[00:00:15] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Welcome to the Roundhouse Podcast with Paul Sullentrop of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. Thanks very much for listening. We have Cole Chisholm with us today. Cole is associate Athletic Director and Chief Revenue Officer at Wichita State in the athletic department.
He is here to help us understand the changes to season tickets and donations to say so. We fight for Wichita and the shocker way.
You have probably received the letters or the emails or seen the communications on social media about the many changes. In short, WSU is changing its season ticket and donation model for men's and women's basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball. One of the highlights, more ways to get a tax deduction. Cole is going to walk us through changes, prices and donation levels, parking, benefits, all those kind of things you can do renewing and purchasing online, which is a. Which is a big deal.
And with all the changes that we are seeing in college athletics over recent years, seem like a smart time for WSU to look at how it does its ticket business.
So, Cole, let's start with buying men's basketball tickets. What do people who are renewing need to know?
[00:01:22] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks for having me, Paul. I appreciate that.
Basically, on May 1, we launched our men's basketball, women's basketball, volleyball season ticket renewals in addition to the donations that are associated with that. So what people can expect is if they log in right now with whatever email they have on file, they'll be able to see those invoices online. They'll also have the ability to call in and speak with anybody that's here, or they can sit tight by the mailbox because they're going to be receiving physical mail not only with invoices, but with our new donor guide that we've unveiled this year, which for anybody that's ever received a donor guide, it's essentially our agreement with every single stakeholder Wichita State athletics. That's kind of the roadmap to how to be a donor and what you can expect from us throughout the upcoming athletic year.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: So there is a lot of information out there. I guess we should remind people of that. This podcast, we're going to try to run through it, let you hear it, answer some questions, and then you can go online. Go to goshockers.com and get more information there. Ticket office is always available.
The say so people or the development people in the athletic department are available to answer questions. Many of them have been in contact with fans or will be in contact with fans. That's part of this push to fill Koch Arena. Absolutely. New customers, returning customers, what should they know?
[00:02:41] Speaker C: Well, they should know that while they could always call us or come by in person to see some seating options, they now can go online, which is the first time we've done that in recent history, is my understanding. So if you go online right now, tonight, tomorrow morning, you'll be able to see our inventory, you'll be able to see the ticket cost and you'll be able to see the say so required seat donation cost. So you have a great opportunity to immediately check that out, see the inventory, see the pricing and then if you have questions, obviously call us. If somebody new was to go online and buy today, obviously we're going to get that report and then within two to three business days we're going to have somebody from our team reach out, say hello and make sure they can answer any lingering questions you might have.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: People are going to be interested probably primarily in two things, prices and parking. Take us through some examples of how pricing is changing in the arena for men's basketball.
[00:03:28] Speaker C: Yeah, so pricing, for lack of a better term, it's kind of been completely re wracked, if you will. If you take our current pricing model, you're going to see some areas that see a slight increase, but a majority of areas are seeing a significant decline decrease. I'll call out one specific example and you know, 125 and 126.
If you said in the lower levels of those sections last year, you could be looking at as much as a thousand dollars per seat less that you're not having to pay this year. But as we break that down. Right. We have now evaluated the pricing to a point where we've gone away from this membership model where you pay X dollar amount and you can buy up to X tickets. And instead each seat now has a required seat donation. And what that's done for an overwhelming majority of our accounts is it's actually created an additional donation on top of what's required that's left over from previous years that now they can choose to turn into a tax deductible donation. So many of our efforts in repricing were designed around how do we make an additional benefit out of what people have for the most part already been doing and also create a new benefit for those that have maybe left and want to come back. And that's tax deductibility.
[00:04:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that will be a big point with a lot of people explain that more. So it feels like we just pick a number. If you were paying $2,000, you now have the potential to get 1,000 of that tax deductible or whatever the circumstance may be.
[00:04:54] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. I think so. I'll use a specific number. Last year we had a donor level that was at 3910. 3910.
