Hottest Ticket in Town - NOT

[ShockerFever]

Well for some reason Coach Marshall and the kids like playing one game a year at IBA. That's good enough for me and I personally can sacrifice the familiarity and comfort of Koch Arena for one game a year at IBA. In fact, I just try to make it an new adventure.

Last year I sat about 6 rows from the top in the upper deck but I was pretty much at center court for the USM game. Site lines were good and, in a way, it was an interesting perspective from I am used to in Koch Arena. From that bird's eye view you really see the entire court at once and can really see how plays develop. I enjoyed that the game very much after having dinner at the River City Brewery. Of course, it was a good game. Still I would prefer a good lower bowl seat which I was able to secure this year, but having to watch a game from the upper bowl would not deter me from attending a Shocker game at IBA and supporting Coach Marshall and the team. Let me say this, I would much rather go to IBA for a game against Tennessee than head out to Koch Arena for a game against Chicago State.

Some of the seats at lower portion of the upper level appear to be very good seat as well. I have never sat in those but would like to try those out someday.

In a nutshell, THIS.

[ShockTalk]

I'm not gonna break down each point with you again, even though I disagree with nearly all of them.

I really would like you to call in on one of the first early coach's shows and ask Marshall if he'd be happy with a 2/3 full IBA. I dunno why on earth you'd think he'd be happy with that, especially against another likely Top 25 opponent on national television.

Your second to last statement is simply not true. I don't think you know how the business works. The game was not put together for ESPN. The series was signed on the line over a year ago. Were they hoping it would be picked up? Absolutely. But that was not the promoter's goal. That's why previous games involving the same promoter were not picked up by ESPN. They rely heavily on ticket sales. ESPN is the part that is gravy. If games are half-empty, ESPN probably will think better of picking up those types of games. The promoter will likely not think anything associated with WSU is worth it. WSU loses. Coach doesn't get his 1 IBA game a year that he wants, but at least the 70 year olds in Section 110 will be happy in Koch watching WSU battle Maryland Eastern Shore in their comfy, homey seats.

You're the one that just doesn't get it.

Can you really enjoy the ride by just sitting there with your mouth closed? Nah. Especially when others instigate things first.

Yes and your mother would suffice. :good::D

Gosh, SF. Apparently I didn't say anything well enough to draw your ire. I was hoping you'd respond to my post to you.

By the way, who said we'd only draw 10,000 (2/3s full) against Tennessee?

DSB is right about the "mid major" label by most outside of Shocker land. Heck, you think WSU looks mid-majorish just because of slow sales 2 months before the Tennessee game. I wonder if Butler would be considered low-major just because they only averaged about 70-75% attendance in their 10,000 seat arena?

At least I'm sure of one item that you don't agree with DSB on. His comment on Cold. You proved that with your last quote I listed above.

[Shocker-maniac]

I've always liked having a game at IBA. I think it would be neat if WSU and the Old Town merchants worked together and made it an event instead of just another regular season game that's at the downtown arena. Old Town becomes "Shocker Town" for the weekend. Have a Pep Rally the night before the game. Work with some of the area schools and have a youth clinic and a 3 on 3 tournament. Work with area hotels to put together a package for out of area alumni to come for the weekend and watch the game. Invite Shocker legends to a brunch to honor them. It seems the Old Town merchants would be very eager to get people to come to their district and spend money. It would make the IBA game special, and give us all an opportunity for ShockerNation to come together. Seems like something like this would be a good recruiting tool, as well.

[ShockerFever]

Gosh, SF. Apparently I didn't say anything well enough to draw your ire. I was hoping you'd respond to my post to you.

By the way, who said we'd only draw 10,000 (2/3s full) against Tennessee?

DSB is right about the "mid major" label by most outside of Shocker land. Heck, you think WSU looks mid-majorish just because of slow sales 2 months before the Tennessee game. I wonder if Butler would be considered low-major just because they only averaged about 70-75% attendance in their 10,000 seat arena?

At least I'm sure of one item that you don't agree with DSB on. His comment on Cold. You proved that with your last quote I listed above.

