ticket sales

[Flatlandcoug]

WSU really knows how to totally mess up a good thing. I saw an article on Facebook about ticket sales and according to WSU SID, we've only sold 2,400 seats out of our supposed 12,000 seat allotment. What's fascinating about that is when you look at the WSU ticket site, the numbers on the page had indicated we only had around 6,000 tickets to sell and I've already seen people saying that they requested tickets at the highest seating level and they've been bumped into the endzone. I guarantee that there are a lot of people like me that don't want to sit in the endzone or upper level just out of loyalty to ol' Wazzu.

How can it be that we aren't selling tickets and there are over 9,000 left, but most of the people reporting that they've received tickets are in the corner of the endzone? Is the WSU allocation location just that bad? Or is WSU screwing over CAF members in the hopes that the late ticket sales are in a better location so late ticket buyers will buy tickets from WSU in the future?

Frankly, WSU needs to realize that they have a PR problem with their ticket sales and realize that the CAF model isn't working at all. If they had a brain (and they don't), they would set aside the 1,000 best seats for CAF members and just leave the rest for the general public to buy. Maybe let CAF members have the first 4 hours to buy tickets but open season after that. The exception to that would be the Rose Bowl. Based on the thread that I started the other day about bowl trips, it's obvious that just about everyone seriously thinks about going to the Rose Bowl but doesn't really care that much about other games. WSU's inability to sell tickets is 100% because CAF members got stuck in the nosebleed at the Rose Bowl in 2003 or other crappy seats anytime that they've purchased tickets.

I am going to call the university today and see what tickets I could order. I'm curious to see where they are.....or if they'd even tell me.

 

[dgibbons]

A lot of people will choose to buy tickets from other sources to save a little money and get better seats.

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

A lot of people will choose to buy tickets from other sources to save a little money and get better seats.

That doesn't explain the disparity with the information being put forth. Why does the CAF site say we only have 6k tickets but the SID says 12k?

I'm curious to see where those other seats are at as well, since the CAF seats are the worst in the venue.

 

[Suudy]

Please do report back.

If you manage to get tickets better than section 107 through the general public sales, I plan to give CAF a call and give them a piece of my mind. I'm already beyond frustrated regarding RV lot permits, lack of information, and their dragging their feet to call me back about our restructured giving. This might be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

 

[CrimsonDisciple]

I won’t ever buy tickets from an unknown section. The Alamo bowl has endzone Club seats. I’m not going to risk buying from WSU only to get an endzone club seat. My first experience with the Holiday bowl was insulting. The seats they gave me for being a CAF member were like they pulled names out of a hat. Anyone gone over to the Iowa State site to see how they do it?

 

[E Jones]

This is a thread that I hope Chun reads.

 

[Cougzz]

There is a big difference between a school allocation for, say, the Rose Bowl and a more mid-tier Bowl. The school is responsible for off-loading the allocation regardless of where the seats are located. The mid-tier bowls’ bread and butter is corporate and good public seating. Participating schools get what is left. The ADs for Iowa State and WSU have zero input as to seating.

As to watching your team at the Rose Bowl, the total fan experience is so terrific that I think there is literally no such thing as a bad seat. As long as the matchup is good, the experience is unbeatable. I have seen both sides of that equation. Against Michigan, there were no spare seats. Against the ridiculous Rose Bowl versus Oklahoma, you could get a ticket from a homeless guy for a beer.

 

[FnuLnu]

This is a thread that I hope Chun reads.

When he has time....

He's still winding his way through some of the threads where CougEd argued Wulff deserved a 5th year.

After that the Ellensburg stadium thread will get some scrutiny.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

The official WSU bowl site now allows you to buy tickets and tells you the seat location when you put it in the cart. When I checked a couple hours ago, the "best available" were in Row 1, Section 107. That's first row in the back corner of the end zone. I looked again a minute ago, it was up to Row 8. Regardless, the "best available" seats that they are offering wouldn't allow you to see the other end of the field very well. I know someone has to sit in those seats, but those shouldn't go to the people that are early purchasers. If they want to reward fans, start selling the Row 13-30 seats and then work towards the bottom after those are gone. Of course, they are more worried about empty seats right next to the field and DGAF about the fans.

