I’m not surprised that Tennessee has decided to raise ticket prices. I’m even less surprised that the move was packaged to seem more palatable. That was an absolute must for fans struggling through one of the worst economies in about 25 years.
No, you couldn’t just call Tennessee’s 10-percent season ticket price hike a simple, well, price hike. In order to save face for families that are cutting back on groceries, the University of Tennessee athletic department had to make things sexier by calling the new price hike a “talent fee” in hopes that Tennessee fans can feel happier about contributing to the players on the field. Get it? Fans are buying talent. Who wouldn’t want to help the Vols win?
The surprise in all of this is the timing. Why would Tennessee send out mass emails announcing the price hike now, just when the Vols are headed to Oklahoma? Is Tennessee athletic director Danny White worried about the Oklahoma game and wants to get this new price hike out of the way or is he so sure of this football program that he knows that Tennessee fans will burn money in their own backyard if it would keep the Vols winning? Nah, I don’t think it’s either. I think White has the power and he’s not afraid to wield it. However, he doesn’t have as much leverage as he may think.
There will be plenty of fans that won’t care one iota about the season ticket price hike. They’re probably the bit more affluent types. Then, there are the fans that will grin and bear it knowing that Tennessee is about to be on the hook for roughly $35-million in expenses once Congress finalizes the revenue sharing plan that will go to college athletes.
Will there be fans that up and chuck their season tickets out of principal? Certainly. However, there won’t be enough to matter and if there is, they’ll be replaced. White knows that. With a baseball national championship in his pocket, an Elite Eight appearance on his resume with a coach he didn’t hire and a surging football program, White has all the power and he knows it. For now.
The biggest issue is that White isn’t delivering a return on his fans’ investment. I know that Tennessee fans enjoyed blowout wins over Chattanooga and Kent State this season, but is that going to be the new norm? If so, White should be ashamed of himself. And the UTEP game in November just further shows how embarrassing this schedule is, especially now that White has no defense in who he schedules. He isn’t inheriting things anymore. Tennessee plays who he says they’ll play.
Imagine buying any package of event tickets and knowing that half of those events will be so boring that you’ll leave at the midway point. White isn’t actually selling seven home games this season, considering three will be blowouts. He’s selling about 5 1/2 – or less – considering Tennessee’s star players aren’t on the field all that long. It’s a good thing the SEC makes White play teams within the league or the Vols might line up some other cupcakes. Is Army available? No, White cancelled that game in 2021.
With the College Football Playoff in place, there’s no reason White’s next move shouldn’t be improving the pathetic schedules he’s laid out. Moreover, he should have done so before he jacked up the prices on the same season ticket holders that held onto those tickets during Derek Dooley, Butch Jones and Jeremy Pruitt.
The Vols play ETSU, UAB and New Mexico State next season. Tennessee isn’t scheduled to play a Power 4 game outside the SEC until 2027 when the Vols are slated to play Nebraska. That is, if White doesn’t cancel that game game and replace the Cornhuskers with another group of dudes that just happen to wear the same clothes – like Kent State.
With the College Football Playoff in place, the Vols can lose some games to good teams and still win a national championship. Are there plans to bring in some quality teams anytime soon? The Vols used to set up home-and-home series with teams like Miami and Notre Dame. Now, they pay teams to take a beatdown in front of a stadium full of people that are a bit lighter in the wallet than they were before.
White likes to think of Tennessee as an upper-tier football program and it probably is back to that point. However, he certainly could have waited until the Vols actually won a championship before he started charging championship prices. Plus, upper-tier programs aren’t afraid to face other upper-tier programs. Is White?
Georgia wasn’t afraid to play Clemson. Alabama wasn’t afraid to play Wisconsin in Madison. Texas wasn’t afraid to play at Michigan. LSU wasn’t afraid to play at Southern California. Even Missouri played Boston College. Currently, those are the teams that the Vols are being compared to, so why are Tennessee and White unwilling to take a risk? A team can still lose to a non-conference game and win it all.
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel may like things the way they are. His team can play half of a game and feel great about hanging 70 points on a team that can’t even snap the football, but what happens when they’re really challenged? Will the halves off give Tennessee more energy longterm or did less of a challenge throughout the season make the Vols soft? We’ll find out.
Tennessee’s schedule doesn’t need a lot of pop considering the Vols play in the SEC. However, there has to be another program in college football that isn’t afraid to play a tougher schedule. Maybe they could match up with the Vols. Maybe White doesn’t want that to happen. After all, he has an entertainment complex to build around Neyland Stadium. That complex isn’t going to be very successful if the Vols fall on hard times. That doesn’t seem likely, which makes me continue to wonder what White is so afraid of when it comes to scheduling.
