Monday Morning Reading...

A nice article for your Monday morning reading pleasure, also let us know how you feel about this idea of "PSL's."
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Seat licenses come with territory
By Ron Morris
The State

BRACE YOURSELF GAMECOCK fans, permanent seat licensing is on the horizon. The test market for such financing at South Carolina will be the new baseball stadium along the Congaree River.

Eric Hyman, USC’s athletics director, says PSLs are necessary to help cover the ever-escalating cost of the new stadium. Ray Tanner, USC’s baseball coach, says it is part of the cost of the Gamecock community wanting a top-notch facility. “You’ve got a pretty hefty price tag and there is a cost for excellence,” said Hyman, who inherited the new stadium project two years ago when estimated costs were $17 million. Those estimates have soared to $28 million, and they most assuredly will grow beyond $30 million when construction bids go out next month.

“It is necessary if you’re going to try to do a stadium the way we are,” said Tanner, whose baseball program has been able to keep up with the Southeastern Conference Joneses despite operating with ramshackle facilities the past decade.

For the uninformed, PSLs have become the rage in professional athletics. In recent years, the practice has filtered to the college ranks, mostly in football. (Rest assured, it is coming soon to those who purchase tickets to games at Williams-Brice Stadium).

Here is how it works. A fan can purchase the rights to a permanent seat. In the case of the new baseball stadium, a fan can pay approximately $1,000 over a five-year period and be assured of having that particular seat for the next 15 years. On top of the PSL, the fan also must purchase the season ticket for that particular seat.

The Carolina Panthers were among the first in professional sports to use PSLs as a vehicle to finance the building of a new stadium. The Panthers privately financed the $187 million Bank of America Stadium in 1996. Nearly 42,000 fans purchased PSLs, which ranged in cost from $600 to $5,400, covering nearly $100 million in construction costs.

As with Bank of America Stadium, funding for USC’s new stadium also will come from philanthropy and naming rights. PSLs and bumped up ticket prices — most certainly to range from $10 to $15 — will help finance the stadium.There is one big reason the USC athletics department finds itself in the position where PSLs are a necessity. There also are a couple of problems that have arisen as a result of building a new stadium.

Two separate proposals were on the table several years ago for a stadium that would have been shared by USC and a professional baseball team. In each proposal, the two parties, as well as the city of Columbia, would have contributed $10 million apiece.Shared stadiums have worked virtually without a hitch in Lincoln, Neb., with the University of Nebraska, and in State College, Pa., with Penn State. USC explored that option and determined it wanted to build on its own. After refusing to consider being a third party in that equation, the city of Columbia could not very well ask its citizens to help finance a USC stadium. Even though it has no business doing so, the city still will cover infrastructure costs and provide trolley transportation from the Colonial Center to the new stadium, which will be virtually devoid of on-site parking.

So, USC cornered itself into building a stadium for a program that annually operates at a $500,000-$750,000 deficit. Football and men’s basketball are the only revenue-producing sports at USC while women’s basketball and baseball operate with the biggest deficits. With the new stadium, baseball’s revenues are likely to increase from $500,000 annually to $750,000 annually. But its operating costs are expected to spike from $1.2 million to $3 million. So, you can see where the sale of even 1,000 PSLs at $1,000 each would go a long way toward reducing that operating deficit.

Whatever the cost of the new stadium, Hyman says the structure is necessary because all of USC’s athletics programs cannot afford to remain stagnant in terms of facilities. But any time increased ticket prices and the sale of PSLs are involved in the financing of a new facility, there is natural concern about the average fan getting locked out at the ticket window.

Hyman is aware of those concerns, but he believes there will be plenty of room in the 5,300-seat stadium for those who cannot afford either a PSL or a separate season ticket. We can only hope that USC puts a cap on the sale of season tickets at say 3,500. Thus, 1,800 seats would always be available for public sale. Hyman also says there will be seating, presumably at a reduced ticket cost, for another 2,700 on outfield berms. Unfortunately, that is likely the only way we will see 8-year-olds with baseball gloves chasing foul balls at the new stadium.
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Thoughts on PSL? Is this something the gamecock nation could support? Has Hyman gone to far in thinking "outside the box?"