SEASON TICKETS CANCELED

[twballgame9]

This thread keeps getting better and better.

[historylesson]

I, for one, welcome our new (old?) Uconn and Rutgers trolls. Makes things more interesting around here.

And with your football and basketball teams, you need all the help you can get.

[twballgame9]

I, for one, welcome our new (old?) Uconn and Rutgers trolls. Makes things more interesting around here.

And with your football and basketball teams, you need all the help you can get.

Jerk

[innocentbystander]

Dearest Eagles at EO,

I am not amused.

You forget who you are talking about, I am the one with power, NOT YOU. Do we understand each other? Or do I have to get tough with you guys and take actions that you will all regret for the rest of your lives?

This is your first and last warning. You will cease and desist in all your anti-Flynn Fund/anti-season's ticket holder propaganda. That's it. I have had enough. Moreover, you will no longer say anything bad about the best coach this university has had in 15 years. I have calls after calls from our largest donors who after being spammed the URL to your website have decided (irrationally) that they wish to cease their sustained gifts to our university. I was able to talk most of them back into their senses, but I do NOT like to work, do NOT like to be challenged in conversation, and I most certainly do NOT like to grovel of people for their charity!

From here on out, this site is under constant moderation, double SECRET probation. One more negative quote about me, any of our coaches, any of BC's administration, or any of the local residents whom we are LUCKY to have as good stewards to share the beautiful piece of Chestnut Hill real estate, and I will have our legal department step in and shut down this website AND I will move to have the Board of Trustees and Father Leahy revoke all your degrees from this esteemed university. We will blacklist you, ruin your careers, destroy your livelihoods. Clear?

I AM BC. YOU are NOT.

Most Sincerely,

Gene DeFilippo

Director of Athletics

PS: I hacked this site using your most RESPECTED poster's login. If I can do that, I can do anything, including destroying all of you. Don't forget it.

[0J1969]

If you mention blacklisting again, I'll have your legs broken.

[claver2010]

0J was better when OJ eagledom was posting


There I said it

[ryrob]

I, for one, welcome our new (old?) Uconn and Rutgers trolls. Makes things more interesting around here.

And with your football and basketball teams, you need all the help you can get.

Congrats on getting the joke

[claver2010]

Still waiting for the damn renewal call, they probably know who I am and that it's a game of chicken.

Bastards.

[EagleDave]

SO disappointed that I missed my season ticket holder call this afternoon. Fortunately, my season ticket rep was nice enough to send me a follow up e-mail to which I replied:

Kyle,

I'm going to save you a great deal of grief and tell you up front that, as long as Frank Spaziani is the head coach at Boston College and Gene DeFilippo is the man hiring his inevitable replacement (via his vast network of cronies and sycophants), I'm not wasting my money regardless of the slate of opponents. Between the two of them, they've managed to make BC football almost entirely irrelevant both on the national and local landscape. All of this while (incredibly) managing to alienate the loyal fans by publicly claiming our opinions don't matter. The team is boring to watch, horribly coached and has, at best, mediocre talent on the field. All three are traits that can be directly linked to the two men I mentioned.

Further, the result of this mediocrity has forced the school into selling large blocks of unsold seats via promotional companies like GroupOn or just outright giving them away. This in turn begs the question, why should I spend $250 per seat when the actual value of the seat is something in the range of $15-$25 (on a game to game basis)? It's simply bad business to devalue my seats to the degree that you guys have (obviously you personally haven't done this so don't take it as such).

I'll attend a game here or there going forward (via your many promotional vehicles), but I refuse to pay a premium to watch this garbage product that has been put on the field in the last 3 seasons. Upon the removal of both Frank Spaziani and Gene DeFilippo, I will be more than happy to rejoin the ranks of season ticket holders.

Until then, best of luck.

EagleDave

[HJS]

Donations were SO bad this year, that they have somehow "extended" their fiscal year by a week to allow anyone who forgot to donate a chance to get it in. I have had no less than 3 emails during the first 5 days of the month regarding this. Meanwhile... I effing donated at the end of the month (of course I did it to the BC Fund (as opposed to the Flynn Fund)).