And that number was common as a charter guardian member. Well, what we've done now is let's say that you had two seats in that area and we've determined that those per seat donations are $1,000. Well, you'd have a $2,000 donation that remaining 1910 that you donated last year, that you've budgeted for, that you've planned to give, that you've been giving. Now that's tax deductible. We didn't lobby Congress. We didn't go and change any laws. But what we did do is we more clearly defined what the cost per seat is as opposed to a membership model donation covering multiple seats. And by doing that, by clearly denoting this is the cost per seat, we not only were able to go for sale online now, but we were also able to start including these tax deductible components. And what's unique about Wichita State that you don't see this at many other schools is, yes, they have a philanthropic component component, but we actually give you the opportunity to choose between three different funds that you can send it to. If you're passionate about scholarships, you can still continue pushing that to say, so if you're passionate about rev share or what that looks like, you can push that to we fight for Wichita. Or if you're just passionate about Wichita State athletics and you say, I don't know what what you guys need, but you do, please use this, you can send that to shocker way. And any of those three options is a tax deductible.
Above and beyond philanthropic gift. And while I'm not a tax advisor and I have no plans of becoming one, if it's above the required seat donation, that is considered philanthropic, which is tax deductible.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: So we should probably be clear about revenue sharing and the we fight for Wichita fund people should understand that as what was referred to as nil.
[00:06:40] Speaker C: Correct.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: And now is moving under the umbrella to a large degree of the athletic department. Am I explaining that accurately?
[00:06:48] Speaker C: To some degree you are explaining it accurately as of today's date because that seems to be changing on a daily basis. But I think to what you've described, yes, we fight for Wichita as essentially becoming that rev share component of what previously was Weed Shot Collective and nil.
Many of the language pieces are continuing to change. But as we see what the ramifications are of the House settlement, which I'll save those comments for Kevin, he can gladly comment on that.
There's just so many domino effects to this that at some point we had to step back and kind of reevaluate some things. So some of these changes were on the board, January, February, March, and we were observing what was happening during our contests and during our sporting events to see what the ramifications would be. We were talking with folks on our say so board, our ICA board, picking and choosing some donors that were coming up and saying, well, what would you think about this? What would you think about this? And a lot of that information led us to where we're at today, which is we need to make it more affordable for the common Wichita fan to come back. We need to make it easier for people to buy our season tickets, and we need to have a little bit more of a benefit that anybody can get if they want to truly be involved in supporting our department.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: And we are waiting. This is all pending the House settlement, or I guess we should mention the House settlement is still pending. I think people assume it will be settled at some point. So. So there is a bit of uncertainty to that aspect of it.
This way of doing it, the donation, the tax deductible, the online, are those things that are standard in a lot of college athletic departments.
[00:08:20] Speaker C: This way of doing it, they are standard. I think every athletic department has similar problems, but they have different people. And how those people engage with those problems determines how we as athletic administrators interact with those individuals.
So while a required seat donation or a low level philanthropic gift are common phrases that I've used in previous stops at Baylor, Missouri, or in my time as a student at Texas A and M, the people of Wichita are going to engage with that differently. If you've only known a membership model, that's all you've known. So we've taken the time to really train up our staff, who have also been challenged to adjust this line of thinking. We've run through countless scenarios. I'm looking at our donor guide, which will be hitting people's mailboxes here in the next three to four business days.
And we've got examples of how to walk through, hey, this is what you get. This is your benefit. If we were to go to the NCAA tournament tomorrow, this would be how we would rank things. Here's what you can expect out of parking, which we obviously need to make sure we hit on that. So that is truly harkening Back to an earlier comment, the roadmap for how to be a donor, but it's also our commitment to you of this is what we're going to do. It's clearly defined here. And this is what we're going to be about.
Anytime you do something the first time, you're thankful you get to do it the second time. So we'll be looking for areas that we can improve in. But to say that we haven't had a number of eyes over all this and a lot of feedback externally and internally and beyond just Wichita and Kansas would be an understatement. So we feel good about what we've done, but we would never go as far as to say we know we can't continue to improve things.
As you go, you grow, and that's part of it.
[00:09:56] Speaker B: And I understand there is a concession stand component to the benefits. That's pretty popular.
