Arena Club Donor

#1
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Bob50

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#1
I’m an Original Arena Club donor(1980s). With my donation to help build the arena, I was given the ability to select my seats and have documents stating that I had them for life. In UTs grab for more money, they completely eliminated the Original Arena Donors. To do this they plan to remove our seats and replace them with new ones and call it Riverside Club. We were given the option to stay in Riverside club at 8 times our current seat cost or select other available seats. This was called Opting Out. When Opting Out, we were given 2 options. We could pay ticket price plus taxes and fees and not get donor points or we could pay ticket price plus taxes and fees and a substantial donation and receive donor points. When the time came to select new seats, the first option was not available. The seat cost would be almost 4 times what I had been paying. This is the second time they lied to us about seats. We no longer have basketball tickets.
 
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#2
#2
Bob50 said:
I’m an Original Arena Club donor(1980s). With my donation to help build the arena, I was given the ability to select my seats and have documents stating that I had them for life. In UTs grab for more money, they completely eliminated the Original Arena Donors. To do this they plan to remove our seats and replace them with new ones and call it Riverside Club. We were given the option to stay in Riverside club at 8 times our current seat cost or select other available seats. This was called Opting Out. When Opting Out, we were given 2 options. We could pay ticket price plus taxes and fees and not get donor points or we could pay ticket price plus taxes and fees and a substantial donation and receive donor points. When the time came to select new seats, the first option was not available. The seat cost would be almost 4 times what I had been paying. This is the second time they lied to us about seats. We no longer have basketball tickets.
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It's pretty shameful.
 
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#3
#3
Bob50 said:
I’m an Original Arena Club donor(1980s). With my donation to help build the arena, I was given the ability to select my seats and have documents stating that I had them for life. In UTs grab for more money, they completely eliminated the Original Arena Donors. To do this they plan to remove our seats and replace them with new ones and call it Riverside Club. We were given the option to stay in Riverside club at 8 times our current seat cost or select other available seats. This was called Opting Out. When Opting Out, we were given 2 options. We could pay ticket price plus taxes and fees and not get donor points or we could pay ticket price plus taxes and fees and a substantial donation and receive donor points. When the time came to select new seats, the first option was not available. The seat cost would be almost 4 times what I had been paying. This is the second time they lied to us about seats. We no longer have basketball tickets.
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That’s pretty underhanded, sorry to hear it
 
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#4
#4
For those who were original donors, I get it, it sucks…in reality there’s not many of those left though and they’d been passed down to another generation, which I get sucks for those folks, but I feel slightly less sorry for.

You’ve got 1% of Vol fans who hate this and are effected by it, but you’ve got 99% of Vol fans who are now thankful those seats are available for a reasonable price, and that they aren’t sitting next to a teenager paying 1/10 the price just because his great grandfather made a big donation many years ago.

I get both sides, but I hardly fault Danny White on the decision to upset that 1%
 
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#6
#6
Thunder Good-Oil said:
They’re not only screwing over long time supporters, they’ve also lost a lot of credibility for a short term money grab. How can they ever be trusted?

I’ve all but crossed UT off of my list of potential estate beneficiaries.
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I’ve not seen any current donations giving lifetime access being offered, mostly just annual stuff
 
#7
#7
bleedingTNorange said:
For those who were original donors, I get it, it sucks…in reality there’s not many of those left though and they’d been passed down to another generation, which I get sucks for those folks, but I feel slightly less sorry for.

You’ve got 1% of Vol fans who hate this and are effected by it, but you’ve got 99% of Vol fans who are now thankful those seats are available for a reasonable price, and that they aren’t sitting next to a teenager paying 1/10 the price just because his great grandfather made a big donation many years ago.

I get both sides, but I hardly fault Danny White on the decision to upset that 1%
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Hmmmm……interesting and off-base.
 
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#9
#9
bleedingTNorange said:
For those who were original donors, I get it, it sucks…in reality there’s not many of those left though and they’d been passed down to another generation, which I get sucks for those folks, but I feel slightly less sorry for.

You’ve got 1% of Vol fans who hate this and are effected by it, but you’ve got 99% of Vol fans who are now thankful those seats are available for a reasonable price, and that they aren’t sitting next to a teenager paying 1/10 the price just because his great grandfather made a big donation many years ago.

I get both sides, but I hardly fault Danny White on the decision to upset that 1%
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I don't understand how you can sympathize with the original donors losing their tickets, but not the beneficiaries of those same donors losing theirs.

