My problem with stadium reseating and TTF

[Tsunhater]

The problem I have is that I was told on multiple
occasions from the BDC that CL ticket holders would not be affected by TTF
donors. They said current club level would be ranked by BDC points and then TTF
would come in after. I had 2 different people from BDC tell me this. That
obviously was not the case. People have good reason to be pissed.

If you had 4 seats in CL for 12 years your contribution to BDC would be at minimum
somewhere around $56,000. Your contribution to the BDC for the next 5 years
would equal $28,000. So Total commitment to BDC would be around $84,000. Here is
the problem with TTF. If I wanted 2 Club level seats and have never donated a
dime I could pledge $5,000 per year for 5 years and add on the $3500 for the 2
seats and my total BDC contribution would be around $42,500. That TTF PERSON
WOULD HAVE MUCH BETTER SEATS THAN THE PERSON DONATING FOR 17 YEARS AND
COMMITTING MORE THAN DOUBLE THE MONEY!!!!! That stinks and people should be
pissed. Chalk it up as price of business and SEC athletics is very big business.
At the end of the day we are just numbers to a large company. The sooner we all
realize it the better for all

 

[HD6]

We needed another thread, good call.

 

[Freezus H. Christ]

Yeah and 2 years ago when the expansion and reseating was announced I was told by the BDC that I could add as many seats to my current ones as I needed up to the limit of my giving level. Now someone decided to lock in the number of seats I bought last year as the limit. Either the people running the BDC are habitual liars or none of them know what the 17 is going on from day to day. I can't wait til somebody from State calls again asking for another donation so I can tell them how far up their arse they can stick it

 

[bartgregory]

Yeah and 2 years ago when the expansion and reseating was announced I was told by the BDC that I could add as many seats to my current ones as I needed up to the limit of my giving level. Now someone decided to lock in the number of seats I bought last year as the limit. Either the people running the BDC are habitual liars or none of them know what the 17 is going on from day to day. I can't wait til somebody from State calls again asking for another donation so I can tell them how far up their arse they can stick it

Could I get your phone number? I'd be glad to walk you through the process.

 

[Dawgbite]

Ahh someone in the know!

Could I get your phone number? I'd be glad to walk you through the process.

For the Scoreboard Club specificly, is there some place to see a seating chart with availability shown while I pick my seats later today? Its kinda hard to pick when you can't see whats available to pick.

 

[Wicked Pissah]

Could I get your phone number? I'd be glad to walk you through the process.

I feel bad for you this week bart. Long days

 

[MidTNDawg]

If it is any consolation, this is far from the first time the BDC has been "misleading". The problem for us is pretty well defined by the OP. I know this will draw fire, but I walked, and for me it was more than 20 years.

 

[Seinfeld]

Just an FYI, but when I heard about the # of tickets lock, I called the ticket office and simply asked what it would take to get 2 more. The lady said that my request would be noted and about 2 weeks later, I got a call saying that it had been granted.

I obviously can't speak for the experiences that the rest of you have had, but just about any time that I've taken the time to pick up the phone and talk to someone, the BC and ticket office have been very accommodating

 

[Wicked Pissah]

Just an FYI, but when I heard about the # of tickets lock, I called the ticket office and simply asked what it would take to get 2 more. The lady said that my request would be noted and about 2 weeks later, I got a call saying that it had been granted.

I obviously can't speak for the experiences that the rest of you have had, but just about any time that I've taken the time to pick up the phone and talk to someone, the BC and ticket office have been very accommodating

Ive always had great experience with the BC. If they dont answer, I get a call back immediately.

It isnt an easy job they do.

 

[AnesthesiaDawg]

The problem I have is that I was told on multiple
occasions from the BDC that CL ticket holders would not be affected by TTF
donors. They said current club level would be ranked by BDC points and then TTF
would come in after. I had 2 different people from BDC tell me this. That
obviously was not the case. People have good reason to be pissed.

If you had 4 seats in CL for 12 years your contribution to BDC would be at minimum
somewhere around $56,000. Your contribution to the BDC for the next 5 years
would equal $28,000. So Total commitment to BDC would be around $84,000. Here is
the problem with TTF. If I wanted 2 Club level seats and have never donated a
dime I could pledge $5,000 per year for 5 years and add on the $3500 for the 2
seats and my total BDC contribution would be around $42,500. That TTF PERSON
WOULD HAVE MUCH BETTER SEATS THAN THE PERSON DONATING FOR 17 YEARS AND
COMMITTING MORE THAN DOUBLE THE MONEY!!!!! That stinks and people should be
pissed. Chalk it up as price of business and SEC athletics is very big business.
At the end of the day we are just numbers to a large company. The sooner we all
realize it the better for all

For all of you folks in the club level unhappy with where your seats ended up, are you sure it wasn't TTF donors who were already in the Club Level plus current club level members with higher priority that resulted in you being moved to worse seats?

