Paying For Shaka Now
-
Texas men’s basketball season tickets going up an average of 7 percent
One month after raising football season ticket prices, Texas officials announced Tuesday that men’s basketball ticket prices are going up, too.
Men’s basketball season tickets are going up an average of 7 percent for the 2015-16 season, Shaka Smart’s first in Austin. Similar to football, the biggest increases will be near center court, and there’s also a $99 option with no donation requirement.
“What we’re trying to become is consistent across all our sports,” said Steve Hank, UT’s chief revenue officer.
Last month, the school announced an average 6 percent increase in football season tickets at Royal-Memorial Stadium. That featured a 31 percent spike for seats along the 50-yard line. But the school also made $199 tickets available for those who just want to get in the door.
The same principles apply for men’s basketball. For the upcoming season, seats in sections 20 and 35, which straddle center court, will be $715 each for renewing ticket holders and $750 for new customers. Each seat requires a minimum $2,500 donation to the Longhorn Foundation.
Tickets go down in price depending on seat location, from $695 each to sit above the tunnel where the Longhorns run out to $175 in the upper deck.
The $99 seats are in the upper portions of the Erwin Center, behind the baskets. It’s the same in football; $199 tickets at Royal-Memorial Stadium are along the top deck of the north end zone.
“In the areas where we have the greatest demand, we are asking those who have the most valuable seat locations to invest accordingly,” Hank said
Texas officials said the same grandfathered seat and resale policies apply in men’s basketball.
For longtime season ticket holders locked into a lower donation requirement, that will not change this year, Hank said. However, those seats are not eligible for resale through a secondary market maker like StubHub or a ticket broker.
If a person wishes to sell his or her season tickets, that person must pay the current required donation or risk losing ticket-buying privileges. Hank said the athletic department’s resale policies “will be thoroughly enforced.” How this will affect the handful of ticket scalpers who buy and sell outside the Erwin Center every home game is unclear.
Just to see this:
Texas officials have spent considerable time and effort improving the Erwin Center’s game-day atmosphere.
The Longhorns had an average paid attendance of 11,249 last season for 18 home games. The arena’s listed capacity is 15,540.
The Longhorns were 13-5 at home in former coach Rick Barnes’ final season. It was the most home losses in 13 years.
-
@RockChalkinTexas Shaka!!!
-
The last hurrah before the arena is torn down. The Erwin Center is scheduled to be torn down and the new Medical School will be built on the site. I don’t believe an alternate location has been selected for the new arena as of yet, but I understand that construction of the new facility will start in 2016.
-
@JayHawkFanToo No new site been selected. AD Patterson wants us taxpayers of Austin to finance it and has caused quite an uproar since UT has Gazillions of $. They need a bball facility on or close to campus to get students to come. Shaka was picked over Marshal to smooze the UT alum.
-
Man, Texas tickets are cheap. I spent more on two tickets to Embiids first KU game than season tickets to Texas (Less the $2500 donation of course)
What’s it take at KU to get good seats? About a $100,000 donation and $1200 per season ticket. I think a 15K donation will probably get you out of the corner bleachers.
-
Have they been fracking under the Erwin Center and is that a picture of a coal gas fire?
-
@jaybate-1.0 HaHa. The pyrotech stuff was the brain fart of the new AD. They did that at the KU game I went to. Glad Zenger doesn’t follow suit. All to try and get the measly crowds fired up. Did you see the lousy attendance records?
-
@RockChalkinTexas I went to the two past games ku played at Austin. In 2013 the place seemed full but not this year as you would know. I guess the deal in Austin is to be fashionably late because people were walking the their seats nearly the whole first half.
As for the new venue, can’t believe the haven’t got the land yet. My UT buddy tells me it is typical Texas fundraising tactics. How do taxes play a role? Because the venue hosts concerts etc. to the general public?
There are run down neighborhoods surrounding the campus. They should have bought the land decades ago with the multi-billion dollar endowment UT has. The campus was pretty in the 70’s. Now most the trees and grass are gone-they overbuilt on a footprint instead of expanding the campus grounds.
-
Zenger is smart enough to know that if he does fireworks at AFH, many fans would sit him right on top of them while yelling…this is what your effin’ TV contract did to us…biatch
Note: No malice or physical harm intended towards Mr. Zenger who I am sure is a very nice man…a lousy contract negotiator mind you, but a very nice man nonetheless…or at least I hope he is.
-
@dylans I fully understand the steep, STEEP pricing for KU Men’s tickets…and eventhough Im a low-level WilliamsFund member, I’ve decided to not play that game. Every season my work sched will only allow me to go to a game or 2 all season…so I simply get on StubHub and pay $400-700ea ticket (usually 2) and sit center court, first 5 rows. Between the FT lines is the goal. No way I’m paying $100k! When I could go buy a used Lamborghini Gallardo? Or Ferrari? Or a plane?
Or, how about this: Go buy a used Viper, and buy center court tickets to every KU Men’s home game, and drive the Viper to each game. That would still beat $100k, and the seats would be the same, if not better? (I calculate $40k for the '05 Viper, and about $20k for 2 tickets to all home games…)
(If this sounds like I’m taking a widely-grinning pot shot at KU AD, then yes I am!) I may do the ViperPlan purely out of spite! I must say, that for the avg fan, seeing the ticket pricing, as well as all the corporate roped-off sections in AFH when people are trying to see their team at LateNight, it must be a disappointment. I know it was for me. Wont do LateNight. Especially when I can watch that 20min scrimmage on TV now.
This season, having never attended any sort of KState game, I bought 4 tickets at $800ea for whole family to go to AFH, row 6, and watch Weber get preliminary fittings for his funeral next year. Wife got sick, maybe due to the KSUpuke uniforms, so we wont be doing that again either…Of course, the most memorable thing from that game was when during a quiet moment during a timeout, a KU man behind us yelled out slow and deliberately & whole arena heard him: “Bruce, your team sucks!” Priceless!
-
@ralster I do the same, well less the Viper of course. We are able to attend one to two games a year, so I don’t mind paying $500 for center court first 10 rows. There are a few people here that have nice season tickets. The best are 1st or 2nd row dead center at half court. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to sit there! My little brother did 5 years ago, I’m so glad he got to go to Allen Fieldhouse once in his life. He was a huge fan.
-
@ralster That is freeking hilarious! There has to be an audio of that somewhere. I would have paid to hear that live!