[00:10:01] Speaker C: It is.
I think it might actually be one of my favorite components of the whole deal because it encompasses everything that we're wanting to do. Right.
So if you are a donor in our new donor chart, right, and you're donating at least $1,500 to Wichita State athletics, which if you have season tickets for men's basketball, you're probably getting close to that already. Somewhere which is separate from a ticket cost, whether that's required seat donations or philanthropic gifts. You hit that $1,500 level, you're going to receive souvenir popcorn and basically soda or non alcoholic drink cups. And those cups are good not only for every men's basketball game, but for all of our Wichita State specific sporting events. So men's basketball, women's basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball, you keep it, you're going to get every single one of those events. You're going to get a significantly discounted rate. I'm thinking it's $3 popcorn, $2 soda, and then one night per season. So one night per men's basketball, one night per women's basketball, it'll be made free. And that'll be a benefit for being a say so member or a donor in our new chart. And as you increase your giving, the number of those increase, Right. That's not going to be a purchasable item. That's going to be a benefit of our donor chart. So the reason we're really excited about that, other than discounted prices, which I think we would all agree is positive, is that that benefit now extends beyond just the say so room at men's basketball. And now that becomes a benefit that could be applied to all five sports. If I've traditionally been a men's basketball donor and now I've got an opportunity to go catch a volleyball game and I can buy a general admission ticket and get a $2 soda and a $3 popcorn, why am I not going to.
So we want to find ways to make sure people understand that while men's basketball does a lot for us and we have a sort of history in that, we need to make sure that our benefits are going across all of the sports and driving that commitment to all five sports.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: I guess I have to say my family had season tickets probably starting in the 60s up until 2013 or so.
And I did not really think about the facts. They saw was men's basketball only. Yeah.
[00:12:08] Speaker C: And I think it'd be hard to find somebody that says it is men's basketball only. But a lot of times you see that branding related to just men's basketball.
And that's understandable at a school like Wichita State.
But at a school like Wichita State, where that's your main bread and butter and you don't have a football, every dollar, every margin matters. So finding ways to get people in the door to see our sponsorships or to engage with our staff or to be at the concession stand.
In this day and age where everything is changing, one thing's not going to change and it's that we need to support our student athletes. So however we can encourage people to come out and be involved with us. That's something we want to do and that's something we want to look at. I think this benefit in particular speaks to me because I think people are going to realize they may actually save some money in the long run with how often people are going to concession stands.
[00:12:59] Speaker B: People love concession stands. Yes. Getting a bargain with a concession stand. I guess I should be clear. I always understood some say so. The scholarship money was spread throughout the entire department and now we're seeing a change there. Alright, the next concession is a big topic. Let's get to the next one. Parking. How is that changing?
[00:13:15] Speaker C: So if you are somebody that has been donating X amount of dollars and you continue to donate X amount of dollars, you are not going to be negatively affected. If you're somebody that comes into our new structure and you decide you want to change your donation levels. Yeah. We may need to work with you on how that ultimately affects your parking. But again, if you maintain you're not going to be negatively affected.
Now drilling deeper into that, we've mainly got six lots that we use for a men's basketball game day. And the three closest lots are going to remain assigned by spot. Meaning if you come to park in that lot, you are going to have an actual spot within the lot.
The outer three roads, or the three blocks we'll call them, will now be assigned by lot. Hey, if you want to park at Fairmont Towers, go for it. You can park anywhere in Fairmont Towers once you get there. If you want to park at the very first lot when you come in off of alumni on Hillside, you can park anywhere in that parking spot. With the idea being we don't want to have a situation where people are walking by multiple sets of open parking spots.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: Spots.
[00:14:24] Speaker C: Now, we also need to understand that there are people that have contributed for a long time and have an expectation of having a spot. So how do you balance that? Right? You don't want to be sweeping all one way or the other, but by taking our farther away lots and saying, look, if. If you're going to be here and you're going to be ready to go and you're going to get in 30 minutes early, park at the front of that lot. If you're going to come in right at game time, you're going to be able to park wherever you see an open spot in that lot.
