Culture

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/sec/2008-07-10-gas-prices-attendance_N.htm Last fall, Reginald Bowens had plenty happening. Between an impending marriage and the good fortunes of the football team of his and his fiancée's alma mater, Jackson State, there were many reasons for the 200-mile drive from his Memphis home to Jackson, Miss. "This year, it'll probably be two road trips," Bowens said. "Just because of not really gas prices, but everything else around gas has went up, with food going up and that type of stuff." Therein lies a question athletic department administrators are asking: Will the recent economic downturn and spike in gas prices affect just how wide fans open their wallets to support their favorite schools, especially when football season starts next month? The national average for unleaded regular gasoline as of Thursday, according to the American Automobile Association, was $4.10 a gallon. For a car that gets 30 miles a gallon, that would put the cost of gas for a 350-mile round trip, such as one from Jackson to an Ole Miss football game in Oxford, at about $47. FIND MORE STORIES IN: Tennessee | Memphis | Mississippi State | Chattanooga | Oxford | Ole Miss | Houston Nutt | Jackson State | Starkville | Automobile Association Drive a 15-mpg SUV? Double that. Drive a recreational vehicle, the ones that make mini-communities at many schools for game weekends? Get out a calculator and take a deep breath. "For the first time, I'm researching places to leave my RV in Starkville rather than driving it back and forth during football season," Duff Sudduth of Madison, Miss., who regularly takes his RV to Mississippi State home games, wrote in an e-mail. Factor in the gas to run his generator through the weekend, and he's looking at $200 for fuel alone. But because of the fun of the football weekend with longtime friends, Sudduth said he doesn't plan on stopping. Mississippi is offering three, three-game ticket mini-packages, two of them costing $60 and another $50. The school didn't mince words as to why, citing "gas prices and a struggling economy" in the first sentence of a news release. USA Today 7/12/08

http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/sports/1215936908250310.xml&coll=2 Ten years ago, a face-value ticket to the Iron Bowl cost $30. Today, $30 can't get you into any Alabama or Auburn game, even against the nonconference bottom feeders. The price to watch college football has skyrocketed. The average SEC ticket price - including the minimum donations required for the right to purchase season tickets - has increased 80 percent since 1998, from $61.07 to $110.05, according to an analysis by The Birmingham News. Combined with escalating gas and food costs in a slumping economy, some fans and athletics administrators worry the average college football fan is being priced out of stadiums in favor of wealthier clientele. Others say higher ticket prices are simply the cost of doing business to produce a winning team. And they correctly point to a booming market in which rabid college football fans continue to pour into stadiums in record numbers. In the SEC, Alabama ($50.71) and Auburn ($50) have the most expensive average face-value tickets in 2008; a decade ago, they each averaged $27.14. LSU ($47.50 average), Tennessee ($45), Arkansas ($45) and Georgia ($40) are among SEC schools that raised 2008 prices. But it's not just the actual ticket that costs fans if they want to see the best games. Eight SEC schools require a minimum donation in order to purchase season tickets, up from six schools in 1998. These donations are college football's scaled-down version of the personal seat license in the NFL: You can buy season tickets, but before you do it, it will cost you. And the more you donate, the better your seat. For instance, Florida charges only $224 for season tickets because purchasing them requires a $4,200 minimum donation. That means Florida fans are paying at least $632 per game, tops in the SEC and a 183 percent increase from 1998. Alabama charges $355 for season tickets and requires at least a $130 donation. To sit in better seats, there are minimum donation levels at $260, $390, $600, $1,300 and $3,250. At the very minimum, a Crimson Tide fan who wants season tickets will pay $69.29 per game in 2008. That's up 67 percent from a decade ago. Birmingham News 7/13/08