Penn State is milking us. It's just that simple.
With this ticket increase, PSU will be among the costliest season tickets in the country.
You're going to pay more to see a PSU game as a season ticket holder than you are to see most pro teams in any sport. There is no reasonable excuse for this.
They can do this because people will pay in the end. I'll be trying to find a way to afford it. I'm not sure how I'll do it, but I'll try. If I do, I'll end up paying for the numerous sports that I care nothing about, that I will never see. Like I'm going to watch collegiate level badminton or table tennis. But it's our football money that pays for it.
What disgusts me is that I could see raising prices, not to that level, but I could see it if we - the football fans - got something back.
The facilities are pathetic. They are quite simply archaic. Troughs in the urinals, and this season I was rewarded with a smoking ban, not even a smoking area in an open stadium! So fans are not allowed to smoke. If you have to go to the bathroom, literally you are ushered in like cattle to a trough.
The more I think about it, the more I realize if I stay at home and watch it on the 50-inch TV, I can avoid the cold. I can smoke when I want, save money and not have to drive over an hour after watching them choke during a big game.
And over the course of five years, I'd save $20,000 on tickets and probably closer to $30,000 since I end up spending on average $100 out of my pocket per game, and that's not counting what people I take with me pitch.
This move is out of greed. It's with little to no regard for fans or the desire of fans. This program is nothing if it turns its back on the fans or tries to milk them for every dollar they can get.
I remember when my grandfather was alive. My uncle would come up from North Carolina. We'd have a large gathering. Sometimes my aunt would come in from Texas. Her husband, me, my uncle, my father, my brother, my grandfather, my best friend, we'd all talk football, and about what PSU would do the upcoming fall.
Throughout the season, when I'd go to my grandfather's house for dinner, I would always be greeted by a "did you see how good they looked Saturday?" or "what seems to be their problem?"
It saddens me to think about what the future holds.
If I am forced out of being a season ticket holder because of the greed this program is showing, I'm going to find it hard to root for them as I do now.
I bleed blue and white, but a raise in ticket prices which it seems comes every year, and now this, has me to the point where the program and team I root for aren't trying to win a national title but instead are trying to bleed me dry.
I would just like to ask one simple question to those making this decision: How much is enough?
How much does one sport need to support? What's next? Football sales going to support academic scholarships not just sports programs?
This is simply unfair.
Ben Thompson
Williamsport
Pricing out the middle class
Regarding the ticket price hike, they are basically pricing out the middle class. The one positive in this is the hike does not take place until 2011.
That gives us season ticket holders and the media to create such a firestorm that Penn State will change their mind.
Heck, last year they upped the minimum amounts to the Nittany Lion Club contribution levels and yes we are the "Lion Loyalty" and we give the minimum $400. (We have been members since 1991). That increase was understandable because the contribution minimums had remained constant for quite a while.
But now they are asking us to pony up more money? Isn't that why Penn State built all the suites and club level seating so they could generate more revenue? And they are thinking about doing this in today's economy?
So I guess Penn State now feels less about those who have been loyal to the program (including the dark years) and more about how much you contribute.
I guess my question would be is this "soon to be new" policy already in place at big-time college programs? I have to think the braintrust at Penn State has done some thorough research on this issue.
My family may have to enjoy 2010 because it may be the last time have season tickets. We have two colleges to pay for with two kids.
As much as I would like to give Penn State additional money, my family comes first and we need to put as much away as we can for college.
Problem is, it's ECON 101 (supply and demand) and I have to assume the demand for tickets far outweighs the supply of tickets. If that's the case, then Penn State will get their money.
Why not structure the price of the tickets similar to the way baseball and basketball tickets are structured? You could have one price for sections between the 20-yard line and 50-yard lines, another price for sections between the 19-yard line to the goal line and another price for sections in the end zone?
You could even have two separate prices for each based on whether you were above the concourse (upper level) or below the concourse (lower level).
I'm curious to see how this all shakes out. We have four seats in Section WHU, and there is no way we can afford an additional $400 per seat.
That's an additional $1,600 a year on top of $1,760 ($55 times four tickets times eight games) plus the $400 a year that goes to the Nittany Lion Club. In essence, Penn State is doubling the ticket price for our seats.
Arthur Frey, III
Leesburg, Va.
Plan caters to 'front runners'
Neil Rudel has been the most honest and insightful beat writer for decades, and he hit this one into McCovey Cove.
He managed to criticize PSU greed while delivering a sobering (Penn) state of the union. In response to criticism of light scheduling, and in being screwed in 1968, '69, '73, '77 and '94, they brazenly schedule Indiana State, the very bottom of the barrel.
My roots are deep.
I've stayed until the end of a snowy 44-7 romp over Temple in 1977, and somehow sat in the damp mist this year vs. Minnesota. I have 103-year-old game programs, own a real mountain lion and sent PSU the idea and prototypes of the championship seasons to put on the luxury boxes. That being said, I hate the smugness and arrogance displayed from Old Main to the Lasch Building.
I remember two older guys who used to sit two or three rows in front of me each game in the '70s and '80s. You'd recognize the type - Marlboro type caps, (the same) blue Penn State jacket and navy blue dickies.
Each would carry a seat cushion and I don't think they ever spoke to each other during games. Would clap for a touchdown but wouldn't react at all when Joe called a draw play on third and eleven. I used to refer to them as the Bellefonte guys. Probably came from someplace like Nittany Furnace.
Never met those guys, but they symbolized something to me - the old blue-collar guys who worked hard during the week to pay the $24 or $38 bucks for a ticket. Those guys haven't been around for a long time, but the sad thing is they probably couldn't go now anyway. If the idiots jumping up on every 3-yard gain didn't deter them, the cost of the day certainly would.
We'll only see the front runners now - people who sell their tickets for Indiana regardless of the Ohio State outcome. I went to the Rose Bowl last year and couldn't stand the fans of either team.
Thanks for the opportunity to rant and for not being afraid to critically analyze.
Bob Biscontini
Hanover Township
