It's probably not possible to speak for anybody but myself when faced with a forced relocation of seats at Beaver Stadium due to the STEP process announced last fall that moves both the student section and visitor section and causes current season ticket holders in those seats to be relocated to new seats.
What I can say is that a lot of our concerns about relocation due to STEP were relieved once we were able to access the rather sophisticated "Virtual Venue" on January 5th and view what seats were available for us in each section. While there were some sections blocked, that didn't matter to us. We were interested in tickets in only one section, and that section was available to us and had plenty of alternatives.
We completed the selection process this morning, and got exactly the seats we wanted. They are better seats than we had before, and we will not be donating any more to the Nittany Lion Club than we had last year.
We did give up two seats, but those two seats had been sold on a season ticket basis for face value (no donation addition). We couldn't even sell them to the same people each year. So giving up those two seats didn't matter at all. It just got us out of being ticket brokers.
Our needs were very specific. The four seats we chose are very close to the four other seats we have, which we plan to retain. Bottom line: we're happier than we were before.
Will everyone be happy? That I can't venture to guess. There appeared to be numerous choices for relocated people, but many of them seemed at the $400 per seat level, a very steep increase for many folks.
I couldn't tell if there are enough choices at the $100 per seat level to cover all the people who are being relocated and don't want to increase their donation beyond that minimum.
But hopefully Penn State will look at what is requested each day and adjusts its inventory to demand so that all relocated people will be accommodated at a price point they desire first before opening up seats to anyone else.
The software was very easy to use, and I had plenty of opportunity before my scheduled "select" time to look at alternatives, show those alternatives to my husband Terry, and come to agreement as to exactly where we wanted our seats to be when the time came to choose.
So when selection time finally occurred - at exactly 9:27 a.m. this morning - I didn't need the full three minutes allowed to choose my seats. It took about 15 seconds to put those seats on hold and then confirm the seat choice.
My only complaint is that the "print" button for a confirmation of those seats didn't work (I did however get a confirmation email), and once I made my selection, I couldn't log back in and review what I had just chosen. Not sure what I would have done if I had made a mistake! Probably call 1-800-Nittany and start over?
I hope everyone who is subject to relocation has the same positive experience as we have had and finds seats that meet or surpass your expectations. I will be anxious to hear what you experienced.
Good luck with this!
Photo panorama - View From Our Seats - Penn State vs Iowa 2011 - by Carolyn M. Todd
Carolyn:
ReplyDeleteAs we chatted about before, the process was relatively painless and as you pointed out the software worked except for printing--but they do send you a confirmation email. The timing concerned me because the time on the site and that on my computer/house clock were about 12-15 minutes off--so I had to wait longer than expected to actually select. Since I assume that is the clock for everyone, it really doesn't matter. But it was additional stress!
For folks wanting $100 seats, there are whole sections open in NK and NJ which used to be reserved for visitors. I did not check the upper decks as I had no desire to be there.
Thanks! I didn't have any problems with the clock, my Macintosh computer and the software were sync'd within 30 seconds.
ReplyDeleteIf people click on their account information, the software clock displays there. So that's what I looked at, and I reserved my seats as soon as the software clock told me I could start.
Glad to hear that you were successful.