Major weaknesses in the Fill the Phonebooth promo

[HoyaSpirit]

I was reading the GU hoyas site. For 4 major weaknesses, check this out -

"To purchase Georgetown men's basketball student season tickets, please fill out the form and hand deliver it to the McDonough Arena Box Office (located inside the main lobby). Box office hours are Monday through Friday, 1p.m. to 5 p.m. Also, we will only be able to accept cash or check, no credit cards will be accepted."

a) How about joining the 20th century and taking credit cards?
b) Then we can talk about the 21st century and letting students buy them online 24/7
c) Also back in the 20th century - why can't students mail them in? Does the Athletic department not have a PO box yet? What if you are doing the fall semester abroad and want to mail MONEY now to the athletic department. Sorry they can't accept it. You have to fly there and drop it off in person.
d) The hours are 1 pm to 5 pm. They could make it much more convenient than that.

While they're probably going to break the record in large part because our hoops program now has a 30 year history of national prominence, while in 82-83 it was still a recent phenomenon (the kids who went there then didn't grow up hearing or reading anything about Hoya hoops, and their parents certainly weren't telling them about Hoya hoops - now even everyday Americans now about Hoya hoops), the other weakness I see is not finding a way to get 2,600 students into the lower bowl on one end or the other. If I understand it correctly, if you want to be in the lower bowl (some of which are not all that great of seats anyway), you would have to go somewhere and likely wait in line at a set time in the middle of the winter to get a bracelet for a single game in the lower bowl - for each game. I wouldn't be too pumped about that.

How many seats are in the lower bowl. Is it 10k lower and 10k upper? If that's the case, I find it hard to believe they can't get 2,600 in down there. Also, if I were a student, I'd rather pay a bit more and know I can sit in the lower bowl. Man if you're going to go to the game, what's a couple bucks more per game - $1 per hour of a two-hour game. I'd sooner they make student tickets one price for the lower and one for the upper - let the students who want better seats pay a bit more, and the ones who don't care pay a bit less, and save them all sclepping all the way across campus in the winter to get a bracelet. Add to this the cost of the AD administering the bracelets for every game.

I would pay $2-3 more per game for a better seat and save the schlep to and from McDonough at a set designated time that I might be working during or have a class during or whatever.

I bet if you took the cost of a Georgetown education (tuition, books etc.) and then figured out the math of how much it costs per hour (not counting sleeping, eating, etc) for a student to be at Georgetown, that the amount of time students will spend on the bracelets process is not worth it. Better to lose a bit of revenue from regular season tickets (and know that people are happier about paying the massive tuition and have a bit more time to study, make connections with each other, work etc.). Either that or let people pay a little more for good seats and a little less for poor seats.

[FLHoya]

While the somewhat "restricted" methods of payment/hours of the ticket booth are less than ideal, I'd hope this isn't the determining factor of whether a student buys season tickets or not. If it is, you gotta wonder if they really cared all that much about basketball in the first place.

The lower bowl doesn't seat 10,000. I don't remember the exact number, but it's less than that, maybe 8k. The reason they can't seat more students down there is b/c we now have so many season ticket holders. We've already pushed the visiting team's allottment into the 400 level and reclaimed almost everything that Verizon Center used to control in the 100 level. As it is, the number of students who CAN sit in the lower bowl has nearly doubled in the past 4-5 seasons, and it would far exceed the total number of season tickets sold in darn near every season in which someone named Ewing wasn't on the team.

Selling separate lower and upper bowl tickets is tough b/c every game X number of students don't show up (in fact, the largest % that did in any game last season was 88%). So why have say 20% of the lower bowl be empty if people are locked into one section when you can just fill them as you go.

As for the bracelets--I'll say this again: it's a clever strategy b/c it makes it SEEM like there is more demand for tickets/good seats when there isn't. The reality is that we have the EXACT SAME system as last year for determining who gets lower vs. upper bowl student seats (i.e. first come first served). Only difference is this year you get a piece of flair to prove you "earned" that seat. If students show up at the same clip, or even a slightly better one, than last year, they prob won't even use the upper deck about half the time.

