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Post by jayj79 on Jun 22, 2015 21:33:10 GMT -5
I'm curious how other programs handle their seating for volleyball matches.
At UNI, for as long as I can remember, they have used a mix of reserved seating in the prime center sections (and perhaps the first few rows behind the team benches), with general admission everywhere else.
I thought it worked quite well, as it gave an incentive for getting season tickets, and let people get their preferred seats w/o having to worry about getting there early. Now it wasn't like the reserved sections were sold out, and often people just sat where-ever they wanted, but if there was an issue, (reserved seat holders) could always say "excuse me, you're in my seat).
However, this season, they just announced that it is all just general admission.
Frankly, I can't understand a single logical benefit to support that decision. Without reserved seating, there is really very little incentive for people to even bother getting season tickets
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Post by rainbowbadger on Jun 22, 2015 22:19:06 GMT -5
At Wisconsin, there's a mix of general admission and reserved seating. The reserved seating is on the sides, and mostly for season ticket holders. The GA is in the ends, corners, and upper part of the sides. Additionally, at Wisconsin, you can get either reserved season tix or GA season tix. There are family season ticket packs, and those are all GA.
I agree that having reserved seating increases the incentive to get the (nicer) season tickets. The athletic department even puts our names on our seats, so it's very easy to point to that and say that people are in our seats. It also makes it easy for us to get there right before the match and still get a good seat. That's also why we pay for reserved parking. It gives us a great deal of flexibility.
Now, seats at Badger games do sell out, so there's a bigger incentive to get season tickets. Maybe UNI just thought there was no point in having/enforcing reserved seats if everybody just sits wherever anyway.
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Post by BearClause on Jun 22, 2015 23:51:41 GMT -5
I don't think that reserved seating is all that workable in volleyball unless you're talking about consistent high attendance. I've been to a few venues, and very few had reserved seating at all. I think Stanford still does for lower sidelines, but general for upper sidelines and ends. I remember when Santa Clara had reserved seating for a few years, but that eventually got scrapped. I even remember one match that was on CSTV, and they didn't sell any reserved seating (save season ticket holders) and literally asked everyone to fill in the chairbacks to it would look better on TV. St Mary's only has reserved seating in this weird end balcony. I heard that Don Shaw would sit up there just because he was Don Shaw - and he was there to see his daughter play.
As far as I could tell, the main incentive for season tickets (even with general admission) is lower per ticket price. Cal's first couple of years of season tickets included a special season ticket area, complete with security to enforce it. Those were the lower chair backs on the west side. I sat there a few times, but I preferred a particular area in the lower sideline bench - what would be the student section for men's basketball.
It's quite rare to have reserved seating. It's also a lot easier just to sell general admission tickets.
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Post by mikegarrison on Jun 23, 2015 1:58:17 GMT -5
I don't think that reserved seating is all that workable in volleyball unless you're talking about consistent high attendance. I've been to a few venues, and very few had reserved seating at all. I think Stanford still does for lower sidelines, but general for upper sidelines and ends. I remember when Santa Clara had reserved seating for a few years, but that eventually got scrapped. I even remember one match that was on CSTV, and they didn't sell any reserved seating (save season ticket holders) and literally asked everyone to fill in the chairbacks to it would look better on TV. St Mary's only has reserved seating in this weird end balcony. I heard that Don Shaw would sit up there just because he was Don Shaw - and he was there to see his daughter play. As far as I could tell, the main incentive for season tickets (even with general admission) is lower per ticket price. Cal's first couple of years of season tickets included a special season ticket area, complete with security to enforce it. Those were the lower chair backs on the west side. I sat there a few times, but I preferred a particular area in the lower sideline bench - what would be the student section for men's basketball. It's quite rare to have reserved seating. It's also a lot easier just to sell general admission tickets. Washington has reserved seating in the entire lower part of Hec Ed (except the student section). The upper part is all GA. Instead of buying a reserved season ticket to volleyball, I buy a pass that gets me in to all the matches as GA. But Washington has been leading the PAC-12 in volleyball attendance for quite a few years now. I usually show up right when the gates open, an hour before the match time, and get really good sideline seats (just behind the media tables, basically the same view as the sideline TV cameras). With reserved seats you don't have to show up early, but a lot of the best reserved seating is held by season ticket holders who renew every year. It will be interesting to see how the program and the fans respond to the new coaching staff. |
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Post by redbeard2008 on Jun 23, 2015 14:38:13 GMT -5
I don't think that reserved seating is all that workable in volleyball unless you're talking about consistent high attendance. I've been to a few venues, and very few had reserved seating at all. I think Stanford still does for lower sidelines, but general for upper sidelines and ends. I remember when Santa Clara had reserved seating for a few years, but that eventually got scrapped. I even remember one match that was on CSTV, and they didn't sell any reserved seating (save season ticket holders) and literally asked everyone to fill in the chairbacks to it would look better on TV. St Mary's only has reserved seating in this weird end balcony. I heard that Don Shaw would sit up there just because he was Don Shaw - and he was there to see his daughter play. As far as I could tell, the main incentive for season tickets (even with general admission) is lower per ticket price. Cal's first couple of years of season tickets included a special season ticket area, complete with security to enforce it. Those were the lower chair backs on the west side. I sat there a few times, but I preferred a particular area in the lower sideline bench - what would be the student section for men's basketball. It's quite rare to have reserved seating. It's also a lot easier just to sell general admission tickets. Washington has reserved seating in the entire lower part of Hec Ed (except the student section). The upper part is all GA. Instead of buying a reserved season ticket to volleyball, I buy a pass that gets me in to all the matches as GA. But Washington has been leading the PAC-12 in volleyball attendance for quite a few years now. I usually show up right when the gates open, an hour before the match time, and get really good sideline seats (just behind the media tables, basically the same view as the sideline TV cameras). With reserved seats you don't have to show up early, but a lot of the best reserved seating is held by season ticket holders who renew every year. It will be interesting to see how the program and the fans respond to the new coaching staff. UW's GA seats can be very good. I like sitting where I can see the whole court, without having my head on a swivel. I too got a Husky Gold Card last year, which gets you into all UW sports events except football and men's basketball. Attend about eight events and it pays for itself. An added benefit is that you don't have to line up at the ticket window first, but can be one of the first lined up at the doors. The only time I didn't get a great seat was at the Stanford match, when over 8,600 showed up. |
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Post by sulo on Jun 23, 2015 14:52:17 GMT -5
Don't get me started. At Minnesota, they have done the opposite and banished GA seating in favor of the entire Pav being reserved seating. I used to buy GA seats and get there early so I could pick my upper deck front row seat. Now one has to pay more and the idea of the loss of GA seating frosts me. I don't believe this system is fan friendly and I hope that ,in the long run, they don't do more harm than good by alienating long time loyal fans. This is a greedy move and not fan-friendly. I'm unhappy, but still attend because I enjoy the sport, but I think the jury is still out. Bah Humbug!!!!!!( or I suppose they could go a system such as UNC where admission is totally free and you can sit anywhere.) No that will NEVER happen at Minnesota due to the greed factor.
