Demand for Luxury Seating at a RU B Ball Game

[High Quality H2O]

Looking at the Miss St Game and there are a good amount of tickets in Suites available.

I see 28 tickets available for $37-$45 Ea
+ another 20 for $55-75. Handful more before $85.

Maybe there are a bunch of other hidden fees at check out?

Anyway where is all the demand for luxury seating?

I concede there is way more inventory of suites here than would be available at the RAC. But still, I would have expected these to be gobbled up if there was such a market.

https://seatgeek.com/gotham-classic-tickets/ncaa-basketball/2023-12-23-12-pm/6109791

 

[bac2therac]

Its mainly zero

 

[RUBlackout]

Well we are talking about the Pru center versus being at the RAC....

That said, I think they need to tread lightly because demand is the major key. Right now everyone is jumping on the bandwagon due to the recruiting class and to some extent the teams wining seasons. Just look around the stands during non-conference or even better yet weekday games and there are a lot of empty seats.

 

[Proud NJ Sports Fan]

Hobbs is going to screw up The RAC’s home court advantage for PREMIUM

With that said, the suites at Prudential Center are really good with nice sight lines.

I may go that route for the Miss St game

 

[Arizona Knight]

Looking at the Miss St Game and there are a good amount of tickets in Suites available.

I see 28 tickets available for $37-$45 Ea
+ another 20 for $55-75. Handful more before $85.

Maybe there are a bunch of other hidden fees at check out?

Anyway where is all the demand for luxury seating?

I concede there is way more inventory of suites here than would be available at the RAC. But still, I would have expected these to be gobbled up if there was such a market.

https://seatgeek.com/gotham-classic-tickets/ncaa-basketball/2023-12-23-12-pm/6109791

Let’s have the same discussion vs Indiana at the RAC next year. $65 will get you a few rounds at Pattys but nowhere near the RAC let alone luxury box/suite level seats.

Not saying I’m agreeing with the plans, btw.

 

[ecojew]

Luxury seats would destroy the "ambience" of the RAC. Don't let it happen!

 

[High Quality H2O]

Let’s have the same discussion vs Indiana at the RAC next year. $65 will get you a few rounds at Pattys but nowhere near the RAC let alone luxury box/suite level seats.

Not saying I’m agreeing with the plans, btw.

Look at the prices of the court side available (vs Miss St) triple what a box is going for. And what is equivalent of “100 level at the RAC” is even money or more than the box.

Doesn’t that say the demand is higher for closer seating than suite seating?

 

[Arizona Knight]

Look at the prices of the court side available (vs Miss St) triple what a box is going for. And what is equivalent of “100 level at the RAC” is even money or more than the box.

Doesn’t that say the demand is higher for closer seating than suite seating?

I think that’s a true statement. Most expensive NBA tickets for sure are court side.

 

[365Poster24Seven]

I can’t wait to get lower in the 100’s. Whatever is best for the program is what should be done. Not because current ticket holders want to keep the sweet deal of what Rutgers season tickets are. This fanbase looks out for themselves and it’s proven weekly with these threads. Crying over everything and anything. Some should go to any away game or two and see how high school ish our arena is in many aspects. This reeks of small time thinking and cheapness.

 

[aplus29]

Those pru center suites fall on the buyer to then cater them, they aren't worth the price for a suite with no amenities. I sat 11th row for the Hall for $90

 

[High Quality H2O]

I can’t wait to get lower in the 100’s. Whatever is best for the program is what should be done. Not because current ticket holders want to keep the sweet deal of what Rutgers season tickets are. This fanbase looks out for themselves and it’s proven weekly with these threads. Crying over everything and anything. Some should go to any away game or two and see how high school ish our arena is in many aspects. This reeks of small time thinking and cheapness.

Oh good, I was worried folks would try and have a discussion about how we could extrapolate this to what this might mean for demand at the RAC.

Luckily your cocky attitude saved the day.

 

[Local Shill]

I can’t wait to get lower in the 100’s. Whatever is best for the program is what should be done. Not because current ticket holders want to keep the sweet deal of what Rutgers season tickets are. This fanbase looks out for themselves and it’s proven weekly with these threads. Crying over everything and anything. Some should go to any away game or two and see how high school ish our arena is in many aspects. This reeks of small time thinking and cheapness.

Yeah, leaving capacity at 8K is also small time. No one is saying we need a 15K seat arena but it seems dumber than dumb not go get the building to 10K. Stop conflating issues.

