JHS, do we NEED more seats?

[DKW 86 7,424]

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Just wondering your opinions on this.

This is a rendering of JHS in 2008 as proposed a year or so ago. It was not accepted as far as I know. Any work on JHS will include more Suites, you can bet the house on that. Visualize the pic with Suites under the new addition to get an idea how they will look later on if ever approved. Can Auburn ever handle the traffic from 10-15k more fans?

I think the PTB think we need more work on BEMC or a new Coliseum before we need more seats at JHS.

[auwallace 6]

i'm in the camp that says we don't need anymore new seats. Okay sure maybe a 1000 or two couldn't hurt but under no circumstances do we need 100k. we'd sell out two home games a year if that was our capacity. I'd rather have a packed out 90k then an empty looking 100k. Until we sell out all of our home games every season there is no reason why we should significantly increase capacity.

[bammanmr 0]

I agree that we don't need anymore seats now, but IMO that's due to la mon, the citadel, western ky, and now buffalo being on our schedule. How many people are going to drive half a day and spend $200 on a hotel room to see that??

If we played better nonconference opponents, JH would be full a lot more often.

That picture sure looks good though.

[Tiger in Spain 0]

Until we can sell out more often, I say stay where we are. Why add another 10K seats that will remain mostly empty (outside the & games). Plus, with the current set up it is damn near impossible to find parking anyway. Improve parking, improve the schedule, then expand once we sell out on a more consistent basis.

[abrnfanatc 6]

I am of the opinion that there shouldn't be any new seats until season tickets sell out completely for a few years straight. That picture does look good, but how good would it look with most of those new seats empty on an ESPN night game?

BEMC should be made into a parking lot and a new, somewhat smaller arena put in the same general area before the money moves back to football.

Now, the jumbo-tron is another story. Maybe they can add some suites above the end-zone seats and have a huge screen above them, but as of now, they do not need to add 10,000+ seats IMO.

[bigsixfive 327]

We could use several more thousand, some of which should be used to expand the student section. The student section gets oversold every year. On top of that you have people that sneak in somehow. Some games it is rediculously packed. The UT game in 03 people were denied re-entry after going to the restroom. So what did that do? Students started peeing in cups in the stands. Same thing happened at the OM game that year. I think a few more seats could return a little more civility in that regard.

On a side note, I bet our average would be higher if Auburn reported over capacity crowds. Michigan does every year. Their stadium seats what, 110 or 111, but they keep breaking attendance records with 113 and 115 thousand people. There have been some Auburn games where that 86,063 number was laughable, like the 03 UT game for instance.

No way Auburn sells out every home game in a season. To use that as a goal to meet before expansion is not right. Who would want to travel however many hours to watch AU wax a D1AA opponent? We're going to have creampuffs on the schedule, that's the nature of the SEC, but don't expect sellouts for creampuffs. I think a better standard would be sellouts for most SEC games (again, no one is going to drive x number of hours to watch us hang 48 on MSU), which we do. LSU, UGA, UF, USC, UT, and uat are all sellouts for the most part. Heck, even OM gets a sellout game every now and then.

[kingfish 73]

Typically, cost-recovery analysis is the way to make the decision for increasing seating capacity. How long would it take for the new revenues generated by the addition take to recover the cost of the addition.

[tgr4lfe 220]

I think the current direction of the program we are going to want/need the additional seats soon. We have the talent coming in, so the third choice is moot. If said to complement our talent coming in, then that gets my vote. I myself would be at every single home game regardless of the opponent, granted I live in Auburn, so hotel etc is not a factor, only the cost of the tickets is a factor. A 100,000 seat stadium would be mostly full if tickets weren't $40 or $45 each even for the cupcake games. Until my debt free plan has reached it's end, then I can devulge of spending that money on TUF and tickets, maybe :huh:

[WeagleDMS 0]

I think we will need more seats eventually but not right now. As someone said above we need to work on BEMC at the current time.

[Weagle98 119]

I'm not going to games this next year because of the price increase but my spot is usually on the West Upper Deck. It is kind of neat to go to games and be able to Samford hall from my seat. In fact as the sun sets the campus is AUsome. We would lose that, if anyone cares.

[WarTim 3,456]

What do the Schools ranked in the top ten have in common?

They are ALL WINNERS! Year in and year out, those programs put WINNING teams on the field.

Winning breads winning. Let's wait 'till the outcry for tickets demands that we add seats. Address the "problem" @ BEMC. That is and should be our priority today.

