Sorry for joining the conversation late, but it's interesting since I gave up my season tickets after Muschamp's first year.
The play of the team had NO impact on my decision. I think UF is being affected by the same thing that is affecting every college and professional sport, which is the cost of going versus staying home watching it on a giant HDTV is making it more attractive to stay home. UF along with everyone else has lost track of the fact that fans are their customers and not a revenue source where they can squeeze another dollar out of and now there is competition in the form of HDTV and the fact that just about every game is on TV. The fans are speaking loud and clear, they are staying away and it's going to take more than just dominate football teams to bring them back. In my case my donation and ticket purchases amounted to $4000/year and I had lost all my privileges, combine that with game day hassles of dealing with UPD, parking restrictions, and other nickel/dime things UF was doing and it got to be a real sore point with me. I live in Jacksonville, so I didn't have the travel costs associate with hotel rooms in Gainesville, but for 10 years or more I did travel to every game home, away, bowl, and SEC title games....I'm saving a ton and used some of that to purchase a 65 inch Samsung HDTV and installing a HDTV outside so I can watch it from the pool, while drinking my own beer, using my own "clean" restrooms and grilling my own food. To be honest, once I got over the guilt of not attending games, I wondered why I didn't do it a year or two earlier. I get my live game experience by attending the UF/UGA game every year... Like I said, UF is not alone if you watched the Nascar Race in Daytona over the weekend they are spending 100's of millions on remodeling the track in order to improve the race day experience....The City and Jacksonville and the Jaguars are spending millions on new TV replay screens, wifi, premium seating, etc...it's a sign of the times... Stephen Manuel -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Vega Sent: Monday, July 07, 2014 10:41 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [gatortalk] Gator Factoid The expense of the tickets is only part of the problem. Simply put, there are not enough hotels in Gainesville. So, on football weekends, they double their prices and demand a 2 night minimum. $250 for a room that you only need for one night and would be $60 on most nights is difficult to accept. If I were coming from far out of town, I would make an entire weekend out of the event once every few years. Enjoy the nostalgia, tour the campus, see the butterfly and natural history museums. Find a nice restaurant and splurge. To think that I could do that 6 to 7 times a year, every year, is unrealistic. -Zeb On Jul 6, 2014, at 9:47 PM, Jerry D. Belloit wrote: > I kept my two football and four basketball season tickets for several > years after moving to PA. I was lucky to get to a game a year. After > a while I just could not justify the expense. > > jerry > > On 6/25/14, 11:01 PM, "C.Simpson" <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I do think that if I lived in Gainesville or much closer I would find >> a way to get to a couple of games, but having to drive so many hours >> each way with all the associated expenses just puts it out of the >> picture for me. I really do appreciate that HDTV is around as it's >> pretty much my gameday experience of choice. >>> Interesting, but not surprising. Not only do older people have more >>> money, they also have a long tradition of going to games going back >>> before the age of HDTV. >>> >>> Sent from my iPad >>> >>>> On Jun 25, 2014, at 5:54 PM, Woody Bass <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>> optout. >> >> -- >> -- >> GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! >> 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions >> 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions >> 2008 National Football Champions | >> Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel >> (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups "GatorTalk" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, >> send an email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > -- > GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! > 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions > 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions > 2008 National Football Champions | > Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel > (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GatorTalk" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GatorTalk" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GatorTalk" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
