Anyway, with the seating capacity decreasing a bit, there will be a shuffling of where people sit. Ideally, we'd like to see them take the people who don't cheer and relocate their seats to University Drive. Absent that, though, we'd like to see the students have a more prominent and effective position within the seating structure. Reader Alan tweeted that the students are indeed expected to have more of a lower-bowl presence, expanded to both ends, which is a step in the right direction. Here is a seating chart that shows where the students will have seating:
The darkest color represents student seats, which you can see include wedges at both ends of the court. Not the best in the Big Ten -- by far -- but not awful.
Less pleasing is the heavy reliance on John Purdue Club membership in order to gain any level of priority for your new seats. In fact, you're more or less forced to join JPC if you want to be sure you have your tickets back, though it doesn't explicitly say that. The brochure does acknowledge, though, that even if you've had season tickets for years, you don't get any priority points for that unless you join the JPC. And, good news! You can join by March 31 and get credit for all those years of loyalty! Never mind the money you've spent... you gotta join up and spend more! Whee! Way to thank loyal ticketholders!
Also interesting is the pricing for the new club seating and courtside seating. At first, I couldn't figure out if the prices posted are for a season ticket or if it's just for the license for the seats. As in, PSLs, the thing many NFL teams do to screw their fans over and conduct a blatant cash grab. Regardless, what is being published as the "price" for a courtside seat is -- ready for this, midwest? -- $8500. Then I read more carefully and learned that the $8500 is, in fact, just a seat license, and your actual ticket prices will be tacked on as the season approaches.
Go ahead and swallow now.
Oh, but hey, the good thing is that you also get a women's season ticket! Everybody loves the fundamentals of the game and being able to watch young women work on those fundamentals is worth $8500 by itself.
Another tidbit I found interesting is that there will be club areas where alcohol will be available. I always thought you couldn't have alcohol on state property in Indiana and since Purdue was a state school, there wasn't a loophole. I guess I was wrong. Time to booze it up and then sit courtside and yell at 19 year old boys!
There's no doubt the new Mackey will be lovely, but the ramming of the JPC down people's throats is kind of annoying, and we continue to wish the students had a more prominent and impactful location. But all in all, this is about what you'd expect from Purdue University. That's not a good or a bad thing... it's just how it is.
15 comments:
Its a steal when you factor in the women's games.
I thought it was more than just state property/school/whatever, I thought it was an NCAA rule (that somehow doesn't apply to bowl games, which thankfully spared me from remembering the last horrible moments of the 2000 Outback Bowl). But hey! If it's an NCAA rule, then money always trumps it.
I'm split on the idea of PSLs and higher-priced seating myself. In theory, I like the concept: I'd rather have Purdue soak the well-to-do and keep remaining tickets reasonably-priced for the rest of us. In practice, though, it doesn't seem to work out that way. I bet if I were in the West Lafayette area and hoping to get season tickets in a good location, I'd be a little pissed too. (I wonder if Kansas did the PSL thing ... I know there was a lot of fallout when they decided to change the way they sorted out seating, and I'm not referring to the ticket scandal.)
I guess it's inevitable. Until they build Mackey II, they're going to have to wring money from the existing structure, which means tickets are going up, up, up. (The alternative would be to build the football program to the point that it can start bearing the load. In 2005, football brought in nearly double the amount that basketball did, which sounds like a lot until you look at schools like OSU and Florida. When you can bring in an extra $20M from football, you can help out the entire athletic department and also give back to the school.)
"What will the actual courtside seats be like?
The Row 1 seat will be a replica of the chair used by the teams. Rows 2-4 seat will be a larger, “theater-style” cushioned seat, complete with chair-side table."
Rows 2-4 base price is $4000 LESS than row 1. Who would want to pay $4000 more plus the extra prices for tickets to sit on the same seat as Bubba Day?
The booze must be the concession to get people to come to women's games.
