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Post by Mocha on May 15, 2012 18:08:27 GMT -5
So in exchange for free admission to Olympic sports there are no concession stands at Stanford events?
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Post by mikegarrison on May 15, 2012 19:30:41 GMT -5
So in exchange for free admission to Olympic sports there are no concession stands at Stanford events? Yeah, that doesn't quite make sense. I get the "it's free because we didn't make enough on tickets to pay for the ushers" bit. But it seems as if "free" should mean bigger crowds and thus more demand for food service.
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Post by Thrill of the 'ville on May 15, 2012 21:08:47 GMT -5
So in exchange for free admission to Olympic sports there are no concession stands at Stanford events? Yeah, that doesn't quite make sense. I get the "it's free because we didn't make enough on tickets to pay for the ushers" bit. But it seems as if "free" should mean bigger crowds and thus more demand for food service. Yeah, no food service seems odd. I know at Florida softball, soccer, and a few other sports are free but they still have concessions.
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Post by leftcoaster71 on May 15, 2012 21:14:54 GMT -5
I don't think [Burnham] was ever really used for women's volleyball except in 2004 when Maples was out of commission during the remodel. For the most part Burnham was the home of their men's team. The men's VB offices were upstairs there on the balcony. For a few years the men's VB team regularly playing at Maples, but I think their permanent home is Burnham now unless they really want to be at Maples if they think there will be enough fans. After Maples Pavilion opened and their earlier arena was remodeled into the Burnham Pavilion (inter-scholastic sports) and Ford Center (intermural sports), Stanford WVB might have used Burnham, but I have no data. When I do know is that regular-season Stanford WVB had been Maples-only for some years before I arrived in the late 1990's (except for the 2004 season when Maples was closed). Scrimmages during the spring and before the regular season starts have also used Burnham Pavilion, the Ford Center and (now that it is open) the Arrillaga Practice Facility. About two years ago, Stanford stopped selling tickets for most of its Olympic sports, including MVB, so they could drop ticket takers, ushers and food service for those sports. Given that, the break-even point for Olympic sports at Maples is lower than it used to be. Stanford MVB has settled into a pattern where they have one Friday or Saturday match at Maples per home week and all other matches at Burnham. I'm fairly confident that Maples has always been the home to WVB. I've been attending matches since the late 80's and they were always at Maples. (with the 2004 exception of course)
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Post by James on May 15, 2012 21:18:19 GMT -5
Can't remember what their playing facility is like, but South Carolina has just posted a video showing off their "volleyball suite facility".
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Post by Thrill of the 'ville on May 16, 2012 8:10:24 GMT -5
Can't remember what their playing facility is like, but South Carolina has just posted a video showing off their "volleyball suite facility". When you enter the building, to the right is a door that leads to the volleyball gym. You enter at the top of the gym and walk down the bleachers. It's basically looks like a high school gym with its smaller size (around 1,000) and folding bleachers. Instead of taking the door to the gym, you can go downstairs to the volleyball and basketball offices. The weight room, training area, and locker rooms are in a different building that is connected by a tunnel.
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Post by gtvb1 on May 16, 2012 11:44:25 GMT -5
I don't think [Burnham] was ever really used for women's volleyball except in 2004 when Maples was out of commission during the remodel. For the most part Burnham was the home of their men's team. The men's VB offices were upstairs there on the balcony. For a few years the men's VB team regularly playing at Maples, but I think their permanent home is Burnham now unless they really want to be at Maples if they think there will be enough fans. After Maples Pavilion opened and their earlier arena was remodeled into the Burnham Pavilion (inter-scholastic sports) and Ford Center (intermural sports), Stanford WVB might have used Burnham, but I have no data. When I do know is that regular-season Stanford WVB had been Maples-only for some years before I arrived in the late 1990's (except for the 2004 season when Maples was closed). Scrimmages during the spring and before the regular season starts have also used Burnham Pavilion, the Ford Center and (now that it is open) the Arrillaga Practice Facility. About two years ago, Stanford stopped selling tickets for most of its Olympic sports, including MVB, so they could drop ticket takers, ushers and food service for those sports. Given that, the break-even point for Olympic sports at Maples is lower than it used to be. Stanford MVB has settled into a pattern where they have one Friday or Saturday match at Maples per home week and all other matches at Burnham. I guess the hoity toity Palo Alto folks don't need to do youth fundraisers by staffing concession booths at Stanford sporting events? Jeez, most schools I know use youth groups as concessions staff and let them keep a portion of the revenue for their program. Seeing as Palo Alto is one of the most expensive zip codes in the country, I guess they don't need to fundraiser much??
