The Univ. of Minnesota will increase its "scholarship seating donations at TCF Bank Stadium for the next three seasons to support the athletic department's operating budget and help provide for upcoming payments to athletes for the full cost of attendance," according to Fuller & Lafferty of the ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS. Season-ticket prices "will not change," but the price fans will be "required to pay will quintuple in some cases" between now and '17. Season-ticket holders who were "not donating up to now will have to starting next year." UM AD Norwood Teague said, "Many Big Ten schools adjust their scholarship seating donations on a consistent basis. We haven't done it since 2009 (when TCF Bank Stadium opened). It will allow us to support our athletic department and our student-athletes to the fullest extent and also allow us to provide resources and balance our budget moving forward." Fuller & Lafferty note there are "no current plans to increase the scholarship seating at other venues," though it is a "possibility in the future." Teague: "We've been looking at it since I got here 2-1/2 years ago. We were in the black (financially) last year, and we're proud of that. But moving forward we cannot see how we can stay out of the red with our operational increases. Those operational increases aren't solely (because of) the new NCAA reform" (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 12/3). In Minneapolis, Christensen & Brackin in a front-page piece note UM "first started" using scholarship seating fees on premium seats between the 25-yard lines when TCF Bank Stadium opened. That initial plan "affected about 9,550 seats, but that number will jump to 28,050 under the new plan." UM’s athletic budget is "being stretched with increasing travel costs caused, in part, by the Big Ten’s expansion to include Rutgers and Maryland" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 12/3).
