I'll line up all the ignorance in one post.
First, to those fucking idiots bitching about empty seats, is your position that we shouldn't have built the entire south endzone project because we wouldn't be able to force season ticket holders to show up to make the stadium look full for shitty opponents in shitty weather? We should have just scrapped the entire thing, because in retrospect the optics look "terrible?"
I'm guessing most of you haven't had a tour of the SEZ complex, your knowledge probably is limited to what you've seen briefly on social media posts. It's a sprawling complex, with the weight and performance center, the new locker rooms, new meeting rooms for the team and position groups, nutrition area, player lounge and recreation area, as well as the medical training center as well as recovery facilities, which include water rehab, sleep pods, etc. It's pretty fucking impressive, and my brief description in no way does it any justice. Anyway, my point is, that this entire facility, which is a boon to recruiting and the football arms race, was paid for entirely by the donors you're bitching at for not showing up in those gray seats! So because you're worried about the "optics" of empty gray seats, we probably should have done...I dunno...none of that for the team.
Good idea, that South Endzone is so embarrassing!
I believe the SEZ project cost 125 million dollars, and was built with bonds using the fundraising and guarantees for the people who promised to buy those seats. Somewhat akin to a seat license, all of those people either cut huge checks, or made legally binding financial promises, to pay six figures or more (the suites were 10 million a pop, I think the gray seats were 100k, I could be mistaken) and they cut those checks JUST FOR THE RIGHT to be able to ALSO pay thousands of dollars each year to buy the same season tickets. That's right, it's not just a one time expense, it's a one time expense so they can keep spending thousands of dollars every season to buy those tickets.
And you know what part of the sales pitch was? Hey, we're going to throw in access to a club where you can have A/C, be covered if it rains, and cater some food for y'all...and still let you buy extremely overpriced drinks. Now imagine that I'd paid all of the above, and the AD comes back and says "Hey, that thing you bought, we're going to take away those tickets and just let you have this little club." That's y'all's idea. My response, personally, would be to tell you to go fuck yourself. And if you told me I had to go back up in inclement weather just because some whiny internet shitbirds who've contributed, maybe, 1 part of 1 million to what I had contributed to the athletic department, because THEY didn't like the TV optics, well, I'd laugh in their face and then tell them to go fuck themselves. And then I'd probably pull my NIL money. Because, you know, these are some of the same people that are supporting our NIL budget. Best to alienate them.
And my favorite part is, no one gives a fuck if some season ticket holder anywhere else in the stadium doesn't show up in shitty weather, or at all, because those seats don't get a lot of coverage on TV. But because it's the SEZ, THOSE people should be SO embarrassed. Fuck right off. If you don't like it, step up and spend the fucking money to support the athletic department the way those people have, and stop being fucking poor.
Signed,
Someone with Season Tickets In the South End Zone.