Column: Paying The Price at Michigan

"I’ve come to believe it’s not scandal that will bring down college athletics, but greed. How long can these numbers, fueled by increasingly unhappy fans, continue to skyrocket?"
John U. Bacon

John U. Bacon

Last week, the Michigan athletic department admitted what many had long suspected: student football ticket sales are down, way down, from about 21,000 in 2012 to a projected 13,000-14,000 this fall.

The department has blamed cell phones, high-definition TV, and a sweeping national trend – but those don’t tell the whole story.

How’d Michigan lose so many students so fast? Answer: a lot of hard work.

Athletic director Dave Brandon has often cited the difficulty of using cell phones at Michigan Stadium as “the biggest challenge we have.” But when Michigan students were asked in a recent survey to rank seven factors for buying season tickets, they ranked cell phones seventh – dead last.

What did they rank first? Being able to sit with their friends.

But Brandon did away with that last year, with his new General Admission seating policy. Instead of seating the students by class – with the freshmen in the end zone and the seniors toward the fifty, as they had done for decades – last year it was first come, first served. (They also raised the price to $295, up from $195 the year before, when Michigan played six home games instead of seven.) The idea was to encourage students to come early, and come often. Thousands of students responded by not coming at all.

This was utterly predictable – and I predicted it, 13 months ago, in this column.

TV networks loved showing blimp shots of the sold-out Big House – one of the iconic sights in college football. Now they don’t show any.

Working with student government leaders, the athletic department revised the policy for the 2014 season. But it was apparently too little, too late, as some 6,000 Michigan students decided to drop their tickets anyway.

Insult to injury: college teams now play their biggest rivals on Thanksgiving weekend, when most Michigan students have gone home. If the students don’t love college football now, when it’s half-price, will they love it more when they’re paying twice that, plus a Personal Seat License?

“We know who our competitor is,” Brandon often says. “Your 60-inch, high-definition TV.”

If that’s true, maybe they shouldn’t have increased seat prices by an average of $100 each since Brandon took over. Perhaps they should stop charging six bucks for a hot dog, five bucks for popcorn, and four dollars for water. Maybe they should stop showing ads between plays on the big screens for corporate receptions at Michigan Stadium, which start at $9,000. Fans can get all those things at home for less, including the ads. They can only get the marching band at the Big House.

Survey after survey points the finger for low attendance not at cell phone service or high definition TV, but squarely at the athletic department and college football itself. Fans are fed up paying steakhouse prices for junk food opponents – and junk food itself – while enduring endless promotions. The more college football caters to the TV audience at home, the more fans paying to sit in those seats feel like suckers.

Brandon said, “We all think of every home Michigan football game like a miniature Super Bowl.”

I don’t know any Michigan fans who think that. Quite the opposite, they think Michigan football games are the antidote for the artificial excess of the Super Bowl.

In 2005, then-athletic director Bill Martin commissioned a survey which revealed more than 50% of Michigan season ticket holders had been buying them for more than two decades, but only 9% of them also bought season tickets to any professional team. 

This tells us a basic truth: Michigan football fans don’t just love football. They love Michigan football – the history, the traditions, the rituals – the timeless elements that have grown organically over decades. They are attracted to the belief that Michigan football is based on ideals that go beyond the field, do not fade with time, and are passed down to the next generation – the very qualities that separate a game at the Big House from the Super Bowl.

After the 2013 Notre Dame game, Brandon said, “You’re a 17-18 year old kid watching the largest crowd in the history of college football with airplanes flying over and Beyonce introducing your halftime show? That’s a pretty powerful message about what Michigan is all about, and that’s our job to send that message.”

Is that really what Michigan is all about? Fly-overs, blaring rock music, and Beyonce? Beyonce is to Michigan football what Bo Schembechler is to – well, Beyonce. No, Michigan is all about lifelong fans who’ve been coming together for decades to leave a bit of the modern world behind – and the incessant marketing that comes with it – and share an authentic experience fueled by the passion of the team, the band and the students. That’s it.

In his speeches, Brandon often mentions he was the CEO of three Fortune 500 companies. Then why doesn’t he know his customers, and what they like?

Yes, the department has always followed basic business practices. But it has never been run strictly as a business – until now.  The proof is the wait list, which former athletic director Don Canham grew by the thousands. Canham was a millionaire businessman in his own right. If he wanted to “maximize revenue,” he knew he could increase the price to meet demand. But he didn’t, because he believed that would dispel the magic.

