Hoya Fans Selling Tickets to Opposition

[lebanesehoya]

*rant begins*

This is becoming a big big problem. I noticed way too much red in/near our student section and in sections that should be dominated by gray (especially for high profile games!).

Something needs to be done to stop this. CAN anything be done?


*vent over*

[joey0403p]

I agree its a problem - but sometimes its tough to accuse anyone - unless you see the season ticket holders most of the season - then see them sell off the big games to non-hoya followers.
I also find it tough to really blast season ticket holders - the tickets are expensive and usually hoya fans are not willing to pay market price or above market price - hoya fans often feel they deserve to pay face value.
granted - personally i'd rather give away my tickets to friends / family that are hoya fans if i can only get face value from a hoya fan.

and all that rational analysis goes out the window when people infront / behind me are fans are cheering for one of our inconference rivals...

I guess I'm split

[lebanesehoya]

Yeh, I see where youre coming from on all those points but you summed it up pretty well with your second-to-last line haha

It's so damn annoying!

[nychoya3]

It's annoying but there's nothing to do about it other than shame your friends if you find out that they are considering it.

Also, the atmosphere against Louisville was great. There was a UL contingent but mostly in the upper deck and they were constantly drowned out by the Hoyas. The students in particular were great.

[PhillyHoya]

The two seats next to me have been EMPTY for all but one game this season and they were empty most of last season as well. I fear that there will be Cuse fans there in a few weeks and complaints to the ticket office have gone nowhere. I know people would kill for those seats but some mysterious person owns them and has never used them.

[Cambridge]

As a New York season ticket holder, I am only able to make it down to DC for a handful of games a year. I think its important to remain a season ticket holder to support the school. While I take great pains to make sure my tickets end up in Hoya hands when I'm unable to attend, often I am stuck between donating them to the school, passing them to a friend of a friend who I cannot vouch for, or just eating them. So if my seats are empty for a big game due to my inability to get to DC or find a Hoya fan to use them, at least know that I didn't dump them on StubHub to the highest bidder who may not be wearing Blue and Grey.

Edit - I don't mean to imply that my seats are the ones next to Philly, as I'm not in her section (120 over here), but just a note to those quick to criticize those of us who invest a fair amount of money in supporting the school via season tickets but can't make it to the game. More often than not I donate to the school, but who knows where those end up...

[rosslynhoya]

It's a simple dynamic: if you're a Louisville or Pitt or whatever fan in the DC metro area, you are only going to see your team play live once this year, so you're less sensitive to the inflated price than the average non-season ticket-holding Hoyas fan who doesn't really care about this particular game over another premier conference matchup. In addition, if your company or boss has season tickets, then your opposition fan is the one begging on their knees to get the tickets to see their team play that night.

[SFHoya99]

Jan 28, 2013 13:05:48 GMT -5 rosslynhoya said:

It's a simple dynamic: if you're a Louisville or Pitt or whatever fan in the DC metro area, you are only going to see your team play live once this year, so you're less sensitive to the inflated price than the average non-season ticket-holding Hoyas fan who doesn't really care about this particular game over another premier conference matchup. In addition, if your company or boss has season tickets, then your opposition fan is the one begging on their knees to get the tickets to see their team play that night.

Right. And a whole lot more people than these schools move to DC than Georgetown fans move to Louisville or Pittsburgh.

[biggmanu]

I too have pondered why the season ticket holder next to me hasn't shown up for a single game this year. In my previous seats a season ticket holder showed up once over a 5 year span. An older gentleman and a long time gtown fan. Luckily he never sold his seats to the opposing fans.

I'm of the opinion you can do whatever you want with your ticket. The only thing that can be done is if the ticket office can identify those season ticket holder's with a 0% attendance, maybe reach out to them and let people like me buy them at face value. I will make sure the seat is filled with a gtown fan.

[BubbleVisionBiff]

The two people next to me in 111 sold have sold their weeknight games in the past 2 years on stub hub to YouCon, West Virginia, Pitt, Syracuse, and this year, Providence and Louisville. They live out of town and have often said they are just looking to make their money back. I've mentioned it to the ticket office, but I can't see them doing anything about it.

I wish everyone's motivations were like Cambridge's. Especially since, IMHO, our season tickets are not that expensive relative to schools we consider our basketball peers. I don't think I could get within a country mile of the Dean Dome or Yum Center for what I pay for Hoya tix.

I fully expect to be sitting next to both Seton Hall fans on Wednesday.

[DanMcQ]

Jan 28, 2013 13:26:30 GMT -5 BubbleVisionBiff said:

I fully expect to be sitting next to both Seton Hall fans on Wednesday.

I see what you did there.

;D

[rosslynhoya]

I don't know that there's anything they can do about it. Doesn't Georgetown have a partnership with StubHub still, even if there's no longer any in-game entertainment associated with it?

