2013-14 Schedule

[EB 22]

I have no argument with this.

But if WSU were playing Duke, do you still think that we wouldn't fill those 4,000 seats for $10 each?

There are certainly exceptions to this rule. Duke, KU, North Carolina, a host of others, if those teams came and played WSU at home, no doubt in my mind it would sell out. But I don't put Tennessee in that group.

If I were a betting man, I'd wager a beer at the Tennessee game that the game does not sell out.

[ShockerFever]

If a game between two Top 25 opponents in this city, one of which involves a team coming off a Final Four, doesn't sell out, then that says a lot about the WSU fanbase and the city of Wichita.


We shall see.

[Rlh04d]

I just don't see 4000 total people paying even $10 for nosebleeds if the game is on TV. The nosebleeds for basketball towards the back row are just horrible seats.

People would almost be better off staying at home or going to a bar where the concessions and view are so much better and cheaper.

That same argument can be made for every single game WSU plays that is televised in Wichita.

[shox1989]

I just don't see 4000 total people paying even $10 for nosebleeds if the game is on TV. The nosebleeds for basketball towards the back row are just horrible seats.

People would almost be better off staying at home or going to a bar where the concessions and view are so much better and cheaper.

I think 4,000 people would pay $10 for those horrible seats just to be at the game. The problem is that they will probably try charging a lot more for those horrible seats. I think gouging people in the lower level good seats works fine, but those really bad seats need to be cheap. They can still sell out and make a lot of money on this game if they charge a lot for the lower seats and $10 or less for the really horrible seats. There are still plenty of decent seats that they can make a lot of money on.

Remember the Tulsa game was televised and it was nearly sold out (I think it would have sold out if the media hadn't announced a couple of days before the game that is was SOLD OUT. That killed any walk up crowd that could have actually made it a sell out). The Kstate-West Virginia game didn't sell out until game time. The walk up crowd made the difference.

[EB 22]

That same argument can be made for every single game WSU plays that is televised in Wichita.

Nosebleed at Koch Arena is far different than Intrust Bank Arena.

Regardless well just see what happens.

[shox1989]

Did basketball tickets become similar to gas while I was asleep? Why would you ever assume inelastic demand?

Clearly price does effect demand. As for your example, I was being simplistic, but you're making assumptions based on nothing for those numbers. And not taking into account other sources of revenue, like concessions and merchandise, that will inevitably increase with more tickets sold. Or seat location, etc.

Obviously there is a point tickets shouldn't go under to keep revenue up. But that point is likely not $80.

As for your actual table ... you're assuming identical price structure. Let's take the other assumption. You identified how many extra people are willing to buy tickets at a given price -- 5000 people will buy at $80, an extra 1000 with a $10 price drop, and so on. Again, being simplistic and assuming a significant number of people don't hold out for lower prices to sit in worse seats, you could have:

Tickets Sold	Ticket Price	Total Revenue
5000	$80	$400,000
1000	$70	$70,000
1000	$60	$60,000
1000	$50	$50,000
2000	$40	$80,000
2000	$20	$40,000
4000	$10	$40,000
16000		$740,000

I've now almost doubled your total revenue without assuming anything other than what you put in that table. You base that pricing structure on seat quality, put the first 5000 in the best seats, the worst 4000 in the nosebleeds. You could even change that price structure dramatically, running from $60 to $5, and still make more revenue than what you're showing. Which, again, doesn't get into the benefits of having a full house on concession sales, merchandise sales, parking, and the un-quantifiable benefit of having a full stadium benefiting the home team competitively and creating a better television environment which makes it more likely the television broadcasters will want future games.

They need to price the tickets something like what you have. A ticket price for every budget. I would actually have some tickets priced even higher (maybe 500 tickets at $150) just to catch the really high end of the market as well.

500 @ $150= $75,000
500 @ $100= $50,000
4000@ $75= $300,000

[shox1989]

Nosebleed at Koch Arena is far different than Intrust Bank Arena.

Regardless well just see what happens.