 

[Suudy]

The official WSU bowl site now allows you to buy tickets and tells you the seat location when you put it in the cart. When I checked a couple hours ago, the "best available" were in Row 1, Section 107. That's first row in the back corner of the end zone. I looked again a minute ago, it was up to Row 8. Regardless, the "best available" seats that they are offering wouldn't allow you to see the other end of the field very well. I know someone has to sit in those seats, but those shouldn't go to the people that are early purchasers. If they want to reward fans, start selling the Row 13-30 seats and then work towards the bottom after those are gone. Of course, they are more worried about empty seats right next to the field and DGAF about the fans.

Agreed. I pre-ordered and got section 107, row 3. Sigh.

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

Agreed. I pre-ordered and got section 107, row 3. Sigh.

Its a gd outrage and a slap in the face.

But as others have said, it's the way if the bowl games, which honestly is puzzling to me. I can't say I know anyone who has gone to a bowl game that their team wasn't involved in, especially as the prices if tickets now, so I'm curious who all these 40k poeple are who are going to appear out of nowhere and fill the stadium. I know some are corporate and such, but really who are these 40k people who just want to see two random teams play football?

 

[Suudy]

Its a gd outrage and a slap in the face.

But as others have said, it's the way if the bowl games, which honestly is puzzling to me. I can't say I know anyone who has gone to a bowl game that their team wasn't involved in, especially as the prices if tickets now, so I'm curious who all these 40k poeple are who are going to appear out of nowhere and fill the stadium. I know some are corporate and such, but really who are these 40k people who just want to see two random teams play football?

Me!

On the bowl games thread, I answered only WSU bowls. I've been to the Humanitarian bowl (or whatever it is called now) in '05 and '09. The first was because we were visiting family and on a lark, my wife's cousin and I bought tickets. The second time was because my wife's best friend is a UofI grad and wanted to go.

And a high school buddy of mine that lives in Tempe goes to the Fiesta bowl nearly every year. He's an ASU grad and season ticket holder, but generally just loves college football. Granted, his company (he's an independent realtor) buys the tickets and he takes business partners, high end clients, and sometimes offers two of his tickets as promotions (such as "If I sell your house, you get 2 tickets to the Fiesta Bowl" type stuff). But he goes because he likes to watch college football. And yes, it is the Fiesta bowl, so that's a bit different.

But I think there are locals that say "Why watch this on TV when I can go in person?" And if I actually lived near a bowl game, I'd probably do the same.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

Its a gd outrage and a slap in the face.

But as others have said, it's the way if the bowl games, which honestly is puzzling to me. I can't say I know anyone who has gone to a bowl game that their team wasn't involved in, especially as the prices if tickets now, so I'm curious who all these 40k poeple are who are going to appear out of nowhere and fill the stadium. I know some are corporate and such, but really who are these 40k people who just want to see two random teams play football?

Looking at it cynically, the Alamo Bowl knows that there are folks like me that will buy tickets through other sources. If they get 5,000 fans per school to do that, plus another 20,000 folks who live in a town of 2.5 million who go just because it's there (less than 1% of the population, that puts them at around 30,000 seats. Add in the 12,000 per visiting team allotment and they've "sold" 54,000 seats and only have 10,000 seats to go.

ISU fans are claiming that they'll bring 30,000 people to the game. By the time sales are done, if that's true, the Alamo Bowl will have over 60,000 tickets sold and another successful game. They aren't going to care if WSU eats 5,000 bad seats if there are 10-12,000 WSU fans overall. They get their money either way.

 

[chipdouglas]

WSU really knows how to totally mess up a good thing. I saw an article on Facebook about ticket sales and according to WSU SID, we've only sold 2,400 seats out of our supposed 12,000 seat allotment. What's fascinating about that is when you look at the WSU ticket site, the numbers on the page had indicated we only had around 6,000 tickets to sell and I've already seen people saying that they requested tickets at the highest seating level and they've been bumped into the endzone. I guarantee that there are a lot of people like me that don't want to sit in the endzone or upper level just out of loyalty to ol' Wazzu.

How can it be that we aren't selling tickets and there are over 9,000 left, but most of the people reporting that they've received tickets are in the corner of the endzone? Is the WSU allocation location just that bad? Or is WSU screwing over CAF members in the hopes that the late ticket sales are in a better location so late ticket buyers will buy tickets from WSU in the future?

