Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2008 23:09:47 GMT -5
I didn't see or hear any Orange fans in the concourse after the game. ;D
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vcjack
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Post by vcjack on Jan 21, 2008 23:11:32 GMT -5
I didn't see or hear any Orange fans in the concourse after the game. ;D Nor on the metro They'll hear us in the Dome, this I promise
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DanMcQ
Moderator
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Post by DanMcQ on Jan 21, 2008 23:20:51 GMT -5
As much as I despise those who control BC athletics, they have an excellent in-house venue for dealing with this problem. Granted, they are only working with about 9K seats, but this cuts out the middleman (i.e, stubhub) and increases the chance of keeping more seats in the hands of home fans: bceagles.cstv.com/tickets/bc-tickets.htmlOf course, this would require that the University invest in actual up-to-date ticketing software....
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Post by mplshoya on Jan 21, 2008 23:28:17 GMT -5
Count section 104 rows g, i, and j in the mix as full of traitors. Absolutely ridiculous to have to deal with so many Syracuse fans.
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Grandpa
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Post by Grandpa on Jan 22, 2008 0:11:01 GMT -5
I may be wrong here, but whether or not StubHub was a sponsor/partner, I believe one is able to sell or buy tickets to just about ANY major pro or collegiate athletic event on StubHub. They just provide the marketplace. Granted Georgetown may be "enabling" the "StubHub Effect" a little bit by specifically encouraging season ticket holders to sell extras on the site; however, not sure the partnership itself is really contributing THAT much more to the use of the service.
I'm generally supportive of initiatives to try to encourage season ticket holders to "keep it in the family", but sites like StubHub (which provide a ticket "marketplace", appear to be here to stay (for both better and worse).
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Post by Coast2CoastHoya on Jan 22, 2008 0:55:47 GMT -5
This has been a problem this year, but less so in Section 121 and the lower bowl than it was last year (and the last year before that), and somebody got the hint and now we've had Gtown fans in the box behind the A Team for games now. So we're not too sore. But from what I could see, a lot of season ticket holders need to step up and be accountable for their seats. If you can't commit to making sure there's a Hoya in your seat, give up your ticket.
This was the most hostile crowd we've had this season. Anyone still doubting the rivalry?
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HoyaPride
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Post by HoyaPride on Jan 22, 2008 6:49:14 GMT -5
I agree with everyone. I am one of those out of town fans that goes to 80% road games (live in Crapneticut) and go to the booth once or twice a year. I know there are several fans like me (jahidi comes to mind) who get stuck in the upper deck while opposing fans are down below. I would love to get my hands on lowers and would pay more than face value- PM me for Louisville if any become available. I guess that is what the "ticket exchange" thread above is for but it doesn't seem like the "sellers" are too interested in selling to fans, rather than make a couple of extra bucks !
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Post by Hoya TMF on Jan 22, 2008 7:59:45 GMT -5
I am in 115 Row J and our area is always filled with opposing fans. For every game. Maybe they are reserved or something because every game its a different group. That said, it was pretty gratifying last night. I was jawing with these two Syracuse women (who were passing a flask back and forth to each other), and when they went up five with two plus minutes left, she got really excited. I turned and told her not to count her chickens before they'd hatched. Sure enough she didn't have a lot to say after that, and I went about my business of making sure she knew who's house this was when we tied the game and beat them in overtime. It's annoring for most of the game, but as long as we keep winning, it's even that much more gratifying at the end. But if so-called fans are selling their tickets to non-alums, this has got to stop immediately. If you can afford tickets in the lower bowl, you can also afford to eat the cost every now and again to help preserve a better home court experience. If the money is that important to you, sit in the nosebleeds with the SYracuse fans. Go Hoyas!!!!
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Post by Hoya TMF on Jan 22, 2008 8:02:06 GMT -5
wrong choice of words. selling to non-alums is fine as long as they are fans. my bad.
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Post by alonzosflattop on Jan 22, 2008 12:00:50 GMT -5
There's more to this than you think. Everybody wants to sell out the lower bowl. The Ticket Office wants to sell a million season tickets. Demand for season tickets is at an all-time high. So, expect randomized re-selling of season tickets by fans who want to "hold on" to their seats even if they can't attend many games for hopes of retaining them for the future. Also, expect reselling of tickets by fans who want good seats to a few games but with demand must pay for the entire season. It used to be that far fewer season tickets were sold so there were full sections of opposing teams' fans. We've always battled this at MCI. Battling pockets of resold opposing teams' fans is sucky, but it's inevitable. Deal with it. And everyone who compiles this list and attempts to enforce something, I'm sure you've never used StubHub before and won't in the future at away games, right?
