From what I understand, the seat fees were done for 3 reasons: (1) create a revenue stream of a couple million for the program; (2) give value to seats so that (a) people will not buy seats just bc they are cheap and (b) seats will get used more because people will have less seats - there is a soft cap at 4 seats per season ticketholder; and (3) keep arena purple by making it not profitable to scalp tickets. What you seem to be upset with is the fact that new season ticket holders can not get cheap season tickets. I can't agree on that especially when there is no evidence of any huge demand by new season ticket holders. If they succeed increasing the usage rate of tickets and eliminate the attraction to scalpers to but season tickets, effectively making the arena more purple, how is that bad?
You make good points, and I agree that the new measures will make scalping tickets a much less profitable enterprise. I'm not as hopeful as you are that the donations will encourage certain folks to actually use their seats, but if you're right then that would absolutely be a good thing.
I don't like the policy because I feel it:
1. Prices previous STH's out of equivalent seats in the new arena (a personal issue)
2. Prices younger alumni, who don't yet have the disposable income or savings to be able to afford a large donation, out of decent seats
3. Discourages potential new STH's from purchasing season tickets, especially those who have no affiliation with the University but who enjoy cheering for the team. (the folks who we've been trying to attract with the whole "Chicago's B1G Team" campaign)
I can expand on any of these points if you'd like to hear my rationale in detail. I think it's great that we've apparently sold out our STH allotment. But I think the people who were able to afford those tickets are largely the same folks who previously held purple preferred seats. They'll show up to 1/2 the games (unless your theory is correct, which it could be), they'll sit through the entire game, and they'll get pissy with anyone who yells or cheers aggressively. I'm hopeful that the reduction in overall seating and discouragement of scalping improves the home environment, but I think the marketing department really screwed a great opportunity to attract new, young, engaged fans that would have improved the environment even more.