If I understood the ESP pitch correctly, they said seats in the ESP section wouldn't be available to the general public or through the ATO on a game by game basis. So someone buying the ESP seats for top dollar wouldn't be sitting next to someone who paid little or no money for a similar seat. It seems like there is roughly 30% of these seats unsold. Anybody know how or if this will be addressed? I can see where some of these premium ESP seats could hit Stubhub or the like on a game by game basis you could pick up a prime seat, with the club access and the like, for really cheap. It seems if you 'own' your ESP seats you can do with them what you wish, so they can't prevent or screen anyone in that section...thoughts?

I'm not sure why anyone would care that the person sitting next to them paid less than they did. (If you care, you should probably not go to sporting events, nor fly.) If the pitch is "Only people paying top dollar can sit here" it's false -- people may want that exclusivity, but they wouldn't want the flip side which is the inability to transfer their tickets to anyone else. It's interesting though -- if they promised the ESP seats wouldn't be available through the ATO to try to boost demand but ultimately don't sell out, they're in a bit of a bind.

I guess I 'care' in the sense that when I make the $250k commitment to Cal athletics to buy my ESP seats and then at the same time some guy off the street (especially some douche in his $c sweatshirt) is able to pay a couple of hundred dollars for the same privilege and access it would "grind my gears". On the other hand, I should be able to sell 'my' seats if I want...it was just a paradox that was brought up numerous times and I never heard what, if anything, had been be decided.

It's an interesting question though I'd think that the issue with other ESPers would be not that people are paying less for the otherwise empty seats, but that if the seats go on the open market at a place like stubhub, they will be full of obnoxious opponent fans (or for that matter otherwise decent opponent fans that are not intoxicated or anything like that, just ones that do a good job supporting their school).

If I were a higher up at Cal, I'd make the extras available for 'personal use' of ESPers. Not sure how enforceable it is, but have people sign something saying they won't sell on places like stubhub. On top of that, Cal should invent some kind of donor ticket marketplace - only accessible to donor of a certain level - that way fans could sell their tickets to other loyal Cal fans (and only Cal fans) to get people in the good seats. Cal could even arrange the ticket sale to be counted as a donation and award priority points somehow.

At Haas, the major donors pay big bucks per year for each seat (compared to face value)... a lot of donors presumably eat the tickets to games they don't attend instead of risking the tickets going to the wrong people on the secondary market or don't bother selling at all since the amount per game they will get back will be tiny compared to the donation level and will hardly offset the annoyance of people that sit around them semi-permanently.

Had a conversation with Development about this last week (albeit in a different context). Was told - as I've been repeatedly told over the past year - that no decision has been made on what they'll do with the unsold ESP seats and they are "still trying to figure this out." Development is still clearly hopeful it can get to 70% + sold by September and won't have to do anything.

I'm a big fan of Cal doing all it can to raise funds and believe that our future success will be defined by how well we can raise enough money to keep up with the Joneses (or the 'Furds, or whatever). With that said, count me among those who will be pretty frosted if ATO starts selling these seats on a game by game basis. This wasn't what we signed up for.

If my fellow ESP'ers want to sell their seats to some 'SC/'Furd/Duck/UW fan for a particular game, so be it - although I will probably have something to say to them when they come back the next week. If ATO starts doing it, that's another kettle of fish.

You guys are kidding yourselves.......
As sure as I'm typing this, come Saturday morning September 1, 2012 someone will be selling ESP seat tickets near the corner of Bancroft and Piedmont......and I'll bet he can sell you more than one.

Bears2thDoc;730450 said:

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You guys are kidding yourselves.......
As sure as I'm typing this, come Saturday morning September 1, 2012 someone will be selling ESP seat tickets near the corner of Bancroft and Piedmont......and I'll bet he can sell you more than one.

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I think it's critical that it appear difficult to get tickets, even if it comes down to hiring seat-fillers like they do for the Oscars . Casual fans are never attracted by half-empty stadia.

Sebastabear;730425 said:

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Had a conversation with Development about this last week (albeit in a different context). Was told - as I've been repeatedly told over the past year - that no decision has been made on what they'll do with the unsold ESP seats and they are "still trying to figure this out." Development is still clearly hopeful it can get to 70% + sold by September and won't have to do anything.

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read: "We're hoping the new guy will figure it out."