Unfortunately for us, if you're comparing us to Butler, they have some pretty stellar success that overshadows us that cancels out the attendance equation. Considering they battle other professional sports teams in Indy, I think they've held their own pretty well. Major programs aren't solely based on attendance figures. But they do help. Considering that this game is totally separate and has nothing comparable to anything Butler has done, it would reflect poorly if we can't even out-duel Kitten State in our own town. And Kitten State is borderline major, more of a coattail rider than anything.

As far as your last comment goes, did you not see the comment I responded to? Am I automatically the "Cold wannabe" because I responded back to a slightly PG-13-related comment that was directed at me at first? And the emoticons didn't indicate a playful tone with my response?

Jesus ST, you're grasping hard now.

[Cdizzle]

Sellout. Book it.

[ShockTalk]

Unfortunately for us, if you're comparing us to Butler, they have some pretty stellar success that overshadows us that cancels out the attendance equation. Considering they battle other professional sports teams in Indy, I think they've held their own pretty well. Major programs aren't solely based on attendance figures. But they do help. Considering that this game is totally separate and has nothing comparable to anything Butler has done, it would reflect poorly if we can't even out-duel Kitten State in our own town. And Kitten State is borderline major, more of a coattail rider than anything.

As far as your last comment goes, did you not see the comment I responded to? Am I automatically the "Cold wannabe" because I responded back to a slightly PG-13-related comment that was directed at me at first? And the emoticons didn't indicate a playful tone with my response?

Jesus ST, you're grasping hard now.

Well, I did finally get your attention if not answers. I actually gave you the benefit of the doubt on that last quote and figured you were just funnin' anyway. The point was, it should of just been ignored.

My first and last post to you only dealt with fan attendance because you again lashed out at WSU fandom as weak. Personally, even though this is a very important game and I believe it will be well attended (better than 2/3s), WSU fans do support their team very well and there's nothing mid-majorish about it. You also like to knock the older crowd just because you have this misconceived idea of what kind of fans they are. Their long time and current support, both in attendance through the years and financially, have done much more to get WSU where it is than the current 20's crowd. That's not to say the 20's crowd is not important. They are very important to WSU's continued future success. All fans should respect each other, even here.

You need to check your meter if you think I was comparing us to Butler or if they should be considered "low" major due to attendance. Just the opposite. It's not how much money you throw at the program, it's not how much you pay your coach, it's not the jet travel for recruiting, and it's not necessarily attendance, particularly for one game. It is continued, high success on the court. All that money and what it buys means little if there is not a very good return on it.

[shox1989]

Actually I just went to the Intrust Arena site and things aren't so bad. In fact, the game is probably already a financial success. It appears that the $152, $102, and $57 seats are all sold out. It appears that there is only one $42 seat left (there were 3 when I started adding them up, so two sold while I was making the calculations).

The 7,655 seats available mostly come from the $12 seats: 4,706 $12 seats available, 1898 $22 seats available and 1050 $27 seats available.

So while the arena is basically half sold right now (which isn't all that bad over 2 months before the game), it the expensive part that has been sold. In fact, if all of the unavailable seats have actually been sold they would have raised about $250,000 from ticket sales already. (That is assuming that all of the seats not available have been sold. Even if they have not been actually sold, I would assume the AD has held them because they are or they expect them to be spoken for).

It appears that they sold 318 tickets yesterday. That is pretty good for one day that is this far away from game day (and without any promotion). Updating the figures I posted yesterday this the remaining available tickets: 4,517 $12 tickets, 1,834 $22 tickets, 985 $27 tickets and one $42 ticket. That is a total of 7,337 available tickets, yesterday there were 7,655 available.

[shocker_torero]

Obamacare took my ticket money.

[ShockTalk]

It appears that they sold 318 tickets yesterday. That is pretty good for one day that is this far away from game day (and without any promotion). Updating the figures I posted yesterday this the remaining available tickets: 4,517 $12 tickets, 1,834 $22 tickets, 985 $27 tickets and one $42 ticket. That is a total of 7,337 available tickets, yesterday there were 7,655 available.

For those interested, since the Kittens are not using the same interactive seat selection ability, I went in to see if I could get 6 seats together. It came up with 6 seats together in Section 113 where we show only 1 seat remaining in the whole section. Yes, their pricing structure could have had something to do with that.

