re: Bama now giving fans $10 concessions vouchers if they buy tickets

Oh God... please.

I can't really disagree with any comments in the thread. Everyone has their own perceptions of this problem, and they all have validity.

Creampuffs on the schedule are nothing new. We've played Southern Mississippi forever. Same with Vanderbilt, before the days of division play. But we also used to play home-and homes with big conference teams. My senior year we played OOC games at Missouri and at Washington. The same year we played Southern Cal and Nebraska at home. But we also didn't play 8 conference games back then.

IMO, the schedule is a factor, but not the biggest. Traffic is a factor...but it's always been there. 10,000 more fans didn't really make it that much more difficult to get out of Tuscaloosa after a game. HDTV is great, but I'm one of those fans that will always prefer the energy and atmosphere of being in the crowd. Give me the biggest, best HDTV on the market, and I'll always still prefer being in the stadium. That's just me, but I think a lot of fans feel the same way.

I think the biggest problem is that lots of fans are starting to feel like Alabama...and being perfectly honest, Bill Battle...is trying to squeeze every dollar out of them he can. $100 for Texas A&M? Are you freaking kidding me? $90 for a shitty West Virginia team? This huge surge in prices is occurring on his watch. I think lots of Bama fans may be starting to get a bad taste in their mouths.

quote:

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Game day experience
$55 for ticket to a cupcake game.
$20-30 for a parking spot
$15-30 for concessions
$80-100 for bar crawl down uni blvd after game

Game day experience at home
$40 for some prime choice steaks
$40 for beer
Invite friends and enjoy game on my 52" HDTV

Hmm....

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this ...

It was hard enough to get excited about going to the cupcake games as a student when the tickets were just $5.

Just took a glance at StubHub because I wanted to see this madness for myself, and well...damn. $95 for nosebleed seats? No thanks. I'd think about it if this were Pat White or even Geno Smith WVU we were talking about, but for a team that wasn't even bowl eligible last year? Who do they think they're fooling? When last I looked, Vegas had Bama as a 20+ favorite in this game. I will be watching this beatdown from the comfort of a bar, or my living room. Chick Fil A and the AD must think we're chumps.

quote:

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I think the biggest problem is that lots of fans are starting to feel like Alabama...and being perfectly honest, Bill Battle...is trying to squeeze every dollar out of them he can. $100 for Texas A&M? Are you freaking kidding me? $90 for a shitty West Virginia team? This huge surge in prices is occurring on his watch. I think lots of Bama fans may be starting to get a bad taste in their mouths.

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I agree with this, but also think it's a double-edged sword. We all love the success Saban has brought to the program, but with that success comes higher salaries for the coaches. With the Tide Pride set up and the waiting list, the University knows they have the fans by the nuts, so to speak. Something will have to give eventually.

And I believe the Chick-Fil-A game folks set the price for that game, and I imagine it's like a bowl game where the universities are contractually obligated to purchase X amount of tickets. So the CFA folks get their money regardless, the fans be damned.

Sad reality is college football has become about money first, and there is a ton of it at stake. The fans are way down the pecking order of importance. There will come a time after Saban leaves where the University will be all but begging fans to purchase season tickets. As much as I love the University and the football team, I hope fans have a long memory and remember how much we've been nickeled and dimed over the past 10 or so years.

Thanks for the stadium cup, Alabama!

Should we feel guilty about this?