[TBird41]

First off, Hoya Blue is selling the tix as well, which means there are other times and places to buy. Secondly, there are 2000 seats for studenst in the lower bowl. Considering that the rest of it is gtown alumni, including the corner sections not controlled by Gtown, I think that's probably a good balance, seeing as how Gtown needs the revenue.

Also, I would contest your point about waiting in line being a waste of time. When I did it, I was "connecting" with people. Waitimg in line/camping out is part of the college experience.And its not like you'll need to get there 2 hours early to get a lower bowl seat either. Last year the students were still rolling in after the tip and the sections were only full for a few games.

I don't know why they aren't taking credit cards though. That's a change from the last two years, and would seem to be the only step backwards in the ticket policy.

[strummer8526]

flhoya said:

As for the bracelets--I'll say this again: it's a clever strategy b/c it makes it SEEM like there is more demand for tickets/good seats when there isn't. The reality is that we have the EXACT SAME system as last year for determining who gets lower vs. upper bowl student seats (i.e. first come first served). Only difference is this year you get a piece of flair to prove you "earned" that seat. If students show up at the same clip, or even a slightly better one, than last year, they prob won't even use the upper deck about half the time.

Maybe my understanding of last year is wrong, but I don't think it is. I thought that the first X number of people who bought a season ticket package automatically got lower bowl. Anyone who bought after that just got tickets that ALWAYS sat them in the upper deck. So it was first-come, first-serve for the entire season ticket purchase.

This new system makes it first-come, first-serve for each game. It seems a lot more fair to have people wait in line when they can and get a bracelet, rather than get stuck for the season in 400 for every game, regardless of when you got to any specific game.

[ColumbiaHeightsHoya]

Credit cards charge a transaction cost and percentage fee of the purchase. This probably amounts to 50 cents to a dollar per ticket. It might not seem huge, but over the season it adds up. I don't see why they just couldn't pass that cost onto the customer purchasing with CC and reward those with cash or check a lower fee. I can guarantee you it is not a capability issue.

[nathanhm]

Columbia,

The reason is its against the card member agreement a merchant signs with Visa, MC, Amex, Discover, etc to sell for different prices if a person uses a credit card versus another form of payment.

[dajuan]

nathanhm said:

Columbia,

The reason is its against the card member agreement a merchant signs with Visa, MC, Amex, Discover, etc to sell for different prices if a person uses a credit card versus another form of payment.

It's still ridiculous that the Athletic Dept. doesn't accept credit cards. That dollar per season ticket is a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things. If being able to use a credit card would make a few more people get season tickets, it would pay for itself.

It's almost like the AD is handicapping itself. 'Let's sell as many tickets as possible, but instead of making it easy on people, let's make it difficult. This way, we'll know that the people who buy tickets are committed to Georgetown basketball enough to walk to the ticket office during the convenient hours of 1-5 pm. If they can't make it there during those hours they don't deserve tickets. I mean, we want to sell tickets, but we don't want just anybody buying tickets, right?'

[Hoya06]

Spirit-
Just want to clarify that you get a bracelet when you walk into the stadium on gameday. You do not have to go to McD or anywhere else on a different day "in the middle of winter" to wait on line.

[kghoya]

nathanhm said:

Columbia,

The reason is its against the card member agreement a merchant signs with Visa, MC, Amex, Discover, etc to sell for different prices if a person uses a credit card versus another form of payment.

i recently drove cross country and it was common to see signs at gas stations indicating different prices for cash and credit

[vcjack]

you would think that the limitation on credit cards would deter people but from my experiance it really hasn't. I've been selling the tickets for the past couple weeks and usually when anyone asks if they can use a credit card (or GOCard) and I tell them no 95% of them just opened up their wallets and pulled out a hundred in cash (the other 5% said they would come back later)

Now there are some people who really can't don't have the cash/money in the bank to buy tickets that way but they have enough time to buy the tickets it would be roughly around the same time that they would have to pay off a credit card purchase


As for waiting in line, people would do it anyway even if all were in the lower bowl just to get better seats within the lower bowl and it really won't be that big of a deal for all but the biggest games

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

Would the ability to process credit carda and GoCards probably make it easier for some students to buy tickets the first time they walk by the Hoya Blue table or see the phonebooth promo? Probably. Is it an actualy barrier to getting tickets before the season starts? I don't really think so because if you are putting $100 on your credit card you or whoever pays the credit card is going to have to pay it off sometime. If you have little money and use your parent's credit card asking them for $100 shouldn't be a huge deal as you already have the ability to charge a used car to them (given what the credit limit is on most student's credit cards).

