Revised Seat Equity Plan now Delayed until Next Year

[SpiderRAM]

When are they actually going to communicate this directly to the season ticket holders? I didn't buy my VCU season tickets from Ram Nation. And that is where the problem with this administration lies. Using VCU Ram Nation to communicate to your season ticket/donor base vs. communicating directly with your "customers" is a very bad look and a horrible management strategy.

If there is ever a time when Ed should be micro-managing the athletic department and their communications, that time in now. The optics of this whole fiasco get worse day by day.

After “stealing” the name Ram Nation Network.

 

[AlienAiden]

After “stealing” the name Ram Nation Network.

MattRock should change the name of the forum to VCU Athletics

 

[Mercury]

MattRock should change the name of the forum to VCU Athletics

At this point, Ram nation has more built in goodwill from the customer base than VCU Athletics does.

 

[SpiderRAM]

At this point, Ram nation has more built in goodwill from the customer base than VCU Athletics does.

And it costs me a lot less money to join in the fun!

 

[rambunctiousrowdyram]

I know VCU has an important game tonight, but this is the story Wayne should be covering. If not Wayne, then the staff at Richmond BizSense (which has some of the best writers in town, IMHO). I would really like the admin to go on record concerning who was dissatisfied with the last reseating and why this move was deemed necessary.

I think it was during the first reseating 10 years ago (?) when the admin had open meetings for donors to come and learn about the reseating process and to ask questions. I remember $50 donors leaving the meeting crying because they learned that their donation was not going to cut it anymore.

Most of us would agree that as the program got more popular, more was expected from the donors to be awarded the privilege of season tickets.
The current admin is operating under a cloak of secrecy that could be unfolded with a FOIA request from a news organization. As a public institution, VCU should be obligated to disclose more information concerning its decision to reseat, given past promises.

Those 50 dollar donors were the young alumni program that got perks for 5 years to help them stay in network while not breaking the bank as newly grads.

 

[share the ball]

have any of you thought about creating a syndicate of smaller givers to make a 10000 annual gift and get the rights to buy 8 of the best seats (i assume you can buy up to 8 at that level ) instead of making your 2k gift and buying 2 seats in an inferior location? works best with donors that don't take any tax deduction (as an itemized deduction and use standard tax deduction)
lots of additional benefits for the higher level of gift too!

I stopped my season tickets about 4-5 years ago - primarily just lost interest in seeing our Rams play against 10 teams a year that to me were just not enloyable basketball to watch when their were 3 better games daily on TV and secondly a financial decision as I moved into retirement and had to reassess what I wanted to spend my finite retirement dollars on -

I never had any issues with Athletic Dept management but I normally had one or two staff I could get real answers from all the time - have read this thread and chuckled at the missteps of not delivering a clear, well thought out message at the beginning and why the reseating was necessary by senior management and the wide array of answers many of you posters have gotten when you contact the staff in the Athletic Dept about the million dollar question of whether you get to choose from better seating sections when it is your turn and why is reseating necessary

My take from afar on this is there is a large capital campaign occurring for the Athletic Village quietly underway - Big gifts are how they succeed, and right now the only real ticket we have that has any interest/demand/value is at the Stu -
Right now VCU Athletics lack lots of mid level corporate donors that can give 6 figure gifts to the Athleitc Village - how they get them is the challenge


go Rams

 

[Riggo82]

Does anyone think VCU is going to adjust the seating chart after the donation deadline? No way, and to put out such squishy explanations insults everyone’s intelligence.

 

[Riggo82]

Does anyone think VCU is going to adjust the seating chart after the donation deadline? No way, and to put out such squishy explanations insults everyone’s intelligence.

Also clear they plan to ride this out and take whatever lumps they get.

 

[mrgeode]

Also clear they plan to ride this out and take whatever lumps they get.

Definitely has a circle the wagons vibe currently. That may change after a few home games or over the summer based on precisely how aggravated the donor base gets.

