East Side Club email

[tcumaniac]

I'm curious how many people actually want east side club seats. Part of me wonders if the current demand for west side club seats is more driven by the location of the seats vs the club experience.

Home side seats (not in the nosebleed) between the 20s are clearly the most desirable seats in the stadium.

What does tcu do with the renovation? They eliminate 1/3 or more of these types of seats that previously existed and replaced them with suites, club seats, and a 12 row lower bowl that's more similar to a movie tavern setting than a football game.

And they wonder why people got so upset during the reseating process. If you don't have/want club seats, where are you supposed to aspire to sit as a long standing donor/ season ticket holder? Where's the insentive to donate and move up the priority point latter? Outside of the club, good seats on the home side simply don't exist. Even if CDC said "maniac, ill give you and your wife west side lower bowl seats if you will just shut the darn up" why would I want to sit there? I might offend some one for clapping after a TD or standing on 3rd down.


This whole situation is just absolute absurdity and I can't believe TCU was dumb enough to create it. It was so foreseeable and so avoidable.

 

[Bob Sugar]

I hate this logic so much.

Having a good football team and a lot of your most loyal fans having good seats doesn't have to be mutually exclusive.

TCU royally screwed the pooch with the stadium layout and reseating. Not only did they completely eliminate a large amount of West Side Lower Bowl seats guaranteeing that many fans would be displaced, they also implemented the "plus 4" program and didn't count club or suite seats towards someone's allotment, which made the problem exponentially worst.

Think about other stadiums across the country that have big time programs. They all have a large amount of great home side seats for a large contingency of their most loyal fans that show up to actually watch football and actively cheer for their team. This rewards your loyal fans with good seats, and you get a good home field advantage as well. You can have this AND still have premium level club seats and suites to drive revenue and satisfy the wants of your elite fans.

TCU literally has no good seats for it's average diehard fan that simply comes to the game to watch TCU football. If you don't own a suite, if you're not socially elite enough to have access to VIP lower bowl seats, and if you don't have club seats, where are you supposed to sit?

You can either sit on the outer edges, in outer-space in the 400 section, or you can sit on the East Side and pray that you don't have a heat stroke... not to mention you're more than likely surrounded by opposing fans that bought tickets on stubhub from TCU fans that buy extra seats just to boost their PP ranking.

There is literally not another stadium in the country that completely ignores the well being of the majority of it's fans. If you don't want club seats or a suite, TCU basically gives you the middle finger and tells you to ---------- It's pathetic.

Back to the point of your post: TCU didn't have to darn over it's core fanbase for us to be good at football. Not mutually exclusive. We could very much have a great football team, great seats for the fans that actually want to watch the game and cheer, all while taking care of and monetizing the desires of the socially elite that think they need a country club experience at a football game. All 3 of these things could have been done. They weren't and it's a damn [ farging ] shame.

Seating and Maniac is like 2014 CFP and Wexahu.

 

[tcumaniac]

Seating and Maniac is like 2014 CFP and Wexahu.

 

[Dogfrog]

I'm curious how many people actually want east side club seats. Part of me wonders if the current demand for west side club seats is more driven by the location of the seats vs the club experience.

Home side seats (not in the nosebleed) between the 20s are clearly the most desirable seats in the stadium.

What does tcu do with the renovation? They eliminate 1/3 or more of these types of seats that previously existed and replaced them with suites, club seats, and a 12 row lower bowl that's more similar to a movie tavern setting than a football game.

And they wonder why people got so upset during the reseating process. If you don't have/want club seats, where are you supposed to aspire to sit as a long standing donor/ season ticket holder? Where's the insentive to donate and move up the priority point latter? Outside of the club, good seats on the home side simply don't exist. Even if CDC said "maniac, ill give you and your wife west side lower bowl seats if you will just shut the darn up" why would I want to sit there? I might offend some one for clapping after a TD or standing on 3rd down.


This whole situation is just absolute absurdity and I can't believe TCU was dumb enough to create it. It was so foreseeable and so avoidable.

