No, I was correct. And this is an insignificant issue and revenue source.
You weren't correct. You were wrong then, and you've once again shown to be wrong.
True but I don’t think we “turned down” revenue.
Let's dumb this down for you.
You have a market for a product. You limit who can buy that product. The only way you're not turning down revenue is if the people you prohibit from buying the product turn into the people you allow to buy the product.
In this case, it would be the people who used to buy the seat backs and then pay for the premium seats that allow seat backs to be purchased. Does anyone really think that people decided to pay for better tickets just so they could pay even more for seat backs? Of course not. It either 1) alienated fans or 2) allowed fans to say "well, that's stupid. I'll keep my seats and just not pay for a seat back this year."
Now, regarding our budget, it’s good we didn’t buy a large inventory to store in hopes of renting to non season ticket holders as suggested. That would have been silly.
Do you know how basic math works? If Marshall had bought "a large inventory to store," they wouldn't have to pay for those if they didn't receive them. In other words, it's a wash. They don't lose money on the purchase off those seats, but they all don't make money.
But do you know where they lose money? They lose money on all of the seat backs that they made each of the previous years by making a boneheaded business decision. Do you think I just magically got lucky railing against this decision months ago only to have it blow up in Marshall's face?
lastly, if we are truly concerned about revenue we should be concerned about attendance (ecu game horrible) for the year and going forward. We should be concerned about our conference affiliation going forward.
First, we can be concerned about multiple things at once. Just because somebody has a broken ankle doesn't mean they should ignore their pneumonia.
Second, want to know what doesn't help attendance? It's making it more uncomfortable for your fans to watch games in person. By taking away the ability of fans to rent seat backs as they've been allowed to in the past, you're not only hurting the money those people were willing to give you, but you're also making their experience less enjoyable, thus resulting in lower attendance.
You don't make it harder to do business with your customers. You make it easier. And considering the surrounding facts (aging fan base, struggling to sell tickets), you definitely don't make it harder to for people to give you money so they can have a more comfortable experience.
It was a boneheaded decision all of the way around. I didn't get lucky that it worked out this way.
In the past, if you had a season ticket you could purchase a seat back, I believe. If you bought single game tix, you could rent a seat back per game. I don't believe anybody was shut out, though I could be wrong.
That's correct. But with this new plan, people are shut out from renting seat backs. Brilliant strategy to make it harder for customers to give you money.