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Post by Pirate VB Fan on May 16, 2012 11:55:08 GMT -5
I went to one WVB match in Burnham (2004, UW vs Stanford). It was, by far, the best atmosphere I have ever been in for a volleyball match. People almost literally hanging from the rafters, 1100 mad screaming fans shoehorned in. There was no space to breath, but it was great. If we had just won the match. How do you win a game 30-11 and lose the match...
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Post by BearClause on May 16, 2012 14:45:43 GMT -5
I went to one WVB match in Burnham (2004, UW vs Stanford). It was, by far, the best atmosphere I have ever been in for a volleyball match. People almost literally hanging from the rafters, 1100 mad screaming fans shoehorned in. There was no space to breath, but it was great. If we had just won the match. How do you win a game 30-11 and lose the match... I've seen plenty of men's volleyball there. Only saw one women's VB match there (Cal at Stanford), and I made sure that I bought the tickets in advance about three weeks before the match and had them mailed home. I think it was a pretty good idea since it was sold out. It was loud and the band placed itself right on the balcony on the south end. When Cal was on that side, they literally ducked into the trainer's room and closed the door during timeouts. It was literally the most evenly contested volleyball match I'd ever been to. The stats were sort of odd since Stanford clearly led in hitting and blocking numbers, but that was offset by the service aces and errors. I wasn't too happy since Cal blew an 8-4 lead in game 5. www.calbears.com/sports/w-volley/stats/100204aaa.html
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Post by BearClause on May 16, 2012 14:50:03 GMT -5
So in exchange for free admission to Olympic sports there are no concession stands at Stanford events? Yeah, that doesn't quite make sense. I get the "it's free because we didn't make enough on tickets to pay for the ushers" bit. But it seems as if "free" should mean bigger crowds and thus more demand for food service. I don't think it really does that much for attendance. At a lot of schools there's free student admission for any number of sports, and that doesn't necessarily prop up the numbers. The cost of running concessions may be too high if there are only a few hundred fans and maybe a small number of people actually buying. You'd also get a lot of spoilage if too much food is prepared for crowds that don't show.
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Post by jgrout on May 16, 2012 16:41:07 GMT -5
I guess the hoity toity Palo Alto folks don't need to do youth fundraisers by staffing concession booths at Stanford sporting events? Jeez, most schools I know use youth groups as concessions staff and let them keep a portion of the revenue for their program. Seeing as Palo Alto is one of the most expensive zip codes in the country, I guess they don't need to fundraiser much?? Many of the food service employees do appear to be high-school age, though some are older. Some Stanford athletes from other sports sell programs and I guess that raises money for their program. Stanford has very tight limits on fundraising at their athletic events. I'm not sure if it's ever allowed. Several years ago (well before the recent political flap), they stopped letting Susan G. Komen take donations at Maples on breast cancer research nights; when I asked, I was told that fundraising activity on campus was against university policy.
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Post by jgrout on May 16, 2012 16:48:00 GMT -5
So in exchange for free admission to Olympic sports there are no concession stands at Stanford events? Here's the original announcement: www.gostanford.com/genrel/103107aaa.htmlOnly seven sports are always ticketed (for the regular season): football, men's and women's basketball, women's volleyball, baseball, and men's and women's soccer. Most other sports are free during the regular season, with a few exceptions for special events. There is a policy to provide food service at ticketed events.... even ill-attended ones. I have been to many Stanford Invitational sessions where Maples was almost empty before the first match (when two other teams were playing) and every one has had food service starting about half an hour before the match, as if Stanford were about to play. I can't remember seeing food service at any free event... but my memories stretch back to the days before the policy change, when popular Olympic sport matches (e.g., UCLA MVB at Stanford MVB) were priced. Rather than speculating on the presence (or absence) of a policy for free events, I'll ask and post a follow-up. Several years ago, the prices of the tickets on our Stanford WVB season ticket sheet showed obvious signs of manipulation. It appeared that Stanford had lost a date of competition to a late cancellation and juggled the prices so the one-match tournament session not involving Stanford was "free" and a number of other matches had rises to keep the sum of individual ticket prices (and the season ticket price) the same with one fewer paid event.