Is that going to solve every single open parking spot? No, but we'll be trying to figure out ways to make sure people are filling those. But it is going to cut down significantly, I think, on the amount of walking people will do through about 60 open parking spots and say, why am I parking at the back of this lot when I just walked through 60 open spots right next to alumni?
So part of that's practical.
Part of it is also we have to prepare for what we know we can accomplish, which is parking is if you can park in an event, you can enjoy the event. If you don't get parked, you're probably going to have a negative experience.
So how do we prepare for what we think will be continued success through our men's basketball program and build something where if we bring back 2, 3, 4,000 season ticket holders that have since left, how do we do that in an equitable way?
And so at this current state, we feel really good about, hey, if you maintain you're not going to be negatively affected. But three years from now, my hope is, hey, we have so many people wanting to come back, we're going to proactively communicate, hey, this is the level where you're actually going to be able to start getting parking this year, which in a very long winded way. And then I'll pause.
Last year you couldn't even get parking if you weren't at least almost a $2,000 donor. This year, parking becomes a benefit that's eligible at the $750 level.
So this is a balanced approach, right? We don't want to completely undermine the people that have been coming for a long time, which is why we don't want to negatively affect their parking. But we do want to make it easier for people to come back. Things like parking, things like concessions, benefits, things like tax deductibility, priority points.
These are all things we have at our disposal that we can use to say, hey, look, you're valued and this is how you can get the most out of your dollar here. And here's where it's going and here's how it's impacting the lives of our student athletes and it's preparing the next generation.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: So to make sure I'm understanding. So the three lots that I guess can be described as first come, first served, that's for men's basketball.
You're still a season ticket holder. You just don't have an assigned spot. You come, you park wherever there's an open spot.
[00:16:56] Speaker C: And if you today are brand new and that is something that you've just got to have, well, you can jump in at the Donner level. That guarantees you an assigned spot.
But if that's not something that truly moves the needle for you, you can jump in at the $750 level. And maybe you live out in Bel Air or Kichai or out north, and you want to be at Fairmont Towers because it's easier to just shoot straight north after the game. That is absolutely your choice.
[00:17:22] Speaker B: Revenue sharing, what we also know is nil, obviously a hugely important part of college athletics. Now, how is WSU addressing those financial realities through these change?
[00:17:33] Speaker C: So one of the funds that we called out earlier was the We Fight for Wichita fund. And with so many people now having essentially this additional donation, that's not additional, but it's now defined as above and beyond philanthropic. We're going to encourage a lot of people to give to one of those three funds. One mainly being we Fight for Wichita.
When you look at what that means for us, it.
It's a moment where we can step back and say, hey, this is an opportunity for us to identify what's happening. This is the world we're in. It doesn't look like it's immediately changing. So rather than hmm and ha about what we wish could or couldn't be. We're gonna embrace this and we're gonna make it a part of our donor structure. We may have people that previously have been wheat shot, collective donors that weren't say so donors, but by merging the two and controlling the benefits, we're actually making it easier to fulfill the benefits and steward that entire group.
Could rev share continue to change? Yes, it absolutely could. And again, I will be punting those questions to Kevin Saul because he is the resident expert. But I think with what we're doing and how we're approaching this, we're not going to hide from what's happening and we're going to embrace it because if we don't, we're going to get left behind. And this is a pivotal time not just for Wichita State, but for collegiate athletics. And if you're not mobile, you're in trouble.
[00:18:50] Speaker B: If I am a softball fan, I can donate. We fight for Wichita and peg it to softball or whatever sport I may want. Is that how it works?
[00:18:59] Speaker C: That is true. Every single primary Wichita State sport does have a revenue sharing fund, but there's also just general revenue sharing.
But there's also say so. So you kind of start going down the menu, right?
