BBP Renovation Survey

38,501 Views | 247 Replies | Last: 6 yr ago by Rocky Rider
aggiepaintrain
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They need to reseat it then.
They cant think that 105/109 seats are equivalent to 3rd base line seats.
Id rather take some seats in 104 or 110
TXAG1977
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It never ceases to hear the opinions of those who want to protect their right to cheap seats and tell big financial contributors how to spend their money. "Build us a much better stadium, but don't increase my seat cost or expect to sit in front of me". " Fire or hire this of that coach, then go away until we need your money again" Must be more entitled liberals around than I thought.
AggieFrog
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Yes, the BMAs fund the facilities, but it's the cheap seats and students that make the environment. It's the same factor at Olsen and Kyle.
aggiepaintrain
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To me baseball is different and I don't want to take someone's seats to build suites and picnic tables!
OnlyForNow
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Cheap seat guy here, only upgrade I wanted was nicer bathrooms, you can keep the rest of the upgrades.
Lance Uppercut
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Posts like the one above illustrate one of the biggest problems with Aggie athletics.

We have donors that demand the influence that comes with a sizeable donation. They've meddled in and weighed heavily on the contracts and coaching decisions in football for my entire life, which is why our searches haven't gone beyond the city of Houston for the past decade.

We have a big basketball donor that is friends with Kennedy that likely influenced the exorbitant contract given to the coach after his one tournament appearance.

And here we have someone letting us know that the "liberals"/peons need to shut their trap, because if I paid for the facade, who cares about the atmosphere that ever made Olsen something special in the first place? The student section has already been almost completely squeezed out of existence, but that doesn't matter as long as a few more people get a season ticket in a surrounding that matches their "importance".

Aggie football and baseball atmospheres have both been sterilized by the attempts to chase extra dollars. I'm clearly too liberal to make a big enough donation to matter, but student sections/traditions need to protected as first priority every time. Picnic tables, hills, and 5 minute breaks for ads on the Jumbotron need to come after.
OnlyForNow
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Insert gif of guy clapping here.
twk
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ensign_beedrill said:

Only way to do it is to move them to the new seats on the third base line, which is what I assume they mean when they say they won't reseat other areas. It's a bad deal for those folks, though.
That sort of does sound like where they are heading. If they are going to turn that section into club seating, they can either: (1) re-seat the entire stadium and piss off 3000+ season ticket holder; or, (2) relocate the 110 seats in this section, and royally screw those folks, but not piss off the masses. I'm thinking that they will go with option 2.

Trying to figure out why they singled out 109, instead of taking a little bit of 109 and 105, and the only things that I could come up with were shade (more shade in 109) and, possibly, there might be some AD held tickets in 109 (is that where the coaches wives sit? even if its not, they could offer those seats to some 109 ticket holders)

I sort of counted the seats in 105 at the scrimmage Friday (109 should be the same) and there were 110 seats, give or take. If you convert that to club seating, that's only adding 80-90 club seats. I hope they consider every alternative before doing anything radical. One thing I'd like for them to look at would be the option of putting in some club seats in the rather empty spaces next to the suites. They would have to do some modifications to make this work, but it seems to me that they might be able to get 20-30 club seats up there.

They might also look to see if there is some incentive they can offer that would get existing club seat holders to take seats in the outfield club. I don't see it happening, but it's something that they should look into if they are doing their due diligence.
Farmer1906
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Quote:

One thing I'd like for them to look at would be the option of putting in some club seats in the rather empty spaces next to the suites.
I always wondered why they didn't do suites all the way down both lines. It doesn't look like they're considering it now either.
twk
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Farmer1906 said:

Quote:

One thing I'd like for them to look at would be the option of putting in some club seats in the rather empty spaces next to the suites.
I always wondered why they didn't do suites all the way down both lines. It doesn't look like they're considering it now either.
They would lose too many seats. My suggestion is not to turn those empty spaces into suites, because if they did that, they would end up taking out about four rows of seats in front of them, and then we're right back to where we were taking about with section 109.

Club seats are just a lot more desirable than suites--the cost for food and beverages in suites is a killer.
BQ_90
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rc_cat said:

So, how are they planning to reseat the people from 105/109 without impacting any other areas?
They're not its all smoke screen. They want to give the impression this isn't a massive reseating
TXAggie2011
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TXAG1977 said:

It never ceases to hear the opinions of those who want to protect their right to cheap seats and tell big financial contributors how to spend their money. "Build us a much better stadium, but don't increase my seat cost or expect to sit in front of me". " Fire or hire this of that coach, then go away until we need your money again" Must be more entitled liberals around than I thought.
Wait, wait, wait...who is the group entitled here?

