I’ve been writing for years about how UVA Athletics needs to do some fresh things with respect to home UVA Football games.
They’re finally trying.
Or so they’re claiming.
See, they sent out a press release today, and, well, you know how those things go.
You see, they did this Fan Experience Council thing, and they wanted to brag about it.
They were smart not to ask me to take part; we’d still be trying to get through the end of the first meeting, because I’ve got years of receipts, and I would have shared the sh*t out of them.
I would have been Frank Costanza at Festivus: I got a lot of problems with you people …
Butts in seats
Most important thing to me has consistently been, we tend to average around 40,000 in announced attendance, meaning there’s 20,000-plus empties (and usually more, because the announced attendance almost always appears to have been massively inflated).
So, get butts in seats, right?
And if the price point for getting in the door is an issue, you do what they tell you in Economics 201, and lower prices.
The press release buried the details of three ticket packages that seem to me to be an attempt to address the price-point issue.
From the PR
- Fan First Games: The Coastal Carolina and William & Mary games have tickets starting at just $16.50 and Family Four Packs starting at $54, while the ACC opener vs. Stanford has Family Four Packs starting at $108.
- Family Four Pack: Starting at $520, fans can lock in four season tickets for just over $18 per game.
- Hoos Choice Flex Pack: Starting at just $99, fans have autonomy to select any combination of three games from any of Virginia’s first six home games.
- Cavman’s Crew: All-Star packages start at just $50 and include tickets to three home games for both a child and parent. Other benefits include discounted tickets to select men’s basketball games and free tickets to select women’s basketball and men’s lacrosse games as well as a holiday gift from Cavman.
Analysis: Eighteen bucks a ticket per game in the standard Family Four Pack is closer to what we need to be doing there. The Family, Fan First and the Cavman’s Crew packages are good because they offer lower prices, and they target families, and most importantly, kids.
We need to create the next generation of fans.
The $33 per in the Flex Pack, I dunno, you’re getting a little pricey there, for a team that is 11-23 in the last three seasons, and is projected to maybe get to six wins this year.
Transportation
The logistics have been an embarrassment for years, considering, again, the 20,000-plus empties on average, and how we still have trouble getting people into the stadium from the far-flung parking lots.
I learned about this firsthand last year, after I forgot my media parking pass for one of the home games, had to park at JPJ, waited in line for a bus for 20 minutes, then decided to just make the hike over to the stadium.
The press release out today tells us that UVA Athletics is partnering with UVA Parking & Transportation “to improve the efficiency of the gameday shuttle services.”
“Shuttles will continue to operate free of charge from Fontaine Research Park, John Paul Jones Arena and North Grounds (Darden/The Park). Routes will now drop off directly at the Scott Stadium East and West gates.”
Which sounds good, but we’ll see if things work as they’re intended.
One nice touch: “all shuttle buses are ADA-accessible,” the presser tells us, “so patrons requiring those services are no longer required to shuttle from The Park; all shuttles can accommodate ADA patrons. Shuttles will begin three hours prior to kickoff, run throughout the game and run for at least one hour postgame.”
A buddy of mine had an issue with the lack of ADA-accessible shuttles at a game down in Charlotte last year.
This kind of thing that we’re touting now should have been standard 30 years ago, but at least we’re taking care of it now.
Concessions
The food at Scott Stadium, to put it mildly, has sucked, forever.
We’re being told today that we’re getting specialty food options this season.
- Hoos Home Stand: behind sections 106, 126, 505, 509, 520, 526, 531 and 535
- BBQ Alley: behind sections 112, 120 and 514, “Eat Drink Taco” behind section 115
- Hamburger House: behind section 117
- Eat Drink Nacho: on both the West and East perimeters.
Also, per the release, “alongside many food trucks that will rotate each game, Chick-Fil-A will host their food truck on the East side of Scott Stadium.”
ICYMI
They ran off the Gusburger guy last year, sadly.
The Hill
Remember the disaster that was the brief experiment last year to limit access to The Hill?
They’re still going to keep the Tech kids out during the finale, but otherwise, per the release, The Hill will be open to all on a first-come, first-served basis.
The last time I was on The Hill for a game was in the Mike London era.
My memory of that night: lots of passed-out drunk kids, not a lot of attention to the passed-out drunk kids from the staff.
A kid passed out at my feet in a pool of vomit; I got the attention of an usher, who shrugged it off as no big deal.
Good news, I guess: the bacchanalias aren’t going anywhere.
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Chris Graham
