Back on April 9th, Virginia Tech announced a slew of football ticket purchasing options that range from the traditional season ticket package to some pretty flexible and interesting options at affordable prices. You can view the hokiesports.com article here, but I thought it was worth a closer look on TechSideline.com as well.
Virginia Tech faces some serious challenges this year to selling football tickets. In addition to recent trends in television and college athletics that are suppressing ticket sales and attendance, Virginia Tech is hit with a double-whammy that only makes things worse: (1) the Hokies are coming off their first losing season since 1992 amidst a large amount of bad off-field news, and they were non-competitive in multiple games; (2) the 2019 home schedule is a snoozer. These factors are going to badly damage Virginia Tech football season ticket sales, and by extension Hokie Club donations.
The group of college friends that I've been tailgating with for years and who have been sitting together for years are opting out this season and will instead buy tickets on a per-game basis, via StubHub and other channels. I suspect a lot of fans are doing something similar.
Sponsored by the Drive for 25: The Hokie Club's Drive for 25 is a campaign to increase membership in the Hokie Club to 25,000 members. No matter where you live, you can make an impact in the lives of Virginia Tech student-athletes! To learn more about the Drive for 25, click here.
Virginia Tech fans have been receiving their Hokie Club statements recently with their priority points rankings, and the number of ranked Hokie Club members (as of April each year) has declined in the last couple of years, but especially this year:
- April 2017: 10,409
- April 2018: 10,155
- April 2019: 9,279
Note: those numbers aren't total Hokie Club members, just the subset of donors to the Hokie Scholarship Fund as ranked for football season ticket sales.
There's no changing the outcome of the 2018 season and the 2019 schedule. The damage is done and will hurt Virginia Tech's overall revenue and Hokie Club donations this year, but I suspect that next season, with Penn State, Miami, and Virginia coming to town, this one-year decline will reverse itself … provided the team doesn't totally tank this year, which I don't think it will.
The Response: Flexible Ticket Offerings
Virginia Tech's response to flagging ticket sales is to offer some packages that I find interesting, fairly clever, and in some cases extremely flexible. Here's a table summarizing the offerings and when they'll be available.
| Plan | Cost | On Sale | Description |
| Season Ticket | $400 | Now | Tickets for all 7 games, plus benefits |
| Season Mobile Pass | $280 | Now | Full season ticket package, seat locations vary |
| Build Your Own Mini-Plan | $180 | July 10 | Pick any four games |
| 10-Ticket Flex Package | $400 | July 10 | 10 tickets to any number of games, any combination |
| Fan 4-Packs | $100/$160 | Aug 5 | 4 tickets for Furman ($100), Rhode Island ($100), Duke ($160), or Wake Forest ($160) |
| Single-game Tickets | $50/$70 | Aug 5 | $50 for non-conf. games, $70 for ACC games |
That's a large array of options, and we'll break them down in a moment. I reached out to Virginia Tech Senior Associate AD for External Operations (including ticketing) Brad Wurthman via email and asked where the inspiration for all those options came from, and he said, "We’re working hard to stay very in-tune with ticketing trends we see on a national stage in professional sports, collegiate athletics, and live events. We’re continuing to explore the options that work best for our fans. We’ve offered mini-plan options over the last few years and offered 4-packs for one football game and a handful of basketball games last year with great responses for those options, which is why they’ve been expanded this year to additional football games.
"The national trends show that people attend live events for a variety of reasons and the reasons are more equally weighted than ever before, so we needed to find ways to cater to all of those needs."
Breakdown by Offering
Here are more details on each offering, with my own personal rating on a scale of 1-5.
Remember, there are seven home games this season. "Per-game cost" refers to what is paid per ticket, per game.
Season Tickets, $400
- Per-game cost: $57.15
- Pros: Same seats every game, Hokie Club points, plus all the add-ons (see below)
- Cons: Cost; Buying tickets for games you may not come to
- Flexibility rating: 0 out of 5
- Available: Now
Details: The add-ons referred to above are a $25 concession voucher for each ticket purchased, Maroon & Orange Memories credits, discount to shop.hokiesports.com, complimentary men's and women's basketball tickets (based on availability, games TBD), Hokie Club priority points, and (as the VT promotional material says) … more!
Will's Rating: 4 out of 5. If you're the type who comes to every home game, and you're a Hokie Club member and a big believer in supporting the program whole-hog, this is the way to go. You can sleep soundly at night knowing that you've done everything to support the program, even though they weren't very good in 2018 and the 2019 home schedule is poor.
Season Mobile Pass, $280
- Per-game cost: $40
- Pros: Cheaper than traditional season ticket, still gets you into all seven games
- Cons: You sit in different seats each game (or maybe this is a pro; YMMV); no add-ons (see above)
- Flexibility rating: 0 out of 5
- Available: Now
Details: They call it "mobile" because it's a ticket option through your phone (no physical tickets are sent), but in reality, your seats are what's mobile. Your seats will always be together with this package, but you get moved around from game to game. Some people might actually like this, some might not.