[pick6pedro]

Same here as my donation (non-Flynn) was in around mid February and I get them all throughout the day. although they try to disguise them as being from different parties (class reps, campus groups, etc).

And friends keep telling me how they get ticket renewal harassment after having done so already. Are the carrier pigeons not immune to the Coachdisappearitis?

[claver2010]

BCI had an interview with Assoc AD about ticket sales

http://www.bcinterruption.com/2012/6/13/3081760/boston-college-football-2012-season-ticket-sales-notre-dame-virginia-tech-clemson#storyjump

Jeff: Last week I renewed my football season tickets and was able to add an adjacent seat to the two I already had for next season as well. Since the season ticket holder renewal deadline had already passed by more than a month, I figured that the ease of renewing and adding a seat went along with the common perception that ticket sales were weak.

Trying to get some facts to find out what is really going on with ticket sales though, we reached out to Chris Cameron, Boston College's Associate Athletics Director, Media Relations, to get some answers on how football ticket sales are going.


Chris: I appreciate the fact that you reached out to me in an effort to clear up some misconceptions. Indeed, any speculation on message boards and fan sites that donations, season ticket sales and ticket sales in general will be very weak are, in fact, misconceptions. Our final fundraising totals for this past year have just been tabulated (the fiscal year ended May 31) and with more than $20 million raised, the department just experienced its most successful cash year ever (when discounting two years that included gifts from the Yawkey Foundation and the Connell Family).

The year also saw the largest commitment ever made in support of a varsity athletics team from an alumnus with the announcement of a $5 million gift to endow the head men’s ice hockey coach position, and the baseball program just received a $2.5 million gift.

Regarding football ticket sales, in general, our renewal rate at this point is higher than it was at this point last year. While it is still early in the game, we have sold hundreds of new season tickets. Our home schedule is extremely attractive, and we appreciate the loyalty and dedication of our fans very much. Our staff is working extremely hard to sell as many tickets as possible for the 2012 season.


Jeff: As a season ticket holder myself, I was just able to renew my tickets this past week, more than a month past the original deadline and add an adjacent seat. How are season ticket sales going for the 2012 football season? Specifically, what kind of renewal rates are you seeing compared to the past?

Chris: As stated before, our renewal rate at this point is higher than it was at this point last year, giving us reason for optimism. We have sold hundreds of new season tickets and hope to sell many more.


Jeff: With only a six game schedule, season tickets are relatively cheap and they include home games with Miami, Clemson, Virginia Tech, and Notre Dame. Surely the athletic department is disappointed with sales this season but what would have been considered a successful rate of season ticket sales as a percentage of capacity?

Chris: In fact, the Athletics Department is not disappointed with sales this season. On the contrary, we are pleased that the rate is better than at this point last season.



Jeff: As you are reaching out to those who did not renew, what sort of reasons are you being given as to why those who are not renewing are not doing so?

Chris: Our sales team always reaches out to those who did not renew. There are several reasons cited for not renewing, including the economy and parking challenges at our home games. Also, some people have chosen not to renew because they were disappointed in our record last season. We understand their concern; our entire department was disappointed with our team’s record last season.

While these reasons apply specifically to our program, drops in season ticket sales is not a BC issue alone; it is a college and professional sports issue. Please see the following excerpt from an August, 2011 article in USA Today:

"The colleges, for many years, were almost in an arms race for who could have the most seats — and they were able to fill those seats, for the most part, says Mark Dyer, a senior vice president for IMG College, whose menu of services includes ticket sales. That has changed. … Most schools across the country have an issue with their football and/or their basketball seating demand vs. their seating capacity.

Dyer and others attribute this to a combination of the tough economy, high gas prices and advances in high-definition television that have improved home viewing.

Perennial attendance power Tennessee, after steadily increasing the capacity of its football stadium to more than 100,000, saw its season-ticket sales drop from 78,000 in 2001 to 67,000 last year, says Chris Fuller, senior associate athletics director for external operations."


Jeff: Can you quantify at all what impact Montel Harris being kicked off the team had on ticket sales?

Chris: While this has been mentioned by a handful of tickets holders, the impact would be impossible to quantify.


Jeff: Finally, are many people ugrading to DBS seating or downgrading from DBS seating? Can we expect a change to the DBS structure next season?