Brandon’s predecessor, Bill Martin, introduced Personal Seat Licenses to the Big House, but only after the nation’s next 19-biggest stadiums had already done so. Even then, the PSL program was relatively moderate, and spared the fans in the end zones, and he lowered ticket prices during the 2008 recession. Michigan’s wait list remained robust.

“Just because you can charge them more,” Martin told me, “doesn’t mean you should. You’re not there to ring up the cash to the nth degree. It’s a nonprofit model!”

In Brandon’s first three years, he increased the operating budget from $100 million to $137.5 million. That does not include the building program, last estimated at $340 million. In Brandon’s defense, he also generated a $9 million surplus, and the buildings will benefit all Michigan’s teams, not just football and basketball. But his budget also includes: his million-dollar salary, three times what Bill Martin paid himself, plus a $300,000 annual bonus – part of a 62% increase in administrator compensation; a 225% increase in “marketing, promotions and ticketing”; and a 500% increase in “Hosting, Food and Special Events.”

I’ve come to believe it’s not scandal that will bring down college athletics, but greed. How long can these numbers, fueled by increasingly unhappy fans, continue to skyrocket before they come crashing back down to earth?

All that money comes from someone – and that someone is you, the fans. Tickets used to be underpriced, and you knew that when you scalped them for more than you paid. Now they’re overpriced, and you know that when you try to sell them through Michigan’s Official Scalper, Stubhub, and get far less.

The wait list is long gone. They’ve been sending waves of emails to former ticket holders to assure them, “The deadline has been extended!” Beg your former customers to come back five times, and you don’t have a deadline, and you don’t have a wait list.

This fall, Michigan is in danger of breaking its string of 251 consecutive games with 100,000-plus paid attendance, which started in 1975. Treat your fans like customers long enough, and eventually they’ll start behaving that way, reducing their irrational love for their team to a cool-headed, dollars-and-cents decision to buy tickets or not, with no more emotional investment than deciding whether to go to the movies.

After a friend of mine took his kids to a game, he told me, “Michigan athletics used to feel like something we shared. Now it’s something they hoard. Anything of value they put a price tag on. Anything that appeals to anyone is kept locked away – literally, in some cases – and only brought out if you pay for it. And what’s been permanently banished is any sense of generosity.”

After Brandon became Michigan’s 11th athletic director in 2010, he often repeated one of his favorite lines: “If it ain’t broke… break it!”

You have to give him credit: He has delivered on his promise.

About the writer: Ann Arbor resident John U. Bacon is the author of the national bestsellers Fourth and Long: The Future of College Football,Bo’s Lasting Lessons” and “Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football.” You can follow him on Twitter (@Johnubacon), and at johnubacon.com.

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35 Comments

  1. By Brad T.
    June 6, 2014 at 10:21 am | permalink

    John U. Bacon for U-M Athletic Director! I’m going to lobby the new U-M President.

  2. By Bruce Laidlaw
    June 6, 2014 at 10:53 am | permalink

    Well said.

    And let’s not forget the 2.8 million dollars paid for that obscene electronic billboard. Nor should we forget how you can be kicked out of the stadium for trying to bring in your own bag of peanuts.

  3. By Reed
    June 6, 2014 at 10:54 am | permalink

    How does the new system prevent kids from sitting with their friends? It seems like it would be the opposite: show up together, sit together, regardless of what class you’re in.

  4. By Dylan
    June 6, 2014 at 11:15 am | permalink

    Reed, you’re right but that example limits the group to how many of your friends you can get to agree to go to the game at the same time and can find from the myriad of different pregame places where people end up. What’s nice about the seating group model is you could create a group of 50 people (or more). In that way, you’d have your closest friends who you probably are showing up with but then also some of your other friends who might want to do something different pregame with the idea that everyone will be able to meet up at the seats.

  5. By potsie
    June 6, 2014 at 11:28 am | permalink

    John nails it!

    The Big House now feels like the Palace during a Pistons game, with ads and obnoxious music blaring between plays.

    I completely understand why students bailed on their tickets. Part of the “charm” of attending football games for some students is to party/wake-up late and roll into the stadium after kick-off. What’s wrong with that? It’s part of their student experience but Brandon was incensed that students were thinking about themselves apparently and not throwing themselves at the football team. This isn’t Duke basketball, with a very limited number of tickets and very successful program that drives students to camp out for a week before a big game. The student attendance program last year forced students to give up their own pre-game traditions.

