‘College athletics has gotten very expensive’: Gonzaga starts process of raising costs for men’s basketball season tickets

If you’ve got the money, it’s going to be easier to become a Gonzaga men’s basketball season-ticket holder for games at McCarthey Athletic Center.

But it’s also going to cost more to remain one. 

In a process that started Thursday, existing season ticket holders – a collection of fans, former players and ex-employees who have some of the most coveted tickets in college sports – must begin informing the university if they want to pay the higher costs to keep their existing season tickets or give up their spots inside the home of the Bulldogs.

For the first time since the 6,000-seat arena opened in 2004, Gonzaga will both raise ticket prices and begin what’s known as a reseating process where fans can essentially buy their way into season tickets, and more coveted seat locations, based on a point system that combines years of loyalty and financial donations provided to the Bulldog Club.

That means that some fans, who have had tickets longer than 30 years, could pay the higher prices for tickets and still lose those specific seats in The Kennel, and be reseated somewhere higher up in the arena.  

Athletic Director Chris Standiford called the process an unfortunate reality facing college athletics, as the landscape has dramatically shifted toward player compensation and movement, not to mention federal court cases against the NCAA that could eventually lead to schools needing to help pay off costly lawsuit settlements.

However, the process is also giving an opportunity for some Gonzaga fans to get tickets years ahead of the former waiting list, which could take decades.

“This is a hard process for everybody because change is hard,” Standiford said. “I’m really optimistic and hopeful that once we get to the other side, and people see their outcomes, that they will feel good not only where they are at but also where we are going.”

Tickets

Unlike buying access to a concert, where the ticket price is the only cost, Gonzaga fans must pay both the face value of the season tickets and a separate seat license, which essentially works like a donation to the university.

Because the NCAA mandates only so many basketball games and the fact that McCarthey was built by design to limit the number of available seats, the season tickets for GU games have remained very difficult to obtain.

McCarthey has sold out 296 consecutive games, which represents every contest since it opened in November 2004.

That sellout streak has also coincided with the school’s historic run of success that started under former coaches Dan Fitzgerald and Dan Monson, who was hired last spring by Eastern Washington, and has soared since the 1999 hiring of coach Mark Few. 

The Zags haven’t missed an NCAA Tournament since 1998 and they’ve made nine straight Sweet 16 appearances, including a pair of championship game losses in 2017 and 2021. 

As a result of that success, season tickets rarely become available. 

But that could be about to change. 

“We know there will be attrition,” Standiford said. “That’s the exciting part of this. This is the first time since we opened the building that there will be seats available. We just don’t know how many yet.” 

Points 

Standiford said the university won’t know how many tickets will become available until after Aug. 30, which is the deadline for current ticket holders to inform Gonzaga about their decisions whether to pay the higher prices or give up their seats.

The next deadline would come in September. That’s when fans must let Gonzaga know how much more money they would be willing to give to earn extra points. Those points will then be used as part of the reseating.

Seat holders already received their “priority point” totals that reflect both their past giving to the university and “loyalty” to the program, which is based on how many years they have held the season tickets. 

The reseating will be based off of each ticket holder’s “priority points.”

Those points are a combination of points given for longevity and donations provided to the university.

For instance, those who have purchased season tickets for 10 years will be given 20 “loyalty points” which are added to their priority point total. Those ticket holders who have had them for 30 years will be given 140 “loyalty points.”

On the Zag website, it gave an example of a fan “John Doe” who has been a season ticket holder for the last 13 years. Hypothetically, he has also given $3,000 to Gonzaga Athletics.

For his longevity, Mr. Doe earned 33 points. For his contributions, he earned 30 points for a total score of 63 points. 

The university earlier this month sent out emails letting every ticket holder know where their priority point total stood at that time.   

All of the ticket holders can give more money to the university, which will increase their overall priority point total and thus give them better positions on process of reseating. For instance, a $10,000 pledge would earn the fan 100 priority points.

The top 5% of fans have accrued 3,500 points or more. The top 6-to-15% have between 1,000 and 3,499 points, and the bottom 85% have between 999 and 50 points, according to the website.   

Some fans “have been in this seat for the last 21 years. But people’s lives are in a much different place than they were 21 years ago,” Standiford said. “Families grow. People move away. People are taking this opportunity to evaluate what their wants and needs are. That’s going to lead to change.”

The Process 

The venue is broken up into six levels of seats for fans. That goes along with seats dedicated for students, the Gonzaga University band and seats that must remain for allotments for visiting teams.

Under the new pricing scheme, the priciest courtside seats will cost $2,000 each, which last year covered 15 home games. That same ticket holder must also pay $6,500 for the seat license, or contribution, for a total cost of $8,500 per seat. 

The least expensive seats, known as the Zag level, cost $800 for the ticket with a required contribution of $400 for a total cost of $1,200 per seat.

Standiford said that before the school decided to institute the reseating, which will now be done every five years, the university asked the ticket holders whether they would prefer a doubling of ticket prices or reseating.

“We learned a lot from that survey,” he said. “This action is a response to what we heard from our season ticket holders.”

The Spokesman-Review spoke with several current season ticket holders. All declined to be quoted by name about the process. 

“Everyone in the building will have the opportunity to reseat before we sell new tickets,” Standiford said.

The process will bring some other minor changes that most fans won’t notice.

For instance, the school will now consolidate seats for former players and player’s families into a single section, where before they were dispersed throughout the arena.

“We are trying to create a little more community for the student athlete’s families,” he said.

The student section will remain unchanged.

“Our students are awesome,” Standiford said. “The students are still going to be the core of the fan experience.”

Economics

Standiford said the school would have preferred to keep ticket prices the same but it faces an uncertain future.

“College athletics has gotten very expensive in the last eight-to-10 years,” he said. “I think we are all experiencing inflation. We are just trying to correlate the expenses with our revenues. 

“We cannot rely on tuition-paying students to subsidize our basketball team.”

Unlike schools like Washington, and a lesser extent Washington State University, which have football programs to generate revenue, Gonzaga must tap its basketball fan base to remain relevant.

“Without the kind of revenues that are provided through our community support of the program, we would not be able to compete at the level that we do,” Standiford said. “There is no alternate way for that to be funded.”

The program must provide competitive coaches salaries, which as a private university are not disclosed, and furnish players opportunities they could also find at larger institutions.

“There is no magic pot of gold,” he continued. “We are not profiting. We are re-investing it back into the program. The idea of having a basketball team at the caliber that we do costs a lot of money.”

The hike in prices, during an uncertain time for college athletics, was overdue, he said.

“There’s a perception that there are billions generated by college athletes,” Standiford said. “It’s really a small number of schools generating that money.

“We are just super grateful for all those willing to step up … and give us a fighting chance to stay relevant.”