I was in College Park earlier tonight as my name came up in the Lucky Lotto to take part in a Focus Group for changes that are coming to the Terrapin Club.
Basically, the current system of donating in order to get Season Tickets to Football and/or Men's Basketball is going to be changed and dramatically so.
Instead of various donation levels (which only applies to football) it is going to become a per-seat donation.
No final figure was given but the figure of $500 per seat was floated out in my breakout group.
So let's say you have 2 seats in Section 25; instead of donating $2,200 for the right to spend $738 on those two seats, you would now be charged $1,000 plus the $738.
If you're like me and you have 2 seats in Section 21; instead of donating $650 for the right to spend $738 on two seats, we would also be charged $1,738, just like the person in Section 25.
And yes, if you have two seats for football and two seats for basketball, you'd be charged $2,000.
Again, no final figure has been settled upon. More information and surveys are planned to be sent out in July/August of this year and the new system would hopefully go into effect for the 2025-2026 TC/Academic Year. There was talk about a "cap" on the per seat donation (so if you were buying a total of 8 tickets, you'd only have to pay $2,000 instead of $4,000) but no talk on what that "cap" would be was mentioned.
Why is this being done? Well, the tax law changes which killed the College Athletic Donations for tickets market. Also, Single Game Ticket Sales revenue has greatly surpassed Season Ticket Revenue.
On a side note to that, Catlin Clark bailed out basketball ticket revenue for the season. If she hadn't sold out the Cable Box, we wouldn't have hit the projected basketball ticket revenue because Men's sales were that lackluster and they weren't expecting her to sell out the Cable Box.
It is also believed that the current structure represents "a barrier to entry" for new Season Ticket Holders as they don't understand what they have to do or how the TC operates or what it even does and apparently, industry wide, Single Game Sales revenue has surpassed Season Ticket Revenue.
This is a problem because it makes budgeting difficult (see note about Basketball Ticket Revenue).
Other schools have also gone to this model and from the "Maryland gonna Maryland" department, we'll be the last the B1G to get away from the old system. Apparently, all the A¢¢ schools have also gone to this system.
It is important to note that the TERPoint system IS NOT GOING AWAY. They will still be used to determine priority level, but it sounds as if you're like me, you have a seat in Section 21, you could move to 23 or maybe to 26 (24 and 25 are close to be sold out on a Season Ticket Basis).
They wanted to get our ideas on how much should be charged per seat but also what benefits could induce people to join in addition to "fan experiences" to make becoming a Season Ticket Holder more palatable than just buying single games. My group didn't get into those details as it largely turned into a complaint session about what Maryland isn't currently doing right.
Before I offer my thoughts on this whole scheme, I'd like to hear from the rest of the folks first.
Basically, the current system of donating in order to get Season Tickets to Football and/or Men's Basketball is going to be changed and dramatically so.
Instead of various donation levels (which only applies to football) it is going to become a per-seat donation.
No final figure was given but the figure of $500 per seat was floated out in my breakout group.
So let's say you have 2 seats in Section 25; instead of donating $2,200 for the right to spend $738 on those two seats, you would now be charged $1,000 plus the $738.
If you're like me and you have 2 seats in Section 21; instead of donating $650 for the right to spend $738 on two seats, we would also be charged $1,738, just like the person in Section 25.
And yes, if you have two seats for football and two seats for basketball, you'd be charged $2,000.
Again, no final figure has been settled upon. More information and surveys are planned to be sent out in July/August of this year and the new system would hopefully go into effect for the 2025-2026 TC/Academic Year. There was talk about a "cap" on the per seat donation (so if you were buying a total of 8 tickets, you'd only have to pay $2,000 instead of $4,000) but no talk on what that "cap" would be was mentioned.
Why is this being done? Well, the tax law changes which killed the College Athletic Donations for tickets market. Also, Single Game Ticket Sales revenue has greatly surpassed Season Ticket Revenue.
On a side note to that, Catlin Clark bailed out basketball ticket revenue for the season. If she hadn't sold out the Cable Box, we wouldn't have hit the projected basketball ticket revenue because Men's sales were that lackluster and they weren't expecting her to sell out the Cable Box.
It is also believed that the current structure represents "a barrier to entry" for new Season Ticket Holders as they don't understand what they have to do or how the TC operates or what it even does and apparently, industry wide, Single Game Sales revenue has surpassed Season Ticket Revenue.
This is a problem because it makes budgeting difficult (see note about Basketball Ticket Revenue).
Other schools have also gone to this model and from the "Maryland gonna Maryland" department, we'll be the last the B1G to get away from the old system. Apparently, all the A¢¢ schools have also gone to this system.
It is important to note that the TERPoint system IS NOT GOING AWAY. They will still be used to determine priority level, but it sounds as if you're like me, you have a seat in Section 21, you could move to 23 or maybe to 26 (24 and 25 are close to be sold out on a Season Ticket Basis).
They wanted to get our ideas on how much should be charged per seat but also what benefits could induce people to join in addition to "fan experiences" to make becoming a Season Ticket Holder more palatable than just buying single games. My group didn't get into those details as it largely turned into a complaint session about what Maryland isn't currently doing right.
Before I offer my thoughts on this whole scheme, I'd like to hear from the rest of the folks first.
