Going up

LSU raises ticket prices on premium seats at Tiger Stadium

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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- LSU had to raise the cost of premium seats at Tiger stadium to reach its goal of becoming one of the top five college sports programs in the nation, athletic director Skip Bertman said Wednesday.

The university is working on plans for the 2004 season that would add surcharges on top of the flat rate charged for all seats in 92,000-seat Tiger Stadium.

Under the plan, which still must be approved by the LSU Board of Supervisors, the surcharge will apply to about 45,000 seats, with highest charges on the best seats.

For paying customers, the surcharge at first will seem like little stadium, for example. Other plans include replacing the upper deck and private suites on the west side of Tiger Stadium, building new football offices and training rooms and renovating the Maravich Assembly Center, where basketball is played.

LSU Chancellor Mark Emmert said the plan was important because LSU wants the athletic department to fund itself so all of LSU's tuition and state-appropriated money can be spent on academics.

Bertman says the current plan would price every seat at $36, then add surcharges on top of that.

Those who buy premium, sideline seats between the 25-yard lines for the whole season would pay an additional $400 per seat, per year, Bertman said. The yearly additional fee would be much less -- about $85 -- for seats around the end zones. Some upper deck seats also would carry annual surcharges of between $85 and $100.

Thus, the jump in price from this season to next will be more than $50 per seat, per game for the best seats. The minimum jump in price will be $4 per seat, per game, for seats with no surcharge.

"We were committed to establishing realistic financial and facility improvement goals that in turn would allow us to create realistic and affordable contribution amounts for existing season ticket holders," Bertman said in his Cyber-side Chat on LSU's Web site.

Bertman said the plan was designed with the feedback from fans in mind, and he apologized to those longtime season ticket holders who under the new plan may not be able to afford their same seats after this season.

"The most gut-wrenching aspect of this plan is the realization that some season ticket holders who truly cannot afford to make the financial commitment for the right to purchase their seats will choose to give them up, some after many years of attending LSU football games," Bertman said. "For those people I am heartbroken and I express my sincere regret."

Bertman said LSU would work with current season ticket holders who could not afford the surcharge to move them to seats with lower surcharges or none at all.