UCATS restructuring coming

[Lobot]

For those who are UCATS or looking to become UCATS, the organization is going to restructure the amount of tickets you can buy per UCATS membership. It's not about more money like you'd think. However they're hoping that increased donations will be the case also. What is is about is growing the number of donors to the Athletic Dept from a number perspective.

Right now there are 3500 UCATS. This is a very small number of donors for a major university. It's low because there are UCATS accounts with a single membership buying 20+ tickets per member. I'll have more details later today (I hope) and everyone should expect some communication in the future regarding this.

It's looking preliminarily like they want to do 4 tickets per member. That's not concrete. That means if you are one UCATS member buying 8 tickets as I know someone on here does, in the future you'll be able to keep your group together, theoretically pay the same amount of money and UCATS will have 2 members on the rolls instead of 1. It's not to the degree of PSLs like the pros but it's a step in the right direction.

The perception of us as a national program needs to reflect the true number of donors we have if we want to look attractive down the road when/if realignment occurs.

[98bearcat]

I second this motion!

[chase1050]

Have you heard anything else about this initiative?

I currently buy 16 tickets, so it would certainly affect our group.

[Lobot]

Chase, I have not at this point. Jeff Smith was going to call me and I have not heard from him so far. He's extremely busy so I'm not going to be nag and keep bothering him.

[Lobot]

Any other UCATS get a letter from Mike Bohn asking you to attend a a town hall with Cronin and Tuberville? Thinking that this is probably a hash out of the new structure.

[Chewbacca2099]

Nothing here. I buy 8 football tix every year but this change doesn't bother me. Someone else will just have to step up and donate in my group.

[cpawstoney]

I in no way know what the thought process is for changing the UCAT fees, but I wouldn't mind seeing something like this. Have a base UCAT fee that allows for a maximum of four tickets. For each two (or four tickets) desired above the four, add a discounted (maybe 10-20%) additional required donation.

It could look something like this (don't take my numbers as fact, I just made something up):

UCAT fee Currently for tier two:

1500 - Tier 2 | unlimited (or so it seems) number of ticlets

UCAT fee Proposed change:

1200 Tier 2 | 1-4 tickets (400 UCAT fee per seat)
1700 Tier 2 | 5-6 tickets (add 500 for each additional two seats)
2200 Tier 2 | 7-8 tickets
2700 Tier 2 | 9-10 tickets

This type donation schedule would be for all sports (i.e. football and basketball). This would allow UCATS (e.g UC sports) to:

1. Maximize income
2. Allow large groups to stay together
3. Give somewhat of a perk to long time supporters and those with large groups

Of course, what ever changes are made, there will be unhappy people.

Again, I in NO way know what is coming. These are just some thoughts/ideas I had. Anyone else?

[JDBEARCAT]

I think it would be a big mistake to reduce the # of tickets you could buy. Now if some are getting double digit # of tickets, an adjustment may need to be made. If you limit to only 4 or 2 tickets per donation, I believe that could really hurt attendance. It also could reduce the # of season tickets sold. Fans will just buy the games they want because there always seems to be reduced prices after the season starts. Just my humble opinion.

[Chewbacca2099]

This is a good point. The season tickets already end up costing more than buying them separately because of all the sales and multi-packs they do before the games. That doesn't even include the donation. Increasing the donation could actually backfire and decrease ticket sales for the season. Hopefully the donation amounts are not going up for the lower tiers

[Bearcat Otto]

This is a good point. The season tickets already end up costing more than buying them separately because of all the sales and multi-packs they do before the games. That doesn't even include the donation. Increasing the donation could actually backfire and decrease ticket sales for the season. Hopefully the donation amounts are not going up for the lower tiers

It is this type of thinking that will keep UC small time.

The UCAT fee is not part of the price of the ticket. Until people realize this and understand that the UCAT fee is you supporting UC athletics in all forms.

Once we can overcome that, we can move forward.

[Chewbacca2099]

I understand that and don't mind paying it. I feel like the comment above gets unnecessarily repeated often on this board when we are the ones that are donating. I'm just saying the casual fans care about their wallets and the season tickets are more expensive (face value) than buying the single game tickets already. Therefore I hope they don't make it even harder for fans to justify donating and buying the season tickets. Not talking about myself or others on this board.

[Lobot]

It is this type of thinking that will keep UC small time.

The UCAT fee is not part of the price of the ticket. Until people realize this and understand that the UCAT fee is you supporting UC athletics in all forms.

Once we can overcome that, we can move forward.

I'm of the impression that no one is talking about raising donation levels although that might turn out to be a byproduct. The object here is to increase the physical number of actual UCATS. It's for perception and frankly it needs to be done. We need more than 3500 donors. That's a ridiculously low number for a program of our size. That group out there with 30 members is going to have a minimum of 8 donors attached to it instead of one, if that is indeed the model that goes through. Even when the rolls were screwed up we had less than 6000 donors. Still too few. Keep in mind they are supposedly trying not to split up groups or cost those groups any additional cash. (yet)

Total speculation on my part but what we might get is a gradual phase in of additiona; UCATS fees.

The town hall I mentioned is on the 10th and I can't attend in person. I've requested a teleconference line so I can at least try to listen in since this came up rather quickly.

[Johnny Mac]

I have been invited but can't attend due to a previous commitment. I believe it is a meeting mainly to get input into a vision for UC's future.

John

[Barklee]

Any feedback on the Town Hall mentioned above? I'm a season ticket holder, member of the 1200 Club and Tip-off Club and did not get an invitation.

[Lobot]

Barklee, I wish I could say I knew what went on but when I called the RSVP trying to get a teleconference line to listen in, NO ONE called me back. So I got nothing.