The Penny bump: Tigers raise ticket prices by 1 cent
The University of Memphis athletic department announced Wednesday it is raising the price of its men’s basketball season ticket sales by one cent in conjunction with the hiring of new coach Penny Hardaway.
Season tickets will now start at $100.01 and will be sold on a firstcome, first serve basis due to an expected increase in the demand for tickets thanks to the excitement created by Hardaway’s return to campus.
The school said ticket prices had either been reduced or remain unchanged over the past four seasons, but declining attendance at FedExForum was a big reason behind the university’s decision to make a coaching change.
Memphis just went through its lowest-attended season in 48 years despite compiling a 21-13 record.
University president M. David Rudd said following Tuesday’s introductory news conference for Hardaway that the men’s basketball program lost $4.7 million in revenue over the past year and that season ticket sales dropped to 4,115.
Rudd called that figure, “the lowest in modern history for Tiger basketball.” “Our overall financial picture was not good in the least,” Rudd said. “We have responded to that. We think we will see recovery quickly and we’ve already seen evidence that that is going to happen.”
Memphis associate athletic director for external affairs Steve Macy told The Commercial Appeal on Tuesday that many of the people buying season tickets are renewals from past season ticket holders that had let their tickets lapse.
With this latest promotion, more could be coming back into the fold.
“The phones have definitely been ringing off the hooks,” Macy said.