One of reasons I didn’t do a lot of blogging late in the off-season was I was pretty ticked about how things went down in regards to donating to the athletic program. Before I get into my story, I want to be clear that I believe what happened was more my fault than the University’s and I wouldn’t want anyone to not donate to our Bears because of this post, assuming it’s otherwise the right thing to do.

Think of this more as a cautionary tale to make sure you’re donating for the right reasons.

It all started in December when all of us season ticket holders got e-mails about donating before the end of the year to increase our priority points. Being a guy with ridiculously low points (12 at the time) despite having being a season ticket holder for every year but one (which really hurt my points) since 1999, I decided to look into it.

See, up until now, I’ve always sat in the non-donor reserved section. But the possibility of sitting in the increased leg-room bench-back section was pretty enticing. I’ve traditionally bought 6 seats, running $300 a seat for most seasons or $1800 a year. With the latest baby being a girl and a wife who doesn’t like the games as much as I do, the thought was we’d get 4 seats in the bench-back section. $1200 for the seats ($300 x 4) and $800 for the required donation ($200 x 4) only ended up being $200 more than we used to pay. Then we could mix and match who went to which games: Sometimes me and the boys. Sometimes my wife and I and another couple (night games). Sometimes the whatever 4 from the family who could go when the kids have commitments.

And as with all purchasing decisions, there’s always the upgrade possibilities. Since at the $1200 ‘Big C’ donation level one gets a free parking pass that would otherwise cost me $150, and other benefits like earlier selection times for single-game tickets (and hopefully bowl tickets), it was worth the extra $250 in donation ($800 required, plus $150 for the parking is $250 less than the $1200 needed to be a ‘Big C’ donor) to get there.

I e-mailed the donation office to clarify a few things, notably that I’d get 5 extra points for an additional year of consecutive donating plus 12 points for the $1200. I also said I was interested in seats in a particular section and wanted to make sure I would be donating the right amount.

They were very nice and prompt in their reply, validated everything I asked, but gave one caveat that I ignored: “Of course this donation will not guarantee you seats in the section you’re interested in.”

“DUH!” I said. Priority points determine who picks when, right? But there’s no way all the seats would be gone I thought to myself. I could always pick seats on the opposite side of the 50 if it was overbooked where I wanted to sit.

Then came the selection period. Every day I logged in to see what was available as my day approached. And every day the number of available seats in “my” sections kept shrinking until a couple days before my selection, all that was left was seats in row 7 and below in all of the bench-back seats, on both sides of the 50, both at the $200 and the $400 donation levels.

Frankly, I was heart-broken.

There’s no way I’m going to sit that low. You just can’t see the game. Even if you’re on the 50 yard line, the lack of height takes away your depth perception in the endzones. At the 10 yard line where I’d be sitting, depth perception would be non-existent on the far side of the field. There’s just no way I’m sitting that low.

And to increase my frustration by an order of magnitude, there was this $1200 dollar donation looming over my head. It was now effectively wasted money.

Without going into too much details, it’s worth pointing out how much money $1200 is to my family. I’m a middle class guy, but with 4 kids and a stay-at-home wife (who’s awesome BTW), our budget is stretched pretty thin. We don’t own an HDTV. A 27″ tube TV from 1999 is all we’ve got. Our DirecTV subscription is a thing of the past and we’re not turning it back on for football season. We don’t have smartphone plans with the big carriers, it’s too expensive. We pay $55/month for both our cellphones and are considering cutting back further. Until the Jetta accident, we owned a ’97 Jetta and an ’02 Odyssey with no car payments. Frankly, I’d better get a raise someday soon as the insurance money for the Jetta isn’t going to pay the car payment for the new truck for very long. That or some other budgeted items are going to get the ax pretty soon, and as you can see, we’ve already cut pretty deep.

To be clear, I’m not complaining. I have a blessed and wonderful life and I wouldn’t change a thing. The tight money doesn’t inherently bother me a bit. I know that there are millions of Americans who live much more frugally and couldn’t afford even the cheapest Cal Bear tickets and the expense that goes with going to the game. People with no health insurance, no savings for retirement, things that I’m grateful to have. I’ve got no reason to REALLY complain, and I know how lucky I am in the big picture.