Hey, if getting someone boozed up so they actually yell at the game works, they by all means, get the JPC members liquored up!
The student seats are better, but still awful. I kind of like the idea of splitting up the student section, hopefully they can get that side of Mackey into the games a little more. But let's be honest why they did it - they can sell sideline seats easier and for my money than endline seats.
Here's what they should do, if they had any balls:
http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/7482/fixedmackeyseating.jpg
As a Purdue student, I am not at all pleased with the new student sections -- you might call me livid. The new tunnel took a huge slice out of existing section, leaving us with a little less than half of the current lower bowl seating. To "compensate", they allocated and equally stingy section of the lower bowl to us on the completely opposite side of the court. From past experiences, I don't think this split section concept is a good idea. Instead of focusing all the energy from one large block, it is separated with two smaller sections.
I don't think this will get the old folks into the games more. I can't tell the difference between the fans close to and far away from the current section, so I can't see why putting half of us on the other side would help. Having sat in the upper and lower bowl for some high profile games, it's just a lot harder to get into the game up there -- its not the bad seats, its the physical separation from the other students in the lower bowl.
Furthermore, it is always more fun and easier to really get into the game when you are surrounded by people as enthusiastic as you are. Very few people want to be "that one guy" who sticks out in a crowd. By dividing the students, its that much more of a hindrance to creating the atmosphere we want in Mackey.
If I may make an analogy, when a corporation gains too much power, government separates that corporation into a bunch of smaller companies to keep them from becoming too powerful. What were the good people in charge of the new seating arrangement attempting to accomplish by dividing the students?
Of course, I can answer my own question. Money. They can students (the ones who get good discounts) the cheap, bad seats so that they could sell the better seats at a exorbitant prices.
Ryan -- Love your suggestion and revamped seating grid. My initial thought was even to make the section currently slotted for club seats the student section. Part of me thinks I'd be okay with FEWER student seats if it meant that concentrated of a mass. But I do like your idea, where they own an entire side of the joint.
John -- I hear you, and I'd encourage you to express your frustration, but here's the problem: They won't care. It's unfortunate, but a fact. When you're a wealthy alum, they're counting on you to pour your money back into it, especially if the spoils include getting boozy in club seats.
Well, to the students that are complaining about their seats... hey, I'll give you my seats. You can contend with the 2 fat guys that spill over into over half of the 1st of my 2 seats. I will take over your lower bowl seats. The whole point is that the alumni are the ones funding this renovation. If you think that they would be willing to do so and not get the good seats, you are crazy. When I was a student, a very small sliver of the lower bowl was allotted only to those students that had accumulated enough points... that was during the Glenn Robinson years. It is what it is, I am a JPC member so that I have a chance at better seats. I actually hate the new student location because it takes away our back-up seats next to the current tunnel... for when we can't move the 300-pounder off of our seats. There is not a bad seat in Mackey- one of the truly great things about the place. If you want one of the best seats... pony up the money. Otherwise, enjoy your truly decent seat and hope they don't sit you next to fatties. Students are there for 4-maybe 5 years. Most never return to a game after graduation. The alums that put out the cash for seats and especially for good seats are where the money is.
boilergal
I don't have a problem with splitting the student section up, but I would have liked to see section 6 and 15 given to the students. That way the ends of the court on the lower level are completely students.
boilergal,shouldn't you be focusing on a wedding?
Oh, I probably should, but I am always up for a diversion. Plus, I am probably just bitter about my neighbors in Mackey feeling that they have a right to my seats just because they can't fit in their own.
I understand that money is he driving factor -- I can't deny that, and I know that nothing will change that. If you pay the big bucks, you deserve your club seating and low tickets. I even understand the frustration with your seats (we students are packed just as tightly as you are, but we're just excited to be there with our friends an fellow students so we don't care as much). But this is what I believe: we are shelling over $35000 a year as students. We have an emotional investment in our classmates, and even if students at just going to school for those four of five years, there will always be students. Hell, without the students, there is no Purdue, no Purdue Basketball. I would even argue that the students deserve to have great seats -- part of a once in a lifetime experience that is your college years.
