situation is based off your yearly contributions, not lifetime points. The seating at bowl games is just ridiculous - open market prices let you choose your seat in better section versus just hoping that some luck in selection. You don't even get the fancy plastic collectable tickets anymore. They'd give you some special Mean Green swag that wasn't sold in the store. Etc. Etc. Love or hate RV, he tried to build a community. This assistants would text you, take you to lunch or beer. Casually ask you for a donation here and there. I *definitely* gave more money prior to Wren. It's been crickets from Wren's staff. Now this is the first introduction to the new AD. Their FAQ is a joke. It looks like it was written by a seventh grader. I was kind of peeved with this out of the blue 55% price increase because I had the 'seat license' mentality. RV and Cooper Jones had laid out this whole "in perpetuity" concept that as long as you just buy the tickets, it remains yours since you paid the seat license. Once you stopped, you'd have to go through the process again. Even through Covid, I paid just to show my support and all of that. You know, good faith for the program and whatnot. So when I read this email, I had some lingering mental obligation in my head to the hub club and keeping it going "in perpetuity". Now that I can just drop out and pay the same price as anyone else if I decide to start caring again, hell, I can keep my money in my pocket. The Mavericks have never raised the prices 55% on me or called me up and tried to charge me $500 per game to park closer to the AAC. Bottom line: UNT is *way* out pricing its market. With a $140 a price ticket, they couldn't sell out the hub club, yet they are raising it to $250. There is no justification for increasing the price based on demand or product. It has neither offered more entertainment nor a better game day environment. I really think whatever the boiling water frog scenario is going to play out for the club pricing. A couple of my college pals that have their families on the hub like me are seriously considering not renewing. They are burnt out. I may be burnt out too. I haven't really decided. Now that I am mentally freed, I may allocate my mean green money to going to the Paris Olympics or the US World Cup games.

$300 per seat to see Abilene Christian? Bargain! I am going to the Mavs game tomorrow to see Kyrie v Durant with the same amenities for less. Those amenities are, no assigned parking and ability to buy a beer/cocktail and access to premade food. If I told anyone that I'm planning to spend $1500 to see one game with my kids at noon tomorrow when I can watch it on TV, you'd think I'm crazy/stupid/flippant... Or all of the above. But you think me taking my family to a crappy AAC game for $1500 is a bargain. Solid.

This is a 56% increase in prices for people that have already paid the seat licenses. They are thinking short term with this move - when they can't even come close to filling the seats at any price. Shocking.

I don't even understand what they mean by this email. If you buy football, you have to buy basketball too? Says there's not a stadium fund anymore - how does that affect anything? Is that a seat license?

I mean, isn't that the N in NIL?

There is definitely over estimating how many people are active on this site. FWIW.

It's like the Rice of Colorado. It is crazy impressive academically.

I can think of twice where he's left the game injured at the very end and i thought his season was over.. but then he's out there a week later. What the hell do i know? But damn, feel bad for his headspace right now. That's not how to end a college career. Poor man.

KD looking pretty mad right now. Sucks.

That's why it is a reward and special. They got some special swag for their hard work. It is sharp looking coat.

Reddit r/cfb is not impressed. WSU fans say they'll gladly swap Seth for Eric. They hated his offense - too many lateral passes and screen passes. I guess 7-5 doesn't really win anyone over. Note: not my opinion. I don't have one really.

I don't think it is. It registered to an address in FM to a medical transport company.