Experience as a Tennessee Shareholder Society Members: Fell Short of Our Expectations

[GVF]

I pretty much stopped going to the football games. Mid 50s and enough money to go but just can’t bring myself to spend that kind of cash. Maybe that’s why I have enough money. Too bad though because I know there’s a lot of families with kids out there that would love to experience a big orange football game, but they probably won’t get that chance. Money money money.

I could probably go to a game here and there if I could disassociate my wife from Amazon. We work hard, but we live on the cliffs edge. I am vetnruing into a couple other opportunities that should pay off quite well with some patience and persistence. Would be a nice little back of career boost I can do remote and not sweat retirement since we lost all that.

 

[WallyBalls]

My wife and I realized we can purchase baseball tickets on the secondary market and sit wherever our hearts and wallet allows us. As you note, we are also just as happy to watch the games on ESPN these days.

During my last call with the Athletic Department, their rep attempted to give me grief over buying tickets from season tix holders as it perpetuates the problem of the secondary market. I was like dude I can’t get season tickets and you guys can’t get MVP tix holders to come to the games. I’ll buy tixs from anyone that can’t attend the games and happy to do so.

Shared experience on interactions turning mostly adversarial after I shared my concerns. At the end of the day, I felt the message board was a better sounding board than letters and calls to the AD.

You know the straw that broke the camel's back with me? It was $1.

At a football game a year or two ago, they announced special summitt blue soda cups for the Pat Summitt fund would be sold at the next home game. I thought, 'that's fun, i'll get a couple and take them to some older family members that love stuff like that." Cut to the next home game and you could buy the normal soda for $7. The blue cups were $8.

They couldn't even let go of a single dollar on something with an already comical margin. It blew my mind. $1 damn dollar.

Mentioned it when I was talking to one of the MANY "assistant AD" types at a baseball game that spring. They proceeded to defend it.

That single dollar has colored my perception of them ever since. And prevented them from getting a lot more both recently...and down the line. I became more aware of the stuff we've both talked about once I started looking into it and asking about it.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

You know the straw that broke the camel's back with me? It was $1.

At a football game a year or two ago, they announced special summitt blue soda cups for the Pat Summitt fund would be sold at the next home game. I thought, 'that's fun, i'll get a couple and take them to some older family members that love stuff like that." Cut to the next home game and you could buy the normal soda for $7. The blue cups were $8.

They couldn't even let go of a single dollar on something with an already comical margin. It blew my mind. $1 damn dollar.

Mentioned it when I was talking to one of the MANY "assistant AD" types at a baseball game that spring. They proceeded to defend it.

That single dollar has colored my perception of them ever since. And prevented them from getting a lot more both recently...and down the line. I became more aware of the stuff we've both talked about once I started looking into it and asking about it.

That's marketing. It's common. The Pumpkin Spice Oreos or whatever sell at a premium because they're "special" like a "special edition" cup.

They actually teach that at the University of Tennessee. It's not surprising that the school also practices what they teach entrepreneurs to do.

 

[WallyBalls]

That's marketing. It's common. The Pumpkin Spice Oreos or whatever sell at a premium because they're "special" like a "special edition" cup.

They actually teach that at the University of Tennessee. It's not surprising that the school also practices what they teach entrepreneurs to do.

I mean, sure, I guess?

Its just greed with extra steps.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

I mean, sure, I guess?

Its just greed with extra steps.

It's business. Nike made a choice not to even attempt to pay UT the current value for the apparel contract for a school with UT's current success in various sports.

It's not greed. Nike walked off without trying. What were we supposed to do, let them bend us over with a weak contract? They didn't even try to negotiate.

 

[chuckiepoo]

THE most negative poster on VN. Hands down.

Nearly EVERY single post he makes is crapping on the VOLS in one way or another. I don't even think the guy is a UT fan. Can't be. How can you be a fan of a school and its athletic programs when ALL YOU DO is beitch about them? Its every thread....every post...every day.

Just a completely miserable bastage that wants desperately for everyone else to be miserable too. Misery loves company. 100% TRUE in this case. I noticed that a couple folks have begun posting an "Eor" image from Winnie the Poo every time they see him complaining (posting). It's perfect...just like his handle. Got to be the most jaded, cynical, butthurt dude on Earth. THIS IS THE GOLDEN AGE of UT sports. We just won the award for winningest school across all sports in the SEC...2 years in a row IIRC. We have never been this good in all the big sports in my 48 years of life. Yet this dude talks crap about UT incessantly. Insane.
GO VOLS. WGWTFA

Need A Husky Nan for a month preseason. Clear out the riff raff…

 

[WallyBalls]

It's business. Nike made a choice not to even attempt to pay UT the current value for the apparel contract for a school with UT's current success in various sports.

It's not greed. Nike walked off without trying. What were we supposed to do, let them bend us over with a weak contract? They didn't even try to negotiate.

Huh?

I was talking about the soda cups and why it finally flipped a switch in my brain in dealing with UT. Nothing to do with Nike.

The idea that they needed to push a "special edition cup" for an extra dollar (while still selling the standard) rather than just sell the damn cups for a single game and cut a dollar from each sale hit me wrong.

Call it business, greed, whatever. Fountain margins are, what, 75%? 80%? Maybe more given volume and sponsorship deals. You're already selling them from a stand staffed by a nonprofit. Where does it stop? Good Lord, its just exhausting.

For me, "business" has entered this sick 'maximum extraction over everything' phase that really pushes me away.