 

[RUskoolie]

Yeah, leaving capacity at 8K is also small time. No one is saying we need a 15K seat arena but it seems dumber than dumb not go get the building to 10K. Stop conflating issues.

Do you really think they have not evaluated that?

 

[zappaa]

Do you really think they have not evaluated that?

No one wants to go from courtside to luxury boxes…. No one is going to move their grade A courtside seats where their kids sit with them further from the court.
If that is the argument or suggestion?
With Dylan and Company coming soon, a courtside ticket at an RU home basketball game may become one of the hardest tickets in the biggest media market in the world to get.

 

[richthedentist]

No one wants to go from courtside to luxury boxes…. No one is going to move their grade A courtside seats where their kids sit with them further from the court.
If that is the argument or suggestion?
With Dylan and Company coming soon, a courtside ticket at an RU home basketball game may become one of the hardest tickets in the biggest media market in the world to get.

Agree and all those pictures are just artists renderings; If they put luxary suites behind where section 118 is where those offices are is fine with me; I do think moving people out of their seats is not good some of us who have had tickets for 40 years through thick and thin don't want to give up our seats
Its all about supply and demand

 

[wheezer]

Luxury seats would destroy the "ambience" of the RAC. Don't let it happen!

I filled out the RU survey, which asked about my interest in all the premium options
They all got a big no from me, crazy expensive, and I like my current situation
I wonder if the school got much positive vibes from the survey

 

[wheezer]

Agree and all those pictures are just artists renderings; If they put luxary suites behind where section 118 is where those offices are is fine with me; I do think moving people out of their seats is not good some of us who have had tickets for 40 years through thick and thin don't want to give up our seats
Its all about supply and demand

It is pretty obvious that the 100`s section fans are being pushed back maybe five rows

 

[RUJMM78]

I can’t wait to get lower in the 100’s. Whatever is best for the program is what should be done. Not because current ticket holders want to keep the sweet deal of what Rutgers season tickets are. This fanbase looks out for themselves and it’s proven weekly with these threads. Crying over everything and anything. Some should go to any away game or two and see how high school ish our arena is in many aspects. This reeks of small time thinking and cheapness.

A 8000 seat arena for a power conference basketball team is small time.

 

[Unionst]

I can’t wait to get lower in the 100’s. Whatever is best for the program is what should be done. Not because current ticket holders want to keep the sweet deal of what Rutgers season tickets are. This fanbase looks out for themselves and it’s proven weekly with these threads. Crying over everything and anything. Some should go to any away game or two and see how high school ish our arena is in many aspects. This reeks of small time thinking and cheapness.

A few season ticket holders in my area sell their seats a lot and often to opposing fans, who by the way, can’t stop telling me how they love our arena. The Illinois ticket holder next to me this year was excitedly texting throughout the game to friends back home about how amazing our arena is. She was in awe of the loudness. This is what all our “crying” is about - we don’t want to lose what makes the RAC great. It has nothing to do with cheapness. if Season ticket holders were all about themselves so many of us would not be calling for a seating expansion.

 

[365Poster24Seven]

A 8000 seat arena for a power conference basketball team is small time.

Beyond small time!! Only Northwestern is smaller in conference

 

[RUBOB72]

Sadly , the school will do what they deem fiscally beneficial to them. Hobbs along with the designers/architectural group hired should sit down with Holloway, Pikiell , and the main funders of this proposed redo of the RAC( for most it will always be the RAC) and layout what ideas people have . Afterwards it remains up to the Board of directors to decide in which direction. Seating less than 10 k for me is a mistake . It is not only about how pretty but Rutgers maintains a home court advantage. Students are important so I hope they keep an area for them in the design.

 

[Eagleton96]

Look at the prices of the court side available (vs Miss St) triple what a box is going for. And what is equivalent of “100 level at the RAC” is even money or more than the box.

Doesn’t that say the demand is higher for closer seating than suite seating?

You can't compare.

- Of course courtside is always the best ticket. But you can't extrapolate that to: closer is always more important that being in a box.

- You can't compare tickets at the RAC to tix at Pru for a neutral site game. The fact that 100 level tickets at the RAC go for more than box seats at the Pru says very little about how Box seats would price out at the RAC vs 100 seats at the RAC.

- And finally, any box seats will be the same distance from the court as the existing seats they displaced. So is distance even a factor here?

Ultimately you may be right that there isn't demand for these boxes, and that would be OK with me because I don't want them. But I don't think this info supports that conclusion.

 

[Mholinko]

Well we are talking about the Pru center versus being at the RAC....