    Reed, the problem with last year’s student seating plan was it created a false sense of loyalty in my opinion. A senior in his or her fourth year of attending games had to get to the stadium at 7 or 8AM to compete for the best seats with a freshman. I don’t know enough about the ’14 season and any changes they have made but hopefully student interest picks back up once the students stopped getting “punished” for wanting to have their own experiences before each game.

  6. By Peter
    June 6, 2014 at 11:51 am | permalink

    Winning fixes everything. Part of the reason why people aren’t renewing is because of the disaster that was the 2013 season. People will show up for good football, and that, to me, is what will bring people back.

  7. By Richard R.
    June 6, 2014 at 12:55 pm | permalink

    Dave Brandon very well fits Oscar Wilde’s description of someone “who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

  8. By Craig Fox
    June 6, 2014 at 1:18 pm | permalink

    I grew up in Ann Arbor, and went to so many football games in the 60′s and 70′s. I live a long way from my home town now, but I brought my two sons to a game two years ago when Michigan blew out Minnesota. The game was as fantastic as ever, but the constant audio and video bombardment made me almost sick. I couldn’t talk with my two sons between plays. I couldn’t share the old and new memories with them because of the obnoxious interruptions from the public address system. I felt like I was at any other professional game available anywhere in the world, but that Michigan football had seriously turned towards commercialism, and away from the tradition of Michigan football. I never thought I would say anything bad about the program, or my beloved stadium, but it’s obvious tradition has departed from my perception of Michigan football. Thank God they can’t ruin the Hawaiian War Chant, and Temptation.

  9. By marge
    June 6, 2014 at 3:20 pm | permalink

    Hey Brandon ! Are you listening??? Loud music, no friends around me, pricey tickets, Ohio AFTER Thanksgiving . I gave up my tickets

  10. By James Evans
    June 6, 2014 at 3:38 pm | permalink

    Maybe all of this is true, but if Michigan was competing for football national championships none of this would matter and the place would sell out.

  11. By John Kwant
    June 6, 2014 at 4:29 pm | permalink

    Amazing that a man who’s first 5 letters of his last name is “Brand” doesn’t understand jack about brand!

  12. By JAX
    June 6, 2014 at 4:33 pm | permalink

    James Evans, if that were true, then why is Alabama having the same problem as Michigan? Per a report in the Wall Street Journal last fall [link], Alabama had 32% of their student tickets go unused between 2009-2012, when they were winning national championships.

    Winning doesn’t put butts in seats when the AD continually raises ticket prices, preferred seat donations, and any other way they can squeeze every dollar and then some out of you. They’ve basically broken fans pocketbooks to the point where they’re staying home where it doesn’t cost them a thing to watch the game. And they’re having a hard time finding people to replace the ones they lost if the waiting list has disappeared and they’re bombarding fans with “last chance!” e-mails every week.

    Also, thanks to these increased prices and preferred seat donations, fans that used to be able to attend multiple sports can only pick one or the other now. I know fans that used to go to football and hockey games or football and basketball or all three. Now they have to choose only one to go to because they can’t afford it anymore.

  13. By Bill
    June 6, 2014 at 4:55 pm | permalink

    John once again you are spot on. Interesting that Dave and Mary Sue are now testifying in the Ed Obannon lawsuit with the NCAA.

  14. By James Evans
    June 6, 2014 at 5:02 pm | permalink

    Jax: You point to declining student ticket sales and then extend your argument to a larger problem of overall decreased attendance.

    Declining student tickets is one thing. And who cares? Reduce the number of student tickets and provide more “real” tickets.

    But, I don’t see any stats in the WSJ article you cite that shows overall SEC attendance is down independent of student tickets. It’s only a student problem.

    Michigan’s overall attendance problem is, in my estimation, primarily the result of fielding crummy teams year after year and playing in a terrible conference.

  15. By Curt Nielsen
    June 6, 2014 at 5:57 pm | permalink

    Mr Branding has been undermining the very foundation of Michigan football in his four years as the AD. Here’s to hoping that President Schlissel will read this article and take it to heart.