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Post by HoyasAreHungry on Jan 22, 2008 13:35:46 GMT -5
I think the real problem here is the lack of "hardcore" or dedicated hoya fans....before you jump on me for generalizing let me explain. Clearly I am not talking about the student sections or the members of this board and some other alumns etc but for the most part at games you dont see most of the people around you getting that into the game untill it gets close. Other places get rocking the whole time! Georgetown basketball was in a state of decline for many years untill recently. Now its becoming the hot ticket in town. Would we really be havin this conversation a few years ago when we were lucky to fill the lower bowl? My freshman and sophomore years at Gtown you could get there at halftime in the student section and still sit in the lower bowl. This is unheard of nowadays which is great progress! Once this culture of "superfandom" is fully back in place again, the cycle of passing it on to younger undergraduates will continue and the alumns will be more likely to support the team fanatically when they graduate. It's all about creating more of this dedicated hoya culture. We are at a turning point back to national prominence again and with that will come more dedicated fans. This is most likey why the people are willing to get rid of their tickets to just anyone. They dont really consider the fact that they are selling their tickets to the enemy. It is also a problem that our place is so big but i think that is fine as long as the traitors are kept to the upper decks for the most part. Overall i really think that in the next few years we will definitely see a decline in this kind of behavior and then the phone booth will really be a tough place to play.
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Jan 22, 2008 13:59:57 GMT -5
The real problem here really isn't solvable: - It's a 20,000 person arena...
- ...for a school with 6,000 undergrads and 6,000 (less interested) grad students...
- ...and an alumni base that does not come from or stay in the area. I know -- 45,000 or whatever alums in DC but I don't even want to compare that to a big state school. A school like Ohio State puts out that many alumni in four years and most of them stay in Ohio. Plus, many of our alums are law school or other grad school graduates, and that relationship is not as strong as undergrad.
- So we're utterly reliant on local, non-student and non-alum fans to fill the place. Even if every undergrad came, and every grad came, we'd still need 25% of alumni to come. All three numbers are completely and utterly unrealistic.
- We're in DC proper, so remember that there a lot of surburbanites for whom the hour long commute is really long for a Monday game...or it takes up the whole day on a Saturday.
- In a city, we probably have a pretty good amount of corporate seats. These can go unused, or worse, will be given to the person who most wants them which most likely will be an opposing fan.
- Many of our wealthy alum fans probably have tickets for the games they can make it, but understandably aren't interested in eating the other tickets.
- Lots of alums of schools in crappy places like to come to DC. Not so true the other way.
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Bando
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Post by Bando on Jan 22, 2008 16:31:59 GMT -5
The real problem here really isn't solvable: - It's a 20,000 person arena...
- ...for a school with 6,000 undergrads and 6,000 (less interested) grad students...
- ...and an alumni base that does not come from or stay in the area. I know -- 45,000 or whatever alums in DC but I don't even want to compare that to a big state school. A school like Ohio State puts out that many alumni in four years and most of them stay in Ohio. Plus, many of our alums are law school or other grad school graduates, and that relationship is not as strong as undergrad.
- So we're utterly reliant on local, non-student and non-alum fans to fill the place. Even if every undergrad came, and every grad came, we'd still need 25% of alumni to come. All three numbers are completely and utterly unrealistic.
- We're in DC proper, so remember that there a lot of surburbanites for whom the hour long commute is really long for a Monday game...or it takes up the whole day on a Saturday.
- In a city, we probably have a pretty good amount of corporate seats. These can go unused, or worse, will be given to the person who most wants them which most likely will be an opposing fan.
- Many of our wealthy alum fans probably have tickets for the games they can make it, but understandably aren't interested in eating the other tickets.
- Lots of alums of schools in crappy places like to come to DC. Not so true the other way.