Frankly, WSU needs to realize that they have a PR problem with their ticket sales and realize that the CAF model isn't working at all. If they had a brain (and they don't), they would set aside the 1,000 best seats for CAF members and just leave the rest for the general public to buy. Maybe let CAF members have the first 4 hours to buy tickets but open season after that. The exception to that would be the Rose Bowl. Based on the thread that I started the other day about bowl trips, it's obvious that just about everyone seriously thinks about going to the Rose Bowl but doesn't really care that much about other games. WSU's inability to sell tickets is 100% because CAF members got stuck in the nosebleed at the Rose Bowl in 2003 or other crappy seats anytime that they've purchased tickets.

I am going to call the university today and see what tickets I could order. I'm curious to see where they are.....or if they'd even tell me.

We'll see if this holds up, but here are some early hypotheses:

1. I've read some things where fans are getting cagier about buying tickets; save money by buying after the initial full-price run
   • We are increasingly in the era of SkipLagged, Hopper, Google Flights etc. Why spend $800 on 2 flights when you could spend $490?
2. CAF engagement: doing a poor job
   • CAF is weird. I give, and a couple years back they would have zero communications to me. A year or two later I had some account issues with my CAF points and I got a personal phone call within minutes of sending an email and they cleared it up. Then they started burying me in emails, calls, etc. Today, again, I hear nothing from them.
3. Going from good chance at "Rose Bowl vs. Ohio State" to 100% chance of "Alamo vs. Iowa State" has dampened some of the enthusiasm

I know people don't like the last one but I want to make 3 points

• 1. Going to the RB was a major sign for all fans that our program was on an upward trajectory. I believe some people took this to the bank, and then saw us placed in a bowl game half of them hadn't heard about vs an opponent they hear nothing about, and decided to jump off the wagon
  2. From a good fan vs. bad fan POV, understand that the "bad" fans are saying "we placed second, we should get a silver medal but they gave us an honorable mention" and "good" fans are saying "shutup and swallow it, an honorable mention is actually pretty good for us"
  3. This board is comprised of a self-selecting group of motivated superfans and financially invested boosters. You guys will buy 50 yard line tix if it's the Charmin Toilet Paper bowl in Baghdad. Most professing Cougar football fans couldn't name 2 players after Minshew. That's the reality - it takes a lot more to get them to open their wallets for the program.

 

[Cougzz]

Chip’s “3 points” provides a better end of regular season status report than SI, The Athletic, ESPN, Canzano and Wilner combined.

 

[Loyal Coug]

A lot of people will choose to buy tickets from other sources to save a little money and get better seats.

How about just going to the Alamo Bowl site (link below)? I see I can get tickets in Section 115 (10-15 yard line) for less than WSU wants for putting me in the endzone. Upper deck tickets are all over the place and half the price of lower level end zone seats. I would rather sit up high towards the middle than low just about anywhere. Especially the end zone.

https://www1.ticketmaster.com/valer...rtistid=1135682&majorcatid=10004&minorcatid=8

This is major cluster. And not to knock our skilled AD (OK I am), but he came from a school whose only bowl appearance in 10 years was last year at home in their own stadium (the Tart Cherry Boca Raton bowl). Attendance was 25,000 in a 29,000 seat stadium. But he makes more than Bill Moos so I'm sure he knows all about how to market a semi-major bowl in a Power 5 environment.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

How about just going to the Alamo Bowl site (link below)? I see I can get tickets in Section 115 (10-15 yard line) for less than WSU wants for putting me in the endzone. Upper deck tickets are all over the place and half the price of lower level end zone seats. I would rather sit up high towards the middle than low just about anywhere. Especially the end zone.

https://www1.ticketmaster.com/valer...rtistid=1135682&majorcatid=10004&minorcatid=8

This is major cluster. And not to knock our skilled AD (OK I am), but he came from a school whose only bowl appearance in 10 years was last year at home in their own stadium (the Tart Cherry Boca Raton bowl). Attendance was 25,000 in a 29,000 seat stadium. But he makes more than Bill Moos so I'm sure he knows all about how to market a semi-major bowl in a Power 5 environment.

