Spartan fans might have a difficult time finding cheap seats in Spartan Stadium this season.
On Friday, the MSU Board of Trustees voted unanimously to adopt the Scholarship Seating Plan, which benefits the Ralph Young Fund. The price increase asks season ticket holders to donate $200-$500 per seat,in addition to regular prices.
The amount varies depending on seat location. Sections in the lower bowl between the end zones will be affected, which includes 15,474 seats - about 21 percent of the stadium's 72,027 capacity.
The program will off-set athletics department costs. The program also does not affect student ticket prices.
"The cost of athletics is spiraling out of control," MSU Athletics Director Ron Mason said. "I don't want to be in a position to have to cut sports like other schools. I want to be in a position to keep our 25."
The required donations will be phased-in by the athletics department in the 2004 season.
The amount paid depends on how long a person has been a season ticket holder. For example, those having tickets for 24 years or less will be on a two-year phase-in period and will pay half the donation in the 2004 season and the full amount in 2005.
A four-year-phase-in-period will be used for ticket holders of 25-49 years, and those who have had tickets for more than 50 years are exempt from the program.
In a presentation to the trustees, Mason said if holders don't wish to donate, they will be reseated to a different area.
In addition, the new program allows ticket holders a one-time transfer of their tickets to someone else's name if they don't want to donate. There is a December deadline to transfer up to four tickets per individual.
Mason said the plan is overdue and the revenue generated will help the athletics department with the deficit it's facing for the 2003-04 fiscal year.
With 25 sports, MSU spent $6 million in athletic scholarships this year. In 1998-99, scholarships cost the school $4.1 million.
Trustee Chairman David Porteous said the athletics department has to be self-sufficient and will need extra funding.
"At the end of the day, we must have a strong program," he said. "We have to enhance revenues."
Vice chairman Joel Ferguson said although he didn't agree with everything in Mason's proposal, he voted in favor of the program because it was something he felt everyone needed to work on together.
"I voted 'yes' even though I'm not enthused about this plan," he said. "But we make the best of the hand we're dealt."
Ferguson has been a critic of the seating plan since its inception.
"I don't want to trivialize the people who have been supporting the football program," he said. "They feel like they've always been making a contribution."
MSU alumnus Robert Buydens has held football season tickets for almost 20 years and regularly contributes to the Ralph Young Fund.
Buydens' seats are located in the upper bowl and aren't affected by the price increase, but he said he doesn't agree with it and wishes the university could come up with an alternative way to raise the money.
"I wouldn't pay the extra money to move down to those sections," the Grosse Pointe resident said. "It's too much money. I like where I am."
Some people in the lower bowl sections might also disagree with the plan and "unless the team plays better, it might not go over too well," he said.
In the first year, Mason said the plan could generate up to $1.6 million, and about $2.6 million in the next few years.
Spartan Stadium tickets will see an overall price increase for the 2003 season. In February, the athletics department announced most season ticket holders will pay $3 to $4 more per ticket.
MSU also plans to build luxury suites and club seating in the stadium by the 2005 season. Estimated annual donations for a club seat are $4,500 to $6,500, and $45,000 to $80,000 for a suite.
Porteous said the enhancements to the stadium will generate more revenue and help give financial stability and strength to the athletics department.
Porteous and Mason agreed the new seating plan is just one piece to solving the budget puzzle. Mason also said the department will look at other cost-cutting measures.
"We've done a lot of planning for this," Mason said. "Obviously this isn't a one-person job."
Mason said his department reviewed the seating plans of other Big Ten schools and came up with the best way to put MSU's program together.
Now that it is approved, every season ticket holder will be mailed a copy of the plan and a list of their options.
MSU will become the seventh school in the Big Ten to use donor-based seating. Schools without this type of program include the University of Michigan, Northwestern University and the University of Iowa.
Sarah McEvilly
