Kentucky Sports Radio
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
This morning, the Board of Trustees met to discuss changes for the next season of Kentucky sports. Here’s a quick summary of what was said:
– Don’t start throwing things, but the UK athletics governing body voted to increase basketball ticket prices for next season. Here’s the breakdown:
K-Fund tickets: Only tickets that require a donation of $1,500 or less will increase. $1,500 will increase to $1,900; $1,000 to $1,250; $700 to $850; $400 to $450. There will be no increase to tickets that require a $5,000 donation. Also, upper level seats that do not require donation will not be affected.
Season tickets: There will be a $5 per game increase in season tickets.
Individual non-K-fund tickets: Prices will also increase by $10 a game in lower arena and $7 a game in upper (from $40 to $50 in lower level; $35 to $42 in upper).
Student tickets: Prices will NOT increase, staying at $5 per game. This continues to be the lowest in the SEC.
– All of these ticket price increases will raise $3.5 million to offset rising costs. DeWayne Peevy was quick to note that the proposed ticket increases were a “need” and not a way of punishing loyal fans. Mitch Barnhart said that the ticket price increases will help pay higher coaching salaries, and rising travel and tuition costs.
– The basketball ticket price increases are NOT due to declining football ticket sales, but Barnhart admitted that sales are “down” for a second year in a row.
– The committee is also considering a “slight” ticket price increase for women’s hoops, but it won’t be as drastic as the increases for men’s hoops.
– UK is not only doing well on the field, but in the classroom as well. In the SEC, only Kentucky and Vandy have not been punished because of APR issues.
– UK Athletics will contribute $3 million to academic scholarships in 2012-13, up from $1.7 million in 2011-2012. This includes 17 Singletary Scholars.
– In the spring semester of 2012, UK athletes posted a 2.979 overall grade-point average.
– The UK athletic budget for 2012-13 is $91.9 million, which the committee compared to Alabama, Auburn, Florida, LSU and Tennessee, who have budgets of $95 million or more.
Thoughts?
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June 19th, 2012 at 10:18 am
I wish I was invited.
June 19th, 2012 at 10:23 am
UK Coaching is cutting edge and successful!!
UK board of trustees and Barnhart are a miss managed joke! Manage the money correctly and stop taxing the fans of the Bluegrass!!
June 19th, 2012 at 10:27 am
“– The UK athletic budget for 2012-13 is $91.9 million, which the committee compared to Alabama, Auburn, Florida, LSU and Tennessee, who have budgets of $95 million or more.
”
They also make bank from their football program compared to us.
June 19th, 2012 at 10:27 am
Go ahead and raise FB ticket prices while you are at it.
June 19th, 2012 at 10:28 am
The womens basketball team has raised expectations and the talent level, a price increase there is justified. Football should and will be giving tickets away.
June 19th, 2012 at 10:28 am
Where are the fat cat donors when we need them! Oh wait, they will take their money, too and still raise prices like everything else. Well, my front row seat in my living room is still a better view than the nose bleed section.
June 19th, 2012 at 10:32 am
Go ahead and raise FB ticket prices all you want. I won’t be attending any games and neither will scores of UK fans. This program is in a death spiral.
June 19th, 2012 at 10:37 am
Ole Miss’ student tickets are cheaper. we pay 100 dollars and get season tickets to every home game in every sport. so i think when you break that down to price per game in basketball. its less than 5 dollars per game. I DEMAND YOU FIX THIS NONSENSE haha
June 19th, 2012 at 10:39 am
If you keep bleeding the golden goose, it will start laying real eggs.
June 19th, 2012 at 10:42 am
Warrior says” $42 per ticket ouch”. Warrior says “I will continue to pay $42 per ticket to see “Alex and Archie Show”….. I hate Maryland Men’s varisty basketball team with every fiber of my body. UK 73 maryland 67.
June 19th, 2012 at 10:47 am
I don’t mind the increase, but I wish they would put in cushioned seats. They would be better for our hers-and-him-roids. And maybe some seatbelts to keep people from standing and cheering!
June 19th, 2012 at 10:50 am
#10 – you need food badly.
June 19th, 2012 at 10:51 am
8 Ole Miss also doesn’t have two lotteries just to get basketball tickets…
June 19th, 2012 at 10:54 am
I guess we can read tomorrow about Barnhart’s raise. They pulled the same bullshit last year when they raised ticket prices (went from $28 to $35/uppers)….Not only do they raise the ticket prices, but we dont have a home markee non-conference game. And now with the new SEC schedule, we could lose out on few home games with the likes of TN, GA, & Vandy….Why does men’s basketball have to bring in the money. Go out and get a Football coach that can recruit and win! Get someone who can put us in a bowl game that pays.