 

[dawgstudent]

I know one person that was in Club Level that committed to TTF so he could get better seats.

 

[AnesthesiaDawg]

I would think for anybody in the Club Level who wanted to improve their seats, TTF would have been a no-brainer if you could afford it, which I'm assuming many would have no trouble giving $5000 more a year for 5 years.

 

[Dawgbreeze]

I am more upset that it was never really explained to me. I do have a problem though if my lifetime giving was more than the new 25k donors and they jumped me. That appears to be the case. 2 seats cost $3500.00 annually plus the cost of tickets. One would think that TSUNhater's points are valid and if MSU is so stretched for money that they bite the hand that has fed them through some awful seasons, then if we ever start having losing seasons again, the Johnny come lately's will drop like flies. I understand the economics of college athletics, but this is going to cause many to simply sit back and say, I might as well stay home and enjoy the SEC network. It costs roughly $11,000+ for someone who has to travel any distance to come to a football game considering, gas, lodging, and food. Somebody doesn't get it.

 

[AnesthesiaDawg]

With around 300 TTF donors, I may be wrong but I would assume most of those people weren't members of the Club Level. If that is true, then most of the people displacing you would be Club Level members with higher priority than you, therefore people with more lifetime giving. My assumption may be totally wrong, though. I do understand the frustration with TTF donors with lower priority jumping ahead of you, but within the Club Level I think that would be the exception rather than the norm.

Now when the main grandstand/200 level/100 level starts reseating, I would think most of TTF donors will be much lower in lifetime giving than many of the people being displaced. Again, my assumptions may be completely flawed.

 

[Dawgbite]

The problem is that so many people thought that if they did nothing beyond what they had been doing, that there general seat location would be assured if not the exact same seats. I previously sat on the west side chair backs and decided early that I was moving to the scoreboard club, when I mentioned that to the people around me, I almost universally got the answer that they like their seats and didn't want to move. Little did they realize that that location may not be available when there time to choose rolls around. The TTF donors are not displacing that many people, most of the people complaining about getting worse seats have been complacient and have been passed in points. Is it fair? Depends on each individual person, but it was laid out for each person to make a decision for themselves. This was an opportunity for every season ticket holder to improve their standing in the BDC, those who took advantage will be happy next fall. Those who did not, will not.

 

[Wicked Pissah]

The problem is that so many people thought that if they did nothing beyond what they had been doing, that there general seat location would be assured if not the exact same seats. I previously sat on the west side chair backs and decided early that I was moving to the scoreboard club, when I mentioned that to the people around me, I almost universally got the answer that they like their seats and didn't want to move. Little did they realize that that location may not be available when there time to choose rolls around. The TTF donors are not displacing that many people, most of the people complaining about getting worse seats have been complacient and have been passed in points. Is it fair? Depends on each individual person, but it was laid out for each person to make a decision for themselves. This was an opportunity for every season ticket holder to improve their standing in the BDC, those who took advantage will be happy next fall. Those who did not, will not.

Im in the same situation as you

 

[Seinfeld]

This is not directed at you by any means, but anyone who is still under the impression at this point that they'll be able to keep their seats by simply continuing to give what they've been giving hasn't been listening over the last year. I really don't know how Scott or the BC could have explained this any more clearly.

That said, you're 100% right that there will people that get bumped, and a lot of them will be pissed about it no matter what. Personally, I won't feel terribly bad for that crowd though because I'm quite frankly a little sick of not being able to get seats that I want due to old 17ers that I outrank by a wide margin simply not giving them up year after year.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

I'll lay mine out along with my decision process.

I've been in the west chairbacks for 8-10 years. Before that was in the west grandstands since the 92 season, so nearly 25 years of season tickets. The per seat in the chairbacks is $700 plus the price of the tickets. In one of the earlier chats with Scott and Mike, this was said:

Mike Richey:
Great question Brian. It appears that many of the new north end zone folks are new season ticket holders. We do anticipate some transition in the 100 and 200 levels as those are very high demand areas, especially the 200 level. Expect 200 level to be filled by donors in top 300 and all chairbacks to be filled by top 1000 or so.