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Post by redbeard2008 on Jun 23, 2015 15:49:29 GMT -5
One of the problems with the sport becoming too popular is that reserved seating will necessarily expand, pushing GA seats to the corners or nosebleed sections. How does Hawaii and Nebraska handle GA seating, if at all?
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Post by nothingbutcorn on Jun 23, 2015 16:28:00 GMT -5
I do not think NE has GA seating. I guess you could call standing room only as GA.
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Post by gogophers on Jun 23, 2015 16:52:41 GMT -5
Don't get me started. At Minnesota, they have done the opposite and banished GA seating in favor of the entire Pav being reserved seating. I used to buy GA seats and get there early so I could pick my upper deck front row seat. Now one has to pay more and the idea of the loss of GA seating frosts me. I don't believe this system is fan friendly and I hope that ,in the long run, they don't do more harm than good by alienating long time loyal fans. This is a greedy move and not fan-friendly. I'm unhappy, but still attend because I enjoy the sport, but I think the jury is still out. Bah Humbug!!!!!!( or I suppose they could go a system such as UNC where admission is totally free and you can sit anywhere.) No that will NEVER happen at Minnesota due to the greed factor. Minn has hard-back chairs on the lower level on one side of the court, and everything else is bleacher seating. Until last year, the hard-back chairs were reserved and the bleachers were GA. Now, as Sulo says, it's all reserved seating, with the qualifier that the end line seating is GA but is available only for U of M students. Until last year, some of the end line seating was GA for the public. To round out the description of seating, Minn also places about 15 or so chairs right on the court floor, just in back of the end line. Those are available on season's ticket purchase basis at a special (high) price. I thought attendance would take a real hit, with the switch to all-reserved. Evidently, it didn't. If I remember correctly, it dipped a little, but who knows what effect other factors may have had, e.g., bad scheduling dates and times. It certainly didn't collapse. I think the jury has come back and pronounced itself indifferent. I can say, with absolute certainty, that the switch to all-reserved did lower the attendance for almost all the matches by at least 1. |
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Post by dorothymantooth on Jun 23, 2015 17:10:31 GMT -5
One of the problems with the sport becoming too popular is that reserved seating will necessarily expand, pushing GA seats to the corners or nosebleed sections. How does Hawaii and Nebraska handle GA seating, if at all? I wish the sport would become too popular to have problems, but I do get what you are saying. |
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Post by sulo on Jun 23, 2015 18:19:42 GMT -5
Go Gophers, I wish I could bolster your "certainty" comments by stating a reduction of 2, but alas I can't.
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Post by BoilerUp! on Jun 23, 2015 19:38:18 GMT -5
I think I have had a season ticket since 1992 at Purdue, and it has been reserve seating.
It boggles my mind to hear comments that volleyball can't support that.
Wednesday night games are an attendance killer, though.
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Post by mikegarrison on Jun 23, 2015 20:20:29 GMT -5
Wednesday night games are an attendance killer, though. Agreed. The PAC-12 used to have Fri/Sat or occasionally Fri/Sun matches, and attendance was better than the current "might be any day between Wed and Sun" system they have now. But TV wants to have live volleyball all week long. |
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Post by gogophers on Jun 23, 2015 21:09:43 GMT -5
Go Gophers, I wish I could bolster your "certainty" comments by stating a reduction of 2, but alas I can't. No need to wish that. We all make our own decisions on entertainment choices. Suffice it to say the U has managed to change my point of view--literally and figuratively. But that's just me. The "why" of it is of interest to me. Someone had to make the decision to radically reverse long standing seating practices. Someone had to have reasons, good or bad, to impel the switch. The U also raised ticket prices last year. So clearly someone thought that he or she had a formula for increasing revenue. I mean, it's possible that the U implemented these changes in response to popular demand to abolish GA, but that seems unlikely to me. I'd like to see the marketiing study that brought about the changes. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2015 21:26:44 GMT -5
I really do think it was exactly what they said it was: They went to reserved seating so they could sell the packages. They really couldn't do that without reserved seating; no one buying a package for a family of four wants to show up and not have seats together.
Now, whether this was a good idea, specifically whether it will help build attendance, is definitely open to debate. I don't think it will, but as everyone says the jury is still out.
The endline situation is another matter. But this has more to do with the Pav not being a good venue for volleyball, spectator-wise, than anything else. Getting the students involved IS a good idea.
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