Tennessee announces change in ticket plan
With construction scheduled to get underway on the new west club seats in the lower bowl of Neyland Stadium and in the north end zone party deck, the Tennessee athletic department announced a restructuring of their ticket policy and donations in all sports on Wednesday.
The construction in Neyland Stadium will create a loss of seats and mean the reassignment of some for both projects. To coincide with that, Tennessee is announcing a more modernized and “fair” way to season ticketing.
Currently, in the same section of the stadium or even on the same row you might have 10 season ticket holders who are paying different donations to get those tickets. Tennessee’s new plan is designed to clean that up creating a more fair system. According to Tennessee officials less than 50% of season ticket holders are paying at the current price point because of other deals they have made through the years or because their tickets are “grandfathered”.
In Neyland Stadium starting in 2022, fans will have 5 zones to pick from for seats, four of the five zones will require a donation ranging from $700-$5,000 for the most premium seating, the west club. There will be a family section which requires no donation and a season ticket is $300. Tickets/donation in the north end zone will be $600 which is 37% cheaper than this year. In fact, Tennessee says
Affected account holders will receive an email on Wednesday, Sept. 22, with details specific to their seats. And throughout the coming weeks, Tennessee Athletics staff will proactively reach out to affected account holders to talk through these changes and discuss options.
Tennessee is also eliminating their umbrella policy of season tickets putting donations on each sport individually. That doesn’t mean you have to make a donation to get a ticket in some cases, but it does mean that being a season ticket and donor in football doesn’t give you the right to be a basketball season ticket holder without a donation.
In basketball in 2019 according to sources Tennessee did five million dollars in ticket sales but had less than a million dollars in basketball donations for tickets.
Tennessee announced the move as a clean up to many one off deals to make the system a more fair and equitable procedure for tickets for all fans.
Basketball pricing for the 2022-2023 season hasn’t been established yet. Tennessee is also changing their season ticket structure in women’s basketball, softball and baseball.
“Since very early in my tenure here, I’ve been attuned to our need to offer increased fan access and also modernize and maximize the revenue opportunities at our athletic venues,” White said. “For sports like softball, baseball and basketball, we’ve been selling ourselves short. Those teams have performed at a level that has prompted demand, but opportunities for new ticket holders to join in has been too limited for too many of our fans.”