10% "Talent Fee" added to ticket prices in 2025

[Pride85]

Don’t get it twisted. This increase is to make sure the AD’s margin stays where they want it.

They could have afforded the players all along and got over on them as long as they could. Now the writing is on the wall.

They won’t dive into their own pockets but they’ll sure as hell go for ours.

Then don't go to the games. There will be plenty to take your place. What used to be amateur athletics is gone. Question, did you go to college? If so, how much did you get paid to go there?

 

[Delmar]

I just hope this revenue sharing and NIL doesn't turn this into professional and ruin the sport.

It’s already professional.

 

[Delmar]

We do one small (cheaper) game each season. We’re local and don’t even have to pay for travel expenses, hotel, etc. I don’t see how “average” families afford it. We make a decent living, but if tickets get more expensive we’ll be priced out. I’m happy for those that can do it, but my crew will be watching from home.

Yep. Just too easy to watch every game on TV. Won’t be seeing too many games in person anymore.

 

[madbamahater]

I just know the day is coming when we get priced out and it is all entirely corporate.

We've had season tickets for over 40 years in a VERY desirable part of the stadium. We have given tens and tens and tens of thousands of dollars through the years, not to mention all the unknown additional costs involved.

The sad part is that all of the folks that sat around us for years are gone. Some of those tickets were in families for decades, or just very dedicated fans and donors. They are just gone. We now have new faces each and every game and they have told us how much they paid for tickets just to get into one game. This part is sad to me, how corporate it is and the disconnect from the ordinary normal fan it has become.

They DO NOT care, they don't. They don't care about the fans at all, only the bottom line. It really is a shame there is no option for the fans and families that have been loyal, dedicated and committed to be grandfathered in or something like that as a token of appreciation. These are the people that built the program over the long haul........and just like that, you are just a number to them, replaced by another number.

This is happening and it is real, because I witness it. IT SUCKS

 

[EaglesVols91]

Yep. Just too easy to watch every game on TV. Won’t be seeing too many games in person anymore.

This will have ramifications whenever we have a 7-5 season again, so hopefully our athletic department remains elite for years to come

 

[Voltopia]

Yep. Just too easy to watch every game on TV. Won’t be seeing too many games in person anymore.

And they're okay with that. If you're the kind of person who's counting dollars and watching your budget, you're not who they want at the game anyway. They want people who can afford the upfront and come in with additional disposable income to burn. Better ROI for them.

 

[Voltopia]

I just know the day is coming when we get priced out and it is all entirely corporate.

We've had season tickets for over 40 years in a VERY desirable part of the stadium. We have given tens and tens and tens of thousands of dollars through the years, not to mention all the unknown additional costs involved.

The sad part is that all of the folks that sat around us for years are gone. Some of those tickets were in families for decades, or just very dedicated fans and donors. They are just gone. We now have new faces each and every game and they have told us how much they paid for tickets just to get into one game. This part is sad to me, how corporate it is and the disconnect from the ordinary normal fan it has become.

They DO NOT care, they don't. They don't care about the fans at all, only the bottom line. It really is a shame there is no option for the fans and families that have been loyal, dedicated and committed to be grandfathered in or something like that as a token of appreciation. These are the people that built the program over the long haul........and just like that, you are just a number to them, replaced by another number.

This is happening and it is real, because I witness it. IT SUCKS

Cue the folks lining up to tell you how stupid you are for ever believing that your loyalty or support ever mattered, and that if you don't like it, you can hit the road and they'll find someone else to replace you. That this is how it is, and if you want to win, you better get used to it.

These are, of course, the same people who will tell you, to your face, that this is how it always was, and you were just lying to yourself all those years. That it's never been anything other than corporate business, and you were naive for thinking any different.

 

[AdoptedVOL]

What’s the current player payroll?

 

[Voltopia]

What’s the current player payroll?

Judging by today's news? Insufficient.

 

[Delmar]

And they're okay with that. If you're the kind of person who's counting dollars and watching your budget, you're not who they want at the game anyway. They want people who can afford the upfront and come in with additional disposable income to burn. Better ROI for them.

Absolutely correct. It ‘s really not so much the ticket cost for me. You can get those if you work at it. It’s the $400 a night minimum hotel rape that is common place now for an average room. Add up tickets, hotel, food and gas and the decision to stay home and watch on TV is pretty easy.

As one poster put it earlier, it’s sad for those of us that have supported it for 40 to 50 years and have been priced out for all intents and purposes. I’m retired now and the budget is what it is.

 

[Special Ed]

I don't mind a 10% surcharge on tickets if it helps lead UT to another national title or three in my lifetime.

 

[volfan2024]

Then don't go to the games. There will be plenty to take your place. What used to be amateur athletics is gone. Question, did you go to college? If so, how much did you get paid to go there?

Good point actually.

 

[JBD_Vol]

Then don't go to the games. There will be plenty to take your place. What used to be amateur athletics is gone. Question, did you go to college? If so, how much did you get paid to go there?

Players have been getting paid for years. Anybody who believes the Keith Jackson / ABC amateur bull is truly not smart. Jackson, in his "honest impartial way" (ha) was good a being for some of the teams that paid players well as they represented "pure amateur athletics."

Just like the Olympics in many countries back in the day (and now) which was (is) not amateur, some college sports in the US have been fake amateur forever. People need to get over their beliefs in a fake world. Amateur did happen in some cases, but not usually for the big boys because that is what made them big boys. That and the media hanging on to their (the media's) heroes.