I've got a friend from Nova who like thousands of his peers sends in upward of $50/yr just to maintain his position on the waitlist for season tickets at the Pavilion that in all likelihood will never come. He's often expressed amazement that Georgetown alumni take for granted that you can just buy season tickets to see your team at its normal home court at will.

[SDHoya]

Yeah, but the Pavillion seats 6500, while we are trying to fill 20000 every game. If Nova played all their games at the Wells Fargo Center, they would have the same issues we have.

This is just the reality of being a small school with a highly dispersed alumni trying to fill an NBA arena in a big city with lots of other things to do. Would we all like a 6-8k on campus arena? Sure. But even if we magically got this gift, would anyone advocate playing a team like Louisville or Cuse or who ever is the big draw in the new conference at the on campus arena? Of course not.

So you want to make it a better home court advantage? Help out the marketing efforts to get local, non-alums to become fans interested in buying (and using) their season tickets. Light a fire under Hoya Blue to get them to figure out a way to consistently bring students out, and not just to see Louisville and Cuse.

[skyhoya]

If you think it bad now, it will be worse next year without home games with WVU, PITT, CUSE and probably L'Ville, there will be lass season ticket holders. So fans are not willing to pay $1300 a seat for CUSA lower level competition and 6 cupcakes, sorry it might not be worth the investment. .

[hoyasaxa2003]

The best way to boost ticket sales is to make a run in the NCAA tournament. I would bet that if we made the Final Four this year, ticket sales for next year will increase despite the changing conferences. The fact is, boosts in ticket sales happens easiest when the team succeeds in the post-season.

Granted, I agree that filling the Verizon Center with the new conference will be a challenge. That's why I think we need VCU in the conference, to at least give us a regional opponent that can help fill up the Verizon Center. Clearly, we don't want Syracuse fans in prime seats, but if fans of other teams help fill out the arena (and make Georgetown more money), I don't think that's a bad thing.

[rosslynhoya]

Jan 28, 2013 15:03:32 GMT -5 hoyasaxa2003 said:

The best way to boost ticket sales is to make a run in the NCAA tournament. I would bet that if we made the Final Four this year, ticket sales for next year will increase despite the changing conferences. The fact is, boosts in ticket sales happens easiest when the team succeeds in the post-season.

Granted, I agree that filling the Verizon Center with the new conference will be a challenge. That's why I think we need VCU in the conference, to at least give us a regional opponent that can help fill up the Verizon Center. Clearly, we don't want Syracuse fans in prime seats, but if fans of other teams help fill out the arena (and make Georgetown more money), I don't think that's a bad thing.

Is it financially impossible to ever go back to using only the 100- and 200-levels again? That's one idea that seems to be skipped between playing empty stadiums and playing at McDonough, should we ever plateau in fandom....

[boxout05]

Would tarping over the upper deck make a difference other than looking better on TV? I always thought a big problem with Verizon was the high rent that made all but the biggest games unprofitable. You may get a break if you only open the lower levels, but not much.

[nolahoya]

A couple of years ago I complained to the ticket office that I wanted different seats or I wouldn't renew. I'm in Sec 112 and when asked why I said I was sick and tired of sitting next to opponents for every game and wasn't going to do it anymore. The entire row would be opponents. I was put on hold and when he came back I was told everything was taken care of and there would no longer be opponents in the seats. I had my doubts. Once the season rolled around, GU fans were in the seat for every game, just never the same people. I asked at one game who was the season ticket holder and was told the seats belonged to the Athletic Dept.

[b52legend]

Jan 28, 2013 14:10:40 GMT -5 SDHoya said:

Yeah, but the Pavillion seats 6500, while we are trying to fill 20000 every game. If Nova played all their games at the Wells Fargo Center, they would have the same issues we have.

This is just the reality of being a small school with a highly dispersed alumni trying to fill an NBA arena in a big city with lots of other things to do. Would we all like a 6-8k on campus arena? Sure. But even if we magically got this gift, would anyone advocate playing a team like Louisville or Cuse or who ever is the big draw in the new conference at the on campus arena? Of course not.

So you want to make it a better home court advantage? Help out the marketing efforts to get local, non-alums to become fans interested in buying (and using) their season tickets. Light a fire under Hoya Blue to get them to figure out a way to consistently bring students out, and not just to see Louisville and Cuse.

Student attendance is really out of Hoya Blue's hands. I was pretty involved with Hoya Blue during the late Escherick early JTIII days and the only thing that consistently gets students out to games is winning. Also, buses to the game would help.

[ColumbiaHeightsHoya]

dimmer switch above the 100's would be great too. Skyhoya, you are complaining without a proposal to fix it. The conference situation is what it is and we have to hope to bring others up to our level. The Aresco comments of OOC against the remaining FB schools wouldn't be bad either with us playing Temple, Memphis, Uconn.