I have been under the impression Jeramiah Dickey basically told us no thanks, so we chose Mike Buddie instead. Would be gross incompetence by TCU leadership if Buddie was chosen over an interested Dickey.
Buddie has seemingly come in and kept things business as usual with a complete unwillingness to rock the boat or upset the apple cart, which TCU is in desperate need of.
I've seen many people on our message board's defend his willingness to sign off on the price increase for season tickets because the decision had already been in the works for a while... I still strongly disagree.
If I'm Buddie and I show up to TCU and one of the first things that hits my desk is my ticket office asking me to sign off on a 50% price increase citing "secondary market sales" and "being behind our peers" I would have first wanted to know:
- Q: How many tickets did we sell last year? Is there strong demand for season tickets to justify and support a large price increase? A: Oh. Season ticket sales were down last year.
- Q: Did we just have an incredible season with lots of excitement and momentum around our program? A: Oh. We underperformed for the second season in a row and had losses to SMU, Baylor, Houston, and UCF.
- Q: Do we have more games this season? Do we have an exciting out of conference opponent coming to Fort Worth? A: Oh. We still only have 6 games with no exciting OOC opponent.
After considering all of this, I would have said, "Sure. We've got to find ways to drive revenue, but it can't be at the expense of losing a large chunk of season ticket holders. Raising season ticket prices isn't going to be the first thing I sign off on. Thanks for your suggestion, but let's put this decision on hold until next year. Instead, let's prioritize renewals and new season ticket holders and getting a little bit of positive momentum first."