I was looking to add a third ticket as well, so that would have made my BC pledge $2,100. When I plugged that into the calculator, I only went up to 1,533 in the rank. I think I was 1825ish maybe. For me to be inside the top 1000, it would have taken a pledge of better than $9,400, and that was with a week or so to go before the deadline as people were getting their pledges in, so just say $10,000. Whether I have it or not was irrelevant because that's wasn't happening. Obviously I didn't fully understand the process because I anticipated some of the current 100 level ticketholders going into the new NEZ areas, or moving into the Club level if people moved from there into the NEZ, and those of us content in the 100s to have a chance to improve our seating by a little bit. I certainly didn’t anticipate reseating bumping me into significantly worse seats, but that appeared to be the direction it was heading.

What it made me do was ask what I valued. I liked sitting where I was sitting in the chairbacks and was happily making those donations. I guess I'm a bad fan, but I'm probably not going to keep giving to the BC to sit in the grandstands. I can pick those tickets up on the street at any game, any time. I'll likely just use the secondary market for the few games per year that I am able to make. Perhaps I will still donate something to the BC but it won't be $2,100 a year.

Now, I am not bitter about this in the least. I hope that we've made decisions that set us up for long term success, but I do agree with my good friend Dawgbreeze that when the next slump comes, we better hope the new additions to the BC are in it for the long haul, because it's gonna be a tough sell to bring back the long term givers who got devalued through this process.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

This is not directed at you by any means, but anyone who is still under the impression at this point that they'll be able to keep their seats by simply continuing to give what they've been giving hasn't been listening over the last year. I really don't know how Scott or the BC could have explained this any more clearly.

I will be the first to admit that I don't hang on every word Scott says and didn't start paying attention to this process until about the last 10 days before the deadline, but I did not find it to be clealry communicated unless direct questions were asked. That's a terrible way to spread a message. The web sites for the Athletic Department, Bulldog Club, Ticket Office and TTF were not all that helpful either. Maybe bits and pieces were on each page, but I don't think the answer to all the questions were on any ONE page. Then there was something - I don't recall what it was - that was printed that was not on any of the websites.

 

[Dawgbreeze]

See we can agree on something

I put the math to it today and I can go to stub hub and buy all 4 conference home games and save money and have a great seat. This was poorly communicated and it is going to bite Scott in the butt. I don't care what they think about new money because in those lean years we were supporting an abysmal product and what if we hadn't, they would have shut down.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

If there's a positive in this, maybe I become a more consistent basketball season ticket holder. I've probably had them 10-15 years of the last 25.

 

[tcdog70]

I put the math to it today and I can go to stub hub and buy all 4 conference home games and save money and have a great seat. This was poorly communicated and it is going to bite Scott in the butt. I don't care what they think about new money because in those lean years we were supporting an abysmal product and what if we hadn't, they would have shut down.

Exactly, I've been loyal to MSU for 40 years. But maybe with ever game on TV my old *** will just watch at Home. or maybe just walk up and buy tickets. I'll take the money I'll save and put it on Hunting. These Newbies seem to know every 17ing thing so just turn em loose.

 

[Dawgbite]

Don't know about you

Im in the same situation as you

But I got the seats I wanted where I wanted them.

 

[Wicked Pissah]

But I got the seats I wanted where I wanted them.

As did I. I picked earlier today. I couldnt be happier. I will monitor the west side chairbacks in a few weeks to see where we shake out before making long term plans.

 

[RocketDawg]

You are precisely correct, and are in pretty much the same situation as I am. I was told the same thing when I called to renew my pledge for the coming season. Had what they told me actually been the way it was done, I would have had no problem whatsoever with being moved, even to where I've been moved to, had it just been existing CL people who were being rank ordered. Even the new TTF guy that DS mentioned, who was already a CL member ... give him the first choice ... not problem with that.

One problem is ... my new seats appear to be inside the goal line, maybe on about the -5. With the very same donation, I feel like I could move to somewhere near the 50 on the west side. All I'd be missing is the "free" food and drink in CL. And the food's not worth it.

So, with about 99% certainty, this will be our last year to donate more than the minimum to the BDC and no more season tickets. I have a feeling there will be plenty of CL seats available next year. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

 

[RocketDawg]

A simple letter to all BDC members explaining what the process would be should have been sent, and particularly stating the ramifications of NOT being a TTF donor. They sent nothing. As I've said before, the first time I heard about TTF was on this board. Maybe it was in Mississippi newspapers, television, or radio. But I'm not in Mississippi.

