Seats, Sinks and Steel

Feb. 3, 2006

• Read about Iowa’s 2006 recruiting class
• Follow the renovation of Kinnick!
• The Schedule: 2006 and beyond
• Listen to the Hawkeyes on XM Radio
• Watch and listen to Kirk, the Hawkeyes
• Travel with the UI Alumni Association to Syracuse

Fourteen days. More than 1,500 telephone calls or face-to-face visits. More than 6,000 seats selected. More than 42,000 seats left to be assigned. More than 10,000 visits to kinnickrenovation.com.

These are the numbers that jump off the page as the UI Department of Intercollegiate Athletics nears the end of the first three weeks – the 15th day – of the re-seating process of the UI’s Kinnick Stadium. As fans of the nationally ranked Iowa football team know, the UI is well into the second year of a two-year, $89 million renovation of the game-day home of the Hawkeyes.

While work continues on the construction of the stadium’s new press box and the private suites and indoor and outdoor club seating areas that are a part of that facility and, importantly the renovation of the restroom and concessions facilities in the stadium’s east and west concourses — click HERE to view the latest additions to the photo gallery inside kinnickrenovation.com — the UI Athletic Ticket Office is knee-deep in providing each season ticket holder of a year ago the opportunity to select new seat locations for the 2006 season.

All told, 100 days with 150 customers of the Hawkeyes calling or visiting the UI Athletic Ticket Office each day. It’s a daunting task made more efficient by months of planning on the front-end, state-of-the-art technology in the middle, and an educated group of young friends and fans of the Hawkeyes working the frontlines: the 10 or so telephones dedicated to the re-seating process n the backroom of the ticket office location on the fourth floor of Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The re-seating process is a direct by-product of the UI’s decision to act on the request of its season ticket customers to be provided a little more space on the bleachers inside the stadium. So, the UI opted to lose approximately 3,000 seats locations in the bowl of the Kinnick Stadium by widening the width assigned to each ticket in the east and west grandstands to match the width assigned to each seat location in the existing north and south bleachers.

“I don’t think we could be more pleased by the results of the first two-plus weeks. Sure, we’ve had some glitches, but, for the most part, our fans have done their homework in advance and we’ve worked hard to be prepared on our end and the process has worked and worked well,” said Mark Jennings, the UI’s associate athletics director in charge of patron services.

“So far, so good…knock on a piece of black-and-gold wood,” he added with a smile.

Jennings said most fans of UI football program are making their seat selection by telephone and most calls are lasting about eight minutes. He thinks the selection process is moving ahead so swiftly because just about every fan that has made their selection to date has reviewed in detail the information mailed to them by the UI Athletic Ticket Office in October and December, and spent some time on kinnickrenovation.com, the world wide web site created by the UI to assist fans in making their seat selections.

“The web site has been a huge help. Fans can literally see which seats are and which seats aren’t available. There isn’t a `Gee, I hope there’s seats available in this row” or “I wonder if I can get seats in that section.’ Instead, they get on the phone and simply say, I’d like seats 1, 2 and 3 in this row of this section,” said Jennings.

The grandstand maps of kinnickstadium.com are updated multiple times each hour, so the data on the site is presented in near real-time. The maps also indicate seats held for fans of the visiting teams and those reserved for fans with special needs as a result of a handicap.

Jennings said that he believes the UI did an excellent job of anticipating the questions and concerns of its most important constituency group including the most obvious: The disappointment some fans of the Hawkeyes have felt when the seats in Kinnick that they’ve sat in for years were not available when it was their turn to select.

“The overwhelming majority of fans understand the (priority point) system we introduced late last summer and acknowledge the fact that it recognizes loyalty in terms of years of purchase and loyalty in terms of philanthropic support,” said Jennings.

“Now, having said that, some fans are still disappointed that they might be moving out of a location they like and, importantly, around other fans they enjoy as a result of the program. Change is always difficult and we can appreciate how they might feel,” he said.

“However, their disappointment fades pretty quickly when they realize they aren’t moving 40 rows but instead maybe just four of six or 10.”

Jennings said that, depending on the day of the week and time of day, anywhere between eight and 12 staff are waiting to work season ticket holders through the process of answering questions ranging from if any and/or how much of a tax-deductible donation to the National I-Club is required with the purchase of the seats they’ve selected to when and how they will be invoiced for their purchase.

“The staff has been tremendous and, in particular, the students that work in our ticket office. They are very prepared, very professional and thorough, and very `conversational’ with our patrons. In many cases, by virtue of being knowledgeable and forward-thinking, they’ve helped many of our fans make better decisions,” said Jennings.

For example, Jennings said he listened to one student explain to a customer why the purchase of seats in row 21 of one section would be a better choice than row 8 of another.

“The fan thought what most fans would normally think: The closer to the playing field the better. The student reminded the fan that in that particular area of the stadium, spectators in row eight would find themselves frustrated because the team and coaches are standing in front of them for pretty much the entire game. By moving up and over, that problem was virtually eliminated,” he explained.

The ticket office’s student staff is on the “frontline” of the process. If the questions become too detailed, students then turn the call over to any of a number of full-time professional staff.

“On a typical day, 10 to 20 calls get forwarded to the full-time staff,” said David Sandstrum, the UI’s director of ticket operations. “Usually, it’s a result of confusion over the system or something unique to that customer.”

And, yes. As expected, some fans that purchased tickets in 2005 have opted not to purchase tickets in 2006.

“Most of those fans have purchased either indoor or outdoor club seats or a private suite in the new press box. Those fans are simply moving from one area of the stadium to another. We have, however, had some fans not purchase for 2006,” said Jennings.

“The reasons range from the cost of tickets to the new process to the fact that they’ve simply reached the age that getting to Iowa City and in and out of Kinnick six, seven times a year is too much. In that respect, this process is no different than any previous year. We’ve lost season ticket customers for these reasons every year,” he added.

Jennings said the process has put a little confusion on the table for fans of the Hawkeyes who were not season ticket holders a year ago but want to be this year. He said that fan will have their opportunity in June.

“We have absolutely no expectation that when this process is done in 90 or so more business days that Kinnick Stadium will be sold out. It’s possible, but, honestly, that simply won’t happen,” said Jennings.

“We won’t have tens of thousands of season tickets to sell, but we’re likely to have a couple thousand available and, between those fans who want season tickets, those fans who want to buy a three-game pack and those who want to attend ore or two games, we figure we’ll reach sellout status on all seven home games pretty quickly.”

Iowa will enter the 2006 college football season with a string of 17 straight home games played before a sellout crowd. Those fans have seen some pretty good football, too – the Hawkeyes have won 30 of their last 33 games played in Iowa City.

“We think we’ve done a good job of creating a fair system that is being executed efficiently. We also know that we’re benefiting tremendously from the excitement generated by the hard work of our coaches and student-athletes,” Jennings said openly and without hesitation.

“Four January bowl games in a row, Big Ten championships, all-Americans, NFL draft picks, sellouts and exciting game days in Kinnick have made this piece of the renovation project – in fact, the entire renovation project – move ahead very, very nicely. And, again, we have the coaches and student-athletes to thank for that.”