June 19th, 2012 at 10:54 am
4 & 7 I couldn’t agree more. I don’t mind paying for quality, so the increase for basketball doesn’t offend me.
June 19th, 2012 at 10:58 am
#7 the only thing in a death spiral is your big blue fan card either support the university or move on no need to bad mouth any UK sports team i don’t like the increase
either but im not going to talk trash about football
June 19th, 2012 at 11:01 am
The additional revenue should come in handy once the losses from football ticket sales are known.
June 19th, 2012 at 11:05 am
Vanderbilt Student tickets are free for every sport.
June 19th, 2012 at 11:08 am
My only fear is when does it stop. Every year tuition increases the cost of athletics dramatically increases. It will cost an extra 21-to 30 dollars to take my family to the games this year. The cost are getting dang close to pricing me out. Plus education cost are getting way to inflated.
June 19th, 2012 at 11:09 am
Raising football ticket prices is just adding fuel to to fire of what is soon to be the mass exodus of season ticket holders. Rather than trying to address the major problem on his hands (an inadequate coach), Barnhart is trying to cover up the decline in football revenues by raising prices across the board. It will have the opposite effect. Barnhart has botched nearly everything he has touched at UK and the football program will enter crises mode midway through this season when they will be offering $5 tickets with a fill-up at Throton’s. Barnhart needs to go. He is not capable of running an SEC level athletic program.
June 19th, 2012 at 11:14 am
ingenious! remove faculty and staff positions and raise the price of tickets. now that’s how a business should be run. vote romney!
June 19th, 2012 at 11:17 am
They can raise the price of basketball tickets. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to buy them. Someone else will.
That is supply and demand, no matter which political party you blindly support.
June 19th, 2012 at 11:18 am
#16–you are a big part of the problem. The UKAA counts on fans like you to never voice their objections, but keep taking whatever garbage they put in front of you. We fans need to speak up when things are obviously in dis-array. We have the right to demand better! So don’t tell me to “move along” while you and other supplicants continue to accept the inferior product that is known as UK football. Yes we are fans, but we are also consumers. This administration is exploiting your fan-hood by continuing to put an inferior product on the field. You may not like my “trashing” the program, but thousands of other fans feel the same way and will express their discontent by refusing to be exploited any longer.
June 19th, 2012 at 11:19 am
Is this the show thread?
June 19th, 2012 at 11:21 am
everyone on here wants our football team to do better the only way is to put more money into it better facilities more on recruiting better coaches it all takes money. i remember not too long ago there was a post on here about why doesn’t barnhart spend more money on football to keep up in the sec we have to improve theses things and if you don’t want your football tickets i will take them we get to see some of the best teams in the country come through commonwealth. also if you don’t like football scroll down to the next basketball post instead of trashing our football team
June 19th, 2012 at 11:25 am
SteveM, and people like you, what is the solution to make football better? It is easy to say something is wrong, but hard to know how to fix it. UK faces these problems in football as have been documented numerous times: Poor facilities, and a lack of donation to improve them. A comparatively weak natural recruiting base base. How do you overcome those things? Please offer at least one suggestion. Many peolpe say we need a better coach, but why would a “great” coach want to come to a program with poor facilities and poor recruiting base when that sme “great” coach probably will have tons of other job offers that don’t face these problems
June 19th, 2012 at 11:28 am
a big name coach will not come here as long as we have so many fair weather fans
June 19th, 2012 at 11:29 am
Vandy students don’t have to pay for student tickets. (Of course the tuition is $50,000…)
June 19th, 2012 at 11:32 am
Raise your hand if you really believe 1) the increase in basketball ticket prices has nothing to do with the decline in football ticket sales and 2) this is not punishing loyal fans. Also, what happened to the Cal marketing hype that playing games in neutral site football stadiums would bring in the extra revenue needed? Would the increases have been even more? So season ticket holders give up marquis home games and yet still get hit up for more money. They are exploiting the current success of the basketball program. I’m thankful for that success, but they are taking advantage of the loyal fans.
June 19th, 2012 at 11:36 am
I don’t consider upper seats at Rupp worth $42, unless it is for a big game. Unfortunately, for me and most fans, the only tickets available are those in the nosebleeds for games against teams that are completely irrelevant. No way am I paying more than $200 for my family to go. I would rather head to a Bw3s and watch those games on a big screen and spend that money on alcohol. I have my priorities straight.
