[NU Sports] Tipping Point Near ?

[cherron604 at aol.com]

Got my 2007 Football road-game ticket info today.  A wide range of ticket prices - from $20 for the EMU game at Ford Field (a great price and a great venue), to mid-40's in the Big Ten, to an amazing $60 for the game at Ohio State.  Made me wonder if the game might (someday) price itself out of reach of many of its fans.  A columnist in Columbus seemed to have similar thoughts:
 
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/dispatch/content/sports/stories/2007/04/24/hunter24.ART_ART_04-24-07_C1_SM6FOPT.html
 
Actually the NU fan's cost of $60 to get in seem minor - it seems as though many OSU fans are figuring they can't get in if they don't know somebody - and some are settling for going to the Spring game instead.
 
Then I did an informal check - and found that Texas is charging anywhere from $50 (North Texas) to an amazing $85 (Ohio State and A&M).  The Red River game is also $85 at the fair (and that game has a game sponsor), and other Big 12 teams are charging alot for their Longhorn games - Rice is charging $52 and $72, Baylor $55, Nebraska $65, K-State $70 and Texas Tech $85 for their games against Texas.
 
Then, I noticed we raised our tickets from $26 to $30 (non-conf) (15% increase), and our conference games went from $32 to $50 (a 56% increase).  It will be interesting to see where that puts us against our conference foes - are we 4th, behind OSU, Michigan and Penn State ?  Are we really going to charge $50 a seat for the Minnesota and Indiana games ?  Wow.
 
(Thank goodness our season tickets are still discounted - mine came out to something like $29.43 a game...but will that discount end someday soon ?)
 
I dug back through some of my old ticket stubs...my brother paid $8.50 back in 1980 (I got in free as a student).  Is there some point here past $50/$60/$85 when the game starts to price itself out of the range of the regular, everyday fans ?
 
Chuck Herron   Tech '85  
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