How about you suck it the **** up and say "hey, I recognize you don't pay as much as I do but you help make this place enjoyable for all of us and plus, I'm not a dick so I want y'all to have a great time, too, so let's find a good compromise."

If you want to spend your money on your own personal enjoyment, go to a nice steakhouse and drink a glass of 50 year scotch.

Don't donate to a college stadium if you don't want 5000 "cheap seats" having a voice in the process.
Aggieangler93
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Why do you think you are entitled to cheap seats and an equal voice in the process? What's your logic behind that? Why would someone be offensive to you if they didn't feel that way? I don't get it. I don't expect anyone to give me anything, at anytime.

Why would Texas A&M not sell each seat for as much as they could? Those dollars could then be used to fund the baseball program, which is not in the black most years. I'm all in favor of them getting all they can for the seats, so that we don't see baseball potentially lost in the future, due to budget crunches.
Class of '93 - proud Dad of a '22 grad and a '26 student!
twk
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Aggieangler93 said:

Why do you think you are entitled to cheap seats and an equal voice in the process? What's your logic behind that? Why would someone be offensive to you if they didn't feel that way? I don't get it. I don't expect anyone to give me anything, at anytime.

Why would Texas A&M not sell each seat for as much as they could? Those dollars could then be used to fund the baseball program, which is not in the black most years. I'm all in favor of them getting all they can for the seats, so that we don't see baseball potentially lost in the future, due to budget crunches.
No one is entitled to cheap seats, but, you can't be short sighted about loyalty. If you literally had a seat auction every season, season ticket sales would go up and down like a yo yo. We don't have the problem--the AD knows almost to the penny how much ticket revenue they are going to have from baseball because we sell out season tickets. That's a rarity in college baseball.

More club seating would bring in more revenue. but the additional revenue from 80-90 additional club seats hardly seems worth upsetting 3000 season ticket holders. If you alienate those folks, the next time results go south on the field, you could find yourself looking at empty seats. It's a balancing act. I appreciate the tough job the AD will have in getting it right.
Lance Uppercut
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Quote:

More club seating would bring in more revenue. but the additional revenue from 80-90 additional club seats hardly seems worth upsetting 3000 season ticket holders. If you alienate those folks, the next time results go south on the field, you could find yourself looking at empty seats. It's a balancing act. I appreciate the tough job the AD will have in getting it right.

That about sums up how I feel about it.
Aggieangler93
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I don't have any argument with this logic. Season ticket holders should be impacted as little as possible, IMO. I was trying to point out that non-season ticket holders have even less of a dog in the fight, and that makes sense to me...

IMHO...TexasAggie2011 was not complaining about season ticket holders. As I read it, he's talking about the cheap seats, and the expectation that the cheap seats get to remain cheap and right up near the base pads on the second deck. I also believe he was insinuating that someone that donates money to the program is a d**k, if they don't think he should have that "right".

That's what irritated me. Why insult other Aggies that choose to support the university with their dollars?

Listen, we all love tradition, and the student section at Olsen is one of my favorite things about Aggie baseball, but it seems to me that the goal of the athletic department is to add more season tickets in response to the increased demand lately. If that is the case, which makes sense, then cheap seats aren't always going to be available near the infield. Those two fly in the face of each other, if you think about it. At least to me they do.
Class of '93 - proud Dad of a '22 grad and a '26 student!
twk
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I hear what you are saying, but I think we'll actually end up preserving what GA we have in the upper deck right now, and adding new season tickets down the third base line. Those seats will have two advantages over the first base upper deck: (1) they will be armchairs; and (2) they will have more shade/not be looking into the sun. We can make a reasonable number of additional season tickets available without further cutting back the GA seats.
Aggieangler93
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I hope they go this route. I wouldn't have any problem paying for an armchair seat down the 3B line in the shade.
Class of '93 - proud Dad of a '22 grad and a '26 student!
TXAggie2011
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Quote:

IMHO...TexasAggie2011 was not complaining about season ticket holders. As I read it, he's talking about the cheap seats, and the expectation that the cheap seats get to remain cheap and right up near the base pads on the second deck. I also believe he was insinuating that someone that donates money to the program is a d**k, if they don't think he should have that "right".


I never said I or anyone else was "entitled" to anything nor did I say those in the cheap seats should have an "equal voice." Hell, I wasn't really even thinking about where exactly I believe the cheap seats should be. And I partly was thinking about those season ticket holders who aren't at the level of "major financial donor."

So with that in mind, re-evaluate your opinion.

I am saying I am tired of the egos that are pervasive among the higher circles and I'm tired that the personal interests of the big money folks so dominate outcomes within our athletic program---that covers everything from seating charts to head coach contracts.