 

[VCU Heel]

Definitely has a circle the wagons vibe currently. That may change after a few home games or over the summer based on precisely how aggravated the donor base gets.

It would have to be changed before donations are due. Isn’t that typically in May?

 

[mrgeode]

It would have to be changed before donations are due. Isn’t that typically in May?

You're right. I meant the off-season.

 

[MidPen Ram]

You're right. I meant the off-season.

The thing is, the later they wait to reverse course, the more people they tick off who went ahead and donated based on the new guidance. If I stepped up my giving for this plan (I'm not) and then they backtracked it down to a lower level, I'd be infuriated. They are rolling the dice big time, because there's no backtracking this after February, maybe early March at the latest.

 

[MidPen Ram]

Long time no post... and really just a pile on post. But this has pretty much alienated me as a donor/season ticket holder. I expressed these views in an email reply on Monday evening to Riley's offer for a phone call, and have not heard back (not even an acknowledgement).

I don't feel like retyping it, so here's the core part of my communication, which, even after today, still reflects my feelings:

Frankly, I don't see any discussion being productive that doesn't involve a change of requirements for maintaining my seats. This is a complete slap in the face to season ticket holders such as myself, on many fronts:

- Reseating is supposed to be every 3-5 years. This was only year 2, and in practicality, was only the 1st year.
- As someone who was a $1000 donor for four seats, my minimum donation will have to increase 75% to stay in section 26, or a comparable section.
- A year after declining a refund of my 2020-21 tickets and letting my seat purchase money roll into an additional donation out of loyalty and respect for the financial hardship the program was certainly going through, it is a complete sign of disrespect to have my loyalty treated this way.

Frankly, if nothing changes, I will at best consider rolling the dice with a $250 level donation to try and return to one of the sideline corner sections I sat in for the first ~6 years I was a season ticket holder, but we have no desire to have season tickets on bench seats. At worst, I'll just go back to buying tickets for individual games, which are plentiful both through VCU and the secondary market at a massive cost savings. My loyalty to donating for the good of VCU has been pretty much shattered by this stunt by the athletic department, and there really is no other realistic alternative without a change of policy by VCU.

Finally, the return to tiered seating sections by donation is the worst idea. The way the last reseating was done truly gave fair leverage to longer tenured but smaller annual amount donors, giving them respect similar to that of new "big money". In the previous reseating before that, it was well documented that many (including myself) had to select seats lower than their donation amount because the higher dollar donors could pick anywhere they wanted, often taking away entire lower dollar sections before lower dollar donors could even pick.

Again, I'm happy to discuss my concerns, but there is really nothing I can foresee changing my mindset that is nothing less than a public mea culpa by the Athletic Department and a postponement and pricing adjustment to this plan. The rhetoric that this is "good for the majority of fans" is simultaneously hilarious and insulting - out of 8 other season ticket holders I know, 7 are negatively impacted by this plan, only one (a west end seats ticketholder) benefits from this plan.

 

[CAAFan66]

Day 3, still out, but my emotions are softening. I reserve the right to change my mind if we make a deep NCAA run or join the Big East prior to the deadline in May (neither of which I'm anticipating will happen).
I don't fault VCU for zoning the arena by donation level necessarily, it's done at other places. I fault them for basically taking the concept that was presented with all of this reseating garbage that we'll eventually settle in to where we are now, where the priority points really do matter. Why not just go ahead and reseat every year so you can keep the new high level donors happy if that's the reason? Go big time with it.
I personally feel rejected by the process and how it was handled though. I have to be honest with myself that I'm not one of those who is donating money for the love of all VCU athletics, I do it to get good seats at basketball games. The last 2 years has shown me I'm not getting the value from it that I used to. I can still love VCU basketball, drink premium beer for cheaper prices while watching on TV, and still get good seats at the A10 tournament or whatever pre-season tourney we play in if I choose to go. Plus I won't miss the coach's interview on the radio which I miss every time I go to a game now because it's done before I get to my car. Basketball players don't need my help in the age of NIL. Besides, VCU will find other donors to take my place. I'm nobody to them, I'm a dime a dozen, not a big enough donor to matter. And I don't see them walking this back.