I will stray from the herd and support you here. Everything you say is true, but I would only add a different perspective. The athletic department pulled out all the stops to fund the stadium in advance. In doing so in hindsight they probably went too far, made some design flaws that screwed over the rank and file. But they accomplished their goal. I would like to see CDC and company now use their imaginations to fix some of the problems.

Fix the lower bowl so it's more like football stadium premium seating. Maybe offer a generous one time buyback of the original committee of 100 tickets and other +50 ticket holders so they can be recirculated into the upgrade process. These loyal folks ponied up for these tickets many years ago and I would bet they will understand the need for change. Continue to allow donors to gain access to suites, club seats, and loges through last minute donations. But consider moving the regular seating process to be prioritized based on ticket purchase history only going forward. But along with this go ahead and establish more significant ticket premiums for prime locations. For regular seating, move toward revenue increases through ticket pricing rather than last minute money whipping.

 

[geezer]

I'm curious how many people actually want east side club seats. Part of me wonders if the current demand for west side club seats is more driven by the location of the seats vs the club experience.

Home side seats (not in the nosebleed) between the 20s are clearly the most desirable seats in the stadium.

What does tcu do with the renovation? They eliminate 1/3 or more of these types of seats that previously existed and replaced them with suites, club seats, and a 12 row lower bowl that's more similar to a movie tavern setting than a football game.

And they wonder why people got so upset during the reseating process. If you don't have/want club seats, where are you supposed to aspire to sit as a long standing donor/ season ticket holder? Where's the insentive to donate and move up the priority point latter? Outside of the club, good seats on the home side simply don't exist. Even if CDC said "maniac, ill give you and your wife west side lower bowl seats if you will just shut the darn up" why would I want to sit there? I might offend some one for clapping after a TD or standing on 3rd down.


This whole situation is just absolute absurdity and I can't believe TCU was dumb enough to create it. It was so foreseeable and so avoidable.

 

[Deep Purple]

I hate this logic so much.

Having a good football team and a lot of your most loyal fans having good seats doesn't have to be mutually exclusive.

TCU royally screwed the pooch with the stadium layout and reseating. Not only did they completely eliminate a large amount of West Side Lower Bowl seats guaranteeing that many fans would be displaced, they also implemented the "plus 4" program and didn't count club or suite seats towards someone's allotment, which made the problem exponentially worst.

Think about other stadiums across the country that have big time programs. They all have a large amount of great home side seats for a large contingency of their most loyal fans that show up to actually watch football and actively cheer for their team. This rewards your loyal fans with good seats, and you get a good home field advantage as well. You can have this AND still have premium level club seats and suites to drive revenue and satisfy the wants of your elite fans.

TCU literally has no good seats for it's average diehard fan that simply comes to the game to watch TCU football. If you don't own a suite, if you're not socially elite enough to have access to VIP lower bowl seats, and if you don't have club seats, where are you supposed to sit?

You can either sit on the outer edges, in outer-space in the 400 section, or you can sit on the East Side and pray that you don't have a heat stroke... not to mention you're more than likely surrounded by opposing fans that bought tickets on stubhub from TCU fans that buy extra seats just to boost their PP ranking.

There is literally not another stadium in the country that completely ignores the well being of the majority of it's fans. If you don't want club seats or a suite, TCU basically gives you the middle finger and tells you to darn off. It's pathetic.

Back to the point of your post: TCU didn't have to darn over it's core fanbase for us to be good at football. Not mutually exclusive. We could very much have a great football team, great seats for the fans that actually want to watch the game and cheer, all while taking care of and monetizing the desires of the socially elite that think they need a country club experience at a football game. All 3 of these things could have been done. They weren't and it's a damn [ farging ] shame.