June 19th, 2012 at 11:37 am
If UK Fans want to be successful and have THE top basketball coaches in the country, it’s gonna cost us money. Coach Cal earned around $5 Million last season with his performance bonus’. We wanted to keep our assistant coaches and not have them leave the school for other opportunities. That cost money. UK Hoops Coach Mitchell is a big name out there right now. We wanted to keep him. We did. He got a big contract for a Women’s Coach. That cost money. Im not saying, AT ALL, that I like crazy high ticket prices. But I do like winning and winning cost money.
June 19th, 2012 at 11:42 am
UK’s student tickets aren’t the cheapest in the SEC..UGA’s are $2 but UK’s should cost more
June 19th, 2012 at 11:51 am
#26–a reasonable question indeed. I would suggest the following: 1) pressure the administration to demand a greater commitment to the program, via upgraded facilities and bringing in a highly capable coach that is going to generate the kind of fan excitement this program deserves; Joker was brought in because of a conscious decision to hire the cheapest coach they could find and we see where that has gotten us. Have you noticed the decline in the quality of home game opponents the past 2-3 years? Charleston Southern, Stamford, Akron. Is this really what you want to spend you money on as a fan? They are forced to schedule these inferior teams in an attempt to go 6-6 and somehow eek their way into a minor bowl. They can’t even do that. How do the rest of the programs in the SEC compete? They spend more money! Even Vanderbilt is making a concerted effort to upgrade their program by bringing a young capable coach. As yourselves…why is UK at the bottom of the league? They are not committed to a winning program.
I do not pretend to have all the answers but I know a rotten egg when I see one. All I know is the the administration has been content with receiving the SEC TV and bowl money all while the fans keep showing up for games. We deserve what we are content to settle for. We should demand excellence
June 19th, 2012 at 11:51 am
With football ticket sales down Joker has to have a good season or he won’t be back. Money is the bottom line and a losing season means ticket sales will be down again.
June 19th, 2012 at 11:59 am
Think of the ticket prices in this way. We get to watch a team full of NBA players for half the price of a NBA game. It is a pretty good deal if you ask me. Where else can you watch six future NBA players, including two or three potential NBA all stars for that cheap?
June 19th, 2012 at 12:04 pm
33
First, the quality of home game opponents has not decreased in the past 2-3 years, we always, ALWAYS have 2-3 poopy teams (06′-Texas St, C Michigan, ULM 07′-EKU, Kent St, Middle Tenn St., etc.). Secondly, lets see how this season unfolds before we fire Joker.
June 19th, 2012 at 12:21 pm
SteveM, How do you upgrade facilities? Where is the money coming from? There aren’t really big football donors, and UK hasn’t successfully been able to get bonds to build it on their own due to Issue between KY Senate and the university. (Yum Center Deal isnt going to help this). And as far as a coach goes, please suggest a coach that you would feel would be a good fit at UK, and would choose UK over other opportunities. Its the second half of that sentence that is important.
June 19th, 2012 at 12:35 pm
How about they lower the football tickets if that’s the case. I called inquiring about season football tickets last week, thinking they’d be at an all-time low in price. There’s not a chance I’m paying face value per seat for a season ticket.
June 19th, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Can we please quit blaming the football problems on the facilities. While we’re ranked pretty low as far as other SEC schools I would think nationally we’re not that bad. Also please quit saying bandwagon fans. I would venture to say any other school having the types of seasons we’ve been through the last two years ,and before Brooks last three would have no fan base at all. UK football fans are as loyal as any until you put a subpar team on the field for two and going on three straight years.
June 19th, 2012 at 12:38 pm
YOU MORONS ARE FOOLED BY CAL ONCE AGAIN. WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL OF THE $$$ FROM NEUTRAL SITE GAMES? THE ONLY THING NON-TRADITIONAL ABOUT YOUR PROGRAM IS HOW YOUR ENTIRE FAN BASE IS NON-TRADITIONALLY FOOLED.
June 19th, 2012 at 12:51 pm
39
Nationally we may be middle of the pack (i would guess) but that doesn’t matter when you are recruiting against other SEC schools and in their states, we must have facilities that compete with the SEC. Yes i would say we don’t have bandwagon fans, but you basically defined a fair-weather fan, and that is what UK is full of.
June 19th, 2012 at 1:18 pm
Here’s a nice spreadsheet to show how UK basketball made the most revenue in 10-11 for all the SEC schools ($18M) but the 9th highest football revenue ($34M). Auburn, GA, TN, LSU and FL are in the $70M range.
http://businessofcollegesports.com/2011/12/24/sec-financials-10-11/sec10-11-001/
June 19th, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Where does the money come from at Tennessee? Ole Miss? Arkansas? South Carolina? Those state treasuries are no better off than Kentucky, yet they manage to put an emphasis on football and produce winning results. Maybe we should ytake a look at what they’re doing. Is there some reason why that isn’t/can’t happen at UK?
