So, all the facility upgrades impacted what group the most? The bigger donors. Chairs, indoor seating, luxury boxes. All well and good. Average Joe and Jean? Lost seats they'd sat in for years and the friends they'd made there. Now, the RV people have been told no one can enter the lot until 8 pm on Friday despite the fact that the lot is mostly empty by 5 pm. And this was done after they tacked on another mandatory K Fund donation increasing the cost of the RV pass. (Contrary to the perception, most RVers aren't rich, just in debt for their rigs) UK constantly says how they want to make the football experience better, but what have they done for the average fan who has sat through abominable football for years? Parking passes taken away, ticket price increases ( despite a poor product on the field), and now Saturday we are told the Wildcat Lair, the area outside CWS with the blow ups for kids and other activities are being moved to inside Nutter to make room for their luxury tailgating rental "tiny house-like" structures and most if not all of the purple lot parking is going to be taken. Tell me again how much UK values the true fans who have been there for years.
Once again, UK demonstrates its lack of regard for average fans.
- Thread starter KatFan52
- Start date
They spent a ton of money upgrading football facilities and have brought us closer to the rest of the SEC. Change sucks and I get it but it's tough to complain when we are actually spending money.
Did you like the old days better when everyone was griping because they would't spend any money?
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All in the name of progress. I'm not sure how to respond to your thread . On the one hand I agree with you. On the other I want UK to compete and the only way to complete is to maximize profits to enable us to run with the big dogs .
My tailgate crew decided if we cant beat the TV crowd to join them and our season tickets have gone from 12 four years ago (which we had from the time CWS opened ) to sharing four season tickets and one green parking pass this year . Dropped two parking passes also . We will do two full tailgates by buying extra individual game tickets for those games . I will see a total of three games some of the group just two.
UK will make about forty per cent of the revenue they would have if we had not become dissatisfied . But the huge amount of money they receive from TV and from luxury boxes more than offsets what they lost from us.
And I feel I made out like a bandit. I negotiated for three games . Two OOC and one SEC . That's fine by me . I would much rather go to the OOC games n Sept than the SEC games in cold weather. Love being home on cold rainy Saturday's beginning the middle of Oct and watching the best games in the nation all day on the big screen in HD. But that's just me. Lucky for me the guys in my group who got the late Oct Nov SEC games are happy as clams also.
We'll probably throw the Austin Peay game which will most likely be cold and wet tickets in the trash and write it off as a cost of doing business with UK . I still can't figure why they even bother to have that game . Stick one more OOC game in late August and be done with it.
Suggest for your sanity you guys work something out that allows your group to have their cake and eat it too as we feel we have done by dropping most but not all season tickets and sharing a set of four supplemented by individual game tickets to Allow us to still have a couple of warm weather large tailgates and five smaller ones all in the lot .by the stadium . Our glass is half full
GBB!!!
Lou
Welcome to the board. You joined in 2008 and finally posted in 2016. Mama pissed
This reminds me of the rooftop owners across from Wrigley and their dispute over the large scoreboard being installed. If you don't move forward, you will die in your tracks. UK needs this to become even somewhat competitive in the SEC. Already behind the 8 ball when it comes to tradition and prestige. Just like the rooftoppers, if the team starts winning, the fans who gripe now about Commonwealth will quit.
I'm a little more pragmatic concening the direction improvements have gone over the last few years and the impact it's had on fans...
I'm not a big homer for MB, but I don't think his decisions should be interpreted as "disregard"....
Business decisions are made to better position a products appeal (perhaps)... Consumers buy if they like the product... It's as simple a that to me.
Not being privy to all the facts that research allows I hesitate to comment on the business side. I'm a consumer and as such I certainly understand the OP's position. As an almost 30 year STH (season-ticket-holder), I've dropped out. My reasons are many and won't be aired out, here and now.
It's my hope that the UK product is or becomes appealing enough to fill a very nice stadium. We'll just have to see if that happens? And maybe we will have to accept that a successful product, might not present itself in the form of butts in the seats? Maybe it will, maybe it won't... Just know mine won't be there.
I'm not a big homer for MB, but I don't think his decisions should be interpreted as "disregard"....
Business decisions are made to better position a products appeal (perhaps)... Consumers buy if they like the product... It's as simple a that to me.
Not being privy to all the facts that research allows I hesitate to comment on the business side. I'm a consumer and as such I certainly understand the OP's position. As an almost 30 year STH (season-ticket-holder), I've dropped out. My reasons are many and won't be aired out, here and now.
It's my hope that the UK product is or becomes appealing enough to fill a very nice stadium. We'll just have to see if that happens? And maybe we will have to accept that a successful product, might not present itself in the form of butts in the seats? Maybe it will, maybe it won't... Just know mine won't be there.
It's unfortunate that the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many, but that is just the way things are these days. The rich get richer. I am not a season ticket holder and only go to a game when they offer the cheap ticket deals, but I feel for those that are. It sucks to put so much time and money into something and be treated as an afterthought it would seem.