I don't think anyone is saying that we should shut opposing fans out of the entire arena. We're talking solely about the lower bowl, which is comprised entirely of season ticket holders (except for the rows behind the visitor's bench). Also, no one is saying you can't skip a game every now and then. That's completely understandable. What's not is missing most games, or consistently selling your tickets to opposing fans. Your "rich people need the money" argument doesn't seem to fly. First off, I'm hardly wealthy, and for every game I can't make I've either given it away to a Hoya fan, sold it to a Hoya fan, or my seat has been vacant. You've already paid for your tickets months in advance, why is eating it such a terrible option? I understand stopping this is not an easy thing to do, but that's why we in this thread have talked about the many things we can try, from shaming to setting up a Hoya-only exchange. I don't see why we should give up just because it's hard.
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FLHoya
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Post by FLHoya on Jan 22, 2008 16:36:45 GMT -5
A few points I think should be emphasized:
1. Grandpa's point is correct of course--at best Georgetown is merely "enabling" the "StubHub effect" a little bit with the partnership. I think most sports fans by now are well aware of StubHub (I count myself among its many satisfied customers from last year's NCAA Tournament). Getting a StubHub ad from CSTV the day before the Georgetown-Notre Dame game encouraging you to sell your tickets on their service is annoying, but I can't imagine it causes THAT many people to have a lightbulb go on in their head.
1A. That being said, raise your hand if you were aware that the Hoya Hoop Club has a program that encourages season ticket holders to donate tickets (for a writeoff or some other compensation I believe) they can't use to a certain game and GUARANTEES they'll be put in the hands of a Georgetown fan. Anybody? Anybody?
This is the one thing about the StubHub partnership that DOES make me mad--the University basically takes the money and cross-promotes against its own well-meaning program. Kind of like if McDonough inked a sponsorship deal with the street vendors on 7th street selling the knockoff We Are Georgetown shirts.
There needs to be visible and consistent marketing of this option by the HHC, and StubHub can go F itself. HHC didn't sign the sponsorship deal after all.
2. To answer alonzo's question in two parts: (1) it's extremely unlikely McDonough would ever take punitive measures against serial StubHub sellers for reasons too many to list; (2) of course I'd use StubHub (or any means necessary) to acquire tickets to a road game/tournament game if I wanted them badly enough. I fully expect devoted fans of any school to do the same, including in Washington, DC for GTown games.
That being said...
2B. There's no reason the Ticket Office can't be taking certain "protectionist" measures to help ensure Georgetown fans have a little competitive advantage.
There's precedent for this: you'll recall in the 2005-2006 season, the Ticket Office restricted sales for the Duke and Syracuse home games until a certain later date (January 1st sticks out but it might've been December 1). Up to that point only Hoop Club members could purchase tickets. That had some impact...although there was still a lot of Orange in the lower deck in Feb 2006. However, with the tremendous rise in season ticket sales since that has now sold out the lower bowl, and vastly increased HHC membership/interest in the program, such measures would be even more effective now.
I would encourage McDonough to explore designating "premium" home games in the future (like...2-3 per year) and giving HHC members the first crack at them. This in the end is IMO the most promising solution to this "problem".
2C. Want an example? West Virginia designated two "premium" home games this year--Pitt and Georgetown. Those tickets went on sale at a later date, and you had to call in to their in-house ticket sales department. My girlfriend did, and was promptly told upon requesting GTown tickets that she couldn't get them unless (1) she was already in their ticket system--clearly a first-time buyer from GTown will not be; OR (2) she purchased an equal amount of tickets for a DIFFERENT West Virginia home game.
What they're saying is--you better be a WVU fan OR you better be willing to let us take a lot of your money.
You know what? GOOD FOR THEM! It got us to not purchase tickets to the game--heck, it kept HOYA BLUE from doing a bus trip to the game! We're going on the HHC Bus Trip now, but many GTown fans were no doubt shut out and I anticipate a very partisan crowd Saturday.
Can GTown go this far? Having to rely on Ticketmaster for our general public sales, I doubt it. But there's NO REASON we can't go back to the Duke/Syracuse model.
3. In the end though, responsibility still rests with the holder of the tickets to do what they wish. One fan reported the seats in front of them belong to a Cuse family who got HHC membership for that one game and sells off the other tickets--that'll happen sometimes. I would be willing to place money on the fact that ticket brokers hold several Georgetown season tickets and go the StubHub route.