[RoyalShock]

We're going to get four tickets eventually, but not until I or my son can go there in person and avoid $18 in fees on $48 worth of tickets. That is what I find rather ridiculous. I'm not going to subsidize the credit card fees for people purchasing the higher dollar tickets.

[WuShock16]

Let's calm ourselves a little bit and get some perspective. I just fictitiously tried to buy 10 seats for the K-State/Gonzaga game and was shown 10 seats together in Section 126...Row K, a pretty decent level row. Not only are there not 10 seats together in that same section for the WSU game, but there aren't even 10 tickets in that section period. That K-State game has been on sale for a couple weeks longer. So, let's take a deep breath. We are all HUGE basketball fans here, but the reality is that the general public isn't quite ramped up for basketball yet. There is football and MLB postseason on that minds of people right now. Let's not worry about ticket sales on October 1 when sales have been only going for a week or so. If we still have 5,000 seats to sell on December 1, I will get more worried. We're fine though. I wish we could get a seat map to buy tickets for the K-State game to have some comparison on seats still available.

The other thing is that this year will be a little more of a fair comparison. Two years ago, people were making a big deal about K-State getting a better crowd for their game than we did. That was a bad comparison because:
A) The opponent was exponentially more of a marquee name, especially because of Huggy's past with K-State
B) It was a bigger deal for K-State fans in this area to have the one shot to attend a 'Cats game here than it is for WSU fans to have one of many chances to see the Shocks play, esepcially when Reason A exists
C) The pricing for KSU-WV seemed more reasonable than WSU-UAB.

So....let' step off the ledge here. Let's let the next two months play out and go from there.

[ShockerFever]

We're going to get four tickets eventually, but not until I or my son can go there in person and avoid $18 in fees on $48 worth of tickets. That is what I find rather ridiculous. I'm not going to subsidize the credit card fees for people purchasing the higher dollar tickets.

Yep, probably should be used to it by now. You pay for convenience.

If it's worth it to you to make the drive down to get the tickets, go for it. Hopefully, you can get them on a planned trip down here anyway and not just to go get tickets. Otherwise you'd be only saving half on the fees with gas money spent.

And it's not all for credit card fees. Considering out-of-county residents didn't even have to pay a dime for the arena, I think you're getting a decent deal.. :good:

[ShockerFever]

Let's calm ourselves a little bit and get some perspective. I just fictitiously tried to buy 10 seats for the K-State/Gonzaga game and was shown 10 seats together in Section 126...Row K, a pretty decent level row. Not only are there not 10 seats together in that same section for the WSU game, but there aren't even 10 tickets in that section period. That K-State game has been on sale for a couple weeks longer. So, let's take a deep breath. We are all HUGE basketball fans here, but the reality is that the general public isn't quite ramped up for basketball yet. There is football and MLB postseason on that minds of people right now. Let's not worry about ticket sales on October 1 when sales have been only going for a week or so. If we still have 5,000 seats to sell on December 1, I will get more worried. We're fine though. I wish we could get a seat map to buy tickets for the K-State game to have some comparison on seats still available.

The other thing is that this year will be a little more of a fair comparison. Two years ago, people were making a big deal about K-State getting a better crowd for their game than we did. That was a bad comparison because:
A) The opponent was exponentially more of a marquee name, especially because of Huggy's past with K-State
B) It was a bigger deal for K-State fans in this area to have the one shot to attend a 'Cats game here than it is for WSU fans to have one of many chances to see the Shocks play, esepcially when Reason A exists
C) The pricing for KSU-WV seemed more reasonable than WSU-UAB.

So....let' step off the ledge here. Let's let the next two month play out and go from there.

All fair and valid points.

I only chimed in when somebody "went there" in the first place.

[SB Shock]

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[WuShock16]

Considering out-of-county residents didn't even have to pay a dime for the arena, I think you're getting a decent deal.

I get what you are saying, but remember that anyone who spent any money in Sedgwick County during those 18 months (or whatever it was) contributed towards the arena's construction. Obviously, the county residents picked up a bigger chunk of that, but if you stopped off at a Wichita dining establishment before or after a Shocker ballgame, you still contributed.