Nevertheless, my point is, $1200 is a BIG deal in my family. It’s a considerable percentage of our disposable income after the necessities are paid for. It’s an ‘up late for 3 or 4 nights in a row discussing it with my wife and running various budget scenarios to decide whether it is worth spending’ amount. It’s a VERY big deal.

“Well”, I told myself, “at least we’ll get some extra perks.” We got to pick our seats earlier than we otherwise would have. We’ll get a good parking spot, not one a mile away on the other side of campus. Things like good seats at the Ohio State game, seats that others may not be able to get.

Well, after talking to the rep from the donation office, it appears my additional priority points benefit should be measured in hours, not days, as to how moved me forward in the pecking order. After getting my Ohio State tickets early, it looks like everyone and their brother was able to get tickets to the game with numerous left over. And the final straw was when my parking pass arrived. I wasn’t in Underhill or somewhere similarly close. Nope, Lower Hearst. it’s only 30% closer than the lot I had last year!?!

Frankly, I got nothing of note for my $1200 (we’ll really for my $1050, as the parking pass would have been $150). Sure I get a promotional magazine in the mail now and again. I get lots of nice letters thanking us for our generosity. I guess my parking spot is a little closer. And I guess if the Bears miraculously make it to the Rose Bowl this year (more on that later), it will be worth every penny when trying to get tickets. But as far as concrete value, I didn’t get a whole lot and I’m not expecting much more in the future.

And at some level, I guess that’s OK. As you’ll see in a later post, I ended up going with some seats that as time has wore on I’ve been more and more happy with. It’s not called a DONATION for nothing. Thinking of it that way, how much should I be expecting in return?

The moral of the story is be very careful what you donate and what your expectations are for that donation. Make sure you can really afford it. Make sure you won’t be heart broken if you get very little in return. Don’t fall for the trap I fell for.

At his point, all I can do is hope the University makes remarkably good use of my donation. My son’s birthday is coming up soon and what he’s going to get from his parents kinda sucks. See, there’s this missing $1200 I could have made VERY good use of…

I bought 8 tickets for the Big Game and between by brother bailing and the late start time, I need to sell 4 of them. So not only will you get to watch the Big Game, you’ll get to do it next to my awesomeness. 🙂

We’re in section 224 about halfway up. That’s in the endzone, but let me say from experience, these seats, being mostly straight away, are a different but not bad angle. The running lanes are great to watch. On the far side of the field depth perception is a bit weak, but other than that, it’s a good place to watch a game. It’s far better than in the corner on the lower level, which I’ve had in the past.

Checking around, tickets are going for over $125 in most places, so I’m asking $100 a seat. Face value is $75. I’m willing to sell in 2 pairs or all 4 together. Let me know if you want 3 or 1 and I’ll see what else I’m offered.

Please let me know ASAP about your interest: tickets@thecrawfordfamily.net

Well, my date FINALLY came up. After two and a half weeks of patiently watching all the seats get grabbed up, I finally got my chance at 1:46 PM today.

The process was smooth and simple, as I expected. I have to admit this automated self-selecting system is far nicer in concept than the traditional “hope the ATO is nice to me and understands my note” system that has been used in the past. (BTW, I found the ATO to be very nice in their selection when I wrote a good note, explaining exactly what I wanted and where I was willing to compromise. The seats we’ve had for the last handful of years were great.)

Of course the seats I got were not nearly as nice as I hoped and there’s no doubt that lots of formerly high donors were snapping up cheap tickets this year, which is fully their right. There are plenty of cheap tickets left, but the good ones are all but gone. I guess that’s my penalty for not being a donor. For me, we ended up picking seats in the 2nd to highest row of section 332. We’re in the middle of the row, which wasn’t what we wanted, but I felt the slightly better location was worth it over seats in section 317 that were only two from the isle. In either case, we were going to be in the highest rows. At this point, unless I was going to pay for big-donor seats, everything was at least 2/3rds the way up the upper deck.

The lower deck was out of the question for me. They’re SO low, the sight lines are horrible, particularly from the endzone, the only place a non-donor could sit down there. Which brings me to my thought for the day:

I think the athletic department made a mistake in where they put the “reserved” seats and where they put the “blue/gold zone” seats. They should have switched them, and put the $275/seat and no discount for kids seats (the equivalent to the old reserved) on the upper deck. As I stated above, the sight-lines are better and it’s not that far from the field. It also better matches the reserved seats in that they were in the corners, not the endzones. Conversely, they should have put the $225/seat with a $75 discount for kids seats (the equivalent of the old blue/gold zone), in the endzone. They’re the cheapest seats and have always been in the endzone and again, as said above, have a worse view.