I wonder how many long time donors, those that at one time donated money for the love of all VCU athletics, feel exactly the same as you. The loyalty toward those long time donors today isn't the same as it was 10 or 15 years ago. VCU pretty much messed up the Ram Athletic Fund but I'm not sure if or how they could put the Genie back in the bottle.

 

[RowdyPkunk]

have any of you thought about creating a syndicate of smaller givers to make a 10000 annual gift and get the rights to buy 8 of the best seats (i assume you can buy up to 8 at that level ) instead of making your 2k gift and buying 2 seats in an inferior location? works best with donors that don't take any tax deduction (as an itemized deduction and use standard tax deduction)
lots of additional benefits for the higher level of gift too!

I stopped my season tickets about 4-5 years ago - primarily just lost interest in seeing our Rams play against 10 teams a year that to me were just not enloyable basketball to watch when their were 3 better games daily on TV and secondly a financial decision as I moved into retirement and had to reassess what I wanted to spend my finite retirement dollars on -

I never had any issues with Athletic Dept management but I normally had one or two staff I could get real answers from all the time - have read this thread and chuckled at the missteps of not delivering a clear, well thought out message at the beginning and why the reseating was necessary by senior management and the wide array of answers many of you posters have gotten when you contact the staff in the Athletic Dept about the million dollar question of whether you get to choose from better seating sections when it is your turn and why is reseating necessary

My take from afar on this is there is a large capital campaign occurring for the Athletic Village quietly underway - Big gifts are how they succeed, and right now the only real ticket we have that has any interest/demand/value is at the Stu -
Right now VCU Athletics lack lots of mid level corporate donors that can give 6 figure gifts to the Athleitc Village - how they get them is the challenge


go Rams

There's both positives & negatives to this idea.

The positives are as you said... better choice of seats come re-seating/seat selection time. Also the added perks/benefits like CW Room, Founders Room passes, among other things. (When they are open of course).

Here though are the negatives....
All the lifetime giving points, season tickets points, priority points... etc. are tied to 1 person, if that one person decides to stop donating, buying season tickets... etc. and refuses to be a part of making all the donations & buying the season tickets and what not.... the other 7 people are left out to dry. Now sure, if the other 7 people find an 8th person & keep the same mount total of $10k donations between the 8 of them... then yeah with that $10k donation... they will get in the building & will get decent seats. But, they're still starting over from scratch, No priority points, no loyalty season tickets points... etc..... while the guy who has the original account still has all those points on his account... which coulda given that group even better seats.

And I don't know if accounts are in anyway transferable other than to a direct family member... and even then Idk how that works. Like if I had a wife or kids... and I pass away... could my account be transferred to one of them? My guess is, there would need to be some kind of "Will" set up in regards to that within Athletics.... and hope they don't F that up too.

But if my wife or kids aren't one of those 7 other people that were in a group buying tickets together... and lets say one of them take over the account.... they may decide to keep the account active.. but want tickets sitting by themselves... again therefore dis-assembling the group that was formed.... so yet again those 7 donors are left out with nothing & have to start over. Because nothing was tied to their names.

And while I haven't seen it happen with groups of 8 and those donating $10k a pop.... I have seen it with lower level donors & smaller groups.

For example... I know there was a group of 4 who had season tickets in the section 2 sections over from the Rowdies on the east end. All of their donations/season tickets points... etc. were all on one account. The person who has that account stopped donating & buying season tickets a while back... maybe 2015 or 16ish? And 3 of the 4 people in that group don't regularly attend games anymore for one reason or another. But all of their lifetime giving points, consecutive season ticket points, etc. were all tied into one account... So if the others tried to go & buy season tickets for themselves... they're starting over from scratch with nothing to their name.