I don't hang on to every word Scott says because I never hear him say anything. The BDC never emails nor snail mails. If they're relying on members to visit the website for information, people just don't do that. The BDC needs to be proactive, not the BDC member. I'll have to say that they're nice enough when you call, but they give you erroneous information. And this time it cost folks a lot of money. And I'm afraid it will backfire on our Athletic Department.

 

[Wicked Pissah]

Maybe call bart gregory and talk it out. I wouldnt sit on the east side anyway.

West side chair backs are the best seats at davis wade. Maybe they will let you move there, assuming you are close to 1000 in the Bc

Or, just see if they will switch you to scoreboard club. There are seats left.

 

[RocketDawg]

There's also another aspect to the whole thing ... the present value of money. Somebody who's been donating to the BDC for, say, 30 years really has a lot more in than just the raw numbers. You've gotta factor in inflation for the older money. So a total of $50K started 30 years ago might really be $100K in today's dollars.

It'll take a lot of TTFing to match that, particularly if that 30 year donor just quits. . And the old donations were when we were down in football, and those old donations are also largely responsible for the facilities we have now.

 

[Dawgbreeze]

I asked the young man who called me after he told me I had a choice of 118 or 124 what if I moved tot he west side chair backs. He emphatically told me that I would give up my club level position and I could see where I ended up on the west side. I asked him if that would be a chair back and said I cannot guarantee you that. This is absurd . I know Texas A&M has money requirements but their fans have stayed put most years. We have simply screwed the folks who brought us to the dance and many will decide to no longer dance in the future. See how well that affects the bottom line.

You are precisely correct, and are in pretty much the same situation as I am. I was told the same thing when I called to renew my pledge for the coming season. Had what they told me actually been the way it was done, I would have had no problem whatsoever with being moved, even to where I've been moved to, had it just been existing CL people who were being rank ordered. Even the new TTF guy that DS mentioned, who was already a CL member ... give him the first choice ... not problem with that.

One problem is ... my new seats appear to be inside the goal line, maybe on about the -5. With the very same donation, I feel like I could move to somewhere near the 50 on the west side. All I'd be missing is the "free" food and drink in CL. And the food's not worth it.

So, with about 99% certainty, this will be our last year to donate more than the minimum to the BDC and no more season tickets. I have a feeling there will be plenty of CL seats available next year. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

 

[Freezus H. Christ]

Could I get your phone number? I'd be glad to walk you through the process.

I'm not interested in being walked through the process. That ship has sailed and the Bulldog Club will never get another dime from me

 

[AssEndDawg]

I've typically given to the Bulldog Club just for the hell of it while my parents and my wife's parents bought the bulk of the tickets. The TTF just went all up and down my dad who after some 50+ years of Bulldog Club membership decided he would no longer donate or buy tickets. My wife's dad still got tickets but he didn't do the TTF which downgraded us a good bit (even though we are in Club Level and were also told repeatedly that the TTF would not affect us). I also decided not to give to the BC this year because, well, because I think it's a pretty crappy move to cut out your long term donors because of the "what have you done for me lately" attitude. My dad sat through a hell of a lot of horrendous football. He bought season tickets only a masochist would have bought and I can't help but feel the University just doesn't care. I have no problem with a reseat but the way this was handled was just not right.

I'm not stomping mad or anything but I'll choose to care about something else. Maybe my priorities needed a little readjusting. So the end result of this little venture for me is that I'm no longer in the Bulldog Club, got some extra money in my pocket, a slightly worse seat when I do make the trek, and I went from being a Strickland fan to a "meh, if he's here ok, if they can him ok" kind of guy.

 

[tcdog70]

I'm not interested in being walked through the process. That ship has sailed and the Bulldog Club will never get another dime from me

Have you ever wondered why the BC doesn't have more members? Because as many people leave as join. Has anyone ever been called by the BC or has the BC ever sent out Any mail looking for members?
i get called by the Business School but never the BC. why is that.

 

[ronpolk]

I am more upset that it was never really explained to me. I do have a problem though if my lifetime giving was more than the new 25k donors and they jumped me. That appears to be the case. 2 seats cost $3500.00 annually plus the cost of tickets. One would think that TSUNhater's points are valid and if MSU is so stretched for money that they bite the hand that has fed them through some awful seasons, then if we ever start having losing seasons again, the Johnny come lately's will drop like flies. I understand the economics of college athletics, but this is going to cause many to simply sit back and say, I might as well stay home and enjoy the SEC network. It costs roughly $11,000+ for someone who has to travel any distance to come to a football game considering, gas, lodging, and food. Somebody doesn't get it.