[c-zoner 0]

Its not a matter of selling out or not, its a matter of supply and demand. If we lowered ticket prices, then that would raise the demand, because it would allow more people to be able to pay to go. The problem with most non-conference games is that the highest valued alternative (such as staying home and watching football on tv with friends) is higher than coming to a easy, non-conference Auburn game. Now, granted, this is subjective from person to person, but I will venture to say that for the majority of Auburn fans this is true. If we lowered ticket prices, then it would make coming to a non conference game outweigh that of staying home. (i knew my economics class would come in handy)

[weagl1 1,784]

Might as well go ahead and add the steats now. The longer we wait the more expensive it will be and you know it will need to happen eventually. If we had 100-110 K now it would be sold out any time one of the major SEC teams such as Bama, UGA, UT, UF or LSU comes to town. It would be a little below capacity for the other SEC programs and there would be a lot of empty seats for the non-conference cupcakes, which is already the case today. I think the benefit from having the seats for the big games would outwiegh the cost.

[quietfan 233]

So what did that do?  Students started peeing in cups in the stands. 

221296[/snapback]

Are you sure you weren't in Baton Rouge?

[WeagleDMS 0]

Its not a matter of selling out or not, its a matter of supply and demand.  If we lowered ticket prices, then that would raise the demand, because it would allow more people to be able to pay to go.  The problem with most non-conference games is that the highest valued alternative (such as staying home and watching football on tv with friends) is higher than coming to a easy, non-conference Auburn game.  Now, granted, this is subjective from person to person, but I will venture to say that for the majority of Auburn fans this is true.  If we lowered ticket prices, then it would make coming to a non conference game outweigh that of staying home.  (i knew my economics class would come in handy)

221375[/snapback]

If you think that the AD would even remotely consider lowering prices you've lost it. IF anything they will continue to go up (including TUF donations). Auburn only has the eigthth largest operating budget in the SEC. Oh, and BTW, you can get OOC game tickets outside the stadium for about $10 right before the game. You may even get them for free if it is D1AA. Even at the lowered prices there still is not enough demand.

[Texan4Auburn 1,626]

We could use several more thousand, some of which should be used to expand the student section.  The student section gets oversold every year.  On top of that you have people that sneak in somehow.  Some games it is rediculously packed.  The UT game in 03 people were denied re-entry after going to the restroom.  So what did that do?  Students started peeing in cups in the stands.  Same thing happened at the OM game that year.  I think a few more seats could return a little more civility in that regard.

On a side note, I bet our average would be higher if Auburn reported over capacity crowds.  Michigan does every year.  Their stadium seats what, 110 or 111, but they keep breaking attendance records with 113 and 115 thousand people.  There have been some Auburn games where that 86,063 number was laughable, like the 03 UT game for instance.

No way Auburn sells out every home game in a season.  To use that as a goal to meet before expansion is not right.  Who would want to travel however many hours to watch AU wax a D1AA opponent?  We're going to have creampuffs on the schedule, that's the nature of the SEC, but don't expect sellouts for creampuffs.  I think a better standard would be sellouts for most SEC games (again, no one is going to drive x number of hours to watch us hang 48 on MSU), which we do.  LSU, UGA, UF, USC, UT, and uat are all sellouts for the most part.  Heck, even OM gets a sellout game every now and then.

221296[/snapback]

Yes, student section something needs to be done badly. Georgia Tech game this year the university was fined by the fire marshall.

[c-zoner 0]

Its not a matter of selling out or not, its a matter of supply and demand.  If we lowered ticket prices, then that would raise the demand, because it would allow more people to be able to pay to go.  The problem with most non-conference games is that the highest valued alternative (such as staying home and watching football on tv with friends) is higher than coming to a easy, non-conference Auburn game.  Now, granted, this is subjective from person to person, but I will venture to say that for the majority of Auburn fans this is true.  If we lowered ticket prices, then it would make coming to a non conference game outweigh that of staying home.  (i knew my economics class would come in handy)

221375[/snapback]

If you think that the AD would even remotely consider lowering prices you've lost it. IF anything they will continue to go up (including TUF donations). Auburn only has the eigthth largest operating budget in the SEC. Oh, and BTW, you can get OOC game tickets outside the stadium for about $10 right before the game. You may even get them for free if it is D1AA. Even at the lowered prices there still is not enough demand.

221429[/snapback]

If you lower prices demand for tickets will go up, its a fact of economics. Plus, everyone knows its a gamble to wait untill right before the game starts to buy your tickets, and if you have your family with you at the game you wouldnt want do that anyway. If you look at most schools with 100,000+ stadiums, there tickets are cheaper than ours, so they can sell out easier.