Our chart is our chart. And when people get these donor guides out, they're going to see, hey, the levels are the levels for everybody. Everybody got the same book. But how that interacts with each donor is unique because what each donor is passionate about is unique. Somebody may be super passionate about rev share for softball and if they are, we've got it for you. But they may equally say, hey, I'm really, I really want to give to say so. Or hey, you know what? I. I trust you guys to make sure it goes where you need it to go at the end of the fiscal year. And we've got options for that too. They're all going to flow into this dungeon benefits chart. They're all going to have the opportunity to give you priority points and they're all going to be trackable. And as we continue to grow as an athletic department, we'll have this data. We'll have this information and people will be able to check in and see, hey, this is what I've got, or this is my donor level, or I've got X amount of priority points and I'm going to use that now because we're going to an NCAA men's basketball tournament or we've got a major neutral site game for women's basketball. All that. We're only going to have a small ticket allotment for.
That's going to be ultimately how we get to making these decisions and driving those decisions is. Okay, well, based off what we have, who has been contributing and in what way and how has that impacted our.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: Department, so say so Shocker athletic scholarship organization that remains largely unchanged. Money donated to that will continue to go for scholarships throughout all the 16 sports that Wichita State sponsors. We fight for Wichita revenue sharing. You could donate just generally or you could donate to a specific sport. Shocker Way is more, I guess, discretionary where the athletic department says we need a facility enhancement or we need new computer software for one of the sports or things like that.
[00:20:57] Speaker C: Exactly. I mean construction costs were budgeted to be $500,000 and they would became 750. Well, that would be a moment where. Okay, well what, what do we have in the Shocker Way fund? Right. That's a, it's a crude example, but I think that's probably at its most baseline example when the numbers change, where are you going to cover that from? Because your budgets were submitted previously. Well, that's where we're going to dip into the Shocker Way fund and say, okay, these are the dollars that we were trusted with and this is the area that we feel the need is most.
[00:21:24] Speaker B: So Wichita State will hold listing sessions, seat selection events this summer. Summer. When can fans expect those to happen?
[00:21:33] Speaker C: Yeah, no, we just sent an email, I think earlier this morning, probably about 8am here on May 8, highlighting the four dates for what we're calling listening sessions and Q and A sessions. So what we're doing right now, if you are listening and you're like, hey, I'd like to know more about that, you can come to any one of these four sessions. The first session is going to be Tuesday, May 27th and then we'll have sessions in June, July and August leading up to the start of the athletic year. But at May, on Tuesday, May 27th at 5:30, we'll get that thing started in the Champions Club here at Kocarina and it'll be this exact type of conversation because I can sit here and I can tell you all the changes, but it's always better to do it in person with a real life example. We trained on a couple different examples as a staff and everybody, I would say, knows a lot more today than they did one week ago since it's been one week since launch. So the listening sessions will be big. Those will also be opportunities where if somebody wants to renew at the event, they can. If you are Wanting to come back and learn more about this and purchase new seats. You'll be able to do so then. And then as we get later in the summer, closer to that last Q and A, we'll actually have a select a seat event where we'll go out and tag some seats, invite people out and have an opportunity to kind of test drive your seats before the basketball season starts.
[00:22:46] Speaker B: Are there renewal or purchase dates, deadlines that people. People should be aware of?
[00:22:51] Speaker C: Yes. So on September 15th, that's going to be our season ticket renewal deadline and that's going to be the say so deadline, if you will, to kind of commit that payment plans for say so can run through December 15th. Obviously, we know those numbers are a little bit bigger, but tickets will need to be paid in full on 9:15 for men's and women's basketball. Ahead of that, October, November start date, volleyball, you're going to be looking at an August 1st renewal date.
But again, we're going to be allowing people to take those larger donation portions and spread those out over payment plans if they'd like. That can run through December, but on those respective deadlines. And I'll call this one out again. On men's basketball, specifically for 9:15, if you got a ticket donation and a say so donation, we would encourage you to have it all paid in full on 9 15. Your tickets have to be paid in full on 915 and your donations have to be either paid or commission on a payment plan that can run through December if you so choose.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: Baseball and softball, how will they be affected by these changes?
[00:23:52] Speaker C: They will see some similar changes, obviously, since we're wrapping up those seasons. It's little cart before the horse to get too far in the weeds. But they'll see if a traditional ticket for baseball and I'll just make this one up was $100.
