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00:00the Lions increasing season ticket prices again for the second year in a row and by a sizable
00:05percentage on average 24% and I've seen people say especially those upper bowl people who may
00:12have avoided big increases a year ago well they got hit hard this time around 30% last year 24%
00:18this year is it simply the cost of being great we've talked about this for people who have
00:23suffered through Lions losing for not years but decades it's a swift kick in the pants right just
00:32as they're getting good they are increasing and not five or ten percent you know like everything
00:37else is kind of going up a little bit they're hitting you over the head with 30% increases
00:41and 24% increases and year over year over year until you simply cannot justify being a Lion
00:48season ticket holder anymore I understand that and I am sympathetic to that I also have the
00:53numbers in front of me that say they have 22,000 people waiting for your spot in the queue if you
00:57don't want them they had 96% renewal a year ago so even with all the bitching and complaining that
01:02we had on the radio 96% of you said I'll fork it over anyway and if you don't want to the Lions
01:07are telling you get out of line so someone else can get in line there's plenty of people who want
01:11to be Lion season ticket holders 56,000 of them and they still have 22,000 more that would love
01:18the opportunity to be season ticket holders so that's what makes this conversation so complex
01:23because I do feel bad for the fans who are going I'm trying to put kids through school I'm trying
01:28to put food on the table I didn't get a raise at work but it's now a 25% raise for me to be a Lion
01:33season ticket holder I feel for I feel for the fans and that we exist as a radio station for
01:38fans to talk through this so 248-539-9797 it's I mean it'll be interesting to see what happens in
01:46the future because if now they are right to where you know right in the middle of the road in the
01:53NFL you're not the highest you're not the lowest you're right in the middle is this just bringing
01:59it up in line with that and so moving forward it'll flatten off it's well maybe it's it's that
02:05five or ten percent it's not as dramatic as it's been over the last couple of years because and I
02:10will say this like if you are if you're nearer the bottom in regards to ticket prices season
02:18ticket prices and it's commensurate with what you are seeing on the field all right I can understand
02:26that but now you when that happens you also have to be good with it commensurate being with what's
02:31on the field and that's a damn good product now ticket tax and then phone calls there's a lot of
02:38ticket tax coming in ticket texture says higher ticket prices equals more money for Sheila to try
02:45to spend and get Ben Johnson to stay chase in gross point well we've seen Brad Holmes get
02:50extended Dan Campbell get extended I'm sure those came with pay raises well we've seen Ben Johnson
02:54get a pay raise as recently as last year is it a little bit easier to take when you do see that
03:03there's competent ownership and that they are doing things to make sure that they stay
03:09competitive they stay good by keeping good coaches yes paying good players as someone puts it here
03:16is I'd rather have a winning team than have people getting affordable tickets like if those are the
03:20two options you take the winning team we've been waiting our whole life for this ticket texture
03:25says the problem with the ticket hike is not that the Fords is that the Fords don't need it out of
03:30necessity it's because they can it's greed if they needed the money it's one thing they should
03:34keep prices down to reward the loyalty of the fans during all the low times but is it greed
03:41if you own a business let's just take the emotion of being a fan out of it that if you have a
03:46product that's people are are craving to see people want to see they can't be there now but
03:52they're they're in line to see it that you raise the ticket prices to to make more money like that
03:58this is capitalism at its finest ticket texture says it's not capitalism or supply and demand
04:04because the lions will revoke season tickets if people are selling them in the secondary market
04:09what the lions want is capitalism for me but not for the chris in nova i responded to him on ticket
04:15text i thought that was a great point it is if if the lions can do this and just continue to do it
04:20why can't fans sell all theirs why the secondary market is a capitalistic society and it's why
04:27because they own the product if i buy jim's mic your headset yeah and i want to sell it on a
04:34secondary market forever i want i should be able to do it i think the reason they do that it sort
04:38of remind me a little bit of almost like nil in in college football where you need to have something
04:45somewhat policed though like with that secondary market or it's just going to get absolutely
