4_kidd_4 Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 Curious if any STH have received a sales pitch/invoice to renew for 2018 yet. Reason being, last year. The body wasn’t even cold on the ‘16 season and I received an email invoice on 1/3/17 for a deposit to renew(which I admittedly disregarded, based on the previous 14 years of having until around may to decide). It was pretty off putting, but the real kicker was receiving a snail-mail invoice with “FINAL NOTICE” in big red letters about a week later, and a voicemail from my rep saying ‘no guarantee we can hold your seat without that deposit!’. Felt like a real hustle to me. Had never been badgered that quickly after a season before. I certainly gave them bad feedback about the whole deal when they asked, and I know I wasn’t the only dissatisfied customer. Then I had to laugh when I heard tix numbers were down considerably, because the “hustle” made sense. Act like demand is up and supply is down. Had ol’ Russ written all over it. Anyways, I’m assuming the tix office will be a bit more gentle in their approach this offseason, just wondering if anyone’s heard anything as far as renewal/price increases etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 I'm assuming that we will hear from the Bills pretty soon and I expect an increase because they made the playoffs. Bills tickets are pretty affordable so I will have no issue with a reasonable raise but I might drop my number of seats from 4 to 2. Finding people to go to preseason games and December games had been next to impossible even for this season with the Bills "successfully" fighting for a postseason spot. Preseason (2) + December games (3) = 50% of the season tickets. I can't continue losing money like that every year even though it's not a large sum of money. 2 Seats instead of 4 will do the job in my case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seanbillsfan2206 Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 I know I’ve sent 2 emails inquiring about season tickets in the last month with no response... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PromoTheRobot Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 Renew? You bet! My Sabres seats? They're going bye-bye. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne Arnold Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 I'm waiting to see who the Offensive Coordinator is before deciding whether to renew or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seanbillsfan2206 Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 2 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said: Renew? You bet! My Sabres seats? They're going bye-bye. I bought tickets to tomorrow nights game about a month ago. After the last few weeks and especially after the last couple games, I’m totally disgusted with this team. I really don’t want to make the 90 minute trip up to buffalo to watch them get smoked 7-1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PromoTheRobot Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 Just now, Seanbillsfan2206 said: I bought tickets to tomorrow nights game about a month ago. After the last few weeks and especially after the last couple games, I’m totally disgusted with this team. I really don’t want to make the 90 minute trip up to buffalo to watch them get smoked 7-1 Fan support is an illusion right now because season ticket holders are dumping tickets for the minimum $6 StubHub price. Next year watch a bunch of us drop our seats. Then you'll see crowds of under-5,000. (Of course that's when they'll suddenly get good.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seanbillsfan2206 Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 7 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said: Fan support is an illusion right now because season ticket holders are dumping tickets for the minimum $6 StubHub price. Next year watch a bunch of us drop our seats. Then you'll see crowds of under-5,000. (Of course that's when they'll suddenly get good.) Especially after they trade all their decent players not named jack eichel. I thought they were on the verge at the end of last season, all they needed was a coaching change. Whoops Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldTimeAFLGuy Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 47 minutes ago, 4_kidd_4 said: Curious if any STH have received a sales pitch/invoice to renew for 2018 yet. Reason being, last year. The body wasn’t even cold on the ‘16 season and I received an email invoice on 1/3/17 for a deposit to renew(which I admittedly disregarded, based on the previous 14 years of having until around may to decide). It was pretty off putting, but the real kicker was receiving a snail-mail invoice with “FINAL NOTICE” in big red letters about a week later, and a voicemail from my rep saying ‘no guarantee we can hold your seat without that deposit!’. Felt like a real hustle to me. Had never been badgered that quickly after a season before. I certainly gave them bad feedback about the whole deal when they asked, and I know I wasn’t the only dissatisfied customer. Then I had to laugh when I heard tix numbers were down considerably, because the “hustle” made sense. Act like demand is up and supply is down. Had ol’ Russ written all over it. Anyways, I’m assuming the tix office will be a bit more gentle in their approach this offseason, just wondering if anyone’s heard anything as far as renewal/price increases etc. ...prolly Dennison making the robo calls......hmmmmm........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4_kidd_4 Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 19 minutes ago, Curt said: I'm assuming that we will hear from the Bills pretty soon and I expect an increase because they made the playoffs. Bills tickets are pretty affordable so I will have no issue with a reasonable raise but I might drop my number of seats from 4 to 2. Finding people to go to preseason games and December games had been next to impossible even for this season with the Bills "successfully" fighting for a postseason spot. Preseason (2) + December games (3) = 50% of the season tickets. I can't continue losing money like that every year even though it's not a large sum of money. 2 Seats instead of 4 will do the job in my case. So do you attend any or just try to flip all tix for a profit? Clearly the ‘secondary market’ has been taking a bigger beating the last few seasons, you saw a huge spike in seasons with the Rex hire, a lot of those were ‘brokers’ jumping in. This past season’s drop off was still part of the Wrex effect, I would think. But to your point re: preseason/late season, yes we couldn’t give them away either this year. Which did say a lot considering we were in contention all the way through december. I know my seatmate got a call from his tix rep in December to “check in”. My friend said he was likely out, and sited the abundance of $10 tix in December for years now, and the worthless preseason tix we have to buy. Said he would still attend games but would just pick and choose secondary market for select games. The rep gave him an earload about how you’d likely end up paying a higher premium for september games, and my buddy said “well factor in preseason cost that I’m saving and It’ll even out.” 7 minutes ago, OldTimeAFLGuy said: ...prolly Dennison making the robo calls......hmmmmm........... I heard they asked Tyrod to make the sales pitch, but the pitch just kept sailing 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mead107 Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 I’m in again. 