re: The worst thing the LSU Ath Dept has ever done...

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If LSU charges too much, then the school will not maximize revenues. If a large enough demand exists for a pay-to-tailgate system to be implemented without deterring demand, then LSU should try to raise those revenues. It is what any decent business would do.

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Bottom line is that LSU can charge people to walk on their campus if they wanted to. It's just how much we as fans will let it cost us before we say "frick it. I'm staying home". It's different for different people.

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I agree that they are more invested, hence why LSU can get away with charging $40 to park and not face tremendous demand fluctuations (against typical opponents). To be it simply, the fanbase is EXTREMELY inelastic.

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Brand loyalty does lead to inelastic demand, but it can also backfire in this instance because of the extreme loyalty.

i.e. people donating $540 less to the LSU Foundation because TAF got greedy.

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Brand loyalty does lead to inelastic demand, but it can also backfire in this instance because of the extreme loyalty.

i.e. people donating $540 less to the LSU Foundation because TAF got greedy.

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Completely agree. Good point about the externalities. The price gouging of an inelastic consumer really only works when only one revenue source is available. In the case of LSU, fans can adjust spending through a variety of spending vehicles.

This thread makes me feel even better about what my LSU gameday has become in recent years.

These and other "Gulliver's Travels" tactics imposed on the fan base are the reasons myself and others made the decision to have our "gameday experience" at home. Or many times as in the case with me, a camp.

LSU Football has never been more accessable than it is right now, and my desire to fight the crowd, the traffic, and the BS is getting weaker every year.

But as always...

First; you are not my mother-in-law; so no I don't hate you!! Try this; park in a free zone, go walk around and visit friends and then see if you can get a ticket, if not take the money you would spend on parking and buy a cold one and a meal and enjoy the game on TV at a local bar, this is the thing; I get to see 3 games a year, (sell the rest to friends). I fly into Alex. BR or N.O. and then have to get up at the crack of dawn to get a spot the following morning. I often drive through campus and in recent years have seen the total discust of heaps of trash.

I just do not understand how people can buy TVs, gens. tents, food, drinks etc. and complain about $40. The university takes a tremendous wear and tear on the Saturdays and it needs help with its expenses of up-keep. By the way; I do hate my mother-in-law!

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This would have been the simple solution to the problem

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I'm afraid the current AD won't stop until he has realized ever way he can make a buck off of a traditionally loyal fanbase. (something he didn't have for Duke football)

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In the case of LSU, fans can adjust spending through a variety of spending vehicles.

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This is actually how LSU fans can combat the charges the best, IMO.

- When your College calls asking for $$$ this year, tell them it went to TAF's increases on parking.
- Don't renew your Men's or Women's Basketball season tickets.
- Buy less merchandise with LSU logos, etc.

IMO the first one will hit the hardest. Once you start trying to pit one LSU fundraising arm against another, it gets solved quickly.

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I just do not understand how people can buy TVs, gens. tents, food, drinks etc. and complain about $40. The university takes a tremendous wear and tear on the Saturdays and it needs help with its expenses of up-keep.

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This has been discussed multiple times:

- Splitting up the $90 for truck/trailer isn't the problem between the organizers. Its maintaining the contributions from those who are part of the group but don't have ownership over the tailgate items.

- The parking fee didn't deter the trash-causing groups. They are primarily all large groups of Fraternities (not all of them, but some of them) and have the ability from their social dues to pay the $90 for truck/trailer and the manpower of pledges to haul other items to the Parade Ground.

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I still think that even for UF and Auburn the lots won't be full or even near full. ESPECIALLY if they stop allowing people in them 3.5 hours before kickoff.

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I'm still not convinced the time frame wasn't due to the regular closing of roads.

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Demand > Supply = LSU is in control. Until the opposite is true, the stands will be full and people will still be enjoying themselves on Saturday on campus at LSU. Welcome to capitalism.

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Capitalism is not that simple, and in a case like a sports team it is even far less so.

To simplify the example to a similar degree, the problem is this: once the opposite is true, and the stands are not full and people are not still enjoying themselves, there is a serious and very real risk of the demand permanently being lowered because the product (the "LSU gameday experience") is itself devalued by the falling customer base.

It's kind of like the old internet services (say, Compuserve). An important part of their marketing was the fact that they had lots of people on their service so you would have lots of people to chat with, etc. Once their price/demand ratios started rising enough to cut their customer bases, that fact itself had a recurring diminishing effect on the demand. Thus it became a vicious spiral that helped run many of them out of business entirely.

Bottom line, once we price ourselves into a half-empty stadium and ghosttown campus on gameday, nobody's going to want to pay even $10 to get in on it anymore.