V V V w . a a W. For GA policy, a costly success By ZACH HELFAND Daily Sports Editor On Nov. 16 of last year, the Michigan Athletic Department sent an email to students with the subject line including: "Seriously, Remember to Set Your Alarm." It was a reminder for Senior Day. In comparison to its typical messages, filled with light-hearted puns or practical information, this email seemed almost agitated. The message featured a photograph of a sparsely populated student section with the caption "HOME- FIELD DISADVANTAGE." The week before, the Wolver- ines.beat Northwestern in a thrill- ing overtime game, and nearly a third of the student section never showed up. This was becoming an irritating trend. The Athletic Department wanted to change that for the following week, Senior Day against Iowa. But during the pregame cer- emonies for that game, only a tiny fraction of the student section dot- ted the bleachers, though more students eventually showed up. It would be the last game under Michigan's long-standing policy of reserved seating, with the best seats awarded by credit hours accumulated. Seniors typically sat in the front. The Athletic Department had tried outreach and a new loyalty program, the HAI. application, but nothing worked. It was ready for a new approach. "We did a study to find out what other schools are charging for student tickets, because maybe we're too low," Athletic Direc- tor Dave Brandon told AnnArbor. com in July. "Maybe one of the reasons students aren't showing up is because they feel like they haven't made enough of a signifi- cant investment in the ticket." Analysis by The Michigan Daily, which compiled data on student- ticket prices and policies at all 129 FBS or soon-to-be FBS programs, shows how far Michigan went to correct its prices. Coming off an 8-5 season, Mich- igan unveiled a new pricing model in April that, at the time, made it the most expensive student foot- ball ticket in the nation. The price of a season ticket increased to $295 for seven games in 2013, includ- ing service fees, from $205 for six games in 2012. For an average price of $42.14, students get a night game against Notre Dame, and home games against Nebraska and Ohio State. In August, Oregon knocked off Michigan to become the most expensive ticket at $360, though it offers nearly 4,000 of its roughly 5,000-seat student section in a game-by-game lottery for free. The second part of the Ath- letic Department's plan proved to be more controversial. Reserved seating was out. General admis- sion seating was in. Early arrivers would get wristbands granting access to the first 22 rows. All oth- ers would be assigned to a section when they arrived. Central Student Government President Michael Proppe, a Busi- ness senior, learned of the policy change like everyone else: through an April 23 email. The Athletic Department, he said, hadn't con- sulted with CSG or any other stu- dents. "There wasn't buy-in from the students," Proppe said. "It was just kind of being handed down, here's the new policy, like it or leave it." Within three hours of the announcement of the new policy, the Facebook group "UMich Stu- dents to Reverse the New Football Ticket Policy" had more than 1,500 'likes.' An online petition through CSG gained more than 2,600 sig- natures in less than 24 hours. Students, mostly juniors and seniors, felt cheated. They had sat high up in Michigan Stadium, they argued, for the chance to get to the best rows as upperclassmen. Now that opportunity was gone. In response, CSG itself passed two resolutions: one officially opposing the general-admission policy, and one calling for more student input on future decisions. Some prospective ticket-holders had recently attended the NCAA men's basketball Final Four in Atlanta, where the NCAA-run student ticketing process required hours of queuing in a Georgia Dome holding center. There, stu- dents lined up five hours prior to the game in a dark, concrete room. Though Michigan gave the best See POLICY, Page 6 Dynamic, and for some, prohibitive AVERAGE TICKET PRICE PER CONFERENCE By EVERETT COOK Daily Sports Editor It's July 2013. You're a couple years out of school, old enough to be making money but not old enough to be making a lot of it. Maybe you remember the 2011 Under the Lights game and want to experience that for yourself this year in what could be the last Michigan-Notre Dame game in the Big House for the foresee- able future. You've got a group of friends together. There's only one problem: aver- age tickets for Under the Lights II are running at about $300 each. Good seats are close to $500. The best seats might cost you $1000. In the past, single-game tickets could be bought through the Ath- letic Department for face value. There was always high demand for big games, but seats could be had if you were familiar with the system. This year would be different. There was outrage when the Athletic Department announced that single-game tickets for the 2013 football season would be using a new dynamic pricing sys- tem, meaning that per-ticket pric- es fluctuated depending on the game. Groups of alumni felt like the University was tryingto siphon as much money as possible off the bottom line, at the expense of for- mer students. But what's the better way to do it? If the Athletic Department con- tinues to sell tickets at face value, they are basically giving money away to a secondary ticket mar- ket. In years past, people would buy tickets from Michigan and sell them on sites like StubHub.com or ticketmaster.com for two or three times more than they bought them for. This year, Mark Bonges, a 2004 alumnus who is on the depart- ment's email list, got on the Ath- letic Department's website to find that the cheapest tickets available cost $450. They were well out of his price range, but tickets in the same section were selling for a lot more on StubHub. He bought from the Athletic Department, think- ing that someone in his group of friends would want these "cheap- er" tickets. Nobody did. He didn't want to scalp the tick- ets, but still ended up making $500 on the secondary market, because here's the problem: regardless of whom the money is going to, right now, there are enough people will- ing to spend an ungodly amount of money to go to a premium Michi- gan football game. It's just amatter of where the money is going. Should the Athletic Department try to capitalize on that? "It makes a lot of economic sense, but the fallout could be if the alumni don't see it as fair and if that affects the alum's relation- ship with the school," said Tammy Feldman, a University economics professor. "Will they donate less? Will they go to fewer games? What does it do to the relationship with alums? The bottom line is that most people don't like change." See DYNAMIC, Page 6 4 1 FootballSaturday - September 6, 2013 TheMichiganDaily - www.michigandaily.com 5