Chris: There has been no significant shift in either direction. Alumni Stadium seats 44,500. There is not a bad seat in the house. Only 16 percent of the seats in the stadium (6,000 seats) are donor-based. The vast majority -- 84 percent -- of the seats in Alumni Stadium are not affected by donor-based seating.


Jeff: We thank Chris for joining BCI to talk about how season ticket sales are going for 2012. I am glad to hear that sales are stronger than I had thought, but when this schedule first came together, it had the potential for several sellouts. I will still be surprised if any games other than Clemson (Parent's Weekend) and Notre Dame sell out but hope to be wrong.

Couple of thoughts:

1) “There has been no significant shift in either direction. Alumni Stadium seats 44,500. There is not a bad seat in the house. Only 16 percent of the seats in the stadium (6,000 seats) are donor-based. The vast majority — 84 percent — of the seats in Alumni Stadium are not affected by donor-based seating.” Is a direct cut & paste job from Gene

2) I wish they addressed the concerns of groupon for season ticket holders, which devalues many of our tickets

3) While I appreciate him doing the interview, it’s bullshit. Season tickets are way down, period. Just look at my group alone (granted small sample size but look at the thread on eagleoutsider, etc.), we went from 15/20 season tickets to 6 and one of the main reasons we “downgraded” from Shea to Comm Ave is you don’t need to have tickets to tailgate. In August we’re going to receive exclusive offers for the garbage games, then we’ll see them on groupon, then the good games will be available for individual tickets.

4) Nice to know not everyone in that office ducks interviews

I haven’t renewed my two (I’m included in the 6 that are actually renewing)

[flyingelvii]

Can't most of the new season ticket sales be attributed to the graduating students? It seems like every year there is a fairly substantial built in base for new season ticket sales.

[pick6pedro]

Continually citing that there are more season tickets sold at this time this year than at this time last year may be true, but it's not a very solid or particularly valid comparison. Sure, there's the decrease in record, but the opponents are vastly different.

ND
Clemson
VT
Miami
Maryland
Maine

versus

FSU
NCSU
NW
WF
Duke
UMass

How about this time two years ago?

I'm so sick of hearing about the economy, gas prices, and HD TVs. At least the weather has been dropped as part of the routine. Stop making excuses that only tell a small portion of the story. Oh, I know they're not quantifiable, but anyone with a brain can figure this shit out.

[DavidGordonsFoot]

Can't most of the new season ticket sales be attributed to the graduating students? It seems like every year there is a fairly substantial built in base for new season ticket sales.

That was the first thing I thought of, too. They get hundreds of new season ticket sales every year because 2500 people no longer qualify for student tickets.

claver, any idea if this was an email "interview," or if it was conducted via phone or in-person? I'm with you, I wish they would have asked about Groupon. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they did but Cameron declined to answer.

I'm not sure how long Chris Cameron has been in this job, if he went to BC, or if he attended BC football home games prior to 2009, but all the statistics he wants to regurgitate can't fill the empty parking spaces on Shea Field and in the garages.

[claver2010]

Can't most of the new season ticket sales be attributed to the graduating students? It seems like every year there is a fairly substantial built in base for new season ticket sales.

That was the first thing I thought of, too. They get hundreds of new season ticket sales every year because 2500 people no longer qualify for student tickets.

claver, any idea if this was an email "interview," or if it was conducted via phone or in-person? I'm with you, I wish they would have asked about Groupon. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they did but Cameron declined to answer.

I'm not sure how long Chris Cameron has been in this job, if he went to BC, or if he attended BC football home games prior to 2009, but all the statistics he wants to regurgitate can't fill the empty parking spaces on Shea Field and in the garages.

Based off student attendance I'm sure that number is way down from the peak as well. There were games where there were only hundreds of students in the section for kickoff and I remember the stream of yellow shirts leaving a lot of these games at halftime. Another point is with BC being more national, I'd bet more are leaving the area post grad.

I assume it was via email.

The thing that hit me is the donation numbers,

$20 million raised, the department just experienced its most successful cash year ever (when discounting two years that included gifts from the Yawkey Foundation and the Connell Family).

