Think students have it tough?

The waiting list for season tickets (non-students, of course) is now 7-10 years. Last year it was projected at 5, but there was no movement off the list this year and it grew by 15-40% -- though final numbers weren't released. I'm not sure what measure they use to calculate the wait, but having to wait a day or two doesn't seem so bad (in the short term).

If any students will be staying in the area after graduation they might want to get on the list now.

So I guess my plan to become wealthy, famous, and influential in hopes of getting Cornell Victorious to ply me with hockey tickets in exchange for a fat donation check isn't so far-fetched after all. Looks like that route would take about the same amount of time as the old fashioned "sign up and wait like all the other good alums and Ithacans route" will.

It may be quicker. Think about having no turn over on the list and adding 15-40% after the year they just had -- good, but not spectular. What happens after this year when they make another run to the Frozen Four?

Of course, if they expand that would take care of most of the current list -- throw in some luxury boxes and you can spend your hard-earned riches on the soft seats. Give me the "huddled masses."

Somehow I can't picture myself in a luxury box. I did like my relatively isolated press box seat because it meant no girls behind me tapping me on the shoulder and asking if they could borrow my program so they could drool and giggle over Shane Palahicky's picture. And yes, this happened in Section B, where the "real fans" sit.

Not that Cornell is getting any of my (so far imaginary) riches, since they have decided to raze what was my senior year apartment to make room for a parking lot so more freshmen can bring their SUV's to campus. This is in addition to spelling my last name incorrectly on Cornell Fund mailings, which, while totally minor, does not make me inclined to give them anything.

Anyway, back to cleaning, where the fumes are clearly making me go insane...

So there's a waiting list of 7-10 years, allegedly,for non students. What do you think that translates into actual ticket demand? Meaning if everyone who could buy seasons tickets (not Harvard game tickets) bought them, would there be 100? 1,000? 2,500? non-student tickets sold?

Porsche has a line that the right number of Porsches to import to the U.S. is Demand Less One. That keeps perceived value up yet would satisfy most customers. So what is Demand Less One for season tickets?

BTW how much of Lynah is not season tickets now?

Did I just hear someone say enlarge Lynah???

Based on single-game ticket buying experience: Sections H and O are single game seating (O, of course, is mostly taken up by the visiting team allotment). There are roughly 500 seats in those two sections (give or take 100, I really didn't count carefully, but I think there are 20-25 seats per row and 10-12 rows).

Then there are about 1800 student season tickets.

The rest of the 3800 seats go to non-student season ticket holders, so I'd estimate 1500 sets of season tickets are sold outside of the student allotment.

There's no way of knowing just how many people are on that waiting list, but they probably expect an average turnover and calculate the wait time from that. So if the team only wins 10 games a year (say 5 home games) for the next 2-3 years, or if ticket prices double, the waiting list will likely disappear as demand falls through the floor. If the team continues to win, and prices remain more or less constant, I'd estimate at most another 200-300 non-student tickets would sell if those seats were to magically appear. Of course, this is a very rough guess, as it's impossible to get any real read on ticket demand without more information from the ticket office, but I think it's not too far off.

[Q]bigggreddd77 Wrote:

Did I just hear someone say enlarge Lynah??? [/q]
Nope...

You do know that the plan to put in a few more seats and some luxury boxes, expand the locker rooms again etc. was approved by the University, don't you?

Yeah, but that's hardly going to make a dent in this situation. I don't think that was the magnitude of expansion bigggreddd77 was getting at.

[Q]CUlater 89 Wrote:

You do know that the plan to put in a few more seats and some luxury boxes, expand the locker rooms again etc. was approved by the University, don't you?[/q]
Sounds good except for the luxury boxes.

The upper end of the estimate right now is 250. That gives one the option to purchase 2 tickets, assuming most would do so means 500 seats. That, I believe, is the rumored number of seats to be added in the upcoming expansion. That's not an impossible to manage list and, of course, it would disappear with the expansion.

If it is at the 250 range, however, that would represent a 40% increase over last year's list, which stood at 184. I'm not sure what the average increase in the list has been over the last few years, but a 40% increase given the year they just had makes me wonder what happens if they make another run this year with a relatively young team? Which also makes me wonder what happened after they made the Frozen Four? How old is the list, how long does it last, does it come and go? Something else to think about is that as people move away many don't give up their rights to the seats. They simply sell them -- so you have some folks on the waiting list who may actually buy season seats or half-season seats, etc.

They do need to keep the place packed and not build excess capacity. (Also, they need to figure out how to get folks there earlier and get the place rocking. Imagine the student section chanting for 30 mintues before the puck drops -- what visitor in their right mind would want to get on the ice?)

So does it sounds like a 499 seat expansion may do the trick? The new book states that they used to get around 4500 on a regular basis.

Getting people there early is easy. Make all tickets general admission.

[q]So does it sounds like a 499 seat expansion may do the trick? The new book states that they used to get around 4500 on a regular basis.[/q]How 'bout a massive lobbying campaign to exempt Lynah from all fire codes. Then we could just sell 4500 or 5000 tickets...

[Q]KeithK Wrote:

So does it sounds like a 499 seat expansion may do the trick? The new book states that they used to get around 4500 on a regular basis.[/Q]
How 'bout a massive lobbying campaign to exempt Lynah from all fire codes. Then we could just sell 4500 or 5000 tickets...
[/q]That's the problem. To expand Lynah, and keep it's close feeling, you need to exempt it from current fire codes. This has been discussed many times before, over many years.

 

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"Cornell Fans Made the Timbers Tremble", Boston Globe, March/1970
Cornell lawyers stopped the candy throwing. Jan/2005