greg.w.h said:
I assume the top of the SZ and top corner of the NZ are "held back" from sale at the moment???
Totally agree and it caught my eye last week as well. Across the college landscape, attendance is down, and holding back these less desirable seats could allow for better consolidation in the way the seats are presented in the selection appointments. It could also allow for larger group donations to vets, first responders, and other organizations. Or eventually sell them if we had enough demand.
But the REAL story is what else was held back...I find it interesting that there NO seats (0, zero, nada, zilch) showing available in the lower 6 rows of the upper 340's, the lower 10 rows of 133, or the first about 10 rows of 117 and 118. I selected very early in the process, and having done this selection every year, there are always some pairs here and there, movement, upgrades, drops and changes that create some availability in these areas. I assume the
12th Man decided to "keep" those seats in their inventory when they were not renewed to resell with their secondary market ticket partner (which, having partnered with Stubhub, the 12th Man would now have the analytics of which seats sell the easiest and give the best ROI compared to their cost/donation).
Yes, some seats in those areas may become available as the process starts and people upgrade to other locations. That will free them up, but in the beginning of the seat selection process, you should see the truest map of what wasn't renewed. And
there is no possible way those rows didn't have any turnover and create some availability. And the top 100 donors are not snatching up those seats, so why were none available? Even the most highly sought after areas have some turnover, but somehow these relatively low $ entry point locations with good resell demand (I've done my homework on seats, trust me), didn't have ANY seats available to the general public? Hmmmmm.....
And for those thinking we are now a week into the selection and the "best" bad seats have already been selected by the top 1800+ accounts, understand I am sharing info from the map on day 1 of the process. I selected at ranking #125, and at that point, the availability map was just non-renewals. And seats that should have been there were not. I'm fine with the 12th Man holding back seats for guests, for last minute needs, and for themselves. But they are also in a place of needing to maximize the return of ticket revenue, and those seats have better ROI in the resell market on StubHub then they do through the normal selection process.