The year also saw the largest commitment ever made in support of a varsity athletics team from an alumnus with the announcement of a $5 million gift to endow the head men’s ice hockey coach position, and the baseball program just received a $2.5 million gift.

He's included several 1 off gifts that have zero to do with the Flynn Fund (and I'm sure there was a reason the hockey gift was given specifically as such -die hard hockey people have long hated Gene). So we deduct those two one off gifts and we're down to ~$12.5 MM, in 2008 it was $21 MM

http://www.bceagles.com/boosters/bc-boosters.html

[Endless Mike]

I hadn't heard about a baseball gift. I hope that donor is demanding they start the new stadium construction.

[joemack13]

The fact that he keeps referring to "the rate" of renewals being higher than last year instead of talking directly about sales is telling. That could just suggest that the % of fans who will never give up their seats is growing, because many of the fans that would choose to stop renewing already have. There could easily be less season ticket holders this year and he wouldn't necessarily be lying because of his shady choice of words.

[flyingelvii]

I hadn't heard about a baseball gift. I hope that donor is demanding they start the new stadium construction.

Will this stadium be shared with the lacrosse team?

[RegalBCeagle]

I hadn't heard about a baseball gift. I hope that donor is demanding they start the new stadium construction.

Was this money earned by a certain litigious fellow down south and the gifted under the conditions that the stadium have a retractable roof?

[DuchesneEast]

I would bet there are a ton of Clemson and ND fans buying tickets and lining up for an easy win.

Crap, I want to buy tix just for those 2 games but dont want to support Gene and Spaz.

[Endless Mike]

Crap, I want to buy tix just for those 2 games but dont want to support Gene and Spaz.

Buy them from Stub Hub, or a scalper outside Alumni.

[DuchesneEast]

Crap, I want to buy tix just for those 2 games but dont want to support Gene and Spaz.

Buy them from Stub Hub, or a scalper outside Alumni.

I figured StubHub will be useful. I assume there will be a lot of SC sellers.

[HJS]

BCI had an interview with Assoc AD about ticket sales

http://www.bcinterruption.com/2012/6/13/3081760/boston-college-football-2012-season-ticket-sales-notre-dame-virginia-tech-clemson#storyjump

Chris: I appreciate the fact that you reached out to me in an effort to clear up some misconceptions. Indeed, any speculation on message boards and fan sites that donations, season ticket sales and ticket sales in general will be very weak are, in fact, misconceptions. Our final fundraising totals for this past year have just been tabulated (the fiscal year ended May 31) and with more than $20 million raised, the department just experienced its most successful cash year ever (when discounting two years that included gifts from the Yawkey Foundation and the Connell Family).

The year also saw the largest commitment ever made in support of a varsity athletics team from an alumnus with the announcement of a $5 million gift to endow the head men’s ice hockey coach position, and the baseball program just received a $2.5 million gift.

Regarding football ticket sales, in general, our renewal rate at this point is higher than it was at this point last year. While it is still early in the game, we have sold hundreds of new season tickets. Our home schedule is extremely attractive, and we appreciate the loyalty and dedication of our fans very much. Our staff is working extremely hard to sell as many tickets as possible for the 2012 season.

First... he selective includes one-off gifts for 2011/12 ($7.5mm of the $20mm (38% of the haul)) yet wants to compare it to previous years only after you back out the prior one-off gifts.

Second... the renewal rate is quite telling if all he can do is compare it to last year. Last year was a blood bath for ticket sales. That is what necessitated the whole Groupon fiasco. The Ath Dept at the time claimed it was an anomaly because of the peculiarly, atrocious home schedule. The fact that the renewal rate is only slightly better is practically unimaginable. We are talking about people who, last year, were willing to pay to see the likes of Duke, Umass, Wake and Northwestern... but, today, refuse to pay to watch ND, Clemson, VT and Miami. This essentially shows the attrition of DIE HARD/HARD CORE/LOYAL TO A FAULT fans!!! Further, let's look at it statistically... if you start with 30k season tix holders in 2010 and have a renewal rate of 60% for the 2011 season which then bumps up to a renewal rate of 70% for the 2012 season, you really have a 2-year renewal rate of only 42% (which means a total reduction of season tix sold from 30k to 12,600) [note: this does not account for the marginal amount of new season tix purchased for the crappy home slate of 2011].