4 tickets GO BILLS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirby Jackson Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 Just as a a quick FYI as to why teams try to renew so early it has to do with relocation. Teams need to know what their inventory looks like months before the season starts. It isn’t meant to be a scam as much as it is to have a plan and be able to move the rest of the inventory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnC Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 The requirement to buy preseason tickets at regular season pricing in the season ticket package is a league wide scam. No matter how good the Bills are late season games will always be available at severely discounted prices in the secondary market. I understand why people want to be assured of particular seating at most regular season games but having to swallow those preseason games at regular prices is a bridge too far, at least for me. Being a victim of theft is one thing but allowing yourself to be a willing victim is another thing. My complaint isn't about the cost of regular season games. It is the inclusion of unappealing preseason/practice games at regular prices in the season ticket package. This issue isn't a Bills'problem as it is a league directive. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4_kidd_4 Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 4 minutes ago, Kirby Jackson said: Just as a a quick FYI as to why teams try to renew so early it has to do with relocation. Teams need to know what their inventory looks like months before the season starts. It isn’t meant to be a scam as much as it is to have a plan and be able to move the rest of the inventory. I understand this completely. My point in the OP was that last year was the first year, after 14 years of personally being a season tix holder, that they attempted to hustle me up to renew. Claiming in January, “need yr $ or we might not be able to hold!”, as if there was a huge rush or waiting list to relocate. Not an outright ‘scam’ by any means, but a pretty transparent rush attempt. Relocation ‘event’ is usually May, they wait for better weather so people can come by the stadium and ‘see for themselves’. I went to the wire on renewal a few times, and for 14 years it was always ‘as long as we get a deposit by may’. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirby Jackson Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 5 minutes ago, 4_kidd_4 said: I understand this completely. My point in the OP was that last year was the first year, after 14 years of personally being a season tix holder, that they attempted to hustle me up to renew. Claiming in January, “need yr $ or we might not be able to hold!”, as if there was a huge rush or waiting list to relocate. Not an outright ‘scam’ by any means, but a pretty transparent rush attempt. Relocation ‘event’ is usually May, they wait for better weather so people can come by the stadium and ‘see for themselves’. I went to the wire on renewal a few times, and for 14 years it was always ‘as long as we get a deposit by may’. Teams have also moved renewal deadlines earlier to stretch payment plans. We started running a 12 month plan so it became like a car payment or a gym membership. It makes total sense. Every other industry makes you opt out. For some reason teams were a little late to the party and made you opt in. The question shouldn’t be “do you want to renew” it should be “do you want to quit?” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boyst Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 If we have some sort of plan before the end of March that seems reasonable for QB I have saved a specific amount I'd allocate toward season tickets. If not, I will use them to games I'd rather see @Green Bay, the opener, and maybe Houston to get revenge on that city and the 6' blonde that broke my heart because I !@#$ing hate that city so much I hope it burns down! F houston! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zow2 Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 1 hour ago, PromoTheRobot said: Fan support is an illusion right now because season ticket holders are dumping tickets for the minimum $6 StubHub price. Next year watch a bunch of us drop our seats. Then you'll see crowds of under-5,000. (Of course that's when they'll suddenly get good.) I used to love hockey. I had Center Ice, i'd watch every Sabres game. Last year i stopped watching much. This year they have lost me. I can't even muster that much interest to hate them. I certainly won't pay for a game anymore. It's a shame, i was a huge fan and there are others like me in the same boat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillnutinHouston Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 I'm in, of course. Haven't received any prompts to renew yet, and I don't expect much opportunity to improve my spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PolishDave Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 (edited) 18 minutes ago, Kirby Jackson said: Teams have also moved renewal deadlines earlier to stretch payment plans. We started running a 12 month plan so it became like a car payment or a gym membership. It makes total sense. Every other industry makes you opt out. For some reason teams were a little late to the party and made you opt in. The question shouldn’t be “do you want to renew” it should be “do you want to quit?” That is an awesome idea. Don't know why they don't do it. It makes way more sense. And they would probably make a lot more money because they could raise prices and amortize the payments. Just like how car dealers tell you it's going to cost $299 per month rather than $38,000. Edited January 11, 2018 by PolishDave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirby Jackson Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 Just now, PolishDave said: That is an awesome idea. Don't know why they don't do it. It makes way more sense. Yeah, it would run the 1st or 15th of every month. You could always have a relocation request open and there was a certain time of year that it would flip from one season to the next. People really seemed to like it and as a team we did too. You didn’t have to worry about losing a bunch of season ticket holders in a down year and they could spread the money out. There were certain guarantees too in terms of price increases. I think it was like a 5% max. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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