Ticket prices for Virginia football games will increase by $1.82 and ticket prices for men's basketball games will increase by $.94 in the next five years as part of the athletic department's five-year budget plan.
The Virginia athletic department plans to announce the price increases, which will affect all categories of tickets, in the next few days. The changes will also be described in ticket ordering information sent out next month.
University Athletic Director Craig Littlepage said in an email he made the decision as part of routine budget evaluations in consultation with his staff, the University's budget office and the Board of the Virginia Athletics Foundation.
"The new ticket price structure has been carefully examined," Littlepage said. "We have studied ticket sales and attendance trends locally, within the [Atlantic Coast Conference] and nationally."
Littlepage said he hoped the price increase would continue "the upward momentum of U.Va. athletics by funding facility needs, recruitment and retainment of top coaches and student-athletes and other operational needs."
The Virginia football program currently holds the second-to-lowest season ticket price in the ACC, and the men's basketball program ranks eighth-of-12 in ticket prices.
Littlepage said fans have not had the opportunity to voice their opinions on the price increases because the plan has not been released to the general public yet.
George Hutcherson, a University alumnus and a season ticket holder since 1999, said the price increase will not affect his attendance at football games.
"Ten bucks [more] a season ticket is not going to make or break you," Hutcherson said
The Virginia athletic department depends on student fees, private contributions, ticket sales and ACC revenue sharing, Littlepage said. ACC revenue sharing is the redistribution of money collected by the conference through television contracts and other sources among the 12 ACC schools.
The Virginia athletic department anticipates receiving less in the coming year from ACC revenue sharing, having earned $14,375,000 for the fiscal year 2011-2012, Littlepage said.
In two years, when Pittsburgh and Syracuse join the ACC, the athletic department expects revenue sharing money to increase to $18,100,000. But the increase cannot sustain the athletic department's current success.
"There are many strategic decisions that we make in order to sustain or advance our success in all 25 sports," Littlepage said.
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