I'm not going to blame Chun for the mess we have because this is years in the making, but he will be judged on whether or not he can fix the issue. I sent an email to Chun, Stevens, Commons, Craggs, Zollinger and others outlining my reasons for not buying bowl tickets from WSU. It's the slow process for sales for the 2003 RB, it's the top of the end zone tickets we got there, it's the time I sat with my back against the wall in the end zone at Wisconsin with CAF tickets, it's my friend at the 2003 Holiday Bowl in the upper deck, it's the whole "we'll let you know when we feel like it" attitude in general.

It's that a season ticket holder no longer gets any CAF credit for past seasons as a ticket holder. It's that buying bowl tickets don't get you 100 pts credit for future CAF ranking purchases. It's the fact that they appear to randomly scatter tickets at bowl games around to create the illusion of good sales and stick people in bad seats despite the fact that we're being told that nobody is buying tickets.

It's that once they get to the point they are, you still can't pick your own seats, you get stuck with this mythical "best available" seats that aren't that good. I suggested to them that if they wanted people to accept the fine print of "we'll put you in the next level of seats if we feel like it", perhaps they should give people a $25 per seat discount on the tickets. It's better to get people there than to take a $300k loss for nothing.

 

[Coug95man2]

I'm not going to blame Chun for the mess we have because this is years in the making, but he will be judged on whether or not he can fix the issue. I sent an email to Chun, Stevens, Commons, Craggs, Zollinger and others outlining my reasons for not buying bowl tickets from WSU. It's the slow process for sales for the 2003 RB, it's the top of the end zone tickets we got there, it's the time I sat with my back against the wall in the end zone at Wisconsin with CAF tickets, it's my friend at the 2003 Holiday Bowl in the upper deck, it's the whole "we'll let you know when we feel like it" attitude in general.

It's that a season ticket holder no longer gets any CAF credit for past seasons as a ticket holder. It's that buying bowl tickets don't get you 100 pts credit for future CAF ranking purchases. It's the fact that they appear to randomly scatter tickets at bowl games around to create the illusion of good sales and stick people in bad seats despite the fact that we're being told that nobody is buying tickets.

It's that once they get to the point they are, you still can't pick your own seats, you get stuck with this mythical "best available" seats that aren't that good. I suggested to them that if they wanted people to accept the fine print of "we'll put you in the next level of seats if we feel like it", perhaps they should give people a $25 per seat discount on the tickets. It's better to get people there than to take a $300k loss for nothing.

Flat, you might know because you, as I recall, work at another institution. But if anyone else has some knowledge, that would be great, please chime in.

What are other athletic fund, loyalty programs like at other schools? This shouldn't be rocket science. Someone has a perfect wheel out there. Why are we either copying a bad wheel or trying to invent a new one?

 

[extermin8r]

Agree on Rose Bowl selling itself and no bad seat. Also on our CAF still just being overall not good; can't even begin to explain all the issues I've had as 10 year season ticket holder.

My question - a lot of people are talking about buying and donating to support the cause. Does our school see any direct impact from this $$$? I think, no, it just helps Alamo Bowl cover their costs. Probably better to just cut a donation check directly to AD?

 

[Flatlandcoug]

Agree on Rose Bowl selling itself and no bad seat. Also on our CAF still just being overall not good; can't even begin to explain all the issues I've had as 10 year season ticket holder.

My question - a lot of people are talking about buying and donating to support the cause. Does our school see any direct impact from this $$$? I think, no, it just helps Alamo Bowl cover their costs. Probably better to just cut a donation check directly to AD?

Buying tickets as a donation is a bad idea. WSU only sees a 50% benefit from that because the conference covers the other half. So, if you buy a $135 ticket from WSU, you are saving the university $67.50 and since WSU gives no CAF priority points anymore for bowl game purchases, you get no future benefit.

If you donate $135 to the CAF instead, the university has an additional $67.50 left over and you get 270 CAF priority points for next year.

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

Buying tickets as a donation is a bad idea. WSU only sees a 50% benefit from that because the conference covers the other half. So, if you buy a $135 ticket from WSU, you are saving the university $67.50 and since WSU gives no CAF priority points anymore for bowl game purchases, you get no future benefit.