In the end we're making progress--two seasons ago the discussion would be about why the ENTIRE TWO SECTIONS bordering the home student section were made up of Cuse fans. The visiting team allotment has been pushed from the 100 to 200 to 400 level in a matter of a couple years. That's progress. And the point above is well taken that as more dedicated student fans and younger alums that have experience the program's revival become full season ticket holders*, they'll be more likely to attend every game.
(*One interesting side effect of this though--a lot of young alums from out of town--like Philly, NJ, NY out of town--are dedicated enough to buy season tickets b/c they love GTown basketball, but are clearly never going to be able to use most weeknight games. StubHub is tempting.)
3B. But OTOH, maybe we do have a long way to go on this particular front. As of 4:30pm Tuesday, on StubHub:
Tickets available for GTown-Seton Hall on 2/2: 130
Tickets available for GTown-Nova on 2/11: 104
Tickets available for GTown-WVU Saturday: 13
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2008 17:04:27 GMT -5
That being said, raise your hand if you were aware that the Hoya Hoop Club has a program that encourages season ticket holders to donate tickets (for a writeoff or some other compensation I believe) they can't use to a certain game and GUARANTEES they'll be put in the hands of a Georgetown fan. Anybody? Anybody? [Raising Hand] It's in every HHC E-Newsletter.
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McBricks
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Post by McBricks on Jan 22, 2008 17:27:50 GMT -5
[/list][/quote]
I don't think anyone is saying that we should shut opposing fans out of the entire arena. [/quote][/i]
I am! I don't want to deal with Cuse fans anywhere near me.
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DanMcQ
Moderator
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Post by DanMcQ on Jan 22, 2008 17:56:42 GMT -5
That being said, raise your hand if you were aware that the Hoya Hoop Club has a program that encourages season ticket holders to donate tickets (for a writeoff or some other compensation I believe) they can't use to a certain game and GUARANTEES they'll be put in the hands of a Georgetown fan. Anybody? Anybody? [Raising Hand] It's in every HHC E-Newsletter. Not only are we aware of the option, our ticket group has used it several times. FLHoya: as for your option of closing 'new buyers' out of the system for certain high priority games, doesn't that imply that there is an actual ticketing system in the first place? If there is an up to date one (other than the hard work of those in the ticket office) it is news to me.
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Post by AustinHoya03 on Jan 22, 2008 18:53:58 GMT -5
I'll add to SF's point above that, as I understand it, Georgetown's share of ticket revenues, as opposed to Verizon's share, goes up significantly once a certain number of tickets sold is reached. StubHub, by encouraging ticket speculation, undoubtedly boosts the number of individual game tickets sold, and probably boosts season ticket sales as well -- take a look at the DC craigslist and there are plenty of people selling tickets to multiple games.
FWIW, I sold a single ticket to the Louisville game I couldn't use on StubHub this past weekend. I had also listed that ticket on the board here and was never contacted about it. I previously purchased the ticket, which is in Section 121, BTW, on StubHub. I did this because when I went through the HHC to get tickets to Marquette-GU last season, I got stuck in the 400s. It's cheaper for anyone to buy tickets on StubHub rather than increase their donation level to the amount needed to score lower bowl seats.
The person who bought my ticket lives in DC and has a Georgetown degree (thanks, alumni directory!). So not everyone using StubHub is an opposing fan -- Hoyas buy these tickets, too.
Call me a traitor if you like for using StubHub, but other than donating the ticket to the HHC (an unsavory option given the mark-up I paid on the ticket), and listing the ticket on the board here (which yielded no interest), I'm not sure what else I could have done to ensure my ticket went to a fellow Hoya (which it did anyway).
My bet is this "problem" will never have a "solution" until two things happen: Georgetown moves into an on-campus arena and sets up a system similar to the one Dan posted about.
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kchoya
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Post by kchoya on Jan 22, 2008 19:15:11 GMT -5
That being said, raise your hand if you were aware that the Hoya Hoop Club has a program that encourages season ticket holders to donate tickets (for a writeoff or some other compensation I believe) they can't use to a certain game and GUARANTEES they'll be put in the hands of a Georgetown fan. Anybody? Anybody? [/quote] How does one purchase these tickets that are donated back to Georgetown and how does the Athletic Department ensure they go to Georgetown fans?
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Jan 22, 2008 19:19:00 GMT -5
Bando, I'm not saying that I wouldn't prefer folks to donate their tickets/get them to Hoya fans.
I just think there are reasons why it is worse at Verizon than at many other places.
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