The LSU Board of Supervisors voted Thursday to accept the Athletic Department’s proposal to increase football season ticket prices by as much as $400 for the 2004 football season.
The approved proposal does not affect student ticket prices, but it brings each single game ticket to a uniform price, establishing a Preferred Seating Program and using the generated revenue to renovate and construct athletic facilities.
Uniform ticket price
The current base cost of a ticket is $32, but most tickets carry a surcharge, said Athletics Director Skip Bertman.
Season ticket holders on the sideline and in the east upper deck currently pay a surcharge of $50. This makes the average ticket cost $39.14 per game and $274 per season.
Season ticket holders in the end zone and west upper deck currently pay a surcharge of $25. This makes their average ticket cost $35.57 per game and $249 per season.
Fans who buy individual game tickets currently pay a surcharge of four dollars per game which brings each ticket price to $36.
The new plan will eliminate all surcharges and bring the uniform individual ticket price to $36 for all seats, excluding student tickets.
Preferred Seating Program
The Preferred Seating Program is the main focus of the department’s plan. It will require a mandatory “contribution” to the Athletic Department from most season ticket holders, said Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs, Herb Vincent.
The contribution is a separate and additional cost to the price of season tickets.
Season ticket holders who sit on the lower level between the two 25-yard lines will pay the largest contribution of $400. This does not include the ticket holders in the field boxes, who only will pay a surcharge of $100 because their vision is obstructed by players on the sidelines, Vincent said.
The required contribution for seats in the lower level between the 25-yard lines and the end zones will be $350 and $85 for seats in the end zones.
For the 2004 season, west upper deck chairback seats will require a $150 contribution between the 25-yard lines and an $85 contribution between the 25-yard lines and the end zones.
In 2005, west upper deck seats in the new Tiger Terrace will require a $400 contribution between the 25-yard lines and a $350 contribution between the 25-yard lines and the end zones. The renovated club seats held by Tiger Athletic Foundation will require a donation to the organization.
Also in 2005, chairback seats in the west upper deck will require a $250 donation between the 25-yard lines and a $200 donation between the 25-yard lines and the end zones.
Season tickets in the east upper deck will require a TAF donation.
The Preferred Seating Program will effect 45,197 seats in Tiger Stadium and raise an additional $7.5 million in annual revenue for the athletic program, Vincent said.
University students, staff and faculty, Athletics Endowed Scholarship, TAF, LSU Foundation and Alumni Association donors, and athletic summer job and courtesy car program participants will not be subject to the ticket contribution.
Options for current season ticket holders
Beginning in January, the Athletic Department will offer season ticket holders the option of keeping their current seats, moving to a lower contribution level or transferring their tickets to another person.
Vincent said the transfer option will allow ticket holders who do not want to pay the contribution a chance to offer their tickets to anyone they choose.
“[A ticket holder] can decide who gets to sit in his seat,” Vincent said. “We think it’s important for the them to decide.”
Bertman said this option will help maintain the culture and atmosphere for which Tiger Stadium is widely known.
The athletic department will also offer season ticket holders the option of paying their contribution all at once or in six monthly installments.
Renovation and construction
The purpose of the program is to generate revenue to renovate existing athletic facilities, build new athletic facilities and to meet rising operations costs, Bertman said.
The first project will be a $60 million renovation of the west side of Tiger Stadium.
The board also approved a lease agreement which will allow the Athletic Department to grant TAF the privilege to renovate and add club seats to the west upper deck and to completely overhaul the press box.
Vincent said the improvements will affect parking around Tiger Stadium in 2004, but will not interrupt the 2004 football season.
About $7 million from the program’s revenue will go toward general maintenance and repair in Tiger Stadium. This includes restroom renovations, leakage repair, cleaning, painting and field improvements.
The third project, a new football operations center, is projected to be completed by fall 2005.
Bertman said the football program is currently spread out over the campus, but the new center would combine the football offices, locker rooms, training room, equipment room and video operations at the current football practice facility.
The new building will also increase space for the operations of the other 19 sports programs, Bertman said.
During the next four years, the Athletic Department will also use a undetermined amount of the revenue to do major renovations and maintenance on the 31-year-old Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Bertman said they plan to renovate the PMAC’s roof, circular concourse and restrooms. They also have started plans to add a food court, club seating and a new practice court.
Another undetermined amount will go toward improvements of other athletic facilities including Alex Box Stadium, Tiger Softball Park and the Natatorium.
Bertman said the Athletic Department will donate $500,000 of the revenue to the University annually for academic purposes.
Opposition
Although the board approved the plan with only one opposing vote, the Athletic Department’s proposal still met some opposition.
Donald Hodge, a second-year law student, said the proposal is not about leadership or improvement, but about greed.
Before they voted, Hodge recommended that the board members turn down the proposal and instead concentrate on the University’s needs.
Maria Carruth, a football season ticket holder for more than 50 years, spoke to the board and described herself as “one of the poor people” that cannot afford the new ticket prices.
Carruth asked the board to consider giving a senior citizen discount to ticket holders to continue to give them the chance to go to the games.
“We’ve been LSU people since ’51,” Carruth said. “I think it’s time for you to be loyal to us since we’ve been loyal to you.”
Carruth said she was disheartened by the board’s decision because her tickets are in the $400 contribution area, but will hopefully find some way to afford tickets in another section during the transfer period.
Before voting, several board members expressed small concerns about the wording of the actual resolution and asked questions about the athletic department’s plans.
Questions included concerns about the people who cannot afford the required contribution and how this decision could affect the “culture” of Tiger Stadium.
Bertman told board members that each concern has already been addressed in the Athletic Department’s plan.
Most board members who spoke said they had received an overwhelming amount of feedback about the proposal and had heard more positive comments than negative.