If you donate $135 to the CAF instead, the university has an additional $67.50 left over and you get 270 CAF priority points for next year.

yeah, but we risk being labeled as the school that doesn't travel well to overpay for a tiny selection of crap tickets.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

yeah, but we risk being labeled as the school that doesn't travel well to overpay for a tiny selection of crap tickets.

If WSU fans like me buy 5,000 tickets from other sources, the Alamo Bowl doesn't care what happens if we don't sell half our allotment. They still get 10,000-12,000 WSU fans in town and they get paid for the empty seats. Frankly, unless WSU wants to make a big deal about it.....nobody else in the world cares if we can't sell allotment, as long as fans show up overall. They want to see Crimson and Grey apparel everywhere....and they'll be happy.

 

[wazzucougs96]

yeah, but we risk being labeled as the school that doesn't travel well to overpay for a tiny selection of crap tickets.

This is wildly overrated, IMO

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

If WSU fans like me buy 5,000 tickets from other sources, the Alamo Bowl doesn't care what happens if we don't sell half our allotment. They still get 10,000-12,000 WSU fans in town and they get paid for the empty seats. Frankly, unless WSU wants to make a big deal about it.....nobody else in the world cares if we can't sell allotment, as long as fans show up overall. They want to see Crimson and Grey apparel everywhere....and they'll be happy.

Why even have school allotments then, especially on the lower tier bowls? Give the fans a pre-order option, tell them visitor and home sides, and let it rip. Biggest danger is keeping the digital scalpers out of the mix, but why put our athletic department on the hook for thousands of unsold tickets? Especially if they're going to get resold to the general public anyway? (or am I not understanding? I thought WSU was fiscally responsible for whatever their allotment was.)

 

[Flatlandcoug]

Why even have school allotments then, especially on the lower tier bowls? Give the fans a pre-order option, tell them visitor and home sides, and let it rip. Biggest danger is keeping the digital scalpers out of the mix, but why put our athletic department on the hook for thousands of unsold tickets? Especially if they're going to get resold to the general public anyway? (or am I not understanding? I thought WSU was fiscally responsible for whatever their allotment was.)

WSU is responsible for 50% of the cost.

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

This is wildly overrated, IMO

hyperbole/ sarcasm.

 

[OrangeGravy]

There shouldn't be

WSU is responsible for 50% of the cost.

These things are a sham. I'd like to see how many schools that go to bowl end up in the red after it's all said and done. I remember years back when UCONN went to the Fiesta Bowl it ended up costing them net $600k or something crazy like that. I assume mostly because they had no other bowl payout from other conference members. I bet it's barely worth it if at all if you don't have a conference member in a NY6 bowl game. You're talking paying for the ticket allotment, sending the entire football machine, cheerleaders, band, etc... That is a spendy trip

 

[avabob1]

I remember years back when there were a lot fewer bowls, many schools lost money on the minor bowls unless they really watched costs

 

[Flatlandcoug]

So the plot thickens......according to this article from last year (Star Telegram Article), Pac-12 schools are only responsible for selling 6,000 tickets, which is more in line with what WSU had shown on the Bowl Central site. The article I saw from yesterday said that we had an allotment of 12,000 seats. After looking again, I realize that the article linked on Facebook was written by our friends at Brand X........which makes me wonder if they aren't making the issue look worse than it is.

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

There shouldn't be

These things are a sham. I'd like to see how many schools that go to bowl end up in the red after it's all said and done. I remember years back when UCONN went to the Fiesta Bowl it ended up costing them net $600k or something crazy like that. I assume mostly because they had no other bowl payout from other conference members. I bet it's barely worth it if at all if you don't have a conference member in a NY6 bowl game. You're talking paying for the ticket allotment, sending the entire football machine, cheerleaders, band, etc... That is a spendy trip

Alamo Bowl is ~$4M each school.

For us, that gets cut 12 ways, so our net is $333k.

Travel expenses for most teams is upwards of $1M.

You can do the math from there.

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

So the plot thickens......according to this article from last year (Star Telegram Article), Pac-12 schools are only responsible for selling 6,000 tickets, which is more in line with what WSU had shown on the Bowl Central site. The article I saw from yesterday said that we had an allotment of 12,000 seats. After looking again, I realize that the article linked on Facebook was written by our friends at Brand X........which makes me wonder if they aren't making the issue look worse than it is.

Nah, they wouldn't do that...