That said, I think they need to tread lightly because demand is the major key. Right now everyone is jumping on the bandwagon due to the recruiting class and to some extent the teams wining seasons. Just look around the stands during non-conference or even better yet weekday games and there are a lot of empty seats.

Don't you think some of that attendance and such has to do with the quality of competition being scheduled?

Nobody wants to rush out of work to see Rutgers play LIU or Stonehill or Howard

There are very few arenas in the country that would sell out regardless of opponent and Rutgers isnt in that stratosphere status wise yet

 

[Scangg]

No matter what is done with the arena people are going to complain. They just need to try to do the best job they can renovating while still trying to maintain the loudness of the RAC. Hobbs seemed pretty adamant about maintaining that and some have said the arena could potentially be even louder

I'll withhold judgement until it's completed but some can't help crying about everything and expecting doom and gloom

Remember when everyone was outraged we were going to play the 24 season at another venue? Hobbs didn't let it happen. He's on the ball with this

 

[RUJMM78]

Beyond small time!! Only Northwestern is smaller in conference

Northwestern is the only private school in the B1G Ten .

 

[Nycrusupporter]

You can't compare.

- Of course courtside is always the best ticket. But you can't extrapolate that to: closer is always more important that being in a box.

- You can't compare tickets at the RAC to tix at Pru for a neutral site game. The fact that 100 level tickets at the RAC go for more than box seats at the Pru says very little about how Box seats would price out at the RAC vs 100 seats at the RAC.

- And finally, any box seats will be the same distance from the court as the existing seats they displaced. So is distance even a factor here?

Ultimately you may be right that there isn't demand for these boxes, and that would be OK with me because I don't want them. But I don't think this info supports that conclusion.

Luxury boxes will be purchased by companies. I am sure they already have a pretty good idea of who that will be and how much they will pay.

 

[RUBlackout]

I think we need luxury seating to add revenue. I just think it takes away from the game experience as most times like I saw at SHU on Saturday that people will continue to stay in the club rather than n their seats during gameplay.

That said, I think the donation amounts should go up a lot for the 100 levels. I do think an increase in ticket price should occur also but not significant. I think we are more in need of the guaranteed donation money to increase our revenues that way.

Otherwise, create a true storefront for people to buy Rutgers gear especially being able to sell NIL related gear on site. Also make it easier for people to get beer. If they had someone walking around during the game selling beers it would make it easier for someone to buy not having to leave the game and they could even markup the costs for this additional labor. Do that or create a cashless system like SHU has with their grab n go....

 

[The RUT]

Old Yankee Stadium >>>>>>


10 years from now: Old RAC >>>>>>

 

[The RUT]

I think we need luxury seating to add revenue. I just think it takes away from the game experience as most times like I saw at SHU on Saturday that people will continue to stay in the club rather than n their seats during gameplay.

That said, I think the donation amounts should go up a lot for the 100 levels. I do think an increase in ticket price should occur also but not significant. I think we are more in need of the guaranteed donation money to increase our revenues that way.

Otherwise, create a true storefront for people to buy Rutgers gear especially being able to sell NIL related gear on site. Also make it easier for people to get beer. If they had someone walking around during the game selling beers it would make it easier for someone to buy not having to leave the game and they could even markup the costs for this additional labor. Do that or create a cashless system like SHU has with their grab n go....

They don't NEED to add revenue. They WANT to add revenue.

And that's fine, there's been recent success and you have two lottery picks coming in. It's totally normal to want to profit off that.

With that said, why do we need to destroy the RAC to make that happen? Just increase ticket prices and add some more seats to the corners.

Build out a corner specifically for the band, put in new seats that doesn't change capacity numbers, and fill the rest of the corners with paying customers.

Make no mistake about it, if they lean heavy on the premium, it's going to murder the RAC. I grew up being told stories about paint chips falling from the ceiling of the barn, my kids will grow up hearing stories about the RAC shaking and causing minor hearing loss, my grandkids will grow up hearing about caviar and cocktails at the RAC. Gross.

 

[Jersey07712]

Students should create a huge Tifo saying don't kill the RAc for Champagne and Caviar, or something of the like.

 

[S_Janowski]

There would be great demand for boxes/luxury seating for probably 1/3 of the season.

These are the big games against top conference opponents or the weekend games against quality opponents.

The other 2/3rds…I have my doubts.

There are a lot of crap opponents…or games at crap times/days throughout the season.

