I've written about it a few times, and people are not pleased. Many are talking about being angry and about not renewing their seats. Probably not the response GW was looking for, and, I think, a symptom of GW's lack of openness.--GWHoops.com poster JK says "I am actually furious about this change. What I find most distressing is that GW didn't bother to inform its endzone season ticket holders in advance." and "I am now on the fence about whether I renew or not."
--GWMan says his tickets more than doubled in price.
--Chrisw says "What GW is going to lose is a lot more than the 320 I paid though. They will lose my loyalty."
--Buff End says "Here's one family of four that's not happy. End zone season tickets and hardly missed a game. Now we're supposed to come an hour early? Or sit in the last row? Is it really $260 for section 201? And more for other sections? I may have seen my last UMBC game."
--Lonniebeale says "Yeah, as an endzone season ticket holder, I'm really leaning towards not renewing." and "However, this bull$#it "first-come, first-serve" seating policy is just unacceptable. As a college Bball fan (and non-GW alum) who fell in love with the Pops/Hall & Co.-led GW teams, I may have to quit on this program for good. Its a shame too."
On the other thread,
--Thinker says (and I agree) "I'd be happy to pay more for the endzone tickets, but I want a reserved seat."
--Mailvan says "Regardless of the price of the tickets, if I understand this correctly, the athletic department is asking you to commit to being a season ticket holder but in exchange for this commitment, you are not receiving a reserved seat? Therefore, the "quality" of your seats will be contingent upon how early you arrive to the game? That does not seem right."
--Al says "I am more than willing to pay a lot more for my season ticket if it means having a reserved seat in the endzone where I like to sit."
--Alumnus says "It is pretty amazing that we're being asked to subscribe without a schedule, even one that has one or two lines marked TBD or tentative."
--Long Suffering Fan says "You buy a seasons ticket, you get a reserved seat. I cannot believe that there are so many season end zone tickets that they can't reserve a few rows for the season ticket holders with the rest going to general admission."
--Although Blue Seats supports the plan (big surprise) he does make the valid point that "GW has too few loyal fans and anything that creates unrest even among a few is not desirable."
--And Longing for Oscar gives his guess as to why GW instituted this plan:
[AD] Jack [Kvancz] believes :
1. he's going to sell the Blue seats;
2. he can now squeeze some of the loyal end zone folks into more expensive and reserved yellow seats;
3. that the endzone seats have basically been free (what did it work out to last year $3 per game?);
4. that the OOC home games are so bad that they are basically worthless...so why not try to squeeze the loyal endzone customers into a more expensive (yellow) seat;
5. For the conference games, he can increase the walk-up gate
If the OOC home games were better and the program had been well marketed over the past several years, he wouldn't be doing this. Instead, he'd be raising the prices of the tickets (and rightly so).
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