Will's Rating: 3 out of 5. I'm not a big fan of this offering, because it doesn't come with any perks, and you get moved around. It sold out last year, though, so clearly many people like it.
Build Your Own (4-game) Mini-Plan, $180
- Per-game cost: $45
- Pros: It's like a (much) cheaper mini-season ticket that lets you pick the four games you want to see, without being locked into purchasing all seven games.
- Cons: Is your seat location the same from game to game? That's not clear.
- Flexibility rating: 4 out of 5
- Available: July 10
Details: The details on this plan are scant, beyond "pick any four games for $180." The devil may be in the details with regards to getting moved around, how you pick your seats, etc.
Will's Rating: 3.5 out of 5. This is nearly a 4 out of 5. I love the lack of restrictions on the four games you can pick, but then again, it's not like there's a Notre Dame or a Miami on the schedule. This is a good alternative for the fans who are angry that Virginia Tech signed two FCS programs for the same season. Don't like it? With this package, you don't have to pay for (or go to) either game!
Flex Tickets, $400 (for 10 tickets)
- Per-ticket cost: $40
- Pros: A crazy amount of options and flexibility (see "Details" below)
- Cons: Varying seat locations, lots of maintenance to pick per-game seats
- Flexibility rating: 5 out of 5
- Available: July 10
Details: It's best to let the hokiesports.com material do the talking here: "Tickets in the package may be used in any combination to attend home games in Blacksburg. For example, all 10 tickets to one home game, five tickets to two home games, etc. Tickets will be delivered in the form of digital vouchers in your online ticket account that may be redeemed online for actual game tickets (games based on availability). When redeeming tickets, fans will be able to choose their own seats based on availability. The minimum order is 10 tickets for $400, however additional tickets may be added at the time of order."
Will's Rating: 4.5 out of 5. This is a really cool concept with the ultimate in flexibility. There's lots to like about it. However, it does require a lot of work to stay on top of it, pick your seats, adjust to varying seat locations, etc.
Fan 4-Packs, $100 or $160 (for 4 tickets)
- Per-game cost: $25 (Furman and Rhode Island) or $40 (Wake Forest and Duke)
- Pros: Cheap tickets, esp. for Furman and URI; take the whole family!
- Cons: Not high profile games (but that's not really the fault of the tickets themselves, is it?)
- Flexibility rating: 2.5 out of 5
- Available: August 5
Details: Pick four tickets for Furman ($100), Rhode Island ($100), Duke ($160) or Wake Forest ($160); additional tickets may be purchased at the same per-ticket price.
Will's Rating: 3 out of 5. This is the old "family plan" offering, and any good ticket offering has this option as a staple. Those who are operating with a tight budget and are looking for ways to take the family (or guests) to a game may rate this higher than I do.
Single-game tickets, $50 or $70
- Per-game cost: $50 for non-conf. games, $70 for ACC games
- Pros: Pick only the games you want to see, from one game to all seven
- Cons: Costlier than buying season tickets or the plans above
- Flexibility rating: 5 out of 5
- Available: August 5
Details: It's pretty cut-and-dried. Any remaining tickets after the season ticket offerings and July 5 offerings will be made available as single-game tickets for purchase beginning August 5.
Will's Rating: 3.5 out of 5. It is what it is, a chance to pick and choose games, but not at a discount. From 1999-2012, this option didn't even exist, but with season tickets no longer selling out, single-game sales have returned. I'll bet that buying off of StubHub will be cheaper, though.
Closing Thoughts on Ticket Sales
As I said in the opening, there isn't much Virginia Tech can do to combat declining ticket sales this year, but I like what they've done here with the options they're providing for fans. I can only imagine that this many options puts a strain on the logistics of the ticketing operation. If they can properly service these options, it'll make fans happy and bring in much-needed revenue.
Brad Wurthman wouldn't put exact numbers on how many season tickets the Hokies have sold thus far, but in the end, he thinks total ticket sales will end up being about the same as in recent years. "We’ve remained fairly static for the last five years," he said, "hovering anywhere between 28,000 and 32,000 season tickets sold, depending on the year. We anticipate being right in that mix again in August when the season begins.
"Our story is that we were sold out with season tickets for 15 years, and now we aren’t. Without context, that sounds bad. With context, that’s a similar trend for many programs across the country. Honestly, that’s not necessarily a bad scenario. Being sold out creates the benefit of difficult-to-get-tickets. The problem in that scenario is being unable to bring people into Lane for the first time. Not being sold out creates the benefit of finding creative ways to get people inside Lane. The challenge is finding unique ways to add value to a variety of ticket packages.
"It’s too early in the process to tell where we’ll eventually end up this season. With that said, I’m very encouraged by our trend line and how we’re transforming the process of how our stadium gets sold out. The assumption, sometimes, is that sold out means we sold 66,000 season tickets, but really, it’s a function of 'what is available to be sold as a season ticket' after we account for so many variables. Getting to a comfortable level within that capacity is the key to everything we have to work on, and why we spend so much time working on it."
