LSU on Thursday announced that it is "planning to raise football ticket prices for next season and baseball prices" for '15, but the timing of the news "wasn’t the best considering there were 15,000 no-shows for the Tigers’ game against Florida last Saturday in Tiger Stadium," according to a front-page piece by Les East of the Baton Rouge ADVOCATE. The plan, which also "includes greater flexibility in pricing, will be presented to the LSU Board of Supervisors for approval at its meeting Oct. 25." It calls for "increases to the Tradition Fund, a surcharge on prime season tickets" on more than 50,000 '14 football ticket packages and for tickets and parking for the '15 baseball season. This would be the first price increase for baseball since '09. The proposal also calls for a 6% increase in season-ticket prices "from the previous season as well as an increase to the Tradition Fund for reserved parking on campus for cars and RVs." The plan "will see the pricing structure for Tiger Stadium adjusted to allow for more flexibility in future pricing based on seat location and demand as well as the opponent and date of the game." It "would allow LSU to adjust prices for particular dates that are less attractive, such as the day after Thanksgiving game and other day games scheduled in advance" (Baton Rouge ADVOCATE, 10/18). LSU AD Joe Alleva said of the price hikes, "The amount of increase when proportioned over a four or five year period of time is really not that much. I hate to do it, but we need to do it to compete" (New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE, 10/18).