Maybe next year it's a $75 ticket with a $25 donation cost. Well, your cost per ticket didn't go up, but now you've started to become a member of our donor chart benefit. Now you've started to accrue priority points. Now you're able to see where you're able to get X, Y or Z.
Again. It goes back to that theme of say so is more than just men's basketball. It applies to all five sports and our pricing models and how we treat our sports needs to reflect that.
[00:24:36] Speaker B: So as a young person making your way in this career, I'm interested in how is there like a text thread with chief revenue officers throughout the country where you're saying, you wouldn't believe what happened today, or, here's what I'm doing. What are you doing? How is this kind of industry and your type of people, how are you adapting and trying to make progress?
[00:24:58] Speaker C: Well, anywhere in any field, anybody would say it's probably a small world. Right. And it's not the same outside of athletics. There's only so many schools, there's only so many athletic departments, and we're all facing similar problems. The house settlement's not just affecting Wichita State.
People wanting season tickets or donations is not just happening at Baylor. Right. So it's not uncommon at all for us to call up somebody and say, hey, what are you doing here? Or, you know, most recently, I was in the Sun Belt. Well, at our Sunbelt men's basketball tournament, all of our head ticketing and development people would gather and say, what's going on? What's your feedback? Okay, what happened at this bowl game? Or, hey, how are you guys handling pricing for this? Oh, you're building a new baseball stadium. How did you decide on this? It's not uncommon at all for other schools to kind of pick each other's brains, because normally you're not just getting one person's experience from one school, you're getting their experience from four schools.
And I think what I've learned in collegiate athletics is that there are many good ideas. Some will work and some won't work, but you won't know if you don't try. And you've got to be able to put that in front of your fan base and be willing to be bold in some aspects. Because if you just maintain status quo, what do you expect to change?
[00:26:08] Speaker B: I would think Wichita State is different from some schools in the fact you don't have to look too far in the past where there was 10,500 people in that arena almost every night, you can not too far in the past.
Volleyball, baseball, softball, have all had excellent attendance numbers, you know, compared to schools across the country.
Is that heartening to look at it and say it's there, we just have to do the right things to get people back in these buildings?
[00:26:38] Speaker C: I think so. And as somebody that is, you know, newer to Wichita, I've only been here six months. My wife just got a job on campus. She's going to be teaching in the Hugo Wall School. We're excited to be here. We're excited to be a part of what's happening at Wichita State.
And I think for me, looking at a school that doesn't have football but has five ticketed sports, but has the 16 sports that we support.
There's this narrower focus on, okay, this is our window. This is what we can control. This is what we need to do. We have a great fan base. We're the largest city in Kansas. We've got a great alumni group. We have support from campus.
How do we approach this in a way that makes everybody benefit and makes it easier to come back?
And so when I, when I look at what we're doing and I look at what we have and I look at the success that has taken place, it's not a foreign concept. It's happened here. It's not how do we do this? It's how do we get back to it? And I think those are two different arguments. If you've never done it before, it's hard to conceptualize. And Wichita State's done it before. They've been to those highest levels and we want to make it to where everybody can enjoy that. When that happens again.
[00:27:44] Speaker B: Cole Chisholm, associate athletic director, Chief Revenue officer for Wichita State. Thank you very much for your time, Cole.
[00:27:51] Speaker C: Thanks for having me.
[00:28:07] Speaker D: Great insight as always. Thanks for listening to the Roundhouse podcast courtesy of Wichita State University Strategic Communications.
We encourage you to rate, review and subscribe. Wherever you get your podcasts, you can always find more roundhouse
[email protected] Martin left.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: Wing to Mike Jones, eight seconds left. Smithson out to Mike Jones, 25 footer. Good. He got it. With three seconds left, Mike Jones, from about 25ft out, hit another long jumper. Two seconds showing on the clock. That may not be official. The Wichita State leads 66, 65. Timeout Kansas. Two seconds to go, Wichita State 66, Kansas 65.