The other point is that if you want to have the tickets sold and the seats filled on a regular basis the way the athletic department and HB are selling the tickets this year makes sense - allowing a students parents to buy the tickets before they set foot on-campus doesn't guarantee that they will want to go to the games later in the season, nor would allowing students to purchase tickets online with a credit card, using their GoCard, or even charging it to their student account (which some schools allow) - actually paying for the tickets with cash or a check is a committment that a student is going to remember and probably means that they will be at a number of the games.

That said - it would be nice if McDonough were open later one day for students - the committment of having the ticket window open from 1-7 or 8 wouldn't be as great and would really deflect a lot of criticism that the windows aren't open enough.

[lichoya68]

JUST FILL THE BOOTH OR PACK THE BOOTH OR FILL AND OR PACK THE PHONE BOOTH GO HOYAS ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[CTHoya08]

strummer85 said:

flhoya said:

As for the bracelets--I'll say this again: it's a clever strategy b/c it makes it SEEM like there is more demand for tickets/good seats when there isn't. The reality is that we have the EXACT SAME system as last year for determining who gets lower vs. upper bowl student seats (i.e. first come first served). Only difference is this year you get a piece of flair to prove you "earned" that seat. If students show up at the same clip, or even a slightly better one, than last year, they prob won't even use the upper deck about half the time.

Maybe my understanding of last year is wrong, but I don't think it is. I thought that the first X number of people who bought a season ticket package automatically got lower bowl. Anyone who bought after that just got tickets that ALWAYS sat them in the upper deck. So it was first-come, first-serve for the entire season ticket purchase.

This new system makes it first-come, first-serve for each game. It seems a lot more fair to have people wait in line when they can and get a bracelet, rather than get stuck for the season in 400 for every game, regardless of when you got to any specific game.

You are correct about last year's rule; those students buying tickets later were sold 400 level tickets. In practice however, those students were frequently able to get into the lower seats if they got to the game before the lower sections were full.

[SoCalHoya]

kghoya said:

nathanhm said:

Columbia,

The reason is its against the card member agreement a merchant signs with Visa, MC, Amex, Discover, etc to sell for different prices if a person uses a credit card versus another form of payment.

i recently drove cross country and it was common to see signs at gas stations indicating different prices for cash and credit

Whoever said this is now standard (no price differential between MC/Visa and cash) is right. MC, Visa, et al. are making this mandatory for their new contracts/agreements, but older deals haven't been affected yet. Once these gas stations have to renew their MC/Visa agreements, it'll probably change. Though, I suppose MC/Visa can make exceptions for smaller vendors, etc.

[PDRHoya99]

[old man rant] At no time during my days on the hilltop to I recall the hours of 1-5 ever being so full that I coulnd't wander past McDonough and spend 15 minutes purchasing season tickets. Is it inconvenient -- I guess a little. But probably no more so than *gasp* having to ride the metro to games!!?!?!?! As for credit cards, it does seem silly since they have taken them for tickets in the past (and presumably will do so for non-student season tix), but perhaps they're trying to save a few bucks on tickets that they are already selling for far less than what the going rate is for similar sections at the phone booth. Why is it that every attempt by the school to positively promote this team has to be met with such scorn on this board. The student seating is practically double what it was only a few years ago, the school is making a concerted effort to promote student tickets, neither of these are bad things.[/old man rant]

[TBird41]

And again, Hoya Blue is also selling the tickets and are selling them in front of the cafeteria during dinner three days a week (if not more).