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Post by BearClause on May 16, 2012 17:36:04 GMT -5
Several years ago, the prices of the tickets on our Stanford WVB season ticket sheet showed obvious signs of manipulation. It appeared that Stanford lost a date of competition to a late cancellation by another program that withdrew from the affected tournament and juggled the prices so they got the same amount of revenue from season ticket holders for one fewer paid date of competition. That's nothing unusual. Ever since I've gotten Cal season tickets, it's always been a $75 individual price all the way back to 2004. The first couple of years it was with a single punch card, so there were no individual tickets and no ticket prices per se. Then they moved to printing them out on standard ticket stock (and I could even place my order at the ticket booth any time during the season) and I'd get a stack of tickets printed up with a face value on every single ticket and they weren't all the same value. It looked like someone sat there and figured out every single ticket value so that it added up to $75 regardless of the number of tickets. Some years there would be one or two tickets with a $0.00 face value. Sometimes it would look odd with one ticket at $5.00 and the rest some odd looking price like $5.33. You sell it as a season ticket with a flat rate. It wasn't like when I used to buy baseball season tickets, and the various plans always charged a multiple of the season ticket discounted price plus a mandatory shipping fee.
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Post by jgrout on May 16, 2012 17:39:04 GMT -5
I went to one WVB match in Burnham (2004, UW vs Stanford). It was, by far, the best atmosphere I have ever been in for a volleyball match. People almost literally hanging from the rafters, 1100 mad screaming fans shoehorned in. There was no space to breath, but it was great. If we had just won the match. How do you win a game 30-11 and lose the match... Lots of our season-ticket holders feel the same way, and there are many pictures from that match still up on gostanford.com. I remember JMac saying that it was the hardest loss of his whole career, including his time with USA Volleyball. When the Stanford team and coaches and some Stanford fans were watching the 2008 Seattle regional final in the restaurant at the team hotel in Fort Collins, we remembered that loss (and I wondered it it were even harder still).
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Post by mikegarrison on May 16, 2012 17:57:51 GMT -5
Several years ago, the prices of the tickets on our Stanford WVB season ticket sheet showed obvious signs of manipulation. It appeared that Stanford lost a date of competition to a late cancellation by another program that withdrew from the affected tournament and juggled the prices so they got the same amount of revenue from season ticket holders for one fewer paid date of competition. That's nothing unusual. Ever since I've gotten Cal season tickets, it's always been a $75 individual price all the way back to 2004. The first couple of years it was with a single punch card, so there were no individual tickets and no ticket prices per se. Then they moved to printing them out on standard ticket stock (and I could even place my order at the ticket booth any time during the season) and I'd get a stack of tickets printed up with a face value on every single ticket and they weren't all the same value. It looked like someone sat there and figured out every single ticket value so that it added up to $75 regardless of the number of tickets. Some years there would be one or two tickets with a $0.00 face value. Sometimes it would look odd with one ticket at $5.00 and the rest some odd looking price like $5.33. You sell it as a season ticket with a flat rate. It wasn't like when I used to buy baseball season tickets, and the various plans always charged a multiple of the season ticket discounted price plus a mandatory shipping fee. MLB tickets are now getting quite complicated. The Mariners charge a different price for the same seat depending on what month it is, which day of the week, and which team is visiting. They also have "dynamic pricing" which changes the price depending on the actual demand for that game. (The dynamic pricing only applies to individual game tickets, but the other factors do come in to play with the season ticket packages.)
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