The fact that the “reserved” seats have lots of available seats and the “zone” seats are filling up fast, indicates that they got the pricing/demand curve backwards on those two. Had they got them right, and flopped their locations, I probably would have paid the extra money to sit in the “reserved” sections and gotten better seats within the same section I’m sitting in.

The good news for me is that this year’s tickets cost about half what I expected. I budgeted $2500 for 6 tickets in the annual budget and paid $1225 (plus a $100 donation so that next year I’ll have a better priority number). I ended up going with 4 adult and 2 kids tickets because there are some games, like USC as a night game, that I won’t be taking the kids to and would like to take friends to, but would also like to save some cash when I bring the 4 kids with my wife.

Good luck to those who haven’t yet had a chance to pick! Here’s a tip: I’ve you’ve got some extra dough, there’s still some GREAT big-donor seats left. 🙂

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve got 6 tickets for sale for the Oregon game at 4:30 PM on 11/13. For those of you who don’t have a big cable/satellite package, you won’t be able to see this game on TV (it’s going to be on Versus). Be there to watch the Bears take a shot at history and beating #1 for the first time in history.

And I’ve got great seats…

While I don’t have donor seats, I still think I’ve got some great seats. First of all, I’m on the isle, in two rows of 3. This helps with knee issues as the person behind you is a friend, not some random dude. Second of all, there’s no seats in front of me. We’re the first two rows above the concourse tunnel, which also gives you more room to stretch out. Add in being close to the tunnel for easy in/out access, that they’re at the right height to have good visibility across the whole field and I think they’re as of seats as you’ll find in the non-donor section. (FYI, this is section DD).

See this graphic for details:

(the blue and gold seats are mine)

I’m asking face value for the tickets: $53 each. I’d prefer to sell the block of 6 to one person but I will consider breaking it into two groups of 3 if no one is interested in the full set for the game.

E-Mail me at tickets AT excusemeformyvoice DOT com if you’re interested, or leave a comment in the comment section.

I’ve still got 6 tickets for sale for the UCLA game. This is shaping up to be a great game between a better than expected UCLA and a Cal team that always does well at home (particularly against UCLA) and has shown a lot of grit (particularly versus Arizona).

And I’ve got great seats…

While I don’t have donor seats, I still think I’ve got some great seats. First of all, I’m on the isle, in two rows of 3. This helps with knee issues as the person behind you is a friend, not some random dude. Second of all, there’s no seats in front of me. We’re the first two rows above the concourse tunnel, which also gives you more room to stretch out. Add in being close to the tunnel for easy in/out access, that they’re at the right height to have good visibility across the whole field and I think they’re as of seats as you’ll find in the non-donor section. (FYI, this is section DD).

I’m asking face value for the tickets: $53 each. I’d prefer to sell the block of 6 to one person but I will consider breaking it into two groups of 3 if no one is interested in the full set for the game.

E-Mail me at tickets AT excusemeformyvoice DOT com if you’re interested, or leave a comment in the comment section.

Sadly, I’ve got two games that I can’t go to this year. Luckily for those of you who aren’t season ticket holders, they’re the two best games on the schedule (minus the Big Game): UCLA and Oregon.

While I don’t have donor seats, I think I’ve got some great seats. First of all, I’m on the isle, in two rows of 3. This helps with knee issues as the person behind you is a friend, not some random dude. Second of all, there’s no seats in front of me. We’re the first two rows above the concourse tunnel, which also gives you more room to stretch out. Add in being close to the tunnel for easy in/out access, that they’re at the right height to have good visibility across the whole field and I think they’re as of seats as you’ll find in the non-donor section. (FYI, this is section DD).

I’m asking face value for the tickets: $53 each. I’d prefer to sell the block of 6 to one person but I will consider breaking it into two groups of 3 if no one is interested in the full set for either game.

E-Mail me at tickets AT excusemeformyvoice DOT com if you’re interested.

