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July 15, 2008

UGA Ticket Cut-Off Scores Announced


Today, the UGA Athletic Department announced the cut-off scores for Hartman Fund priority status in ordering away game, single home game and new season tickets. Remember, points equal lifetime dollars contributed to the Hartman Fund (formerly GEEF). Here are the cut offs:
If you bought season tickets last year, and you contributed the minimum / base amount that was *clearly* printed on your order form, you should receive tickets again this year.

Season tickets at UGA are "renewable." As long as you keep contributing to the Hartman Fund and keep buying the season tickets, you keep getting them. Or as the official press release states
"Hartman Fund contributors who did not have 2007 renewable season tickets must have a cumulative score of 10,651 or higher to receive 2008 renewable season tickets."
The only seats that opened up this year were due to givers dying or failing to renew their seats. More on the Cut-Off scores later tonight. In the meantime, UGASports.com has an excellent article up discussing the numbers behind the cut-off score.

For other options on getting in:
-- Season Tickets for Sale on Stubhub
-- Single Game tickets for sale on Stubhub

PWD

20 comments:

Josh M. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Josh M. said...

The only way I'm ever going to afford season tickets is if al Qaida wipes out the Masters.

(fingers crossed...)

Crane said...

pity rant-->
yeah got the notice yesterday. Had season tix 2 years ago. Had a baby last year so I didn't re-up.

My donation was south of 20k so I guess I'll be looking for scalped tickets again.

It hurts to donate AND have to get scalped tickets.

My own damn fault.
<-- pity rant>

Crane said...

BTW PW excellent use of both an important article AND generating traffic to your advertiser.

:)

Unknown said...

Crane - Shoot me an email again. I lost your note the other day in a pile of comments. I can't find it.



As for the advertisers links. You know, I had written a separate / second much longer article about the ticket cut-off scores.

But the UGASports.com article is good enough that about 2/3 of what I wrote was redundant. So I bagged that. I felt like the links made the wasted effort worth my while.

PWD

Anonymous said...

Looks like I'll be scalping tickets for quite some time...

The only thing that concerns me is that many average income fans will be priced out of getting season tickets. I just don't want only high rollers to have season tickets. What's the fun in that???

Anonymous said...

I agree ugh-a...the article talks about taking care of alumni, but really, its taking care of the highest bidder.

Unknown said...

Actually - if you're honest about it, it does *not* take care of the highest bidder.

It takes care of the fans who put up with the most bad football for the longest.

Students today get the benefit of watching some of the best football in UGA history as students. The downside, they come out of school unable to afford season tickets.

Alumni like me saw some of the WORST football in UGA history as students. Yet, when we got out season tickets we easily accessible.

And Alumni from earlier years who weathered the Goff years relentlessly were given the opportunity to move way up much easier than today.

Over HALF of the givers today are *well below* the amount that the first time contributors had to pay to get into the stadium this year.

So if you're really being honest about it. The system rewards longevity and faith more than money.

Especially when you consider that a $19,000 contribution STILL wouldn't result in you moving into better seats this year.

PWD

Anonymous said...

Anybody who graduated pre-2003 could have got tickets with no donation in the first year. The necessary donation was made in your name if you ordered the tickets. 2003 grads, like myself, received an unpleasant surprise when cut off scores exceeded the minimum donation amount (200 a ticket I believe then) for tickets the following fall. In 2004 tickets could once again be had for the minimum donation amount. The only people I really feel sorry for are the students graduating who will need either an investment banking job, stadium renovations, or consecutive mediocre seasons to get in the stadium.

Anonymous said...

All I'm saying is some recognitition for being an alumnus would be nice. This system allows someone (anyone, regardless of how loyal they were) to buy in for $10,000 over someone who went to Georgia for seven years and just happened to graduate this year.
I don't begrudge those that got in ahead of me during the downtimes. I don't even want good tickets--I just want any tickets.
For those trying to break in to the system for the first time, it has nothing to do with loyalty and everything to do with what you can pay. On my student tickets, I missed one home game in seven years (I know some might think thats one too many) and went to several away games every year. I'm not a bandwagon fan, I just happened to graduate this year.
Sure, the system rewards loyalty once you are in it. I appreciate that and like that once you have your seats, you can keep them with a minimum controbution. I recognize that if it were ALL about money, I would have received tickets this year and booted my elders who have been there through the lean years out of the stadium. Thats not right either, of course.
I just think the barrier of entry for new, loyal, young alums is way too high when loyal alums and fans can get outbid by some guy in Atlanta with $10 grand to burn that wants to jump in this year for what will be a great run. There is a middle ground that would reward loyalty on all levels (for those that have been there and those trying to get in). This is a new problem--its never been so high that it is truly out of reach for the next few years for a young alum to get tickets.
All said, its a good problem to have. We're winning and have great fans that want to support the team. I'd still rather have to scratch and fight for Georgia tickets than be given Tech tickets with four free hot dogs, program, gold watch, Mini Cooper, etc.
By the way, great blog and Go Dawgs!

Anonymous said...

Your cries will be answered. If the demand stays like this next year then talk about expanding the stadium will be brought up. Then if the demand is like this again the following year then an expansion will take place after that season.

Anonymous said...

PWD,
Anyone know which section numbers are allotted to UGA this year in Jacksonville? Since I didn't make the cutoff this year I want to make sure the tix I buy are in the right place.

Joel said...

Anon 7:25, while your scenario certainly could happen, I bet the majority of those people who did make the cut off score for the first time this year are fairly recent alumni who have donated smaller amounts over the past few years - presumably the situation you will be in in a few years.