 

[Loyal Coug]

So the plot thickens......according to this article from last year (Star Telegram Article), Pac-12 schools are only responsible for selling 6,000 tickets, which is more in line with what WSU had shown on the Bowl Central site. The article I saw from yesterday said that we had an allotment of 12,000 seats. After looking again, I realize that the article linked on Facebook was written by our friends at Brand X........which makes me wonder if they aren't making the issue look worse than it is.

OK, now I get it - after reading that ISU sold their 12,000 allotment and had to ask for more.

WSU Athletics/WSU Admin is sitting on the best 6,000 seats to give to Administrators and families, special donors and muckety mucks, etc. The CAF donors and Joe Blow season ticket holders get crap. Way more than they need or should.

But ISU apparently spread the wealth among everybody.

 

[etowncoug]

Alamo Bowl is ~$4M each school.

For us, that gets cut 12 ways, so our net is $333k.

Travel expenses for most teams is upwards of $1M.

You can do the math from there.

Yes, but we get a cut of every other bowl our conference participates in.

 

[HCoug]

Alamo Bowl is ~$4M each school.

For us, that gets cut 12 ways, so our net is $333k.

Travel expenses for most teams is upwards of $1M.

You can do the math from there.

Unless the procedure has changed recently, a PAC-12 team traveling to a bowl receives its travel expenses from the bowl payout before the balance of the payout is split between all PAC-12 teams. The conference probably also retains a cut for its expenses, such as subsidizing unsold ticket allotments.

 

[OrangeGravy]

Unless the procedure has changed recently, a PAC-12 team traveling to a bowl receives its travel expenses from the bowl payout before the balance of the payout is split between all PAC-12 teams. The conference probably also retains a cut for its expenses, such as subsidizing unsold ticket allotments.

I sure would like to see the final net numbers for all Pac bowl teams. Sounds like a perfect opportunity for Larry to siphon more cash for the conference coffers at the expense of the schools.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

OK, now I get it - after reading that ISU sold their 12,000 allotment and had to ask for more.

WSU Athletics/WSU Admin is sitting on the best 6,000 seats to give to Administrators and families, special donors and muckety mucks, etc. The CAF donors and Joe Blow season ticket holders get crap. Way more than they need or should.

But ISU apparently spread the wealth among everybody.

Actually, what the Star Telegram article from last year was implying was that the Alamo Bowl realizes that it's more difficult for Pac-12 fans to travel to Texas, so they only require the Pac-12 teams to sell 6,000 tickets, compared to 11,000 tickets for Big 12 teams. Iowa State sales have gone well enough that they've asked for an additional 1,000 tickets. The Brand X article appears to have not known that fact and assumed that both teams were responsible for the same amount of tickets.

 

[How_did_this_happen?]

Unless the procedure has changed recently, a PAC-12 team traveling to a bowl receives its travel expenses from the bowl payout before the balance of the payout is split between all PAC-12 teams. The conference probably also retains a cut for its expenses, such as subsidizing unsold ticket allotments.

You mean the conference retains a cut to help Larry Scott maintain his lavish lifestyle.

 

[kayak15]

Unless the procedure has changed recently, a PAC-12 team traveling to a bowl receives its travel expenses from the bowl payout before the balance of the payout is split between all PAC-12 teams. The conference probably also retains a cut for its expenses, such as subsidizing unsold ticket allotments.

That is my understanding too. The thirteen way cut comes after team expenses.

 

[Suudy]

That is my understanding too. The thirteen way cut comes after team expenses.

So, take the the team, coaches, trainers, band, coaches' wives and kids, band roommates, tutors, trainers' pets, team chef and all his/her assistants, facilities team for laundry, security team. Then add in coaches' special tea, favorite candy, the rare, top shelf Cognac, extra gloves for the band, etc, and I bet we could get to close to $4M to keep all the money to ourselves.

 

[dgibbons]

So, take the the team, coaches, trainers, band, coaches' wives and kids, band roommates, tutors, trainers' pets, team chef and all his/her assistants, facilities team for laundry, security team. Then add in coaches' special tea, favorite candy, the rare, top shelf Cognac, extra gloves for the band, etc, and I bet we could get to close to $4M to keep all the money to ourselves.

I believe they submit a budget to conference for approval.