With my bad back I much prefer to just stay home anyways and enjoy the time saved from not traveling and trying to get in and out of the stadium. Saves me at least 4 hours to do other things on Saturdays. Plus the view on the big screen, the seating, and the food is much better. Also no lines to the bathroom and no trough to take a leak in. It is getting to the point of going to the games as being overrated. I'd rather just have some friends come over and watch the game in comfort.
With my bad back I much prefer to just stay home anyways and enjoy the time saved from not traveling and trying to get in and out of the stadium. Saves me at least 4 hours to do other things on Saturdays. Plus the view on the big screen, the seating, and the food is much better. Also no lines to the bathroom and no trough to take a leak in. It is getting to the point of going to the games as being overrated. I'd rather just have some friends come over and watch the game in comfort.
Unfortunately all in need of keeping up. Been to all SEC venues except Ole Miss in Oxford and it's the same throughout the league!
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It is the same in every sport both professional and amateur. The salary's they are paying coach's and players along with the Facility upgrades have taken the average fan with a family out of the market. NASCAR is suffering now because they priced the average fan out of the market when Corporations were buying the good seats, recession hit and they quit buying the tickets and the average fan has not returned. Many children today grow up today never attending a live sporting event due to the cost. Prices are not going to decrease so it is only going to get worse.
If the "average fan" wants to see winning football games played by talented football players then more revenue needs to be generated by the football facilities, and the facilities need to be fancier & more eye catching to recruits.
ergo UK is trying to give the "average fan" what they want, FINALLY, long many years late, but it is finally happening. It took 65K empty seats against Vandy to wake UK up to take what the "average fan" regards as being important - a better football product on the field.
ergo UK is trying to give the "average fan" what they want, FINALLY, long many years late, but it is finally happening. It took 65K empty seats against Vandy to wake UK up to take what the "average fan" regards as being important - a better football product on the field.
I'd rather have a good football team then a good parking space.
Apparently, those of us that feel this way are in the tiniest of minorities...
And I've got to shoot him a like just for that! Anybody that can hold their water that long with all that comes and goes with Kentucky Football is a better man than me.
Plus I have to acknowledge your sentiment OP. Guys we all understand the "Why" of the decisions made to keep up with big time football but that doesn't mean those who have invested so much over time have to like it. Keep in mind these folks, a bunch of them, have been going all out for years to show up and support the program with very little in return. Even when losing over and over again they are the ones that at least kept it fun to at least come out to the games and keep the atmosphere going through some real hard times without even the promise of bigger and better things to come.
That shouldn't be so easily dismissed with just a "welcome to big time football". OP's type weren't the ones holding things back, they were the ones who kept it afloat all these years.
Now get off my lawn:grimace:
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They might as well just shrink stadiums down to just lower arenas. Then everyone there will get the nicer amenities and the expense that comes with it and the average fans will just all stay home and watch on tv just like me. Increasing ticket prices, taking away long-time seats, and reducing tailgating is not how you keep the regular Joe's coming back.
Ultimately it's on you whether or not you decide to come out and support the team. Don't blame the school, don't blame the parking, don't blame the seats, don't blame the food, don't blame the tailgating. It's you.
College athletics is a business. Not a catering business that serves the needs of the average fan, a business of making money for the athletics program and the school. Obviously the school wants fan interest, that's hugely important, but as a fan, if you demand to see 5,000 more seats put into the stadium for the non-donors and moving all the way to the most convenient parking space ahead of those who actually pay more, just so you'll put your own a** into a seat, then the school isn't the problem. You are.
Donors have the rights to receive better amenities. They contribute more than any individual average fan, and some contribute more than huge amounts of average fans combined. They choose to put their own money into supporting and improving the football program and facilities in some way, so they should almost expect that to be reciprocated in some fashion. Fair is fair.
Don't sit there and demand more seats in the stadium if you admittedly will just sit at home and watch the games on television regardless. Fans should give the school a real, substantial reason to put more seats for the average fan into the stadium. Sell the games out on a consistent basis, and it will come.
There is no question in my mind that CWS "needed" the new suites, club seats and press box. With the decision to build the new training facility I'm not sure the CWS recruiting room was necessary but it really did not eat up that many seats. My only criticism of the remodeling was that ~6,000 seats were lost from the existing 67,000 capacity. I remain 100% convinced the same amenities could have been added with much less impact on existing seating. I've seen a lot of games in CWS and I just don't get this "smaller, more intimate" reasoning. CWS was not that big by SEC standards to begin with and (except during ticket revolts) was usually fairly full...nothing like watching a UAB game in old Legion Field (yeah, I've done that).
In stark contrast, PJCS was expanded in 2010, adding suites, luxury seat and amenities PLUS about 10,000 or so "regular seats". Furthermore, the revenue stream from the luxury seats pretty much covers the total expansion cost. It just seems like the PJCS expansion offered a lot more bang for the buck. JMO.
Peace
In stark contrast, PJCS was expanded in 2010, adding suites, luxury seat and amenities PLUS about 10,000 or so "regular seats". Furthermore, the revenue stream from the luxury seats pretty much covers the total expansion cost. It just seems like the PJCS expansion offered a lot more bang for the buck. JMO.