I don’t understand how we could dump this much money into the RAC and not at least add 1,000-2,000 seats. If you build it they will come - we can also add revenue by growing the fanbase, increasing overall demand, increasing prices and adding seat fees to new seats. A school our size should have an arena bigger than 8,000.

 

[RUBlackout]

going to murder the RAC. I grew up being told stories about paint chips falling from the ceiling of the barn, my kids will grow up hearing stories about the RAC shaking and causing minor hearing loss, my grandkids will grow up hearing about caviar and cocktails at the RAC. Gross.

I agree with you...thing is I think they can do both if done properly. They need to create a bowl where the current student section is so we can add more seats to that side of the arena and round it out. On that side of the arena they need to add bathrooms and better concession stations repurposing a lot of the space there.
On the opposite end they should also have a bowl shape but have a luxury section built in.

Again they need to up the required donations and increase the ticket prices(slightly) as that will add revenue right away. I also think there are creative ways to make revenue outside of seating too and it SHOULD NOT be parking

 

[Nycrusupporter]

There would be great demand for boxes/luxury seating for probably 1/3 of the season.

These are the big games against top conference opponents or the weekend games against quality opponents.

The other 2/3rds…I have my doubts.

There are a lot of crap opponents…or games at crap times/days throughout the season.

I don’t understand how we could dump this much money into the RAC and not at least add 1,000-2,000 seats. If you build it they will come - we can also add revenue by growing the fanbase, increasing overall demand, increasing prices and adding seat fees to new seats. A school our size should have an arena bigger than 8,000.

Ok, let me explain how this typically works. Companies buy luxury boxes for the SEASON. I am sure they have already pretty much lined this up with companies who are interested.

 

[RUJMM78]

There would be great demand for boxes/luxury seating for probably 1/3 of the season.

These are the big games against top conference opponents or the weekend games against quality opponents.

The other 2/3rds…I have my doubts.

There are a lot of crap opponents…or games at crap times/days throughout the season.

I don’t understand how we could dump this much money into the RAC and not at least add 1,000-2,000 seats. If you build it they will come - we can also add revenue by growing the fanbase, increasing overall demand, increasing prices and adding seat fees to new seats. A school our size should have an arena bigger than 8,000.

A 8000 seat arena is small time for power conference teams .

 

[The RUT]

A 8000 seat arena is small time for power conference teams .

I agree, Duke is small time.

 

[Eagleton96]

I agree, Duke is small time.

Agree. Duke is small time.

 

[RUDiddy777]

No matter what is done with the arena people are going to complain. They just need to try to do the best job they can renovating while still trying to maintain the loudness of the RAC. Hobbs seemed pretty adamant about maintaining that and some have said the arena could potentially be even louder

I'll withhold judgement until it's completed but some can't help crying about everything and expecting doom and gloom

Remember when everyone was outraged we were going to play the 24 season at another venue? Hobbs didn't let it happen. He's on the ball with this

I want an arena for closer seats. It’s entirely self interest on my end.

 

[rufan19]

It’s pretty simple what should be done. The survey was over the top and would certainly take away the RAC advantage we have now. I’d be hard pressed to think most fans would use them or be able to afford them for how long the basketball schedule is.

I’d suggest replacing the office area above the main entrance with a club level similar to the Audi/Provident bank club which would need to expand the front entrance of the building for more concourse space, concessions and bathrooms.

Build a few “lodge boxes” like currently have in the 200 level that you can rent out for a game and have wait staff assigned to them for food and beverage brought to your own lodge box.

Build a concourse around the outside of the existing building with more concessions, bathrooms, exits and entrances.

Lastly add corner sections for the student section where the band can sit.

 

[Luvscarletknights]

Sadly , the school will do what they deem fiscally beneficial to them. Hobbs along with the designers/architectural group hired should sit down with Holloway, Pikiell , and the main funders of this proposed redo of the RAC( for most it will always be the RAC) and layout what ideas people have . Afterwards it remains up to the Board of directors to decide in which direction. Seating less than 10 k for me is a mistake . It is not only about how pretty but Rutgers maintains a home court advantage. Students are important so I hope they keep an area for them in the design.

God forbid the the school do what they deem fiscally beneficial.

 

[Luvscarletknights]

Don't you think some of that attendance and such has to do with the quality of competition being scheduled?

Nobody wants to rush out of work to see Rutgers play LIU or Stonehill or Howard

There are very few arenas in the country that would sell out regardless of opponent and Rutgers isnt in that stratosphere status wise yet.

Crowds have been great.

Most games are sold out. If people do not want to go that is their problem.

I do not think there will be any season tickets left next year.