 

[MTfrog5]

I don't get the agreement about club seats. Why don't the people that spend the most money deserve the best seats? I'm pissed at myself for even responding here

 

[HFrog12]

I will stray from the herd and support you here. Everything you say is true, but I would only add a different perspective. The athletic department pulled out all the stops to fund the stadium in advance. In doing so in hindsight they probably went too far, made some design flaws that screwed over the rank and file. But they accomplished their goal. I would like to see CDC and company now use their imaginations to fix some of the problems.

Fix the lower bowl so it's more like football stadium premium seating. Maybe offer a generous one time buyback of the original committee of 100 tickets and other +50 ticket holders so they can be recirculated into the upgrade process. These loyal folks ponied up for these tickets many years ago and I would bet they will understand the need for change. Continue to allow donors to gain access to suites, club seats, and loges through last minute donations. But consider moving the regular seating process to be prioritized based on ticket purchase history only going forward. But along with this go ahead and establish more significant ticket premiums for prime locations. For regular seating move toward revenue increases through ticket pricing rather than last minute money whipping.

I too will agree with Maniac on the west side lower bowl and how it was somewhat flawed in the beginning. However, I am not going to borrow the whining drum that he continuously beats on, but instead look forward to potential improvements, which CDC is trying to poll. I understand the initial driver for $$ to fund the initial project and how we got to where we are. That being said, I agree with Dogfrog that we should try to have some type of buyback on the west side lower bowl, but only once the East Side club/suites are completed. A caveat to this would be to make it known that they will eventually be redesigning the wslb to accommodate more seats and get rid of the movie tavern seating. That way you could evaluate where those donors actually prefer to sit. I have a feeling that you will have a number of people who would move to the club for the amenities and ditch their wslb seating; thus, creating more supply in the wslb. From what I understand some of the people that occupy the wslb are more of the corporate types for entertainment. If the option is given you may see those types jump from there over to the new east side amenities.

I think everyone wins in this situation. People who have been on the club wait list get their club seats and their is more supply in the premium west side lower bowl, hopefully for the types of fans that Maniac describes. I am sure you would upset some people who have been accustomed to their 10 feet of leg room and waiting service, but they now would have that option on the east side.

 

[Tcupurplefaith]

curious...so based on the rendering the club/suites would be built on top of the east side 200 section. Does this remove the once mentioned possible expansion for the east side, I feel like I remember them saying it wouldn't be a big deal to expand or add to the east side should they feel the need to

 

[rifram09]

Maniac, do you realize how ridiculous you sound when you simultaneously argue "there are no good seats available in AGC, so there is no incentive to give money to move up in PP ranking," and "all those plush awesome seats in AGC are only attainable to people who give a bunch of money to move up in PP ranking"? Then the cherry on top is when you say all those plush awesome seats aren't good seats because you wouldn't like who you would be sitting next to.

Most rational actors want to sit in the club/lower west bowl. There is literally no configuration of seats that would make those locations less desirable. As such, those people at the top of the PP ranking would fill those seats no matter what, leaving them equally unattainable to average Joe whether they were bench seats (w/ or w/o backs), club seats, loge seats, suites, leather recliners, jacuzzi seat, spa treatment seats, or anything else you can imagine. The only two things you're close to correct about in all that meaningless drivel you constantly spout are: (1) they should redo the lower west bowl to make the seating more dense, and (2) they oversold tickets to the top donors via the plus four, and they should ensure people are using all those tickets by implementing a process to take them back if they are going unused. Other than those two things, which are easily fixable, you're just whining about stuff that is true of every thriving football program in America.

 

[TxFrog1999]

I say we take off a nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

 

[rifram09]

curious...so based on the rendering the club/suites would be built on top of the east side 200 section. Does this remove the once mentioned possible expansion for the east side, I feel like I remember them saying it wouldn't be a big deal to expand or add to the east side should they feel the need to

I don't believe they ever released renderings of what the east side expansion would have entailed. (Big donors maybe saw something, but Average Joe wasn't privy to it.). So, I'm not sure anyone can tell you for sure. That said, they did say the east side could be expanded by adding a cantilever upper deck. So they built it to support the weight of an upper deck. After 5 years, I think they're seeing that demand for those seats isn't there in the near term, so they've decided instead to address the demand for premium seating by scrapping the cantilever upper deck idea in favor of a sky box like the rendering in this thread.

