In exchange for the discounted tickets, Family Plan buyers, shall we say, didn t get the best seat in the house. But both sides were happy with the transaction. Family Plan buyers on a budget got to go to the games, and the Tech ticket office unloaded some of their more undesirable seats with no complaints. In recent years, the Family Plan tickets sold out easily and had accumulated a waiting list. But last week, Family Plan buyers were told that the program will be discontinued for the 2000 season.
Buyers can keep their existing seats, but only if they pay full season ticket price.
What Hokie fans, some of whom are disgruntled, are finding out is that they re involved in simple economics. When demand for a product starts to meet or exceed supply, then the supplier raises the price of the product, in order to maximize profit. And the demand for Hokie football tickets is most definitely meeting the supply, regardless of the North End Zone expansion slated for the year 2000. Hokie fans are also discovering that stadium expansion, like the expansion slated for Lane Stadium over the next few years, costs money, a lot of money, and one way to raise that money is by charging more for tickets. Those two combinations together the supply and demand points meeting, and a stadium that will soon be expanded are driving up the cost of game tickets drastically.