  16. By CG
    June 6, 2014 at 6:50 pm | permalink

    I was a UM staff season ticket holder and previous to that an alumni spouse season ticket holder for football and for a few years men’s basketball. My seats were in the north and then eventually the south end zone. For over 30 years I bought tickets faithfully, even when I lived out of state. I vowed if my seats ever went to PSD I was out. In 2012 I received a letter from Mr. Brandon informing me my seats for the 2013 season would now be taxed. I did not renew. I missed football games for a minute then realized that the ” game day experience” was becoming painful to me in more ways than just my pocketbook and on my modest UM salary. I have since been contacted no less than 15 times to come back to the family. Sorry Dave, you hurt me and my traditions. As always, I wish nothing but the best for the men and women athletes of Michigan. I am still a fan, just not able to justify the cost of being a fan within the confines of the stadium or arena.

  17. By Tim
    June 6, 2014 at 6:52 pm | permalink

    I hate to dive into the irrelevant, but is this not what Michigan has become as a whole under Mary Sue Coleman? Prices of an education have skyrocketed while quality has fallen. I don’t want to place too much emphasis on rankings, but they have not been kind to our academic units the last few years. Not to mention, the buck, even for athletic department failures, stops at the President’s office.

  18. June 6, 2014 at 8:25 pm | permalink

    I just want to say that John was a student of my Mothers in Junior High in Ann Arbor. It just goes to show you that with a good public school system, the right teachers and students who want to learn, can do well for them selve and write great,intelligent and informative articles. Nice work John.

    P.S.-can I get a little fist pump for my Mom?Aloyce Strohl

  19. By Joe B
    June 6, 2014 at 8:54 pm | permalink

    Bacon, You speak for so many of us! Thank you, thank you, I hope the message is received.

  20. By Tom Brandt
    June 6, 2014 at 10:23 pm | permalink

    Re: [14] Today’s student ticket buyers are tomorrow’s alumni season ticket buyers. Michigan is setting itself for ticket sales slumps in the years and decades ahead.

  21. By Gordon Sims
    June 6, 2014 at 10:30 pm | permalink

    I’ve been involved in higher education for nearly 30 years, the students these days are just wired differently. A growing percentage aren’t interested in attending sporting events. There seems to be more of an I attitude than a WE attitude. Students have their noses buried in smartphones, tablets and laptops. They will text the person next to them instead of talking to them.

    I’m giving up my season tix (not UM) because I am so sick of the minor league promos going on at every timeout. There are only so many tee shirt giveaways a guy can handle….

  22. By Kirk Beale
    June 7, 2014 at 5:43 am | permalink

    John has artfully laid out the the reasons why football Saturdays have been so special for so many fans and why the current policies are keeping people away.

    One other point that needs to be considered is that while the students can now sit with their friends the method set up by the athletic department makes it a big challenge. Being at Michigan teaches the students to prioritize their time and make good choices. They need to study and their time is precious. To sit with their friends they have to show up early and waste several hours waiting in line for the game. Would you do that – Would Dave Brandon do that himself?

  23. By Scott Otterson
    June 7, 2014 at 10:21 am | permalink

    Bragging about being the CEO of 3 Fortune 500 Companies is no award in todays squeezing of employee wages and benefits and lowereing product size and quality in exchange for ballooning CEO salaries and bonuses. Brandon has learned well. I hope that the UW admin is listening. Go Badgers

  24. June 7, 2014 at 2:38 pm | permalink

    “In his speeches, Brandon often mentions he was the CEO of three Fortune 500 companies. Then why doesn’t he know his customers, and what they like?”

    He’s still a director at a major company. He’s a director at DTE. So he works for the company that provides the power.

  25. June 7, 2014 at 2:47 pm | permalink

    Scott,

    Yes, indeed, your mom was my sixth grade teacher at Martin Luther King, Jr., Elementary in Ann Arbor. Mrs. Strohl was one of the best teachers I have ever had — and thanks to the Ann Arbor Public Schools, I had a lot of great teachers.

    -John

  26. By Bob Rorke
    June 8, 2014 at 10:57 am | permalink

    “Those who stay will pay more”. After over 3 decades as a season ticket holder, I threw in the towel. Sitting in the first row of Section 44 next to the tunnel was a great experience for my sons and I. Being gouged the past few years by this athletic administration finally drove me away. I have never understood the proposition that UM needed to support 900 elite athletes in over 30 sports as part of its mission. At one time physical education was required of all undergraduates as part of a liberal education. Now everyone is a spectator.

