Cal Has Trouble Selling $225,000 Football Tickets
Plan to pay for stadium upgrade relies on selling 50-year rights to premium seats
Are there buyers for $225,000 college football tickets?
That is the question haunting the University of California, Berkeley, which is engaged in a $321 million upgrade of its football stadium in the midst of the worst budget crisis in its history.
As the Cal Bears get ready to open their home season on Saturday at AT&T Park, their temporary residence, university officials are eyeing the progress of an elaborate financing plan for California Memorial Stadium that relies on selling 50-year rights to 3,000 special seats for $40,000 to $225,000 each.
If the seats get sold, Cal will be able to pay off the stadium renovation and establish an endowment to support all of its athletic programs. But if sales fall short, the university could be on the hook for tens of millions in construction costs even as it wrestles with up to $80 million in budget cuts for the next fiscal year as well as plans for huge tuition increases.
So far, the results are mixed. After an initial surge in interest, seat sales have slowed over the past year, and Cal is only halfway to its goal. In its latest update, at the end of June, the athletic department reported 49 percent of the 3,000 Endowment Seating Program seats were sold. But the total projected revenue of $113.5 million is just 41 percent of the goal, and only $27.8 million has been collected; buyers can pay up front or over time, but there is no contract, so people can opt out at any time.
http://www.baycitizen.org/sports/story/cal-has-trouble-selling-225000-football/
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