[dajuan]

stpetersburghoya said:

Would the ability to process credit carda and GoCards probably make it easier for some students to buy tickets the first time they walk by the Hoya Blue table or see the phonebooth promo? Probably. Is it an actualy barrier to getting tickets before the season starts? I don't really think so because if you are putting $100 on your credit card you or whoever pays the credit card is going to have to pay it off sometime. If you have little money and use your parent's credit card asking them for $100 shouldn't be a huge deal as you already have the ability to charge a used car to them (given what the credit limit is on most student's credit cards).

The other point is that if you want to have the tickets sold and the seats filled on a regular basis the way the athletic department and HB are selling the tickets this year makes sense - allowing a students parents to buy the tickets before they set foot on-campus doesn't guarantee that they will want to go to the games later in the season, nor would allowing students to purchase tickets online with a credit card, using their GoCard, or even charging it to their student account (which some schools allow) - actually paying for the tickets with cash or a check is a committment that a student is going to remember and probably means that they will be at a number of the games.

That said - it would be nice if McDonough were open later one day for students - the committment of having the ticket window open from 1-7 or 8 wouldn't be as great and would really deflect a lot of criticism that the windows aren't open enough.

Thank you for the explanation on how credit cards work. So you're telling me that if I put something on my credit card, eventually I will have to pay for it? WHAT?!?! Oh God!

People use credit cards for convenience. The vast majority of retailers use credit cards because they have found that customers are at least a little bit more likely to buy something if they can use a credit card to pay for it. This is not a large segment of the population, but it is significant enough that credit cards are accepted almost everywhere. This was HoyaSpirit's initial point, and no one has provided a valid counter-argument to that point.

Further, it's not a question of commitment. This point is ludicrous. Like any business, the Athletic Department is motivated by ticket sales. Getting money in the door is the top priority for the ticket office. The AD should not and does not test the commitment of its customers by making it less convenient to buy tickets. It's time to come to grips with the fact that not everything the Athletic Dept. (namely the ticket office) does makes total sense. You're doing a disservice to yourself and your fellow posters by defending the ticket office by creating a notion that "commitment to the team" is enhanced by paying with cash or check. You'd be better off just acknowledging that HoyaSpirit has made some good points, and the AD (namely the ticket office) could stand to update some of its practices.

[bubbrubbhoya]

stpetersburghoya said:

Would the ability to process credit carda and GoCards probably make it easier for some students to buy tickets the first time they walk by the Hoya Blue table or see the phonebooth promo? Probably. Is it an actualy barrier to getting tickets before the season starts? I don't really think so because if you are putting $100 on your credit card you or whoever pays the credit card is going to have to pay it off sometime. If you have little money and use your parent's credit card asking them for $100 shouldn't be a huge deal as you already have the ability to charge a used car to them (given what the credit limit is on most student's credit cards).

The other point is that if you want to have the tickets sold and the seats filled on a regular basis the way the athletic department and HB are selling the tickets this year makes sense - allowing a students parents to buy the tickets before they set foot on-campus doesn't guarantee that they will want to go to the games later in the season, nor would allowing students to purchase tickets online with a credit card, using their GoCard, or even charging it to their student account (which some schools allow) - actually paying for the tickets with cash or a check is a committment that a student is going to remember and probably means that they will be at a number of the games.

That said - it would be nice if McDonough were open later one day for students - the committment of having the ticket window open from 1-7 or 8 wouldn't be as great and would really deflect a lot of criticism that the windows aren't open enough.

This is a little long for the average sarcastic post. "A" for effort, though--great job of making fun of people who would seriously make terrible arguments like this!

[RusskyHoya]

In addition to tabling in front of Leo's 6-8 Wednesdays and Thursdays (and perhaps more days in the future), anyone can bring their form to our weekly meeting (9 p.m. Tuesdays on the first floor of ICC) or even e-mail the IBHB account and I can arrange to meet the person at their convenience and take their form or they can bring it to my Village A.

[ExcitableBoy]

Look, Hoya bleu folks can bend over backwards all they want. The point remains, though, that not accepting credit cards is inconsistent with trying to maximize revenue. The AD has apparently accepted cards in the past so it is confusing why they wouldn't do so again this year.