 

[kiddiedoc]

Bottom line: this was the inevitable for everyone once NIL and revenue sharing were introduced, if you want your team to be successful.

It does surprise me that enough Tennesseeans are able and/or willing to drop this kind of money in today's economy. That's a lot of season tickets. Of course, concert tickets are no different.

 

[VAVol85]

I’ll pay another 10% if they’d just fix the new chairbacks

No kidding, the seatbacks in front of me at Kent State were basically recliners.

 

[madbamahater]

Cue the folks lining up to tell you how stupid you are for ever believing that your loyalty or support ever mattered, and that if you don't like it, you can hit the road and they'll find someone else to replace you. That this is how it is, and if you want to win, you better get used to it.

These are, of course, the same people who will tell you, to your face, that this is how it always was, and you were just lying to yourself all those years. That it's never been anything other than corporate business, and you were naive for thinking any different.

Of course it's a business and always has been. It has not always been about corporate sellout, though. Many of the tickets are gobbled up by corporations, because it's not even chump change to them.

It also hasn't, until more recently, been about 3rd party ticket sales corporations gobbling up thousands of tickets or providing a platform that adds all kinds of additional fees that prices out the vast majority of people from coming to more than one game. We see brand new faces every week, only to never see them again.

So, no, it hasn't always been like this. Just hasn't.

 

[Woodlawn VOL]

I love our AD and think he truly cares about Tennessee but this type of tax is not they way to go about this. Raising ticket prices with a 10 percent NIL tax is not going to be popular and faces national and state ridicule. As a fan of over 50 years since I was 8 years old I pray that you elect to go another way. I live 4 hours away and always come to 1-2 games at least every year. With these kind of increases 1 game a year will be the very most I could afford coming in Friday and staying till Sunday morning. Please don’t take away my chance to see the Vols. Lots of fans are in my situation. We spend our money in Knoxville and put into the community as well. There are other more savvy ways to raise this money. Please reconsider Mr. White. GBO

 

[THEONLYTENISEE]

While it’s smart, I’m guessing there will be a lot of moaning and groaning about it

My baseball tickets did double, but that was expected.

 

[Delmar]

I love our AD and think he truly cares about Tennessee but this type of tax is not they way to go about this. Raising ticket prices with a 10 percent NIL tax is not going to be popular and faces national and state ridicule. As a fan of over 50 years since I was 8 years old I pray that you elect to go another way. I live 4 hours away and always come to 1-2 games at least every year. With these kind of increases 1 game a year will be the very most I could afford coming in Friday and staying till Sunday morning. Please don’t take away my chance to see the Vols. Lots of fans are in my situation. We spend our money in Knoxville and put into the community as well. There are other more savvy ways to raise this money. Please reconsider Mr. White. GBO

Not a big surprise to me. Every school will raise ticket prices (and everything else) to raise more money to pay players. They just won’t be as straight up as Danny to call it exactly what it is.

 

[sigmundoooz]

Nobody is forcing folks to buy the tickets.

Simple economics. If they raise the prices and all the seats are still full…then they have room to raise prices some more.

You are correct. Nobody is forcing folks to buy tickets. I think the real point is that there is a certain group of people that simply cannot afford tickets anymore. That group is getting larger.

 

[Vol865]

I first got season tickets in 1992 in the south end zone upperdeck. As I recall, a pair in the zone required a $250 donation on top of $450 ticket cost for 2 seats. So all in, $700 in 1992 for 2 seats.

That $700 in 1992 dollars is equivalent to about $1570 in 2024 dollars according to some online calculations.

With the announced 2025 pricing, two seats in the first 16 rows upper deck end zone are $1150 all in. So when you account for inflation (something out of control of both Danny White and the UTAD), real seat prices have dropped by a pretty significant amount, $420 to be precise.

Just some perspective.

Some more perspective. It costs more to go watch us play Mississippi St than it costed to go watch UT vs Florida in 2016. Also, almost every other team in the SEC with similar demand has cheaper ticket prices than UT. It's not just inflation, we're charging more than most

 

[Woodlawn VOL]

Not a big surprise to me. Every school will raise ticket prices (and everything else) to raise more money to pay players. They just won’t be as straight up as Danny to call it exactly what it is.

I agree on that and I love our AD. I think he is a great AD. But I hope at some point they realize they need to be careful to not out price the general public. Maybe buy adding some seats like they are looking at they lower prices a little overall. With the new outdoor district you are going to have some folks come up for the atmosphere and party without going to the game. But I agree the house is still going to be packed, with 10-15 thousand waiting on season tickets that is very obvious. GBO

 

[YankeeVol]

Bottom line: this was the inevitable for everyone once NIL and revenue sharing were introduced, if you want your team to be successful.

It does surprise me that enough Tennesseeans are able and/or willing to drop this kind of money in today's economy. That's a lot of season tickets. Of course, concert tickets are no different.

My 4 tickets in Q since '22 are maybe ever so slightly $1K more than I was paying for 2 (also in Q) from '10-'17.

It's going from $705 to $785/per for me.

 

[Woodlawn VOL]

And let me add I respect our AD for being transparent even if it makes my situation tougher. I understand it takes money to make money, I just think there are more innovative ways to get it than this. But I will still be cheering and going when I can. GBO

 

[CPA]

A few years ago dropped from 4 season tickets to 2 in lower level. Plan to keep those as long as able to go to games and book hotel rooms months in advance. The new seats are fine with me and wish they'd take out the recline. At my age, I like something for my back although I'm up and down alot. Have been going to games over 65 years and not ready to give it up yet.