I appreciate your response, and without wasting too much time, I will attempt to address the major points you touched on.
My intention here is not to come across as a pretentious, condescending dbag, but I do want to state that I have far more perspective on this issue than people on this board give me credit for. Without giving away my points of contact, I'll simply say that I have followed and researched this entire situation obsessively for years. I can assure you I'm not just pulling stuff out of my ass and I do my best to acknowledge when I'm making presumptuous statements versus statements of fact.
Anyway, let's start by addressing your season ticket location and the limited perspective it has given you. No offense, but even on the 50 yard line, east side seats near the top aren't extremely special or desirable, which has obviously skewed your perspective.
I can factually tell you that there is a healthy number of people that regularly make a respectable amount of profit selling their extra tickets on stubhub every season. These people are also selling much better seats than you have. And they're also strategic in when they list them and how they price them. Not just anyone can go list all of their TCU tickets on stubhub and expect to make money. You need to have good enough seats, follow the trends in the market fairly closely to know where to price the tickets, and list them far enough out in order to sell them at a good price. I follow the stubhub market very closely, and outside of extremely high profile games, ticket prices typically sharply decline the week leading up to the game as people get desperate to get them sold.
Next, there's a big disconnect in your argument. You're essentially using your experience selling one off tickets at the top of the East Side as proof that there's not demand for premium seats. Seats at the top of the east side, even on the 50 yard line, are not even close to premium seats and in no way can they be compared to west side seats on the lower bowl. There's essentially zero correlation between the demand for single game tickets at the top of the east side on the secondary market and the demand for premium
season tickets on the lower west side.
Next, I've never ever made an argument that TCU price gauges our ticket prices. We have some of the most reasonably priced season tickets in the country. Not sure what made you even bring this up.
Next point, nothing I discussed in this thread really has anything to do with the club seats. Our west side club is usually fairly well attended and primarily purple. I wish people would spend more time in the stands watching the game and less time in the club socializing, but the west side club isn't even close to one of the major problems. The East Side club is way over priced. However, I don't consider these premium seats. They're actually terrible seats with a country club attached behind them. They are way higher up than the west side club seats and face right into the sun, and therefore, don't represent demand for premium seats either.
"But some of your rhetoric when it comes to this topic is that TCU should largely subsidize their fanbase and give them the opportunity to get season tickets at a historic discount to other schools, essentially a handout."
- This particular comment is extremely bewildering. Nothing I have ever said even comes close to suggesting that I think anywhere close to this.
"If you can't spend $100 on a ticket between the 20s of the east side, then there is in fact a demand issue."
- Again, your seats aren't as good as you think they are, and your perspective is far more limited than you realize. I know of plenty of accounts that sell east side tickets between the 20s and make a profit every year. Their tickets are just much further down than yours. And FWIW, including the $75 donation for your seats and assuming there are 6 home games, your tickets come out to $62 a game. When you add the 15% stubhub fee, selling a ticket for $100 is almost a 100% markup. Of course you're going to have a hard time getting someone to pay that for seats at the top of the east side. But that has no indication as to the demand for premium seats from season ticket holders. People interested in upgrading to better seats are probably already season ticket holders. They're not part of the audience you are selling to on the secondary ticket market. The majority of the secondary market demand comes from away fans. Again. No correlation between them and the demand for premium season tickets.