I understand your frustration about feeling like you were not informed enough about the process, but I disagree with you about "Johnny come lately's" dropping like flies if we have bad seasons. First of all, I would imagine most, if not all, were already high donars anyway. I doubt someone just decides to go from $0 to $5k a year. Second, i was a student from 2004-2008, meaning I sat through some awful football as a student and still made the decision to give. People making this commitment are making a large financial commitment, just like you when you first bought club level.

 

[RocketDawg]

The Business College is probably like the College of Engineering, and I'm pretty sure they use students to make the calls for academic donations. It happens about this time every year. They sound like students anyway, and I think they may have even told me they were students. I got a nice thank you note from a female engineering student just a few days ago thanking me for supporting the engineering scholarships. It's probably a requirement of the scholarship that the holders send thank you notes to the donors.

Most likely, the BDC doesn't have students that work for free that they can require to make membership calls, and the employees don't do it. And I don't recall ever getting a thank you note from a football player or coach ....

 

[bartgregory]

Sorry you feel that way.

I'm not interested in being walked through the process. That ship has sailed and the Bulldog Club will never get another dime from me

Please let us know if we can ever help with anything. But I'm not gonna lie, I have a very difficult time believing you were told you couldn't add two tickets for your children.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

I'm not gonna offer an opinion on what Freezus was told, but I have tried several times to add one ticket in the west chairbacks. One year I got one, but it was a section over, so I let it go after a year when Mrs. D@A said my three year old couldn't sit by herself in the single. Most years the answer was no. This year when I made the request it was granted almost immediately, so I am eligible to buy three tickets this year, but there's no guarantee where the three might be.

 

[Freezus H. Christ]

Please let us know if we can ever help with anything. But I'm not gonna lie, I have a very difficult time believing you were told you couldn't add two tickets for your children.

Back around the time of the Liberty Bowl I called to ask about being able to add seats and was told I was limited to the same number I bought for last year but I could request additional seats and purchase them if seats were left after the reseating was done. Obviously if I went that route all of my seats wouldn't have been together. After reading several threads on here discussing the reseating I tried to contact the BDC again the week before the order deadline to confirm what I had been told. I both called and emailed and didn't get a response from anyone until the day after the deadline when Natalie McMillan emailed me back. She said I could request to add seats and it would probably be approved but there was no guarantee. By the time she emailed me back I had already decided not to renew my tickets and had missed the deadline anyway. I didn't see any point in gambling on whether or not I got all my seats together. If my business isn't important enough to muster a response until after the deadline had passed then the BDC doesn't deserve my hard earned money

 

[DawgatAuburn]

It appears from your story and my experience that the intent was to grant the requests for people in our situation -- trying to add seats for kids we don't have tickets for since we've been buying tickets longer than we've had kids. I guess they decided not to publicize that decision though, even though all those requests seemed to have been approved (I've heard of more than mine and yours that were). Keeping it on the down low would perhaps prevent others from requesting tickets for other adults who could potentially be BC members themselves. I didn't ask until mid-February though. There was no real delay in getting a reply from Mike Richey on that question.

 

[dotcomdawg]

My experience in the re-seating process was perfect. I've been in the Club Level from its inception and basically kept the same seats I've always had (moved one row down and closer to the 50), Grateful for all of the folks at the Bulldog Club and everything they do for us.

 

[ronpolk]

Back around the time of the Liberty Bowl I called to ask about being able to add seats and was told I was limited to the same number I bought for last year but I could request additional seats and purchase them if seats were left after the reseating was done. Obviously if I went that route all of my seats wouldn't have been together. After reading several threads on here discussing the reseating I tried to contact the BDC again the week before the order deadline to confirm what I had been told. I both called and emailed and didn't get a response from anyone until the day after the deadline when Natalie McMillan emailed me back. She said I could request to add seats and it would probably be approved but there was no guarantee. By the time she emailed me back I had already decided not to renew my tickets and had missed the deadline anyway. I didn't see any point in gambling on whether or not I got all my seats together. If my business isn't important enough to muster a response until after the deadline had passed then the BDC doesn't deserve my hard earned money

I needed to add a seat as well and was told to put the request in an email, which I did. I got approved for the seat but it was a couple days before the deadline, so I completely understand your frustration. However, you have a high ranking very visible member of our athletic staff offering to help you, no need to be an *** to him. I'm sure there are others who emails got overlooked but at the very least allow the BDC to fix their mistake.