I'm not saying the athletic director should invite little ol' me out to dinner; but I find it unfortunate and not in the best interest of our athletic department's success that the interests of a few dominate over the interests of the whole. I always thought at A&M that simply being an Aggie was enough to have your interests taken seriously.

I understand the reality that you can't get rid of all egos and I understand the reality that if you want big donations, you've got some to give something in return...but its damn near infuriatingly frustrating for someone to say what was said in that particular post I was responding to...hence the strong language.
TXAggie2011
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Quote:

Why would Texas A&M not sell each seat for as much as they could? Those dollars could then be used to fund the baseball program, which is not in the black most years. I'm all in favor of them getting all they can for the seats, so that we don't see baseball potentially lost in the future, due to budget crunches.


There are great baseball programs that can barely pay their electricity bill each month even with the subsidies they get from their university.

We're a self sustaining athletic department debating whether we should add barbecue tailgate pits in the outfield.

Talking about the viability of our baseball program isn't salient.

We don't sell seats at our sporting events for as much as possible for many reasons. Among those, this is not exhaustive list, is that we're not listed on the stock market---college sports isn't about profits; that we're about creating a fun, enjoyable, and intimidating atmosphere; that we're about tradition; that we're coming together as Aggies of all backgrounds to support our teams. Etc.

We spend more money on shiny, luxurious things in different sports than a great many programs that are every bit as good or better than our's.

Trying to bleed out a little more money for a little more shine isn't going to make our teams better.
Aggieangler93
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Nevermind.....I took offense at calling someone names, for their decision to donate to TAMU. The rest of it is not something we will see eye to eye on.

I'm not in favor of changing the traditions we have in place at Olsen, or for that matter, in alienating long time season ticket holders. The reality of the situation is, there are just as many folks asking for more premium seats and also more season ticket reserved seating capacity. Maybe they can walk the fine line in adding that, while not pissing folks off. We'll see.

Class of '93 - proud Dad of a '22 grad and a '26 student!
Aggieangler93
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Potential recruits like to see top notch facilities when they visit a place. So some extra shine does arguably make our teams better.

I don't think either one of us actually know how ticket prices are set, so I won't belabor this.....what's the point? Who has actual facts?

If you think someone up there at TMF, is not looking at the money angle here, I think that is a fairly naive opinion....but maybe I am jaded. It just doesn't seem very logical.

Anyway, we'll agree to disagree.
Class of '93 - proud Dad of a '22 grad and a '26 student!
TXAggie2011
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I didn't call someone a name because they donate to A&M. Hell, I donate to A&M.

And I didn't say the TMF was not looking "at the money angle" or that the TMF shouldn't have someone doing that.
Mostly Sunny Disposition
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I'll buy an outfield box, and I'm most certainly pro booze being sold or brought in out there. I hope they don't take the words of 10 people and scrap the idea.
Buford T. Justice
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"No TMF rep."
Grab your socks folks.
If you thought that lack of communication was an issue in the past, what does that statement tell you about the future.
"Gimme a diablo sandwhich and a dr. pepper...to go"
BeatHellOutOfTU
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We need to stop sucking the life out of Olsen... let the students have the whole upper deck of the 1st base side like it used to be... past that I don't care what they do... the renderings look nice, but if you take out the students the games will no longer be special
BigDawg87
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Was able to tour the revamped Dudy Noble this weekend. They're still in the middle of the renovations, but they were allowing people to move into their outfield boxes. Their first home game is this Tuesday. The second deck won't be finished this season apparently, and it looked to have only maybe 1/4 of the seats installed so far.

The outfield deck set up is truly amazing. Most of the "boxes" are sold out. There are 3 levels that stretch from foul pole to foul pole. People were installing their own seating pits, "bars", etc...

Planning on making the road trip in April.
twk
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DBD87 said:

Was able to tour the revamped Dudy Noble this weekend. They're still in the middle of the renovations, but they were allowing people to move into their outfield boxes. Their first home game is this Tuesday. The second deck won't be finished this season apparently, and it looked to have only maybe 1/4 of the seats installed so far.

The outfield deck set up is truly amazing. Most of the "boxes" are sold out. There are 3 levels that stretch from foul pole to foul pole. People were installing their own seating pits, "bars", etc...

Planning on making the road trip in April.
I thought I was going to skip this trip, and wait for the finished product in 2020, but turns out I'm going after all (another trip fell through). I think they are going to have the best facility in college baseball when this is done.
bruno319
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BeatHellOutOfTU said:

We need to stop sucking the life out of Olsen... let the students have the whole upper deck of the 1st base side like it used to be... past that I don't care what they do... the renderings look nice, but if you take out the students the games will no longer be special


I would agree with this for not just baseball, but also proposed changes in basketball. This is college athletics at a university with students that now number 60K on the main campus. It doesn't make sense to make changes that lessen their ability to attend games or has them there but reduces their impact in creating the homefield advantage that A&M is known for, particularly in baseball, and that A&M and TMF constantly SELL.