So if most students go to school for four years, graduate, and never come back to a game, whose fault is that? Could it possibly be that that their Mackey experience was just so so? And when that generation of students makes its fortunes and considers what to do with their money, why would they contribute to something that the just look back upon as an okay memory? Would't it make more sense to help the students have a terrific college experience so that, when their fine Purdue education has made them greatly successful people, they will look back happily on their great memories and want to help continue this tradition for future generations?
I hate the NBA. Even though the players are so much more talented, I can't stand the lack of passion seen on a day to day basis. From the players and coaches and ip to the fans, it's all just a business. I believe its the students are the main driving force in the difference between the feel of an NBA game and a college game. In a time where other Universities are reevaluating their existing seating charts to have students make a bigger impact on the game (http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=17300&ATCLID=205028691), and comparable student sections at schools like Duke and Michigan St. get prime seating. These schools are encouraging their students' excitement. Purdue students are of the most devoted fans in the country -- if you got in line any less than 13 hours before the ticket office opened for the student tickets or didn't want to camp out in the subfreezing weather, you would have misses out on the general admission tickets. Despite all of this, Purdue continues to hinder what dozens of basketball programs across the country envy: great student support.
I honestly wasn't expecting Izzone-esqe seats, just keeping the status quo would have been alright by me. I just don't like being treated like a redheaded stepchild.
John-
You make good points, but it is what it is. You are being treated like a student, not a red-headed stepchild. The athletic department has to create its own revenue and has to do that through ticket sales, JPC, etc. Your $35000 is for your education, not basketball tickets. The alums have already paid that price for their education and those that wish to are now paying toward better seating. They are the people that are providing the University with the revenue for facilities, scholarships, etc that bring the big-time college athletes to your campus. I appreciate the student section and realize that they are the source of enthusiasm throughout the game. And, I really hate having to defend the way the system has to be run. However, the sense of entitlement is astounding to me. When I was a student, I was excited to get tickets and work my way up to the "good" seats (A sliver of your lower bowl). Put all the alums in the upper deck and the revenues are guaranteed to greatly diminish.
Just enjoy the game and quit the complaining.
The athletic department doesn't really have a choice anyway. The money has to come from somewhere; it isn't going to come from students, it's not coming from non-revenue sports, and it's unlikely to come from football any time soon.
If they built a new arena, they could add premium seating and retain pretty much all the existing seating in some fashion ... but that would require a ton of money and a plot of land, so with the Mackey renovation instead, the money has to come from JPC members. To get the money, they're going to offer something in return, and unfortunately, the best they can offer is better seats.
I use the term "seats" loosely ... it's been a while since I sat in the lower bowl, but I was lucky enough to get tickets there once, I think 1989-90 (after the sub-.500 year). The location was great, but being constantly squeezed by people on either side of me was not. Classic arenas are fun to say that you've been there, but in terms of overall enjoyment, ugh. I don't remember whether or not Assembly Hall had/has actual seats, I haven't seen a game there in almost 30 years, but I seem to recall sitting on benches at Hinkle as well. It's the same thing at Wrigley Field, at Ross-Ade ... it's tolerable until you've been to a stadium/arena that does it right, and then you don't want to go back. You can still generate atmosphere in a stadium with comfortable seats. (Lucas Oil, for example, can be deafening when the Colts are playing well.)
I think there should be a balance between money and support, but short of a Mark Cuban-type person donating a nine-figure sum for a new arena, I'm afraid that balance is going to tip toward money for a while. It probably has to: I wouldn't expect students to bear more of the load. It was bad enough suddenly having to pay half price for football tickets instead of getting them for free when the team couldn't break .500 ...
Well, Boilergal is sassy today now, isn't she?
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