    Drastic change is ahead. As a former public school trustee, I can attest to the fact that most school systems and many colleges won’t be able to afford the liability insurance needed to support a football program when the concussion lawsuits start to be filed against them. The short term UM athletic administration strategy appears to be to exploit football as long as it can. They just got a little too enthusiastic!

  27. By fridgeman
    June 9, 2014 at 11:38 am | permalink

    Excellent column.

    I have a hypothesis that an additional factor decreasing student football attendance is that today’s UM students are more academically oriented than a generation ago.

    As UM has become so selective in admissions over the last couple of decades, there has been a rise in resume polishers like GPA, ACT/SAT scores, and extracurricular involvement. It’s likely that many of the group of friends I attended games with in the 19X0s wouldn’t even have been admitted to UM these days.

    The kids I have known who have attended UM in the last couple of years are wonderful, successful, kids, but I just don’t see them prioritizing spending 12 hours on a cold, rainy Saturday at a football game over their academics.

    The high cost of a UM education also keeps the pressure on students to focus academically.

  28. By Rick
    June 9, 2014 at 12:17 pm | permalink

    Bacon has a very good handle on the reality of the situation – as he normally does. Hearing the ads on WWJ radio last week abruptly defined the new Michigan Football….we have lots of seats available. “C’mon out to the game. Four seats, four hot dogs, four drinks.” Really? That is the new Michigan football? This is my 42nd year as a season ticket holder and if things don’t change, my season tickets AND my Victor’s Club membership will not be renewed. Mr. Brandon, please listen. We love Michigan football. This is not Michigan football.

  29. June 9, 2014 at 4:45 pm | permalink

    I couldn’t agree more with this article. Greed is indeed now the name of the game.
    When I arrived at U-M as a freshman, I was so proud to be part of it. Not a big football fan, I bought a season ticket anyway, and went to all the games and, yes, sat in the end-zone dressed in maize and blue. I even sat in line for hours to get tickets to the Rose Bowl… and we won!
    Today I have no desire to attend the games. The stadium has been pimped out in brick to look more affluent. The food is overpriced and just as bad as it was for a fraction of the price before. The students are being pushed out in favor of big corporate boxes.
    It all used to have a family feeling. You felt like part of the Michigan family. Now you’re just buying a ticket to something entirely different, something aimed only at making money, or so it seems. It’s not the same.
    Yes, Brandon, you broke it. I hope you’re happy.

  30. By 6 ft under Bo
    June 10, 2014 at 12:02 am | permalink

    Perhaps the wolverines should stop playing such a garbage schedule and then people would be interested. App state, Miami Ohio, Utah, Minnesota, penn state, Indiana, Maryland…at home. Quite formidable.

    But, I suppose the program has a history of avoiding competition…see fielding yost and a certain team he refused to play after they defeated Michigan.

  31. By Nole
    June 10, 2014 at 1:28 am | permalink

    Nole here. We are dealing with a similar problem. We were blessed with ribbon boards a couple years ago and a louder PA system with “great” music between plays.

    ribbon boards as a benefit reminds me of the saying, “Dont ___ on me and tell me its raining”

  32. By Oklahoma Lurker
    June 10, 2014 at 5:45 pm | permalink

    This is a “fan”tastic article! At Oklahoma we are seeing the same. Students have been shoved into a corner in the sun for as long as I can remember, but they used to show up all the time. Now they show up for a half of one, maybe two games a year and move on to better things, like clubs or beer. The rest of the time the student section sits half empty until the nose bleeders make their way down to fill it in a little.

    Greed has definitely become the name of the game. Oklahoma boasts about it’s “XX year sell-out record” yet last year and this year they have been begging folks to buy season tickets, extending donation deadlines, giving those that didn’t renew a 2nd, 3rd and 4th chance to renew etc. Also, don’t let the “sell-out” thing fool you. It’s easy to “sell-out” when the local grocery store sponsor is giving away a grocery cart of free tickets to fill the seats.