Just in case you were wondering. If you pre-ordered Stanford tickets and opted to have them electronically delivered “no less than two weeks before the game,” you may be confused by the fact that you haven’t received them yet.

Have no fear, says Erin from the Athletic Ticket Office. They’ll be sent out by the end of the week.

How exciting for us Bears fans to see the best college football team in the Bay Area play at Stanford Stadium!

(They’ll be the home team.)

Ouch.

Now that the game isn’t going to be on TV, don’t you want to go and see it in person?

I’ve got 6 tickets for sale at $50 each (my cost). I’ll sell in groups of 3 or all 6. They’re some of the better seats outside the donor section on the west side: Section DD, just above the concourse tunnel (so there’s no one sitting in front of the 1st of the two rows) on the isle.

E-mail me at tickets AT excusemeformyvoice DOT com, if you’re interested. I’ll be putting them on E-Bay later this week if I don’t get any bites here so e-mail soon if you want to get them.

This being an odd-year, the Big Game is at Stanford. As we all know, the new Stanford Stadium doesn’t have room for all Cal Season Ticket holders, so you’ve got to be on the ball to get tickets to the game. Today at 8:30 AM the tickets went on sale for non-donor season ticket holders (aka, cheap people like me).

I got my order through at 8:31 AM. 🙂

If you’re a season ticket-holder, RUN, don’t walk, over to calbears.com and get your tickets NOW. They may be gone by lunchtime.

If you’re still here reading this, you either got your tickets already or you’re not planning on going to the game (or you’re back after running)…

So it’s time for my 2nd annual Big Game ticket allocation rant:

The athletic office limits Big Game ticket sales based on accounts. Big donors, no matter how many season tickets they have, can order 6 Big Game tickets. Non-Donor season ticket-holders and regular donor non-season ticket holders, no matter how many season tickets they have, can order 4 Big Game tickets. And low-level donors without season ticket holders can order 2.

I get that Donors get special privileges and I don’t have one iota of a problem about them getting priority and being able to buy tickets that others can’t. I understand that even if they’re not season-ticket holders. That’s not my complaint. Donors deserve special privileges.

My complaint is that if holding season tickets is a criteria for whether you can get Big Game tickets, which I’m glad it is, how many tickets you hold should be part of a criteria of how many tickets you can purchase.

I have 6 season tickets in one account. I can only buy 4 tickets. So somebody in my family is going to get the shaft this November (3 kids right now, so I only need 5 tickets, the 6th is for family growth and we don’t mind the extra room in the stadium). I’m OK with that if everyone else had the same problem. But guess what? There’s a group who sits right next to us in the stadium that has 3 tickets, but since they’re all just buddies, they’ve got the tickets in 3 different accounts so they’re billed separately. So, those 3 guys with 3 tickets can buy TWELVE Big Game tickets between them.

That just doesn’t make any sense. Is what the ticket office wants is for me to split my 6 ticket account into 3 accounts so I can get more tickets for the Big Game? Seems like a logistical nightmare waiting to happen with a bunch of special requests to make sure those tickets are seated together for the regular season-tickets (a request the ticket-office fulfills for those 3 buddies).

Here’s my recommendation on how the ticket office should run things:

They should allocate tickets separately based on donations and based on the number of season tickets one has. Something like this:

Big Donors get 6 tickets
Regular Donors get 4 tickets
Small Donors get 2 tickets
Season ticket-holders get 1 ticket for every 2 they have.

So, if I’m a season ticket holder with 6 tickets, I’ll get three from that and if I want 6 tickets, I need to be a “regular donor” to be allocated an additional 4. (I’m purposely avoiding the dollar figures since it’s not that important, logically speaking.) If I only need 5, I could be a “small donor”.

I set it up this way because I wanted to allow for allocating a smaller number than one has season tickets for, because that although tough to swallow it would be fair, but I think in principle it should be 1 ticket for every 1 season ticket you have.

And remember, none of this affects the order in which one has priority. I’m still OK that Big Donors get first priority and then there’s a priority scale from there, so that if the Big Game tickets sell out before the non-donor season-ticket holders get a chance to purchase, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.

But it’s just not fair that I get the shaft with my 6 tickets when someone with 3 can get 12 when neither of us has made any donations to the University. Doing things “per account” is just stupid.