Peace
3
They went from a 40k seat stadium in the C-USA to a 60K seat stadium in the ACC. All their expansion did was catch them up to where other P5 schools are.
I don't even have a dog in this fight. I said so in my posts that I don't really attend games much anymore. I just don't agree with give everything to the smaller % of fans with money and not worry about the majority of fans with less. They make enough off the SEC, Nike, and ESPN deals that they could have done more to make an improved game day experience for the average Joe's as well as the big donors. I didn't say they shouldn't do things for them, but just make the rest of the fans feel wanted as well and not just thrown on the backburner.
I purchase single tickets. I go to the games to watch my Cats and could care less about how the guy next to me feels about the changes to his seating. I just want wins.
This is true...I am where I am because it is what I can afford...if I could do more I would. Am now attending most of the away games
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You get seats to the game as an average fan. That's what you're paying for. There are people who get even less than that who may actually want to be there, who wouldn't complain about the harsh, cruel conditions of sitting in the bleachers and watching the football game sober. Not having a built in seat warmer and free caviar as an average fan is a first world problem. If you want all of the amenities of the donors/people who pay a fortune to see the game in a more luxurious way, then pay $60,000 per season to watch from those seats, and get all of the free food, the drinks, the better parking, so on and so forth, but up until you do pay that money, then don't say that you deserve to have the same exact amenities as those people.
Not directed at you as much as in general. You're gonna do what you want to do, spend your money how you like, I have no issue with that.
Just win. I could give two flips about anything else in or around Commonwealth. Just win some damn games. That is ALL that matters. The rest are just reasons to *****
Attending away games in the SEC are great trips. Ben Hill Griffin is a loud drunk party. South Carolina really got into an intimidating stadium when the Ole Ball Coach put things together. Georgia is a great southern football experience. Watching the eagle circle the Auburn stadium is impressive as are their fans. Bryant-Denny is as good as it gets in a college football experience. Starkville is Starkville. Ole Miss is world's most exotic food and drink event. Arkansas is great and the constant pig call will stay with you for days. Mizzou has a beautiful campus and stadium. Vandy is like attending a recital, but Nashville for the weekend is the draw. UT has tradition, winning thru the years and fans straight from Wal Mart dressed head to toe in prison orange. And, there is Tiger Stadium. You can't adequately describe the atmosphere until you attend a night game. The only place that can rival Baton Rouge rests 125 miles due east from Austin in the middle of nowhere. There sits Kyle Field, the 12th Man tradition and the corps of cadets engulfed in one of the loudest student body sections anywhere. If you can attend UK's game with the Aggies in 2018 in College Station, put it in your bucket list.
ABSOLUTELY! Wife went to school in TX and always told me what a big deal it was. Went down there in the mid 90s for a game and it was, to this day, far and away the best "game day experience" it has been my pleasure to attend. I would like to see a game in Lincoln and a game in Red Stick but I have encouraged all my UK friends to save up now for the trip to College Station in 2036 or whenever it actually comes to pass.
Peace
Yet every one of those experiences pale in comparison to my UK atmosphere. You know why? Because this is my team. The team I grew up watching with my Paw and Dad. Everything else you named can't hold a match to the memories I've had following these Cats over the years.
Be disgruntled over the progress if you want, but it's still our team and our traditions that make football Saturdays (some Thursday and Fridays now) my Old Kentucky Home.
Be disgruntled over the progress if you want, but it's still our team and our traditions that make football Saturdays (some Thursday and Fridays now) my Old Kentucky Home.
2002-2014 majority of uk fans "when will they invest in football. We need to have better facilities to compete and get big time recruits" uk fans from 2014-present "these upgrades are dumb. I need wifi at the stadium. I can afford a luxury box so I'm going to cry about it" what about goin to football games to watch football.
This Matt jones drive narrative is stupid stupid stupid. I sit In the upper level and my experience is much better with the upgrades.
My concourse is wider, the concessions are better, the bathrooms are better, the sound system is better and the video board and ribbon boards are better.
So, my question for this bizzare and whiny segment of our fanbase, besides wifi, what else could uk do for the "average fan".
And as a reminder, the big donors pay for those perks. They aren't free.
My concourse is wider, the concessions are better, the bathrooms are better, the sound system is better and the video board and ribbon boards are better.
So, my question for this bizzare and whiny segment of our fanbase, besides wifi, what else could uk do for the "average fan".
And as a reminder, the big donors pay for those perks. They aren't free.
Hemingway Stadium sat idle except for Homecoming many years ago. The state legislature mandated MSU and Ole Miss play in Jackson at Memorial Stadium.
Today, Hemingway has been revitalized and upgraded with suites with increased attendance to the 60-65,000 area. Their renovation is really well done and includes an extensive end zone upgrade. The Grove is fabulous and the game day atmosphere is purely old south. Somewhere, Johnny Vaught must be pleased.
I tend to agree with everyone else that they are investing which is good......BUT I can't deny that the average fan didn't fare as well as the rich. And it would have been so easy- chairs throughout the stadium. Yes, would have lost some additional seats but that really wouldn't be an issue...