The steep price of success

Think back to the first half of LSU’s BCS Championship game.

If you would have asked the average, nail-biting fan to pay a little more for home tickets next year in return for winning that game, the average answer would have come back “well, duh.”

But no sooner than the confetti was swept up, LSU revealed plans to hike ticket prices this year. Even though playing in the BCS game earned the SEC millions of dollars, with LSU getting a sweet cut, the athletic department said it needs more money from fans.

As of this writing, the price hike in play would bump non-conference home game tickets by five bucks, to $45, while conference game tickets would be $50.

An even bigger hike awaits season ticket holders who must pay ever-higher fees to LSU’s “Tradition Fund.”

An end zone upper-deck seat that costs $105 in 2007 would climb to $210 by 2010. Meanwhile, prime seat holders who paid $500 last year would have to pay $950 by 2010—all that is on top of the ticket prices.

Such is the cost of modern college football, a sport that attracts more than 90,000 fans on a Saturday night. Of course, college football’s real power lies in its ability to set its own rules, from the convoluted way its national champion is chosen, to gaudy sums dumped into stadiums and coach’s salaries.

In the win-at-all-costs world of college athletics, LSU may need to raise ticket prices to keep up in the salary and facilities races.

Add to that the fact that LSU’s revered marching band has been toiling away in the same decrepit facility for decades. And now officials are convinced they need to direct $1.5 million from added ticket revenue to pay for better band facilities.

But it’s important to remember that LSU’s athletic program is only one part of a large, public institution. As such, officials should be required to give a complete and detailed accounting of the department’s financial picture to the LSU Board of Supervisors. The athletic department should tell the board and the public exactly how much additional revenue will be generated by hiking ticket prices and surcharges, and how all the money will be spent.

And LSU’s board should demand the athletic department improve its efficiency and show specific evidence of results. With so many associate and assistant athletic directors at LSU, surely someone is qualified to trim the budgetary fat.

Moreover, with fans carrying such a heavy burden, the Tiger Athletic Foundation might also be more forthcoming about where its money is spent.

Adding on to and modernizing stadiums are good things, but there are plenty of other items covered by TAF—like the automatic door-closing device former Coach Gerry DiNardo had installed—that might come under luxury rather than necessity.

To continually cite the salary of the head football coach or the expense of non-revenue sports as blanket excuses shouldn’t be good enough for a department whose budget is now $70 million a year and climbing.