I think that's a great move. Our bench seating is not in high demand (tickets on stub hub are cheap for most games and this year we didn't sell out of season tickets). Adding premium seating not only increases our stadium capacity but generates far more money per seat to sustain our athletic department. For our program, premium seats are the way to go.

 

[Tcupurplefaith]

I don't believe they ever released renderings of what the east side expansion would have entailed. (Big donors maybe saw something, but Average Joe wasn't privy to it.). So, I'm not sure anyone can tell you for sure. That said, they did say the east side could be expanded by adding a cantilever upper deck. So they built it to support the weight of an upper deck. After 5 years, I think they're seeing that demand for those seats isn't there in the near term, so they've decided instead to address the demand for premium seating by scrapping the cantilever upper deck idea in favor of a sky box like the rendering in this thread.

I think that's a great move. Our bench seating is not in high demand (tickets on stub hub are cheap for most games and this year we didn't sell out of season tickets). Adding premium seating not only increases our stadium capacity but generates far more money per seat to sustain our athletic department. For our program, premium seats are the way to go.

That's what I figured, thanks for the info

 

[Nick Danger]

I too will agree with Maniac on the west side lower bowl and how it was somewhat flawed in the beginning. However, I am not going to borrow the whining drum that he continuously beats on, but instead look forward to potential improvements, which CDC is trying to poll. I understand the initial driver for $$ to fund the initial project and how we got to where we are. That being said, I agree with Dogfrog that we should try to have some type of buyback on the west side lower bowl, but only once the East Side club/suites are completed. A caveat to this would be to make it known that they will eventually be redesigning the wslb to accommodate more seats and get rid of the movie tavern seating. That way you could evaluate where those donors actually prefer to sit. I have a feeling that you will have a number of people who would move to the club for the amenities and ditch their wslb seating; thus, creating more supply in the wslb. From what I understand some of the people that occupy the wslb are more of the corporate types for entertainment. If the option is given you may see those types jump from there over to the new east side amenities.

I think everyone wins in this situation. People who have been on the club wait list get their club seats and their is more supply in the premium west side lower bowl, hopefully for the types of fans that Maniac describes. I am sure you would upset some people who have been accustomed to their 10 feet of leg room and waiting service, but they now would have that option on the east side.

I have to admit that I didn't get what maniac and dogfrog were trying to say but after reading your post I can say "Oh! Now I get it"! You explained what you all were trying to get across . . . . well, more better! The approach you describe makes sense to me now and actually seems like a very good idea (for all the weight that will carry).

 

[tcumaniac]

Maniac, do you realize how ridiculous you sound when you simultaneously argue "there are no good seats available in AGC, so there is no incentive to give money to move up in PP ranking," and "all those plush awesome seats in AGC are only attainable to people who give a bunch of money to move up in PP ranking"? Then the cherry on top is when you say all those plush awesome seats aren't good seats because you wouldn't like who you would be sitting next to.

Most rational actors want to sit in the club/lower west bowl. There is literally no configuration of seats that would make those locations less desirable. As such, those people at the top of the PP ranking would fill those seats no matter what, leaving them equally unattainable to average Joe whether they were bench seats (w/ or w/o backs), club seats, loge seats, suites, leather recliners, jacuzzi seat, spa treatment seats, or anything else you can imagine. The only two things you're close to correct about in all that meaningless drivel you constantly spout are: (1) they should redo the lower west bowl to make the seating more dense, and (2) they oversold tickets to the top donors via the plus four, and they should ensure people are using all those tickets by implementing a process to take them back if they are going unused. Other than those two things, which are easily fixable, you're just whining about stuff that is true of every thriving football program in America.

You are taking my arguments out of context / misinterpreting them.


