DeerPark12
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- Mar 25, 2009
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Neyland is noticeably quiet this year. I said it in another thread, but these are the results you get when you price out the blue collar diehards who want to go down there and shred their voices for a chance at making a difference in the game.
Now, you have the whales who can afford to pay Disneyworld weekend prices for a single game, except they sit there on their hands like your local high school's resident blue hair season ticket holders. The wine and cheese whales looking for a "Saturday experience in Knoxville."
Even Alabama wasn't charging these kinds of prices when they were winning natties every other year, and that's even when you adjust for inflation. Yes, we're consistently good now. Far and away more so than we've been in decades. When was the last time we won the conference? Even the division when those existed? So, what exactly are we paying $400+ in the nosebleeds for? There are actually seats for sale at over $1K. For WHAT?
The fans have been taken advantage of because we're fans, and the Neyland atmosphere is losing its edge as a direct result. I won't hear a word about paying players being the reason either. Make no mistake, Tennessee has F off money in the bank. They're not hurting for anything, but they'll send out emails asking for donations to help replace the roll up door on the concession stand in Y9, or replace the goalposts, etc. Total joke.
The University doesn't set the prices for the secondary market.
Based on the cost of my season tickets, UT's pre-game price in the general seating area is about $125/seat and around $450-500 in the premium area. Based on that, is it borderline ridiculous to have nosebleeds listed for $400/ticket? Of course it is. But that's the price people are willing to pay to get into a game and UT isn't involved in that secondary price. One of my law partners offered me $4,500 for my pair of seats in the lower west club and a spot on his plane for my girlfriend and I to fly up for the Georgia game. That goes a long way to pay for those seats for the season next year. Did UT have anything to do with the price he was willing to pay for my seats?
Ironically, a family friend had sideline seats in almost the same spot as my club seats in the 1990s and by the time his family gave them up, they were making a $10k a year donation for the right to buy the tickets. So by that metric, my seats are comparable (actually a little less) than they would have been in the 90s.