June 19th, 2012 at 1:46 pm
43
Those state treasuries manage their treasure better than ky, which is why I’m still irate about Bashear cutting funds. Also, UK has tried several times to get permission from the state to form bonds and do a mass renovation on the football facilities, and those permissions have been declined several times.
June 19th, 2012 at 2:01 pm
@43. As much as many here will hate to admit, it isn’t fair to Kentucky to compare them to Tennessee. The Arkansas and South Carolina comparisons are much better but only in terms of school size and state population. Tennessee has nearly 2 million more people than Kentucky. While all of these fans are clearly not UT fans, the same argument can be made that all residents of Kentucky are not UK fans, so in total that is a wash. More people equals more fans equals more $$$.
Secondly, Tennessee is a football school. If you look closely at that link #42 posted you will notice that all of the schools significantly above UK, i.e. $37MM and higher, are passionate football schools. UT could go win the same number of games UK does every year and they would probably still fill 80%-90% of stadium. Remember the late 90′s when South Carolina was so bad, going 0-12, 1-11, etc. Well they still packed the place. The UK fan base will have to show that kind of loyalty to ever approach those numbers.
The problem is UK hasn’t shown it will do whats necessary to fix a program. Would South Carolina fans still show up 80-90% capacity if the football program didn’t get better? Of course not, which is why they brought in Steve Spurrier. Alabama did it with Saban–heck we did it with Calipari. As UK fans we’ve had a hearty laugh at UT’s expense the last few years, but the joke will probably be on us in the long-term because UT’s administration knows what football means to the school and bottom line. If Dooley skunks out in the first half of the season I’d be surprised if hes around to see the UK game and I guarantee they won’t miss on the next hire.
June 19th, 2012 at 2:33 pm
I can’t believe the things on here about UK football. On what basis will UK EVER be a consistent contender in the SEC?
If you don’t want to go to games, don’t. But to have the reason as non-competitiveness is just strange. We arguably are coming off the best 5-7 years we’ve had. We have too much to overcome to be a solid contender in the SEC.
If attendance falls, will that attract a top-flight coach? Or merit the building of a new stadium?
UK football fans never cease to amaze me.
June 19th, 2012 at 2:38 pm
Auburn student tickets are like $5-$10 for the whole season, so I wouldn’t say it is the lowest.
June 19th, 2012 at 2:49 pm
I get sick and tired of hearing that our facilities are second rate vs other SEC schools. Have any of you claiming they are bad even seen most of our facitlities or just repeating what you hear others say?
Could we use a recruiting room? Sure if we need to keep up with the Jones’. But I can’t believe that is what keeps kids away. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Commonwealth Stadium or our practice fields and training facility. Nutter is a great place and has been redone in the last few years.
On a scale of 1-10, our facilities are probably an 8 with a bunch of schools at 8 – 10. But we don’t need to be at the highest level necessarily because the difference is so small. There is nothing wrong with being an 8 in SEC football.
We just need to attract better players which you do with a coaching staff that kids want to play for. Something that attracts skill players and can put kids in the pros like Coach Cal does with basketball.
June 19th, 2012 at 2:52 pm
Why is the UK prez picture at the top of this post ? Are the commies at KSR suggesting that somehow this is his idea ? I knew he was in trouble when he suggested that privatizing housing at UK was in his plans. That doesn’t go down well in lunatic liberalville. Gotta keep all that power and money in the ‘capable’ hands of the bureaucrats, right Matt Jones ?
June 19th, 2012 at 3:11 pm
47 – Auburn students actually get in free to all basketball games with a student ID.
June 19th, 2012 at 3:39 pm
49
I hope they get the housing at UK under private contract. We complain about the football facilities on here….the dorms are way in right field!
50
There’s a reason for that……….
48
Yes UK just spent $153,000 on upgrades to Nutter, they basically remodeled the wall… I understand our facilities are good compared to the nation but we are competing in the SEC, in which they aren’t good, even ESPN said ours suck.
June 19th, 2012 at 3:45 pm
#50, why are they being punished?
June 19th, 2012 at 4:08 pm
Alabama students also get in to basketball games for free
June 19th, 2012 at 5:47 pm
#51 – I understand that it was for show and a feel good for the players but if it was at the Craft Center we would be eating it up. But they also spent lots of money when Brooks was coach by updating the weight room and lockers and position rooms just a couple of years ago. They added a new turf field and lights as well. I don’t think we are falling behind & that things aren’t as bad as they are made out to be. Seems like if you aren’t spending 2-3million a year you are falling behind. ESPN doesn’t have a clue anyhow, they didn’t do any investigative work they just researched it on line.