    I’ve attended every home for the last 18 years and I’ve seen the shift from “we love you-you wild and crazy fans!” to “what is your account number so we can determine how to treat you!” Our tickets have gone up every year but one, last year. Even when we went from 7 home games to 6 a few years ago, the price went up. Last season our AD told us that our prices would stay the same as the year before because we were such AWESOME fans. How about telling the truth by pointing out that we had one of the worse home schedules in 10+ years? This year I guess us same awesome fans don’t deserve the same price… ESPECIALLY since we won a BCS Bowl. And they’re quick to remind us of that on our ticket applications, emails from the school, mailings, billboards etc. “Join us now because we’re winners… AGAIN!” It all reminds me of Rod Tidwell on the phone with Jerry MaGuire saying “show me the money!” doing a dance! Show me the money fans! If you don’t, we’ll find someone that will. Who cares if your grandpa passed down his season tickets he’s had since Wilkinson roamed the sidelines? Money talks, and we need it to make the suite more comfy!

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we are a consistently good team, even when we choke off one or three we shouldn’t. I know you gotta pay to play, but at some point it needs to level out! It’s getting harder and harder to write a check for $1500 for 2 tickets when I’m treated like I’m wearing an orange jumpsuit and shackles when entering the stadium… or when it’s 114 degrees outside and I see the folks in the newly renovated suites sipping on mai tai’s while conversating instead of watching the game…. or when I get stuck with an extra ticket to Southern Vocational School For The Blind and I can’t get 1/4 of the price printed on it… Or when I can get a pair of better seats than mine outside the stadium for less than half of what one of mine says… Or when I’m trying to talk to talk to a friend about the previous game but I’m interrupted by a loud cartoon jet with the “Con-Air High Flying Play Of The Quarter”… Or when the guy with the long orange glove stands on the field for 10 minutes while rain pours down on our heads. It’s all about the Benjamin’s now days folks. Even in the south where football is God.

    Hang in there Blue and Maize friends! Hopefully we’ll see a plateau sometime soon! If not, we can all invest in some bada** TV’s!

  33. By LK
    June 13, 2014 at 1:17 am | permalink

    In a few more years, I’ll have been at half the games played at Michigan Stadium (I’m still not sure I like “Big House”). In recent years some of the excitement has ebbed. I thought it was me. I’m glad it’s not that I’m getting old….

    Anyone else notice that at the spring game the nets (behind the goal posts) sported the Allstate “good hands” logo? I’m told that was just for the spring game and won’t be there in the fall. At least not yet.

    I’m not sure the comment about today’s students having their nose in books rather than at the stadium is correct. I could be wrong, but I don’t believe there has been a drop in IM sports participation (though there are fewer fields available to the video game generation. We used to be able to get into the stadium and the tartan turf past the Ferry Field gates. Palmer seems to be under perennial construction and Elbel is now gated and too often closed. I’m excited about the new fields at Mitchell, but are they too far from the dorms? And will students be allowed to use them other than for IM games?)

    On the other hand, the comment that today’s students are tomorrow’s alumni and donors is spot on.

    I do like the big screens – we all appreciate the instant replay, especially on a controversial call. But that’s customer service, not competing with people who prefer to watch at home. I want to view the game beyond just the field of focus of a camera.

    But the blasting ads of all types between seemingly every play? Brandon, you do realize that at home I have – and use – a MUTE button on my remote, right?! (Or is the noise just so we don’t notice that we can’t use our cell phones… making it too loud to call? (: )

    I do miss Howard King, but at least we still have Carl Grapentine. I despise other stadiums with cartoonish or circus-act announcers. Etched in my ear canal is a nasally “Eddie George carried” from the game at the snakepit 20 years ago.

    We’ll always have Bo and Ufer in our hearts.

    But, Brandon, what will today’s students take away from their Michigan football experience?

  34. By Paul LaRoe
    June 14, 2014 at 10:00 am | permalink

    Finally, someone who is well known and respected amongst the Michigan fan base has spoken about the truth. This is an article that has been a long time coming. Seeing how this is my first response, and it will not be posted, I will keep this short. I look forward to the opportunity to share my own opinions as well, as a person who grew up in Ann Arbor, and held season tickets for 35 years, before I made the decision, that it was time to let go of what once was, and that was no longer being provided.

  35. By Paul Kyprie
    June 24, 2014 at 7:18 am | permalink

    The Student section used to be half of Section 23 (50 yard line) to Section 33 (Center of the End Zone). It appears that the students can sit in Section 25 now (25 yd. line) to maybe Section 30. What happened to all these student tickets. Well, the former student seats have been sold off to the general public at full value and with seat licenses, price hikes, etc. All Brandon cares about is money, money, and more money. I went to all the games during the 60′s – 80′ but have no desire to return. It is too commercialized for college athletics.