UConn fans decry ‘outrageous’ new ticket prices
‘I do hear them,’ athletic director says
Megan Babcock and her husband, Rob, were UConn men’s basketball season ticket holders for the first time during the 202122 season and expected a price increase when renewal options arrived Tuesday — but not the steep increase they’re having to consider for the same seats in 2022-23.
The Babcocks, of Tolland, had two seats in the last row of section 222 for games at Gampel Pavilion last season. The overall cost for the same package, Megan Babcock said, has risen from $297 to $715 (with a mandatory $100 donation included in those purchases).
“We really watch how we spend our money,” said Megan, a teacher whose husband works in retail. “Going to games is something we both love and enjoy and have a great time with while we’re there. But, we can also love and enjoy it from our couch. For free.
“We’re the type of people they want in those seats, people that are going to get up, cheer, scream their heads off, always going to have positive things to say. You want me in that seat. You want my husband in that seat.”
UConn also wants — and, one could argue, needs — more money for that seat.
Many fans this week came to more clearly understand the ramifications of a price hike announced on March 7, the day the women’s basketball team defeated Villanova for a conference title and three days before the men’s team defeated Seton Hall in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals.
Renewal options have gone out via traditional mail and email, and on Tuesday a vocal social media faction of season ticket holders responded loudly, sprin
kling Twitter with 280-character posts and a variety of colorful emojis to express their dissatisfaction.
Many, like the Babcocks, are seeing significant price increases and most, unlike the Babcocks, are seeing a rise in donation requirements, too. The changes are part of a new ticketing model that UConn says more properly aligns its athletic department with those of peer institutions — and helps meets the needs of rising costs and longstanding financial woes.
A major component of that model is the reassignment of seating sections at Gampel and the XL Center to different price categories, taking, for instance, some seats out of the “Husky Value” price range and leaving previous customers with two options — pay more money to remain in a seat now categorized differently, or move to less-desirable seats in the new Husky Value areas.
The athletic department operated a deficit of $47 million last year, an all-time high, and a mandate is in place for the athletic department to reduce the subsidy by at least 25 percent in the coming years. Meanwhile, costs of running competitive programs in areas of salaries and resources continue to grow.
“We’ve been putting this on the back of the university forever,” athletic director David Benedict said Wednesday. “That’s hard. We have to continue to reduce that. We haven’t had the postseason success we’d like [in men’s basketball], but certainly we’ve become a competitive program again and we expect to continue to be. Things have come a long way in a short period of time. We have to do what everyone else has done, which is increase tickets.”
Benedict was in Florida for hockey meetings as he spoke. He was well aware of the conversations taking place online this week.
“I understand it and I appreciate why there’s a level of frustration,” he said. “At the same time, it’s hard for people to understand all the nuances to what is required to compete at this level. The numbers speak for themselves relative to the revenues being generated by other institutions that our fans expect us to compete with. … We’ve got to become less reliant on the university and more reliant on our fan base in the way of ticket sales and donations. We realize and understand that if we’re not successful, it doesn’t work because people will stop paying.”
According to UConn, 646 new season tickets have been sold (430 men’s, 216 women’s) since they went on sale about five weeks ago. On Tuesday alone, there were 835 renewals (500 men’s, 335 women’s).
“If the market won’t support the new ticket prices, we’ll have to evaluate that,” Benedict said. “But the initial response with renewals has been quite good. If no one was buying new tickets and the response of the renewals was not as good, I think you’d have a bigger concern. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
Benedict said one change will be implemented as a result of concerns voiced by fans in recent weeks.
Customers whose 202122 seats will be moved out of the Husky Value price range for next season will be offered back their seat from last season at the Husky Value price if that seat goes unpurchased at the marked-up 2022-23 price during the upgrade and renewal process.
“It’s a tweak that we’re making as a response to our fan base,” Benedict said. “I do hear them. I do listen to them. It’s not like their feedback is going unheard. This is something that I’ve talked to the staff about multiple times.”
That adjustment will benefit some fans and potentially a significant amount, but not all. Some are closely considering whether to return next season.
Jeff Dawson, who lives on Cape Cod, has one daughter set to graduate from UConn next month, another set to attend UConn in the fall. He also has two season tickets for games at the XL Center and Gampel Pavilion.
Dawson said he paid about $1,300, which included about $500 in donations, last year. The amount next year, according to a renewal statement he provided, will rise to $1,965 total (including $970 in donations).
“I think this is absolutely, 100 percent outrageous,” Dawson said. “I don’t have a problem donating to the athletic department, but you can’t force me to pay them $900, plus my tickets, so I can keep my seats. … I don’t have a problem giving back to the athletic department, but don’t put a gun to everyone’s head. We’re supporting the university by buying these season tickets. And it’s not like you won the Big East this past year, or went to the Sweet 16.”
Mary Brown, a 2008 UConn graduate, lives in New Hampshire but works for a company in New Haven. She was considering becoming a season ticket holder next year despite knowing she would miss some games.
“I was so excited about it but now, absolutely not,” she said. “It’s such a slap in the face, because it’s such an exciting time to be a UConn fan, being back in the Big East. There’s a fever pitch around this team that I haven’t felt in a decade. The fans are so hungry, and we’re willing to spend money on this athletic department because we love UConn. It just seems so tone deaf that they would do this, when they have such an incredible opportunity right now to sell out the building. Sell it out for five years, maybe then raise prices. They’re alienating the people who love them the most.”
Benedict knows these sentiments exist. He has developed a strong rapport with the UConn Twitter community, members of which were calling him out on Tuesday. He did not respond. It doesn’t mean he wasn’t reading.
“College athletics is such an emotional space for everybody involved,” Benedict said. “Emotion drives a lot of it. It’s not unexpected. We saw some of this when we initially communicated it. Part of this is a catch-up from many years of not having increases, and part of it is a realization that we’re quite a bit behind our peers — not just in the Big East, but nationally, relative
to the amount of money we’re generating from our men’s basketball program.”
The initial announcement on March 7 pointed out that the average cost for a lower-bowl UConn men’s basketball season ticket (plus mandatory donation) was $2,400 for the 2021-22 season — for tickets to all games at both venues. That, according to UConn, ranked fifth in the Big East, behind Marquette ($5,230), Creighton ($4,700), Villanova ($4,500) and Xavier ($2,650).
UConn men’s basketball generated $5.7 million in season ticket revenue, plus $755,000 for single-game tickets, for the 2021-22 season, an athletic department spokesman said Wednesday. The amount falls well below that of other prominent men’s basketball programs.
For instance, according to data collected and offered by UConn, NC State generated $7.73 million, Indiana $10.53 million and Louisville $12.07 million ... all the way up to Kentucky’s $22.42 million. Those schools use various models of pricing and donation requirements.
The figures illuminate where UConn stands and they underscore the need for the Huskies to collect more at the gates. The highest price increase for 2022-23 will be reflected in courtside seating ($1,500 plus a $3,300 donation) for men’s basketball games.
The market will drive future prices. UConn in the coming months will find out whether backlash means this initiative backfired or if the new model is simply good business.
“There’s always going to be a sensitivity to raising prices,” Benedict said. “Hopefully people will appreciate that these are not decisions we make lightly because we understand affordability is an important part of it. At the same time, we’re also trying to fund a great experience for our student-athletes and compete for championships. It’s what our fans expect.
“We can’t continue to discount seats that we would have full payers for. If we don’t, I don’t want to have those seats sit empty when we could have someone taking the best seat they possibly can. But we’ve got to be allowed to sell as many full-priced tickets as we can.”