How Steep Is The Price For Excellence?
posted by Scott Hood on Friday, June 20, 2008
The Intercollegiate Athletics Committee of the University’s Board of Trustees approved Wednesday a plan to charge a seat license fee for each of the planned 5,700 available seats in the new baseball stadium.
The vote marked the first time in school history fans will have to pay an additional fee above and beyond the cost of tickets and Gamecocks Club dues to watch the Gamecocks play.
It may have marked the first time, but I can assure you it won’t be the last.
What’s going on now at the baseball stadium is child’s play compared to what will happen early next year when USC tells us what fans will have to pay to simply gain the right to renew their football season tickets.
Here’s a prediction: It won’t be cheap.
Armageddon? Probably not, but it might be close.
The prices USC set for the baseball stadium (most fans will pay $25.00 to $115.00 per seat as an annual license fee) will pale in comparison to what the school will likely charge at Williams-Brice beginning in 2009.
Granted, as interim Gamecock Club director Patrick McFarland told me recently, every season ticket-holder, no matter their Gamecock Club donation level, will be given an opportunity to keep their current seats.
But they must agree to pay the seat license fee for each and every ticket.
Once Darrin Horn gets the struggling men’s basketball program on its feet, will the Colonial Center be the next target? Could USC hoop fans face the prospect of paying an annual seat license fee as well to watch the Gamecocks play?
Yes and yes.
In this world, nothing is off-limits.
Steadily, USC administrators and the long-suffering fans are learning that the price is mighty steep indeed if you want to compete with the Big Boys, both in the SEC and nationally.
Athletic Director Eric Hyman has proclaimed dozens of times in the past that there’s "a price for excellence.” He said it again on Wednesday when he met with the media following the seat license vote.
Is it true? Well, if you follow the recent trends in Div. I college athletics, the answer is again yes. There are a lot of schools, many of them in the SEC, frantically building new facilities, or planning to do so, to keep pace in the “arms race” that’s engulfing many institutions of higher learning.
Just think of it as college athletics’ version of the Cold War.
The incredible amount of money schools are spending on facilities is filtering down to coaches. Every day, it seems, another coach sets a new salary standard that seemed far-fetched only a few years ago.
College administrators refer to it as “the marketplace.”
That’s why Hyman bumped up Steve Spurrier’s guaranteed annual compensation to $1.75 million per year following the 2006 season.
It’s also why he gave huge contracts to Darrin Horn ($800,000 per year) and Dawn Staley ($650,000 per year minus what she owes the school for buying out her Temple contract), and why USC is currently in the early stages of a $200 million capital campaign.
Construction of the new $36 million baseball stadium is nearly 50 percent complete. The renovation of the football training area underneath Williams-Brice Stadium, which is costing $2.5 million by the way, is ongoing and should be finished in 2-3 months.
Still to come is the start of construction of the new academic enrichment center and the long-awaited and much-needed expansion of Williams-Brice.
The price tag for all of these projects – remember this is just the first stage of a decade long effort – is in the tens of millions of dollars.
Who will ultimately pay the bill? You, the fan, of course. In the form of skyrocketing Gamecock Club dues, higher ticket prices and, now, annual seat licenses.
And you're still going to have to pay $4.00 or more for a gallon of gas.
Welcome to the world of big-time college athletics.
There may be a price for excellence, but here’s the important question: Are USC fans willing to pay that price?
I have no doubt that some fans will throw up their arms and wave the white flag of surrender, refusing to pay whatever large sum of money the USC athletic department wants them to pay.
Others may embrace the idea of paying more for the privilege of attending USC games, pleased that the athletic department is finally doing all it can to field a competitive program in the hyper-competitive SEC.
If you’re in the latter group, then it may be wise to purchase a bigger wallet.
You’re going to need it.
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You might have missed it, but June 18th was an important day in the history of the South Carolina athletic department.
The Intercollegiate Athletics Committee of the University’s Board of Trustees approved Wednesday a plan to charge a seat license fee for each of the planned 5,700 available seats in the new baseball stadium.
The vote marked the first time in school history fans will have to pay an additional fee above and beyond the cost of tickets and Gamecocks Club dues to watch the Gamecocks play.
It may have marked the first time, but I can assure you it won’t be the last.
What’s going on now at the baseball stadium is child’s play compared to what will happen early next year when USC tells us what fans will have to pay to simply gain the right to renew their football season tickets.
Here’s a prediction: It won’t be cheap.
Armageddon? Probably not, but it might be close.
The prices USC set for the baseball stadium (most fans will pay $25.00 to $115.00 per seat as an annual license fee) will pale in comparison to what the school will likely charge at Williams-Brice beginning in 2009.
Granted, as interim Gamecock Club director Patrick McFarland told me recently, every season ticket-holder, no matter their Gamecock Club donation level, will be given an opportunity to keep their current seats.
But they must agree to pay the seat license fee for each and every ticket.
Once Darrin Horn gets the struggling men’s basketball program on its feet, will the Colonial Center be the next target? Could USC hoop fans face the prospect of paying an annual seat license fee as well to watch the Gamecocks play?
Yes and yes.
In this world, nothing is off-limits.
Steadily, USC administrators and the long-suffering fans are learning that the price is mighty steep indeed if you want to compete with the Big Boys, both in the SEC and nationally.
Athletic Director Eric Hyman has proclaimed dozens of times in the past that there’s "a price for excellence.” He said it again on Wednesday when he met with the media following the seat license vote.
Is it true? Well, if you follow the recent trends in Div. I college athletics, the answer is again yes. There are a lot of schools, many of them in the SEC, frantically building new facilities, or planning to do so, to keep pace in the “arms race” that’s engulfing many institutions of higher learning.
Just think of it as college athletics’ version of the Cold War.
The incredible amount of money schools are spending on facilities is filtering down to coaches. Every day, it seems, another coach sets a new salary standard that seemed far-fetched only a few years ago.
College administrators refer to it as “the marketplace.”
That’s why Hyman bumped up Steve Spurrier’s guaranteed annual compensation to $1.75 million per year following the 2006 season.
It’s also why he gave huge contracts to Darrin Horn ($800,000 per year) and Dawn Staley ($650,000 per year minus what she owes the school for buying out her Temple contract), and why USC is currently in the early stages of a $200 million capital campaign.
Construction of the new $36 million baseball stadium is nearly 50 percent complete. The renovation of the football training area underneath Williams-Brice Stadium, which is costing $2.5 million by the way, is ongoing and should be finished in 2-3 months.
Still to come is the start of construction of the new academic enrichment center and the long-awaited and much-needed expansion of Williams-Brice.
The price tag for all of these projects – remember this is just the first stage of a decade long effort – is in the tens of millions of dollars.
Who will ultimately pay the bill? You, the fan, of course. In the form of skyrocketing Gamecock Club dues, higher ticket prices and, now, annual seat licenses.
And you're still going to have to pay $4.00 or more for a gallon of gas.
Welcome to the world of big-time college athletics.
There may be a price for excellence, but here’s the important question: Are USC fans willing to pay that price?
I have no doubt that some fans will throw up their arms and wave the white flag of surrender, refusing to pay whatever large sum of money the USC athletic department wants them to pay.
Others may embrace the idea of paying more for the privilege of attending USC games, pleased that the athletic department is finally doing all it can to field a competitive program in the hyper-competitive SEC.
If you’re in the latter group, then it may be wise to purchase a bigger wallet.
You’re going to need it.
- Permalink, Discuss, Blog Home
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Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.