.... go ahead and rip me apart.
I do not think there is a fan of a BCS program that is happy with how expensive ticket prices have become due to the arms race that is college athletics. That said I recognize that as long as I want to continue following ISU as a BCS athletic program, and expect some success, I need to pay. Unfortunately for ISU, when compared to other BCS programs, it not only faces a shortage of potential fans (local population), but also a shortage of fans willing to make the sacrifices necessary to successfully compete. Note that the most successful programs, programs with rabid fan bases, have higher ticket prices. Programs with-in states with equal/lower average household incomes have far greater ticket prices. It seems that for many of the ISU community, support of athletics does not take the same priority it does elsewhere. Some say losing is the reason…but I ask why is it ISU has not been successful (chicken or the egg)? With-in my own family I hear the complaints about too high of prices, yet they find the means to go on vacations, dine-out at least once a week, take in occasional other sports entertainment (Energy/Chops/Iowa Raceway), etc. Obviously we are all out to maximize our own benefit. If supporting ISU athletics causes a personal inefficiency towards this objective, then no one can ask you to make the sacrifice. However complaints about program performance quickly diminish in value.
Imo the concerns regarding the economics practiced by the AD are fair, yet faulty.
Now... I have absolutely no problem with the free market driving prices.... however.... if there are any empty seats or open grass on the hillsides for the NDSU or Army game... then by the definition of the market-the prices are set too high.
Imo, as others have stated, this is not true. ISU must charge seat prices that will achieve profit maximization. Since different seats are not the same product you must treat them as being in their own market (or for ease, an aggregate of neighboring markets, i.e. sections). Thankfully this allows ISU to vary prices in attempt to practice yield management (some would say price discrimination). However this, combined with price elasticity, makes the conclusion (based on having a single empty seat) of the pricing practices resulting in an inefficient market to be defective.
Later in your post it seems you change your market assumptions:
JP should not want one single empty seat or any bare grass for any home game IMO. If you can get $5 for a seat instead of that seat remaining empty... then you should get $5 for it.... So I will be waiting to see on that Thursday night if we get a full house of around 55,000 people? If not, then JP is throwing money away that he could be getting.
So if I understand correctly, you are asking JP to use price discrimination in attempt to exhaust the potential market for tickets. I bet JP would love to be able to perform this degree of yield management, however, as I am sure you are aware of, physical and emotional constraints do not allow for this. As previously mentioned, the individual seats are combined to form the market (sections or hillside). It is my understanding that there is yet a market technology in use by ticket offices that can break up the aggregate market (hillside) into each seat, and individually match each ticket to the consumers willingness to pay (for example you pay $5, I pay $5.50, another pays $7, etc). Alas, given they cannot economically articulate these individual markets, they must set a section price.
I am assuming you are aware of this, yet you still believe empty seats directly translates to ISU is not maximizing their profit. You suggest it would be better to have 8-10K on the hillsides at 10 dollars, than 2500 on the hillsides at $20. If the elasticity of demand for the hillside seats is truly that elastic, then perhaps one could argue it would be better to have an initial price of $10. Given my own experience, and the fact that ISU has years of market data available, I do not believe it is that elastic. The price of the hillsides also has a consequence on the other markets with-in JTS, which may factor into the set price.
Say JP is wrong with the $20 price, there is a forecast of only 2500 on the hillsides, and lowering hillsides will not negatively impact profit maximization elsewhere. Would you then call for price skimming to "not have a single empty seat"? Given you claim the market to be extremely elastic, I assume you are not....but perhaps you are. I am perfectly fine with JP utilizing this pricing technique, and the ticket office can physically do this over discrete times. However, as evident in
3-4 mini game-pack thread there are emotional based consequences. At best it is just a negative externality...at worst it makes enough people upset that ISU loses money.
To maximize profit, JP needs to find the price levels to just barely get enough people to fill the place if possible, but nobody more. …. Empty seats do not make you any money whatsoever.... period! In fact, every single empty seat COSTS you money that you could have potentially made.
Not true due to elasticity of demand, among other factors. There may be an opportunity cost, but it may not be possible to capitalize on it.
If the stadium is packed, then it is obviously worth it to enough people. If it is not, then it isn't... and something else needs to be done to attract people to the game. You either have to have a better product, better facilities, more entertainment, lower prices, etc?
I'm not crying in my beer about not being able to go to a game. It's not worth the cost to bring my entire family, but it doesn't really matter to me that much. However... if the hillsides are nearly empty for that first game, then I think it's too bad that my family and I couldn't have been there for half the price to cheer for my alma mater and those guys on the field. Plus, we'd pay for parking and probably a few drinks and snacks as well. But instead, JP gets nothing from me.
Whenever I have doubts about whether ISU can successfully compete in BCS athletics, it is after reading comments like those. Other schools have enough fans that will cry in their beer if they cannot attend a game, view the games as the foremost form of entertainment to bring their entire family to, and it
does mean that much to them. Does ISU have enough of these fans? Instead I see ISU having a lot of fans not willing to prioritize ISU athletics in a similar manner, and some that feel vindicated by not supporting ISU athletics. I understand the product needs to get better. However starving your business of investment in protest is not how this gets done. If you own a business that is struggling to keep up with competitors because they you not have the capital that has been necessitated by the industry, do you not try to get more investments? I guess you view fans as strictly consumers, and not owners.