Admittedly, a majority of my argument is regarding an irreversible mistake TCU made. TCU provided no section of lower-level, home side seats between the 30s for high priority point fans that just wanted good seats to cheer for their team without all the bells and whistles and added costs of club style seating. These type of seats do not exist, which is not the case at "every thriving football program in America." Every other stadium in America found a way to incorporate luxury seating options, while ALSO providing high density, premium seats without the bells and whistles of a club or movie tavern style seating. TCU did not.

West Side Lower Bowl seats were essentially not made available to fans outside of board members, elite level donors, and corporations.


Outside of the club, there really isn’t another option for good home side seats for our upper tier, long time donors, alumni, and fans. And unfortunately it’s a pretty unfixable problem.


But I do agree that some type of WSLB buyback and renovation to add more seat density is currently our best option to slightly mediate this problem.

 

[Mean Purple]

Seating and Maniac is like 2014 CFP and Wexahu.

Says the folks who are happy to post on both type threads...then run to their plate thread and complain about those threads that they post on.

(There, that should stir crap up enough for another few hours in the ongoing effort to keep people away from posting another injury thread)

 

[Mean Purple]

I'm curious how many people actually want east side club seats. Part of me wonders if the current demand for west side club seats is more driven by the location of the seats vs the club experience.

Home side seats (not in the nosebleed) between the 20s are clearly the most desirable seats in the stadium.

What does tcu do with the renovation? They eliminate 1/3 or more of these types of seats that previously existed and replaced them with suites, club seats, and a 12 row lower bowl that's more similar to a movie tavern setting than a football game.

And they wonder why people got so upset during the reseating process. If you don't have/want club seats, where are you supposed to aspire to sit as a long standing donor/ season ticket holder? Where's the insentive to donate and move up the priority point latter? Outside of the club, good seats on the home side simply don't exist. Even if CDC said "maniac, ill give you and your wife west side lower bowl seats if you will just shut the darn up" why would I want to sit there? I might offend some one for clapping after a TD or standing on 3rd down.


This whole situation is just absolute absurdity and I can't believe TCU was dumb enough to create it. It was so foreseeable and so avoidable.

Only concern with the movie tavern style seating is that it should have been higher up. Get them in the shade earlier...and jack up the price.

In the end, as long as the stands look full, that's the better optic. The sound is still the bigger issue to me.

 

[Peacefrog]

Says the folks who are happy to post on both type threads...then run to their plate thread and complain about those threads that they post on.

(There, that should stir crap up enough for another few hours in the ongoing effort to keep people away from posting another injury thread)

So you do read it? And then complain about it.

Stirring up crap is fun. It's a bye week.

 

[HeidelFrog]

You are taking my arguments out of context / misinterpreting them.


Admittedly, a majority of my argument is regarding an irreversible mistake TCU made. TCU provided no section of lower-level, home side seats between the 30s for high priority point fans that just wanted good seats to cheer for their team without all the bells and whistles and added costs of club style seating. These type of seats do not exist, which is not the case at "every thriving football program in America." Every other stadium in America found a way to incorporate luxury seating options, while ALSO providing high density, premium seats without the bells and whistles of a club or movie tavern style seating. TCU did not.

West Side Lower Bowl seats were essentially not made available to fans outside of board members, elite level donors, and corporations.


Outside of the club, there really isn’t another option for good home side seats for our upper tier, long time donors, alumni, and fans. And unfortunately it’s a pretty unfixable problem.


But I do agree that some type of WSLB buyback and renovation to add more seat density is currently our best option to slightly mediate this problem.

Agree or disagree. I understand your viewpoint. It's impossible to make everyone happy. However, I'm not sure I've ever heard TCU say the current west side lower Bowl configuration was a mistake. I've also never heard of TCU talking about fixing any problems in that area. TCU and the customers that sit in that area are probably happy about it. The survey was about what you would like to see done on the eastside only.

 

[Mean Purple]

So you do read it? And then complain about it.

Stirring up crap is fun. It's a bye week.

I don't actually read the injury threads. I just blindly post there. Every so often, I make a smart alec comment about an injured chess player.