 

[apsuhead]

Its terrible. Ticketmaster gets over 10% or 10,000 football tickets to resell as part of their deal with UTAD. I've been a season ticket holder for 3 years and they must own the 2 seats right beside me. They are listed for resell every game at insane prices. I always have to sit beside visiting fans from Alabama, Florida etc. Any season tickets that come available, the high donors buy them up before they are offered to anyone on the waitlist. Meanwhile, 2 my season tickets started at $1,300 three years ago and were $1,800 this year. We just got the email about reselling of season tickets being banned, but they are allowed to do it. I emailed them about the resell seats beside me & crickets ... no response.

 

[VolDC]

Our situation and decision to donate was primarily based on not having kids to put thru college and having ran Track and XC at Tennessee.

A few months ago a former teammate called me and said hey I’m getting a sales pitch from the Athletic Dept on the Shareholder Society but no assurance on tickets. His son is now at Tennessee and both fans of baseball. Super successful and can donate a good deal more than us but also a businessman. He eventually declined to join the Shareholders and buys individual tickets like a good majority of us. Either the distribution system is fixed soon or we’ll have a very rich and small fan base in the new Lindsey Nelson stadium.

Awesome to see former athletes get this kind of treatment... I was the 28th person to reserve a 4 top table on the expansion. I was asked to buy men's basketball season tickets as my donor rank was low. The first wave of reservations closed with 38 reservations. The website at the time claimed that if 50 were not reserved at the closing date all the first wave reservations would be able to have a table. Fast forward to the beginning of '24. I received an email after 8 months of ignored phone calls, due the website no longer stating the reservation policy, That I was 5000 donor ranks to low to even be considered. I asked for clarification and was passed up to the assistant athletic director. He sent me an email and asked me to call him... I responded and told him their wasn't any resolution other than upholding their word, and disbursing tickets to me. He told me to have a nice day at that point.

My son played high school baseball for four years. '24 was his Senior season. It would've been awesome to be able to take him and his teammates to a lot of games. Makes it a tougher pill to swallow given they won a Natty. I dumped my basketball season tickets. My football tickets have doubled in 3 years. Next year our 3rd child will enroll and be a majorette at the university. When she graduates, I intend to dump football as well. It's not enough to be passionate and show up. You have to do that now through a corporation that buys up all the tickets. Whether you spend vacation money to see one game now, or get fleeced and extorted for season tickets, customer service is not a concern of the UT AD. Everyone loves Danny White, because they don't realize that all he cares about is corporate revenue. It takes money to win. I get it. But you have to be one of the top 5000 donors to get away game, bowl game, or any other guarantee on season tickets. Outside of that, you're learning that Danny just considers you a number, and he has a wait list long enough that he can continue to do this. Our NIL is underperforming so much, that now we have to give a 10% ticket increase this year to pay for that. And most of us were already donating to NIL. I think the only thing Danny has been successful at, is making a UT gameday unaffordable for 90% of the fanbase, and bringing Heupel with him. Caldwell could turn out to be a great hire. Time will tell, but Barnes and Vitello were already here.

 

[WallyBalls]

Awesome to see former athletes get this kind of treatment... I was the 28th person to reserve a 4 top table on the expansion. I was asked to buy men's basketball season tickets as my donor rank was low. The first wave of reservations closed with 38 reservations. The website at the time claimed that if 50 were not reserved at the closing date all the first wave reservations would be able to have a table. Fast forward to the beginning of '24. I received an email after 8 months of ignored phone calls, due the website no longer stating the reservation policy, That I was 5000 donor ranks to low to even be considered. I asked for clarification and was passed up to the assistant athletic director. He sent me an email and asked me to call him... I responded and told him their wasn't any resolution other than upholding their word, and disbursing tickets to me. He told me to have a nice day at that point.

Hey, I was one of the 38 too! I remember watching the website daily once the cutoff was near and being so happy I had made the cut.

Ended up with the same experience... Mild annoyance that I even dared to question what happened.

 

[VolDC]

Hey, I was one of the 38 too! I remember watching the website daily once the cutoff was near and being so happy I had made the cut.

Ended up with the same experience... Mild annoyance that I even dared to question what happened.

You are the 5th person that I know of that has stated this happened to them. My ticket guy said "You're a no brainer if this makes you a 3 sport season ticket holder." I'm just glad that I didn't make a bigger donation like the OP did. I offered. I do feel like I was extorted out of 3 seasons worth of basketball tickets. That was close to 10k that I normally wouldn't have spent. I also don't complain much about spending the 10k on basketball, because I got to see a ton of Zeiglers games, and Kenecht's season.

 

[WallyBalls]

You are the 5th person that I know of that has stated this happened to them. My ticket guy said "You're a no brainer if this makes you a 3 sport season ticket holder." I'm just glad that I didn't make a bigger donation like the OP did. I offered. I do feel like I was extorted out of 3 seasons worth of basketball tickets. That was close to 10k that I normally wouldn't have spent. I also don't complain much about spending the 10k on basketball, because I got to see a ton of Zeiglers games, and Kenecht's season.

Hell they didn't even tell me the 3 sport thing. I already had both basketballs, football, and baseball for several years prior. Still didn't move the needle for them I suppose.

 

[VolDC]

Hell they didn't even tell me the 3 sport thing. I already had both basketballs, football, and baseball for several years prior. Still didn't move the needle for them I suppose.

Apparently the lowest ranked donor in the 4 topps is in the 800s if I recall correctly.