The Nittany Turkey

Primarily about Penn State football, this is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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More on the Season Ticket Morass

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In an article posted last night on PennLive.com, David Jones of the Patriot-News amplifies upon the earlier report regarding the Penn State administration’s intention to charge additional fees for season ticket holders and to relocate the student section at Beaver Stadium.

Jones takes no pro or con position on the fees themselves, letting conceptual validation stand up to the fundamental microeconomic principles of supply and demand. He posits that as long as demand exists for the product Penn State is putting out, alumni and fans will pay the freight. However, in the unrestrained manner to which we are accustomed from Jones, he proceeds to go off on the quality of the product, to wit:

“Where I have a real problem with Penn State is part of the product — the pansy scheduling that so transparently reeks of money-grubbing. As a fan of college football, I hate seeing the current trend, not just here but around the country, of power schools scheduling pancakes just in order to get a home game and an extra payout.

…

“Running a business to succeed is one thing. Marketing a product without value is another. And Penn State football this year had very little.”

Although to say that Penn State football this year had very little value might seem like a wee bit of over the top hyperbole, it’s not very far from the truth. Season ticket holders were treated to such finery as sure wins against ho-hum opponents Akron, Syracuse, Temple, and Eastern Illinois, in which the Nittany Lions underperformed, apparently thinking they could “mail it in”. Paying customers were further tormented by the inability of this year’s team to rise to the level of Iowa and Ohio State, and they were wrung out watching a half-assed effort against Indiana. Alas, the homecoming game with Minnesota, won by PSU 20-0, might have been the only truly entertaining game of the year, but because of the snowstorm, it was sparsely attended, the vast confines of Beaver Stadium appearing to be half empty. In summation, the home fans attending games at Beaver Stadium were treated to three halves of football: half-assed, half-gassed, and half-vast.

As I mentioned in my previous post on this subject, I know a long-time season ticket holder who has had enough of this crap and will definitely not be renewing his contract. I know that there are more like him who will raise hell, and many more who will silently pull out. Raising the price of a product while reducing its quality is an arrogant gesture that takes unfair advantage of the fierce loyalty we all feel for Dear Old State. David Jones hits the bullseye in that regard.

Read Jones’ article here.

WTF #2 — You Can’t Be Serious!

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Forgive the John McEnroe rip-off quote in the headline, please. I couldn’t believe what I had read about Penn State’s plan to hit up season ticket holders for a new ongoing annual fee of up to $600 per seat. They also intend to re-purpose (I cannot stand that word, but it somehow seems appropriate in this case) an entire section of student seats into big bucks revenue producers.

Penn-Live reports that the powers that be have pushed back the mailing informing season ticket holders of the new fees a couple of times, and that they will probably wait until after the regular season ends or perhaps, until after the bowl game.

Meanwhile, Athletic Director Tim Curley is playing it close to the vest. 1xbet.com

“Our program costs a lot of money to support. We’re in times right now where finances are real important. If we’re going to maintain that program, we need to do creative things.”

Many season ticket holders are already pissed off at the money-grubbing policies of the athletic department. Adding a 12th game to further fill the program’s coffers didn’t go over big with people who were already spending a helluva lot of money to watch the likes of Akron, Syracuse, and Temple. ???? ????? ????? It wouldn’t have gone over quite so badly if the twelfth game had been scheduled with the likes of Notre Dame, USC, Oklahoma, or Pitt. Instead, they found themselves throwing money down the toilet to waste weekends with Eastern Illinois and Coastal Carolina — in addition to the already soft out of conference schedule. The ticket cost is just the beginning. Local lodging establishments turn into highway robbers for football weekends. arabic casino It is basic supply and demand. They charge big bucks because they can. However, with the currently extant sour economy, when will this institutionalized extortion arrive at the tipping point?

Here’s a quote from a Club Seat season ticket holder, one of my PSU contemporaries whom I shall call Toe Jam:

“Given this news, I can only guess that the Club Seat license fees will increase also.  Next year is the tenth and last year on my contract.  I was 99% sure I would not renew — now I am 150% sure.”