04:51absurd there i do believe in regulations at points so what i would say to chris and nova is
04:57the lions do owe fans a little regulation here going forward to me right now i have no problem
05:05with this this is keeping up with the times but they can't continue to stick it and stick it and
05:09stick it every year and then chris and nova i can't go to the secondary market and just and do
05:14what he wants well because i think we got to be careful about it here's the lions could charge
05:17more than they are clearly based on the secondary market if the lions took this to the extreme they
05:21could take every ticket in their facility and go 5x on all of them and say if you don't want them
05:26the secondary market will pay them they're not doing that that would be the truest yeah free
05:31market capitalist move is go i could pull up insert app here and it says they're worth four
05:36or five times what you paid for your season tickets so guess what guys everybody's season
05:40tickets are going to go four or five times to match the market there that would be extreme
05:44but that would be the ultimate what is the market demand of the prices i kind of feel like too there's
05:48i'll use your uh strike three theory jim you know strike one was last year strike twos this year but
05:54you strike out if you try to do this to fans again next year there needs to be a little bit of a
05:58pausing that's why that's why i think okay now that they're right in the middle right i i don't
06:04know what they're going to do next year i don't know what that conversation will be next year
06:09but it kind of feels like hey they're bringing it because they finally do have a good product
06:13that they can actually sell that they are bringing it in line with the rest of the nfl
06:19and they're not they're not the high end but shouldn't they be based on their logic like they
06:22could use the same rationale that they used to go up 30 last year on average 24 on average and go
06:27we're not an average football team we got to get this up closer to one two or three because our
06:32tickets are the highest sold commodities on the secondary market we're not an average football
06:37team we're a great football team they should go up again another 25 percent next year using their
06:41logic but okay but then you you run that logic down the road a little bit and at some point
06:47they're not the super bowl favorite are they going to go down in ticket prices right probably not so
06:52they got to be careful with with with their pricing and i don't they're not dumb well that's
06:58right i don't think this is a normal business like everybody has said it's a business it is a business
07:02but it's not a normal business like sports are kind of a community good too like you have to be
07:06very careful with the decisions you make it can't just be we're doing it because we can there has to
07:12be some touch to this right it's kind of like the tigers and their payroll market pay pay what your
07:18market should pay you're a mid-market team you have a small market payroll right that that's
07:22not right that means to me you're not willing to pay to compete i think they will but market size
07:27is everything here i think the line detroit is the 14th biggest market in the country i think
07:33your nfl ticket prices should hover right around that same ranking i think that's fair yeah right
07:38middle of the road which is where they are now where are you guys at with this two four eight
07:45you're welcome spreading a little christmas cheer you got ticket textures saying that their ticket
07:50prices have gone up more than what's being reported jason on a high low says mine's gone up a hundred
07:55percent over the last two years he's paying twice what he paid two seasons ago uh ticket texture
08:01says there is something they have to keep in mind here if they keep increasing prices you are going
08:06to recruit more wealthy fans but dilute some of the characters that have made this a mixed bag
08:12raucous environment for teams to play in uh and the note that this is what happened to the red
08:16wings in the uh mid 90s late 90s you price out the rabid fans for the more business clientele
08:23who can afford it and you lose some of that environment two four eight five three nine
08:2997 i get that argument and and again i don't think they're stupid i think they it's a fine
08:34line to walk yeah because again i see what they're seeing 96 percent renewal if you don't want it
08:39someone else does 22,000 waiting to pay these prices even after last year's increase 22,000
08:45people waiting to pay more to watch the detroit lions than they ever have before willing gladly
08:51well shelling over more money 22,000 waiting for the phone call and then the opportunity to make
08:56that decision you don't think they'd all say yes i don't think so i think they would then they try
09:02to sell one or two of them i mean that's what some of these fans did last year and that's how
09:05some of them kept their season tickets i think that's part of the 96 renewal anyway