It's the same promise. And the AD is breaking that promise.

Those donors made the donation with the agreed upon promise that they would have their tickets for life and could grandfather them one time. That was a lifetime (and beyond) investment in their families and their ability to affordably attend games at TBA.
 
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#10
#10
It seems like the prudent thing to have done was to give people refunds on those original donations that didn’t want to move forward on the riverside club stuff.
 
#11
#11
omghulkhands said:
It seems like the prudent thing to have done was to give people refunds on those original donations that didn’t want to move forward on the riverside club stuff.
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No doubt the UTAD has a lot of lawyers looking into every possibility to end the original seat licensing deals. Those original donors are being targeted, but their numbers decrease every year. The administrators and coaches got their’s. The student-athletes are finally getting a cut. The ticket holders aren’t important anymore.

The ultimate hypocrisy was when Fulmer was the AD. He claimed that the department was struggling financially and begged for donations while at the same time accepting a large salary increase. He also gave his home boy Kevin Steele almost a million dollars as the interim head football coach for 10 days.
 
#12
#12
That same thing happened to me and I must have made a larger donation because my document from UT said my tickets were in perpetuity. I thought I would be able to pass them to my son.
Our tickets each year were not free. We were paying what everyone else was paying.
 
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#13
#13
bleedingTNorange said:
For those who were original donors, I get it, it sucks…in reality there’s not many of those left though and they’d been passed down to another generation, which I get sucks for those folks, but I feel slightly less sorry for.

You’ve got 1% of Vol fans who hate this and are effected by it, but you’ve got 99% of Vol fans who are now thankful those seats are available for a reasonable price, and that they aren’t sitting next to a teenager paying 1/10 the price just because his great grandfather made a big donation many years ago.

I get both sides, but I hardly fault Danny White on the decision to upset that 1%
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If there's not many left then it should be way easier to honor the commitment.
 
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#17
#17
cncchris33 said:
I don't understand how you can sympathize with the original donors losing their tickets, but not the beneficiaries of those same donors losing theirs.

It's the same promise. And the AD is breaking that promise.

Those donors made the donation with the agreed upon promise that they would have their tickets for life and could grandfather them one time. That was a lifetime (and beyond) investment in their families and their ability to affordably attend games at TBA.
Click to expand...
It wasn’t “their” money, I said I get it and that it sucks for them too, I just don’t feel quite as bad when it wasn’t their money spent. If my father passes down his lake house to me and the taxes continue to go up on it each year I have a choice, either pay those and keep the property or don’t.
 
#19
#19
Thunder Good-Oil said:
They’re not only screwing over long time supporters, they’ve also lost a lot of credibility for a short term money grab. How can they ever be trusted?

I’ve all but crossed UT off of my list of potential estate beneficiaries.
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Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly would one bequeath to UT upon death? A donation to the body farm? Sorry if I'm being too nosey.
 
#21
#21
Your seat contract seems to be just like every other contract involving colleges, at least UT. The AD breaks them, the coaches break them, the players are now breaking them, and at least a few schools in the ACC seem to want to break their conference contract or the TV rights contract.
The common denominator, money, money, money.
 
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#23
#23
a vol n tears said:
Your seat contract seems to be just like every other contract involving colleges, at least UT. The AD breaks them, the coaches break them, the players are now breaking them, and at least a few schools in the ACC seem to want to break their conference contract or the TV rights contract.
The common denominator, money, money, money.
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The employment contracts (i.e. coaches) have liquidated damage clauses (buyouts), so it's not legally breaking a contract. There are damages that come along with it that have been negotiated.
 
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#24
#24
Bob50 said:
I’m an Original Arena Club donor(1980s). With my donation to help build the arena, I was given the ability to select my seats and have documents stating that I had them for life. In UTs grab for more money, they completely eliminated the Original Arena Donors. To do this they plan to remove our seats and replace them with new ones and call it Riverside Club. We were given the option to stay in Riverside club at 8 times our current seat cost or select other available seats. This was called Opting Out. When Opting Out, we were given 2 options. We could pay ticket price plus taxes and fees and not get donor points or we could pay ticket price plus taxes and fees and a substantial donation and receive donor points. When the time came to select new seats, the first option was not available. The seat cost would be almost 4 times what I had been paying. This is the second time they lied to us about seats. We no longer have basketball tickets.
Click to expand...
I hate to hear this Bob but I'm not the least bit surprised.
 
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