[twballgame9]

I would bet there are a ton of Clemson and ND fans buying tickets and lining up for an easy win.

Crap, I want to buy tix just for those 2 games but dont want to support Gene and Spaz.

Clemson went to the Big XII, dude.

[eepstein0]

BCI had an interview with Assoc AD about ticket sales

http://www.bcinterruption.com/2012/6/13/3081760/boston-college-football-2012-season-ticket-sales-notre-dame-virginia-tech-clemson#storyjump

Chris: I appreciate the fact that you reached out to me in an effort to clear up some misconceptions. Indeed, any speculation on message boards and fan sites that donations, season ticket sales and ticket sales in general will be very weak are, in fact, misconceptions. Our final fundraising totals for this past year have just been tabulated (the fiscal year ended May 31) and with more than $20 million raised, the department just experienced its most successful cash year ever (when discounting two years that included gifts from the Yawkey Foundation and the Connell Family).

The year also saw the largest commitment ever made in support of a varsity athletics team from an alumnus with the announcement of a $5 million gift to endow the head men’s ice hockey coach position, and the baseball program just received a $2.5 million gift.

Regarding football ticket sales, in general, our renewal rate at this point is higher than it was at this point last year. While it is still early in the game, we have sold hundreds of new season tickets. Our home schedule is extremely attractive, and we appreciate the loyalty and dedication of our fans very much. Our staff is working extremely hard to sell as many tickets as possible for the 2012 season.

First... he selective includes one-off gifts for 2011/12 ($7.5mm of the $20mm (38% of the haul)) yet wants to compare it to previous years only after you back out the prior one-off gifts.

Second... the renewal rate is quite telling if all he can do is compare it to last year. Last year was a blood bath for ticket sales. That is what necessitated the whole Groupon fiasco. The Ath Dept at the time claimed it was an anomaly because of the peculiarly, atrocious home schedule. The fact that the renewal rate is only slightly better is practically unimaginable. We are talking about people who, last year, were willing to pay to see the likes of Duke, Umass, Wake and Northwestern... but, today, refuse to pay to watch ND, Clemson, VT and Miami. This essentially shows the attrition of DIE HARD/HARD CORE/LOYAL TO A FAULT fans!!! Further, let's look at it statistically... if you start with 30k season tix holders in 2010 and have a renewal rate of 60% for the 2011 season which then bumps up to a renewal rate of 70% for the 2012 season, you really have a 2-year renewal rate of only 42% (which means a total reduction of season tix sold from 30k to 12,600) [note: this does not account for the marginal amount of new season tix purchased for the crappy home slate of 2011].

I appreciate you doing the math correctly here. I had fear.

[The Knife of Asia]

These are bold faced lies from an administration that has been playing smoke and mirror games for the past several years...


Human nature I guess to augment the truth when performance isn't good enough to merit the job at hand...

The pattern is that the lies require more and more exaggeration to sustain the ponzi-esque scheme... "Best coach we've had in 15 years" "We respect and pray for Kevin Rogers' health" "His name is Montel, so you KNOW he smokes grass" etc etc

[hansen]

I would bet there are a ton of Clemson and ND fans buying tickets and lining up for an easy win.

Crap, I want to buy tix just for those 2 games but dont want to support Gene and Spaz.

Clemson went to the Big XII, dude.

This is one of my favorite gimmicks right now...

[claver2010]

The discounting begins!

Got the father's day email from BC

Miami: $20
Maine: $10
Maryland: $15
VT: $20

I assume they're UD EZ where the face of season tickets is $150

So they value the ND & Clemson game at a combined: $85. This is before groupon which will further discount the other games & I bet I can get into both games combined for under that

[hansen]

So season ticket sales cannot be doing that well as I just received a call from the Boston college ticket office. I didn't buy tickets last year either and i cannot remember if I bought them during year 2 of the spazification of the program.

Anyway, the girl asked if I was interested in them, and I replied "no, not until the head coach changes". Her response was "I will mark that down". I am guessing that she's probably hearing that a lot as she acted very unsurprised when I responded that way.