Before there were Club Seats, Toe Jam had four season tickets in section WC for about 25 years, more or less. It is a crying shame that the whole thing has come to this.

This Turkey thinks that the administration might have miscalculated on this latest proposed money grab. As the Lions wrap up a season of beating weak opponents, losing to reasonably strong ones, and demonstrating precious little improvement in crucial areas such as special teams and the offensive line by the penultimate game of the season, one has to wonder just what in the hell they are thinking up there in the ivory tower. We Penn State alumni and fans are a loyal bunch, but we’re also not idiots. The time to piss on season ticket holder by asking for mo’ money and piss off students by taking their desirable seats away from them sure as hell isn’t now, when they’re all already pissed off enough at the schedule, the coaching, and prior money grabs.

As for the students, they are being moved from the sidelines to the south end zone, reports the Daily Collegian, and they will actually gain 800 seats in the process. The prices will not be increased, so the students will merely lose their great location. Perhaps they won’t notice.

Read the full story here.

OMG — WTF??

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Oh, sure, this Turkey thought that Penn State would get off to a slow start on Saturday. After all, it was a 12:00 P.M. start, and those are problematical. Furthermore, the troops had to be demoralized after the big loss at home at the behest of the Buckeyes the previous week. Indiana, in the meanwhile, had little to lose and much to gain. They could become bowl eligible with a win. Their record was uninspiring though, tempting this week’s opposition to take the Hoosiers too lightly, even though they had been in striking distance of victory in every game except the Virginia disaster. However, even with all those suggestions that the Nittany Lions would get off to a slow start, the extent of FUBARage that they would display in this game boggled this old gobbler’s birdbrain imagination.

The result belied the circumstances. The Lions (9-2, 5-2 Big Ten) overcame some significant self-created adversity to extinguish the hopes of the Hoosiers (4-7, 1-6 Big Ten), by the deceiving score of 31-20. Penn State had gone into the game better than a three touchdown favorite and not only once again failed to cover the spread, but also were playing catchup during most of the first half.

I’m not going to drag you through all the details of this cockeyed game. If you see game stats, the one that sticks right out at you is Penn State’s four turnovers. If you didn’t see the game, it was enough to give you nightmares about the special teams you didn’t think could get much worse than they have been all season. Sorry, but they’re going backward. Fortunately, there’s only one more game for them to screw up.

My God, what a mess! Darryl Clark’s interception with 8:41 left in the first quarter was only mildly awful, but it was a portent of things to come. Although it resulted in an Indiana touchdown, one could easily forget about it during the special teams nightmares. But before we get to those abominations, let us make time for another interception, this one in the red zone, with Penn State driving with 1:43 left in the first quarter. Penn State was pissing in the wind once again.

After a three and out, Indiana punted. See Astorino catch the ball. See Drew run. See Drew play.  See Drew fumble. See the nice man with the white shirt fall on it. Oh oh oh! As the quarter drew to a close, this Turkey was already completely pissed off. Three damn turnovers in one quarter of football! Was this Penn State?

Thus, the first quarter was completely FUBAR, and the Nittany Lions were lucky to get out of it trailing by only 10.

The second quarter was pretty uneventful in its early boringness. Penn State finally was able to get on the board with a 33-yard Collin Wagner field goal with about three minutes left.

The fourth turnover of the first half would occur forthwith. After another three and out, Indiana punted to Graham Zug, who wound up going backward six yards before fumbling the ball away on his own 29, setting up the Hoosiers for what appeared to be another scoring opportunity, which would have left the Nittany Lions in a very bad way heading into the locker room. However, the defense held, and the Hoosiers’ field goal attempt was no good, so with 55 seconds to go, Penn State called a time out.

Clark drove his men down the field, and with the help of a facemask penalty set up on the Indiana 13. On second down, Clark hit Evan Royster for six, and with the addition of the extra point, the game was back to a flat-footed tie.

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