I donate too, not BMA levels, but I donate and attend. And you know what? While we get into the games, some of us more than others, it is NOT the donors and premium ticket holders really yelling, heckling, creating that adverse environment that gets reported on by media and marketed by the athletic department when they want an infusion of new money and ticket buyers. It would be shortsighted to harm that by just focusing on increased revenue from premium areas if it means cutting out student/GA seating. It wouldn't be long before that would translate into less energy at games, combined with any possible slump from the team, and then fewer butts in the seats and fewer renewals.

You definitely want to make money and keep donations/support coming in, but you have to also continue to maintain student access, which is where players probably draw the most energy, and provide GA options to foster support/interest in the program beyond your weekend BMAs and distant donors. I would be pissed if I were still a student committed and wanting to support my teams but was told too bad, the Ags before you, who got to experience all this and be close to the action when they were in school, now pay us too much money to let you have that same experience while you are in college trying to support teams of college students representing your university. Enjoy the game from outfield or the far first base line and don't complain about it.
dermdoc
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I agree to a point but the students must hold up their end of the bargain. We have the best and largest student seating at Kyle and how many times is it full? We have good student seating at Reed and often it is almost empty except for big SEC games. Blue Bell has the best student seating to my knowledge in the SEC yet we had trouble filling it until recently(which is why the re modeling was done the way it was).

Every Ag I know active in Aggie athletics does not want to decrease student seating or its impact but when the seats are not filled and older Ags are paying more it is noticed.

And frankly, I want to keep or expand GA seating at Blue Bell. Does not really come into play for fb or basketball but the GA sections at Blue Bell are vital to the atmosphere imho.

And edited to add that I can heckle with the best of them.
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Capt. America
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I'm in. I feel that general admission will look like this most of the time especially once the berms are gone.
bruno319
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dermdoc said:

I agree to a point but the students must hold up their end of the bargain. We have the best and largest student seating at Kyle and how many times is it full? We have good student seating at Reed and often it is almost empty except for big SEC games. Blue Bell has the best student seating to my knowledge in the SEC yet we had trouble filling it until recently(which is why the re modeling was done the way it was).

Every Ag I know active in Aggie athletics does not want to decrease student seating or its impact but when the seats are not filled and older Ags are paying more it is noticed.

And frankly, I want to keep or expand GA seating at Blue Bell. Does not really come into play for fb or basketball but the GA sections at Blue Bell are vital to the atmosphere imho.

And edited to add that I can heckle with the best of them.


I completely agree that students need to show up consistently. I think there are ways to address that without cutting the GA seating options, though. It starts with the athletic department being clear in communication, and I think, handling regular attendance the way they do postseason. If you have a sportspass and haven't been showing up and scanned in for regular season games, you don't get to attend the big games or postseason games unless there are extra tickets left after the paying public. Have an all sportspass and only went to football? Great, next year you get a football-only pass unless you agree to attend x percent of other ticketed home games. My niece is a freshman this year, and I know her dormmate couldn't get a football sportspass after waiting too late into the summer to request one, and that's after A&M set aside something like 35k seats for students. Create a waitlist and give the kids who will show up the priority for any sport and/or use football interest to leverage attendance at basketball and baseball, especially for weekday games, or give priority points to students who attend weekday and non-con games for all postseason games or for team meet and greets.

I agree with Capt. as well that if berms gone or reduced, you'll see a more consistent fill of GA.

This has been a good discussion thread; I appreciate all the opinions shared. I have always loved sports, especially Aggie sports, and have always attended as often as I can for all of them. That makes it hard to imagine not being able to as a student or GA before I could afford to donate. But, I also understand there are a lot of students that may not feel the same and athletics is a business, has to be one to keep offering the product.

Gig'em and BTHO NW State!
cef88
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I disagree with this solely because you are wishing to take someone's opportunity for seats away that they purchased. If a student purchased an all sports pass and only showed up for football, they still have the option to attend any sporting event as long as they get there in time for a seat. Just because they choose not to exercise that ability doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to get an all sports pass next year.
Tex100
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Any plan that moves the prop guy from behind the opponents dugout is a bad one.

The players are classmates of the current students. Students should be able to see their teams play to help build their love for the school. The students turned out well from what I saw at Kyle and they did a good job as the 12th Man this year. Many times they are siting in the south end zone, some at the very top.
dermdoc
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i agree. But they need to understand that it is a privilege to get those kind of seats. To my knowledge, no other school does what A&M does for student seating.
No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See full Medical Disclaimer.
 
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