UNH's relationship with their fan base in general and their season ticket holders in particular is a classic case of overplaying your hand. In the late'90's you had a combination of a new building, exciting players, and a winning team (the latter two don't necessarily go hand-in-hand). The whole thing was new and exciting in comparison to Snively which, while romantic for some like me, was a literal pain in the butt for most. Bright lights, bright team, the fans flocked in droves. The mistake Marty and his minions made was thinking that this could last for ever. That a relatively small fan base could be counted on year in and year out to not only come back to the Whit but to pay continually more money to do so. It's not that the teams in the mid-oughts were terrible. Yes they underperformed in the eyes of some (like me) but the lack of appearances in the HE finals, the FF, turned people off. Instead of having season tickets, they'd go to the "big" games vs. BC, BU, and Maine. This new, saner view of the Wildcats caught on with a significant portion of what were perceived to be loyal fans and, frankly, UNH was to slow to react.
The attempts now to entice fans back is embarrassing. Two-for-one deals,, half priced tickets, etc are offered throughout the season while we season ticket holders still pay the freight. Last year one of my friends who is a season ticket holder going back to the Snively days was called by the ticket office. They were wondering if he wanted to buy the seats on either side of him for half price. When his reply was why not offer half price on the tickets he already had, there was no response. UNH would be better served by lowering the ticket prices for everybody and get some fannies in the seats.
One last thing. Does anybody on here have an idea how much the student activity fee is now? I thought I saw something in a New Hampshire article that it was up near a $1,000.
