Peel Paint Posted October 5, 2007 Share Posted October 5, 2007 Forms have gone out to Friends of DCI for renewal, and they include an early peek at a seating chart and at package prices. (Depending on membership level, Friends get some tickets, and can order extras. In the past, the prices for extra tickets have matched the prices fans have paid DCI for tickets.) The per-seat 5-show prices shown on the seating chart are: Super Premium: $290 Premium: $210 Green: $170 Pink: $120 And they've in effect raised prices further by expanding out away from the 50 the yardlines on which the prices drop in the upper deck. If you buy inexpensive seats, you will be in or near the end zone and you'll be high or low, which has been true in recent years, but this year, even if you buy expensive seats, you may be pretty far out from the 50, more so than in other recent finals venues. And this may be just the way the seating chart is drawn and not really reflect what the configuration of seats looks like at Lucas Oil, but it appears on the chart that there are about as many rows in Tiers 2, 3, 4 and 5 combined as there are in Tier 1 and also as there are in Tier 6. If true, that also in effect would push more people into more expensive seats because there would be relatively fewer seats in the lowest and highest deck. (The seating chart doesn't provide row numbers.) DCI drew the sideline on the seating chart with no yard marker numbers other than the 50, so it's hard to be sure where different price tiers break on what yard lines. But it appears that Super Premium will extend pretty much all the way across between the goal lines on tiers 2, 3, 4, and 5. Are these tiers skyboxes? It just says, "All seats are theater style seats." Premium will extend on the lower deck, tier 1, between the 35s, between about the end zone and the 10 yard line on tiers 2, 3, 4, and 5, and in the upper deck, tier 6, maybe between the 10s! The green seats go from about the goal line to the 35s on tier 1, in the end zone corners in tiers 2, 3, 4, and 5, and in the end zone on the upper deck. There are few pink seats, and they are very low or very high in the end zone corners only. To add insult to injury, remember that at Lucas Oil, Ticketmaster handles all ticket sales, and they tend to tack on high "convienience" and mailing fees. There's a $9 per extra seat fee added to the above 5-show prices for Friends of DCI. Fees for tickets bought directly through Ticketmaster may or may not be higher. If tickets are sold as in the past, next crack will go for a few weeks to 5-show packages to the general public, and then, among the unsold seats, single ticket reserved seats for quarters, semis, and finals. No dates for any of this have been announced. Friends of DCI don't know exactly what seats they're getting, but can "request" general areas of the stadium. Other options to get great seats are to get them through a corps or sponsoring corporation, or on eBay from people who order in the fall but find they can't go six or nine months later. If they sell as many tickets as in the past, all of this is going to add a lot of revenue to DCI and the corps, which is a good thing, but what's it going to do to attendance, especially in successive years in Indy? Even more people are going to say, I'll go the theater for quarters and buy the DVD. Actually, the smartest thing for people who live within a few hours drive of Indy might be to say, I'll grab 50-yard line quarters tickets on eBay and just go to that. Or I'll buy the package, go to quarters, and sell the semis and finals seats on eBay. Hmmmm... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bawker Posted October 5, 2007 Share Posted October 5, 2007 Yeah, I think I'll wait and see what shows up on eBay....yeesh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frazib Posted October 5, 2007 Share Posted October 5, 2007 Plus it looks like we don't get the free top 12 cd anymore either! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Brace Posted October 5, 2007 Share Posted October 5, 2007 But you get tickets to Open Class Semis and Finals! What a great drum corps morning! Woo Hoo! I know...most of you won't go anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peel Paint Posted October 5, 2007 Author Share Posted October 5, 2007 (edited) Plus it looks like we don't get the free top 12 cd anymore either! Yeah, I noticed too, CDs were dropped as a freebie for Friends. Consider this a warning that DCI is either seriously considering or has already decided to discontinue selling new finals CDs in 2008, and go to just selling APD downloads instead. Apparently the CDs don't sell well anymore. George Hopkins said so on his blog a year ago, that neither DCI nor Cadets sold nearly as many CDs as they used to. If it's not profitable, they're gonna dump it. Edited October 5, 2007 by Peel Paint Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prodigal bari Posted October 5, 2007 Share Posted October 5, 2007 But you get tickets to Open Class Semis and Finals! What a great drum corps morning! Woo Hoo!I know...most of you won't go anyway. Come off it...DCI is NOT the Super Bowl. I am afraid the ivory tower mentality of DCI has just priced tickets out of the price range of a lot of their market. I would like to do the whole package; but I am NOT paying 200+ dollars to do so. \ Not good business sense IMO. <**> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drumcat Posted October 5, 2007 Share Posted October 5, 2007 Come off it...DCI is NOT the Super Bowl. I am afraid the ivory tower mentality of DCI has just priced tickets out of the price range of a lot of their market. I would like to do the whole package; but I am NOT paying 200+ dollars to do so. \Not good business sense IMO. <**> Forgive me, but I'm going to disagree. World class building, premium seats... one night premium package for Billy Joel is $350. Not that they're comparable, but in the live-entertainment deal, it's not that outrageous. Besides, there are probably going to be some very good 35-yl seats more in your price range. But seriously... were you expecting them to stay the same? Should we keep going back to "legacy" stadiums like the Rose Bowl? Let's be realistic; it is going to cost a little more to turn on the lights at Lucas. Just is. I'm not suggesting it isn't disappointing that it costs more, but it costs more all around... Besides, I have a pretty good feeling that they'll sell those tickets at that price. Not raising the price would have been bad business sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patblamo Posted October 5, 2007 Share Posted October 5, 2007 Come off it...DCI is NOT the Super Bowl. I am afraid the ivory tower mentality of DCI has just priced tickets out of the price range of a lot of their market. I would like to do the whole package; but I am NOT paying 200+ dollars to do so. \Not good business sense IMO. <**> I'm not happy about the price but I thought it would be more than this when they added Open Class. Weren't they $250 last year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrumCorps2008 Posted October 5, 2007 Share Posted October 5, 2007 The Friends of DCI program is not a season ticket program - at least I don't think it is. Some of the cost of being a freind is that you're supporting the activity with a donation of sorts. Yes, you get some good ticket deals, but it's not just about tickets. So, with that in mind....maybe the regular seat prices for non-friends won't be so high? Maybe we're jumping the gun on getting too upset about things. Let's see what the regular ticket packages look like and then cast judgement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOBSMYTH Posted October 5, 2007 Share Posted October 5, 2007 Here are my thoughts: First, just this week Hannah Montana concert tickets went on sale and were going on e-bay for over $200 per ticket and higher for just one show. The highest I saw reported was $2,565 for a single ticket! C'mon - Hannah Montana!?! Second, DCI never puts yard lines (other than the 50) on their printed material when they sell tickets. The material you received is not unique. Related, there were no row numbers on the offer because there are no rows. The seats have not been installed in the stadium yet. I'm sure the construction guys have the blue prints but I doubt DCI has been let in on the details. Last, for those who say DCI is pricing itself out of the market, I think it is good old economic supply and demand. Somehow those "overpriced" center sections keep selling out every year. Perhaps there is a somewhat inelastic demand curve for those tickets. DCI should keep raising prices on their most precious asset until they actually start to meet some market resistance (which will tell them they have reached an equilibrium point). If they don't do this, they are not maximizing the revenue potential and are leaving money on the table. Perhaps they should not sell these tickets at all - just auction all of them off and see how much money they can raise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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