[WeagleDMS 0]

Its not a matter of selling out or not, its a matter of supply and demand.  If we lowered ticket prices, then that would raise the demand, because it would allow more people to be able to pay to go.  The problem with most non-conference games is that the highest valued alternative (such as staying home and watching football on tv with friends) is higher than coming to a easy, non-conference Auburn game.  Now, granted, this is subjective from person to person, but I will venture to say that for the majority of Auburn fans this is true.  If we lowered ticket prices, then it would make coming to a non conference game outweigh that of staying home.  (i knew my economics class would come in handy)

221375[/snapback]

If you think that the AD would even remotely consider lowering prices you've lost it. IF anything they will continue to go up (including TUF donations). Auburn only has the eigthth largest operating budget in the SEC. Oh, and BTW, you can get OOC game tickets outside the stadium for about $10 right before the game. You may even get them for free if it is D1AA. Even at the lowered prices there still is not enough demand.

221429[/snapback]

If you lower prices demand for tickets will go up, its a fact of economics. Plus, everyone knows its a gamble to wait untill right before the game starts to buy your tickets, and if you have your family with you at the game you wouldnt want do that anyway. If you look at most schools with 100,000+ stadiums, there tickets are cheaper than ours, so they can sell out easier.

221446[/snapback]

I'm not arguing that supply and demand is wrong. Please provide examples of cheaper tickets at schools with larger stadiums. I know LSU was $36 this year. It would probably be $40 at AU. Now of course if you don't look at differences in tax rates and take that at face value, the difference is $4. If $4 prevents you from going to a game, well then you've got other things to worry about.

[Guest Tigrinum Major]

Its not a matter of selling out or not, its a matter of supply and demand.  If we lowered ticket prices, then that would raise the demand, because it would allow more people to be able to pay to go.  The problem with most non-conference games is that the highest valued alternative (such as staying home and watching football on tv with friends) is higher than coming to a easy, non-conference Auburn game.  Now, granted, this is subjective from person to person, but I will venture to say that for the majority of Auburn fans this is true.  If we lowered ticket prices, then it would make coming to a non conference game outweigh that of staying home.  (i knew my economics class would come in handy)

221375[/snapback]

Your premise is flawed by the fact that the majority of tickets are sold via season ticket sales. The tickets for non-conference creampuffs are being paid for, yet not being used. Lowering the price of these tickets would create a more of a demand for season books perhaps, but would they be used on a consistent basis? A large part of the revenue stream is not just ticket sales, but also the other things that people spend money on during their trip to the game, such as concessions, shirts, hats, chairback rentals, etc.

The balancing act of fielding a schedule that creates consistent 9-3, 10-2 seasons so that buzz stays high along with a few marquee games thrown in for maximum crowd exposure is a delicate one. You can't run the gauntlet every year, stagger to 7-4 and expect to sell out the next summer. But you can't serve up cupcakes week after week or people will not come and spend money on the peripheral items.

It is not simple supply and demand we are dealing with here. It is a complex eco-system that also deals in quality of perfromance, opponent's entertainment factor and economics. That is why AD are more business oriented than in years past.

[WeagleDMS 0]

Its not a matter of selling out or not, its a matter of supply and demand.  If we lowered ticket prices, then that would raise the demand, because it would allow more people to be able to pay to go.  The problem with most non-conference games is that the highest valued alternative (such as staying home and watching football on tv with friends) is higher than coming to a easy, non-conference Auburn game.  Now, granted, this is subjective from person to person, but I will venture to say that for the majority of Auburn fans this is true.  If we lowered ticket prices, then it would make coming to a non conference game outweigh that of staying home.  (i knew my economics class would come in handy)

221375[/snapback]

Your premise is flawed by the fact that the majority of tickets are sold via season ticket sales. The tickets for non-conference creampuffs are being paid for, yet not being used. Lowering the price of these tickets would create a more of a demand for season books perhaps, but would they be used on a consistent basis? A large part of the revenue stream is not just ticket sales, but also the other things that people spend money on during their trip to the game, such as concessions, shirts, hats, chairback rentals, etc.

The balancing act of fielding a schedule that creates consistent 9-3, 10-2 seasons so that buzz stays high along with a few marquee games thrown in for maximum crowd exposure is a delicate one. You can't run the gauntlet every year, stagger to 7-4 and expect to sell out the next summer. But you can't serve up cupcakes week after week or people will not come and spend money on the peripheral items.

It is not simple supply and demand we are dealing with here. It is a complex eco-system that also deals in quality of perfromance, opponent's entertainment factor and economics. That is why AD are more business oriented than in years past.

221660[/snapback]

Yup!