In a supply and demand system, someone is going to get left out.
We have current students who cant get full season tix & recent alumni who cant get any tix. While I would certainly love to have those people in the stadium on gameday, i also want the guys who have been there for years. It may not be perfect, but it is a fair system.

Unknown said...

Martinez,

I'll ask in a week or so. After the crush of phone calls dies down. I'm sure they are swamped right now.

PWD

Anonymous said...

Actually, I do not think stadium expansion is a real possibility for 10 years. Before that happens, I would expect the AA to look at season ticket reset. If 1/2 of the ticket holders made donations below the minimum cut off score do we have any idea, what the average cume score for season ticketholders is?

I think it is more likely that they will find a way to push up the minimum renewable donation amount for all seats across the board. They could either require a minimum cume score of 10,000 or just continually increase the base donation from $300 to 500 or 1000. I would expect that would help open up seats for new ticketholders.

I think UT went through something like that about 5 years ago.

Anonymous said...

The problem would be that this is not a truly supply and demand situation. If it were then the price for entry would be to be at or above the lowest cumulative score.

This is a quasi-reward and gamble system. If you had tickets prior and only donated total lifetime $1200 for example then you are awarded tickets. If however you are new, you are in a different pool. You and anyone who asks for new tickets (new ticket holders or current ticket holder who ask for more tickets) are in a bidding war for the newly allotted tickets.

There are two different systems here; one is a system for ticket holders that already have tickets. Pay the minimum and you are guaranteed tickets for life. The other system is one in which you are bidding for about 1% of the new tickets that become available if any and it is a bidding war.

All new ticket hopefuls will have to shell out money every year to have a change with no guarantee for anything.

Here is an interesting scenario based on no new tickets until year 5 being available:
Year 1 - donate $2500 (result nothing)
Year 2 - donate $5000 (total $7500 result nothing)
Year 3 - donate $5000 (total $12500 result nothing)
Year 4 - donate $2500 (total $15000 result nothing)
Year 5 - Fed-up and donate nothing; however, tickets become available but you have not donated anything that year (total $12500 result nothing)
Year 6 - donate $2500; no new tickets (total $17500 result nothing)

Or new people realize that it is a bad system prior to this (as you are bidding on a hope that you may get tickets) and stop donations. Meanwhile older ticket holders block new revenue streams that would be helping the program. Without large new revenue streams programs will diminish.

Anonymous said...

I would expect the AA to look at season ticket reset.

They do not believe it is a problem.

If 1/2 of the ticket holders made donations below the minimum cut off score do we have any idea, what the average cume score for season ticketholders is?

They are on a different scale. Once you have tickets you have them for life. Their are actually ticket holders that continue to get tickets that are below $1500 total cum. score. The current score for ticket holder this year was around $2400 I was told.

Unknown said...

I don't know what this means "The current score for ticket holder this year was around $2400 I was told".

No idea what that means.

I do know that UGASports.com interviewed the Ticket Manager and he said a the average Hartman score for all existing ticket holders was around 10,000-12,000 points.

As for this idea that there are ticket holders with less than $1,500 points.

I can tell you there probably are, but there ain't many. That would mean buying 2 tickets 3 years ago when there was no minimum and only giving $250 per ticket for 3 years.

To have a score less than that would require buying only 1 season ticket for less than 6 years. That's the *only* people who could have less than 1,500 points and still have tickets.

That would give you a total of exactly $1,500. And there aren't many folks in that boat.

I have a little over 8,000 points. I've been giving for about 9 years, and I recently ramped up giving. When I first started the minimums were half as much for my seats.


I've been within $500-1,000 dollars of the UF cut-off 3 or 4 consecutive times despite giving 2-3x the minimum for 2 premium seats those years.

My refund checks are living proof that there are a TON of tickets being purchased by people with a heap more than 1,500 points...and it's hard as hell catching the donors ahead of me who are in control of the 40,000 UF tickets.

But I'm cool with that. It's the law of the jungle.

Anonymous said...

I do know that UGASports.com interviewed the Ticket Manager and he said a the average Hartman score for all existing ticket holders was around 10,000-12,000 points.

As for this idea that there are ticket holders with less than $1,500 points.

I can tell you there probably are, but there ain't many. That would mean buying 2 tickets 3 years ago when there was no minimum and only giving $250 per ticket for 3 years.


Paul,

I talked to the Director of Development at UGA for the complete picture. If you look at the total accumulation for last year (based on the 2008 Membership and Ticket packet) you will see a donor chart. only 7500 people had donated above the $8200 mark. Yet the cutoff for new tickets in 2007 was around $2400. This is for only home games, do not confuse the issue with away tickets which is on yet another scale based on the venue. For this year for only new tickets their is a different scale which is ONLY based on new people trying to get tickets. They and they alone are in a bidding war for seats and this year happen to top off at $10,681. There are roughly (as of 2007 figures) 8000 people who have less than 10,000 in the fund (chart 14,000 people above $1500 to 5,000 below $13,200; moreover, they only show the scale at donor over $1500 which there are people with less).

The main point is that once you have tickets and pay the minimum you have them for life. Less than 2/3 of the donors that have tickets are above the $10,861 mark (refer to chart). So a person that only has $1500 in contributions will still receive tickets because they do not have to qualify per year as well as any other current ticket holder, the $10,681 is irrelevant and does not affect them.

New potential ticket holders will have to wait until new tickets become available before they will ever get a shot at new tickets. They will also have to have outbid all other new holders (including old donors that are requesting more tickets - the case this year or people who lapse in prior years but had donated in the past).

AUGTUHOUCSULBUSD said...

Dumbass Dawg fans (most of whom never attended) wasting their AFDC checks.

Point levels might be adjusted if AFDC level is adjusted

 
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