VOLS Letters on the Stadium

Discussion in 'Vols Football' started by CardinalVol, Jun 2, 2022.

  1. justingroves

    justingroves supermod

    I can respect that level of petty
     
    PilotFlyingJ likes this.
  2. SGMVols

    SGMVols Contributor

    I’m pretty sure they weren’t expecting the coach to be a $4 million a year job 40 years after this “lifetime” deal was drawn up. Johnny Majors was making $50,000 a year in 1979.
     
    NorrisAlan likes this.
  3. The Dooz

    The Dooz Super Moderator

    I’d like to see the original contract or terms or explanation of the lifetime thing. I remember when there was a huge fuss because lots of people who thought they were grandfathered in on the sidelines got moved to the end zones but not sure what the fuss is now.

    Does is still relate to this? Or is this over people who lost seats due to the current renovations? Or maybe both?

    The letter from the University laughing in his face is kinda funny though.
     
  4. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    Wasn't it that people wanted the lifetime seats to go to their heirs? But, you know, "lifetime." Not eternal.
     
  5. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    Check out their other posts. They stay mad and conspiratorial
     
  6. zehr27

    zehr27 8th's VIP

    It is. I highly doubt we ever go under 100K.
     
  7. NorrisAlan

    NorrisAlan Founder of the Mike Honcho Fan Club

    Yeah, if it was taken from the original owners given a lifetime contract, I would be a bit pissed, too.

    But a lot of these were second and even third generation, buying their 98 year old grandmother's seats, who hasn't been to a game in 20 years.
     
    IP likes this.
  8. Poppa T

    Poppa T Vol Geezer

    My seats were in YY9 (North End Zone) looking between the goal posts. At the concourse level going down they are bleachers; going up, they are real chairs under the roof. That is how the seats/bleachers (XX-YY-ZZ) are in the NEZ upper deck.

    My per seat cost was $500 donation + about $500 for tix. I had 4 seats. You had to donate the $500/seat for the right to purchase the tickets (think PSL for NFL season tix). So $1,000 all in, for chairs, undercover, jumbotron visual, good view of entire field (and they were not as steep as south EZ upper deck bleachers in the open). VFLs had the donation fee waived. I have had them long enuff, years in a row that I am in the top 20% of the Volunteer Fund donor group.
    We love the chairs, roof, view and company.

    This was not too bad, because pre-2017 tax changes you could claim 80% of $500 ($400) donation as tax deduction. So for $100 I got real chairs, under cover, etc.

    We lost the $400 tax deduction in 2017. They changed the price to all in to $600. Basically they lowered price by the amount we lost from no more tax break.

    I don't know what the lower deck mid-field seats cost. I threw away/deleted the price list. A lot of season seats are $600 all in. The new party deck in NEZ is $1,950 per; standing only with the high bar tables and other amenities.
     
  9. Poppa T

    Poppa T Vol Geezer

    Yep. I can transfer the "right" for my kids/grandkids to buy my season tix for whatever the annual price is. But not at the price I may have paid 50 years ago.

    Now, if I did some sort of substantial estate donation upon my death, then I suspect I could negotiate a ticket deal in that estate donation.

    The people whining are just relatives of long time season ticket holders and want to pay great-granny's 1940 prices.
     
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  10. Poppa T

    Poppa T Vol Geezer

    I too would like to see the "contract". They are lucky they got those premium seats for the price they did for so long.

    When the dust settled, they had the right of first refusal for those seats at the price they are, not the price they were.
     
  11. HCKevinSteele

    HCKevinSteele Well-Known Member

    So I wanted to see some numbers and couldn’t find much but I did find an article from 2004 showing the annual contribution required for regular ticket holders vs. grandfathered ticket holders. As an example, my family’s grandfathered pair required an annual contribution of 1500 then, it would have been 5,000 otherwise.

    I get why people are upset, it is sad to lose tickets you’ve had for 3 or 4 generations, but at the end of the day the new model is fair.
     
  12. PilotFlyingJ

    PilotFlyingJ Chieftain

    Lol it's funny you put that because I was about to ask how old you were.

    This doesn't cover all of the individuals who've had a large rise in their ticket prices BUT there are a lot more people than you'd think who are still taking advantage of the insane fundraiser deal done by Bob Woodruff from the mid-70s. I only became aware of this in the past couple of years but the Athletic Department ran an extremely short sighted fundraiser in the mid-70s that gave people lifetime season tickets in a return for a meager donation that would help pay for the enclosure of the lower bowl. That deal wasn't just for the lifetime of the donor but was allowed to be passed down through progeny.

    That's nearly fifty years of zero revenue
     
  13. Poppa T

    Poppa T Vol Geezer

    I assume those 2 seats were in lower bowl, behind UT bench between the 30/40 yard lines?

    Yep. The new pricing system seems pretty fair. When I retired my season tickets, donation, food and lodging for Home games were/are an expense line item (with some inflation estimates over my life expectancy) in my retirement date calculations.

    Imo, the actual season "ticket" prices have been relatively stable. It is the donation required for the right to buy said tickets that increased. Until 2017 Federal tax changes (I think it was 2017) you could recoup 80% of your donation. A 20% adder for premium seats was not unreasonable. The loss of that 80% tax deduction practically doubled the out-of-pocket cost of a lot of meat/potato donors. They had to level that out.

    You need those small donors for a stadium base. You can't see the Suite Seat big money donors on TV.
     
  14. Poppa T

    Poppa T Vol Geezer

    Yep. I doubt "Assignable in perpetuity" is language you will see in their "contract".
    If it is ... welp.
     
  15. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    If it is then the writer of the contract was beyond their own authority to offer that
     
  16. The Dooz

    The Dooz Super Moderator

    I don’t really care if my great grand nieces, nephews and cousins are sitting in my seats 50-75 years from now because I’ll be dead.
     
    TDVol1989 likes this.
  17. SGMVols

    SGMVols Contributor

    The “contract” said the deal was only transferable to children through 2010. So they got 11 years more than they were promised. No wonder the university wiped its ass with that joke of an attempted lawsuit.
     
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  18. SGMVols

    SGMVols Contributor

    Also I’m pretty sure the AD offered some season tickets to the general public that didn’t require a donation. They could’ve just bought those.
     
  19. Poppa T

    Poppa T Vol Geezer

    Yep. They have been doing that for years. If you are season ticket holder they give you options.

    After I got the 4 donation seats in YY9, we kept the 4 non-donation seats under the "O" we had for years. When they put up the South EZ jumbotron, they said we could donate and upgrade to new seats OR if we wanted to we could relocate to new QQ seats with a view of jumbotron which required no donation.

    Out of all the many, many years of season tickets there has only been 3 years (2017, 2018, 2019) that I really got screwed and that was because they were slow to make changes due to the Federal tax changes.

    Other than we sucked for so long and the bathrooms are still old school garage Station bad, I have no major issues. Football Time in Neyland is still the best.
     
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  20. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    Not a season ticket holder and neither is my family, but from the outside it seems like they try to work with people and aren't just turning holders over soullessly
     
    Poppa T likes this.

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