Disappointed in season ticket holders
They were begging people to buy season tickets so that doesn’t surprise me. I changed locations this year with great ease.
Likewise. I actually added seats this year as I plan for my two boys getting older and going with my wife and I down the road (I currently attend with my parents most weeks as I have done for the nearly 30 years we've had season tickets).
In terms of what I think happens:
1. I think the amount of people that buy season tickets in the hopes of selling them for a profit or even break even at this point is less than 1-2%. As Brennan alluded to earlier...there's simply no market to expect to make profits.
2. I think some out-of-towners sell a few games a year so that they can pay for the rest.
3. Most plan to attend every single game they can. But I do think the reality is that over the course of a 9-10 game season (counting preseason tickets you are required to buy), there will be times when family obligations simply get in the way of attending every game. I think its silly not to expect a decent amount of tickets to be sold every week just through that function alone. If 10% of fans have a commitment, that's 7,000 tickets available essentially. Some of those will be bought by fans of the other team unfortunately.
I always try to sell to a Saints fan first and foremost, and frankly always at face value. Part of that is my section is fairly close, and I don't want some terrible opponent's fan to be bothering them. Same for parking pass. We pay $50 a game for parking. When I can't make a game (or if it's a primetime game and we are staying in NOLA overnight) I sell to a member here for $25 even though they go for more online. I take a loss, but I like the relationship we have had for a decade or so doing this (back when we had to mail physical passes in advance) and I know it's a fellow fan. That's good with me. But not every seat ticket gets taken, so the rest go on the market, often at a loss.
At the end of the day, I wish all games were all Saints fans, and I wish I was at each one. But inevitably there is one or two games that we can't make as a family because the game falls on a family member's wedding, or it's Christmas Day or Thanksgiving Day and I have twin boys and live three states away and would prefer to be with them on that day, etc. We'll almost always make most games outside of one or maybe two, but it happens. I'm not going to ridicule fans who have to do that. I know that's not what this is about, but we have to be careful when we lump this into one singular issue.