The responses to our recent columns on UVA Basketball transfer-portal recruiting and the “this is not reseating” ticket-price increase plan have been coming in fast and furious, emphasis on the furious.
Maybe it’s just who we appeal to in terms of our reader base, but, no, it’s not good.
The first month of the Ryan Odom era is decidedly not off to a good start.
To the mailbag …
The gall of VAF
I’ve been a donor since 2005, and give between 6 to 15k yearly. I’ve never received an upgrade, or the ability to get anything better than section 306 in JPJ (unless I wanted to move up rows in another section.) The gall of VAF to increase the cost of ANYTHING is ridiculous, and I absolutely will not be renewing my tickets. I already stopped my women’s basketball, and football last year (keeping baseball for now.) Asking the people most supporting the program (the 100k+ crowd) seems so arrogant and right in line with my dealings with the VAF for 20 years. Is this the backlash from NIL? Maybe, except I don’t see any big-pay athletes on any UVA team, and they wouldn’t keep Isaac McKneely for a million.
– Darren
Two years left
We had likely decided well before these numbers were released that driving three and one-half hours for a less than 24-hour turnaround was not going to continue. The athletics department has made that decision easier. If I were ten to twenty years younger and had a disregard for my retirement well-being, I may opt for first-row courtside seats rather than Section 112 two rows in front of the Jones box. Season-ticket holders in our section have gotten cavalier about attending and frequently sell their seats, often to fans of the opposition. I suspect that unless the team gets exceptionally competitive, the days of JPJ being standing-room-only will be a memory. We have two years to continue to enjoy the privilege.
– Steve
Disgruntled season-ticket holder
Yes, the “1%” will now pay $150K per seat over 5 years for courtside. (And I think if you dig a bit deeper, a large percentage of the first two courtside rows is actually owned by corporations, John Grisham notwithstanding.)
Lower-lever sideline season ticket holders now have to pay a $125K seat license over five years. They originally paid $25K for a 10 year seat license when JPJ first opened. The new fee is 10 times higher on an annual basis, not twice as high as indicated in your article.
Let’s talk turkey. The cheapest lower-level seating behind the baseline now requires a $30K seat license, plus $17,500 in VAF donations, plus $7,000 for the tickets themselves over five years. Taking all of this into account, the average price per year for two baseline lower level (not courtside) tickets will be $10,800. Virginia plays an average of 14 home games per season, so patrons in this section will pay an average of $385 a ticket per game, not including parking. These are NBA prices.
The people who sit in the lower level are certainly comfortable, but the vast majority are not the proverbial 1%. This will be big financial commitment for a lot of them.
UVA has obviously decided to make up the projected $20M annual athletic budget shortfall, that is due to federal court ordered revenue sharing that will begin this fall, on the backs of lower-level basketball season-ticket holders.
If Coach Odom and UVA Basketball struggles, I predict a mass exodus of season-ticket holders in 2027 when the new seat licenses start. Olympic sports at UVA will suffer.
– Dave
No real answers
The past seven months have been difficult, to say the least. I think Ron Sanchez showed some promise considering what he was thrown into and I feel bad for him. He likely wasn’t a good fit going forward, but he seemed like a good man in a bad situation. I don’t want to blame Tony Bennett for this, but as the season progressed and then we witnessed the mass exodus of players at season’s end, it was hard not to. He disregarded two of his five pillars when he jumped ship right before the season started: (1) Unity: Do Not Divide Our House and (2) Servanthood: Make Teammates Better. Stepping down when he did absolutely divided the house and did not make his team better. He should have stuck it out. At the least, don’t show up and sit in the suite smiling and messing with your phone while the guys who committed to YOU are still giving their blood, sweat, and tears for the program (that was bad optics, for sure). I appreciate all he did for UVA, and he’ll always be a ‘Hoos legend, but the Bennett departure was not a class act.
And the aftermath is just agony.. Everything is just completely ripped to shreds. Nothing is left. What we have for next season is some coach with a name we know and a bunch of guys we’ve never heard of from who knows where. This wouldn’t have happened if Bennett stayed, but I don’t blame him for that – it’s NIL and the poor implementation of it. When I heard about NIL, I thought “Great! Now a kid can go make a deal with the local car dealer or the extermination company or whomever.” But that’s not the way it works. Kids don’t seem to be making their own deals and actually marketing their NIL – the schools are doing it. How did that happen? I do not understand how this got to be a bidding war between schools when it was intended to be a way for the kids themselves to seek compensation from whomever thought their NIL was worth paying for. The NCAA botched this big time.
I guess the long and short of it is I’m just sad and have no real answers. I don’t want to be the crotchety, 60-something, get-off-my-lawn guy, but I fear I am when it comes to UVA basketball and college athletics.
– Lou
Portal commits
I am befuddled by what is coming out of Charlottesville. After bragging about having top 10 NIL reserves, it seems those funds are bringing underwhelming and middling results thus far, with only commitments from mid- to low-majors, and one backup point guard from BYU. Also, only one commit from a non-starter from VCU. I can only assume that Brandon Jennings returned to VCU from the portal because he couldn’t get accepted academically.
In looking at the top 25 portal classes thus far, UVA isn’t within sniffing distance of the list, though seven other ACC teams are on it, including #1 Louisville, who seemed to be able to find a place for Isaac McKneely. You told me in an earlier email that they didn’t want to break the NIL bank with McKneely. Well, with whom are they going to break that bank now? Looks pretty grim to me at this late stage in the portal. Looks like another repeat from last year, when we could only pick up the leftovers. And we know how that turned out.
Buzz Williams at Maryland, also dealing with a depleted roster, was able in less than a week on the job to land the #8 portal class, which includes Elijah Saunders. Our man has been on the job for over a month. Perhaps he is waiting for commits from Longwood.
– Ken
Share
Chris Graham