That is very true (except for the 100 or so seats that are view obstructed) but for most games they charge over $30 for the nosebleed seats at Koch (they even charge that much for the seats that right behind a pillar). There is no way they should charge that much for nosebleeds at IBA.

[jdshock]

Did basketball tickets become similar to gas while I was asleep? Why would you ever assume inelastic demand?

My first post was literally going to be this exact post, but then I remembered I'm talking to shockernet where, to many, basketball tickets are an inelastic good :tongue-new:

[Dave Stalwart]

Shocker basketball is inelastic. The only thing elastic about Shocker basketball is the special fabric NASA had to create to comfortably fit Gregg Marshall's waist while still stretching to cradle his extreme competence with some level of support...

[rrshock]

Shocker basketball is inelastic. The only thing elastic about Shocker basketball is the special fabric NASA had to create to comfortably fit Gregg Marshall's waste while still stretching to cradle his extreme competence with some level of support...

+1

[Rlh04d]

My first post was literally going to be this exact post, but then I remembered I'm talking to shockernet where, to many, basketball tickets are an inelastic good :tongue-new:

Good point ;)

Although I would have said that until recently, but my grandparents actually considered dropping their season tickets after having their price go up while losing their parking spot. They've had season tickets for something like 35 years and didn't think they'd ever get priced out of those. Luckily they kept them.

[Rlh04d]

They need to price the tickets something like what you have. A ticket price for every budget. I would actually have some tickets priced even higher (maybe 500 tickets at $150) just to catch the really high end of the market as well.

500 @ $150= $75,000
500 @ $100= $50,000
4000@ $75= $300,000

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Charge a ton for front row tickets and charge a premium for the first few rows beyond that.

Hell, I don't think it'd be a bad idea to give away the awful nose-bleed seats just to fill them up. You'll make a hell of a lot more money in concessions and merchandise sells from people that got in free just before game time than you would from empty seats. Or give them away strictly to students -- I'm not sure what the student ticket situation at Koch is, but it doesn't seem like it sits enough.

I also think the IBA games should be made into more of a spectacle. If they're being done yearly, start planning around them. Honor past superstars. Have Xavier McDaniel play Cheese Johnson in a game of horse. Meet and greets with the players and past stars. Make the IBA games a great opponent every year and turn it into a Shocker Day with a lot more random stuff attached to it than just the game for the guys shelling out for tickets.

[SubGod22]

You guys keep talking about concessions and merch, but does the promoter get money from that or only from ticket sales?

[Rlh04d]

You guys keep talking about concessions and merch, but does the promoter get money from that or only from ticket sales?

You'd probably have to ask IBA or WSU directly to find out.

I would think there'd be at least a cut of it. Someone's making more money from increased sales, and if we're the driving factor behind why, we should be benefiting from it. Seems like a poor contract if not.

Also: Does the Tennessee game have a promoter the way the Southern Miss and UAB games did? Those were one-off games, whereas the Tennessee game is a home-and-home, just played at IBA. Does that change things?

[proshox]

For those that didn't pick up on it, I was being overly simplistic in my attempt to demonstrate a principle: There are many cases where the average price to equal a sellout will not increase the total revenue over a non-sellout scenario with less total ticket sales.
I purposely left concessions, parking, merchandise out of the equation because I have no idea who benefits from those sales in these one-off scenarios.
As for inelastic demand concept – I just think there are only so many people in this city willing to spend money to watch a game when it is on TV. That is neither bad nor good, but when you eliminate corporate sales you create an uphill climb:

• There is definite proof that for many shocker fans the price of the ticket doesn't matter as long as we can get a good seat. I paid stupid money to watch SMU last year, but it was an opportunity to sit center court at a perfect height. As you all know, it is hard to get those tickets at the Koch. My pay anything group was quite large the last two years.
• On the other end of the spectrum, are the fans that get their asses chapped by the fact these games are not part of the season ticket package. These fans will not spend a dollar to pay for another "home" game when they already invested thousands for season tickets. I know many such season ticket holders.
• Finally, if the game ever has Duke, UNC, Gonzaga, UCLA, etc the promoter can probably name his or her price and get the sell-out…..