GBO22
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2022
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Hello fellow Volunteer fans,
After a few years as a UT Athletic donor and discussions with UT Athletic staff, I wanted to share our experiences as a member of the Shareholder Society. We joined the Shareholder Society in 2021 after experiencing challenges securing baseball tickets within the existing Lindsey Nelson Stadium (LNS). The benefits of the Shareholder Society, particularly access to unique player and coach engagements and a path to acquiring season tickets, were a big part of our decision. I'm sharing our story in the hope that it will encourage the UT Athletics Department to improve transparency and make the experience more rewarding for all donors, both current and future.
This discovery was incredibly disappointing and made me feel misled by the athletic staff. The current system of allocating more and more tickets to the top echelon of donors means that it was generally pointless to join Shareholders Society and donating $25,000 in UT Athletics. I pressed the Athletic Department to make the process more transparent on the front end to allow Volunteer fans to make donations based on the fact new stadium capacity isn't translating into those on the waitlist securing access to new seats.
My chief argument was the current ticket distribution model allows top tier donors to accumulate 10-20 seats per donor and pass seats off to business associates or extended family. I offered you are going to alienate a lot of $25-50K donors such as myself that will end up never donating again. This didn't seem to alarm the UT Athletic staff.
In July, I requested a meeting with the leadership team of the Shareholder Society to address my concerns. During the call, it was shared that it would take a donation around $500K to ensure I or anyone else secured baseball tickets for the upcoming season. I was informed no change to allowing top donors access to more and more tickets as the stadium capacity increases as planned.
My wife and I remain avid fans of the respective sport programs but offer our experience as a warning before anyone commits donations with the expectations it translates into season tickets. Even as a Tennessee Letterman it impacts my desire to give back to UT at this point forward. At least to the Athletic program- a number of other giving opportunities exist at Tennessee that are righteous from our perspective.
Also happy to answer questions if any Vol fans are considering joining the Shareholder Society and some of the benefits we enjoyed from the program. Charlie @ rcharlesepperson@gmail.com
After a few years as a UT Athletic donor and discussions with UT Athletic staff, I wanted to share our experiences as a member of the Shareholder Society. We joined the Shareholder Society in 2021 after experiencing challenges securing baseball tickets within the existing Lindsey Nelson Stadium (LNS). The benefits of the Shareholder Society, particularly access to unique player and coach engagements and a path to acquiring season tickets, were a big part of our decision. I'm sharing our story in the hope that it will encourage the UT Athletics Department to improve transparency and make the experience more rewarding for all donors, both current and future.
The Promise of Shareholder Benefits
We were particularly excited about two key benefits:- Access to unique player/coach events, like attending team practices.
- The ability to accelerate our donor ranking to improve access to season tickets.
The Lack of Transparency in Ticket Distribution
My understanding of the ticket distribution process was completely upended recently. Before the start of the 2025 baseball season, I emailed the season ticket coordinator to check on my status. I was informed I was around #380 on the waitlist with a donor rank of around 2,500. This was promising considering the stadium growth. However, further conversations revealed a different process. It turns out that tickets are not simply allocated based on the waitlist. Instead, the top 500 donors are contacted first and offered the chance to increase their ticket allocations, even if they hadn't previously requested more seats.This discovery was incredibly disappointing and made me feel misled by the athletic staff. The current system of allocating more and more tickets to the top echelon of donors means that it was generally pointless to join Shareholders Society and donating $25,000 in UT Athletics. I pressed the Athletic Department to make the process more transparent on the front end to allow Volunteer fans to make donations based on the fact new stadium capacity isn't translating into those on the waitlist securing access to new seats.
My chief argument was the current ticket distribution model allows top tier donors to accumulate 10-20 seats per donor and pass seats off to business associates or extended family. I offered you are going to alienate a lot of $25-50K donors such as myself that will end up never donating again. This didn't seem to alarm the UT Athletic staff.
In July, I requested a meeting with the leadership team of the Shareholder Society to address my concerns. During the call, it was shared that it would take a donation around $500K to ensure I or anyone else secured baseball tickets for the upcoming season. I was informed no change to allowing top donors access to more and more tickets as the stadium capacity increases as planned.
My wife and I remain avid fans of the respective sport programs but offer our experience as a warning before anyone commits donations with the expectations it translates into season tickets. Even as a Tennessee Letterman it impacts my desire to give back to UT at this point forward. At least to the Athletic program- a number of other giving opportunities exist at Tennessee that are righteous from our perspective.
Also happy to answer questions if any Vol fans are considering joining the Shareholder Society and some of the benefits we enjoyed from the program. Charlie @ rcharlesepperson@gmail.com
