Brian,

Thank you for the note. I have listed some responses to your questions/comments from your note to Coach Bertman and me. Please feel free to contact me at any time.

Dan Radakovich
Sr. Associate Athletics Director
LSU
225-578-7147

To: LSUvision@etigers.net, skipbertman@lsu.edu, drad@lsu.edu

Subject: Ticket Prices/General Management

01/24/2006 09:19 AM

Coach Bertman:

Let me preface this letter by indicating that I am a longtime football season ticket holder (4 seats). My wife, Leslie Falgoust, also has football season tickets in her name (2 seats). I also annually buy tickets for road games and the bowl game. I have been a basketball season ticket holder (2 seats) since 1998.

I consider myself to be a loyal supporter or the typical "LSU die-hard" fan. I have become increasingly disgusted with LSU's spending spree. Everyone's expenses have increased, but not at the pace that LSU is seeking increased revenue. For once, I'd like to read about LSU's efforts to control spending, as opposed to new ways to increase revenue.

I'd advise you to take heart Scooter Purvis letter to the editor in The Advocate on this date and Scott Rabalais' column of last week. I fall in the line of one of those loyal LSU supporters who will be lost as a basketball season ticket holder soon because of rising football ticket prices.

By item, I have a few comments:

1) I find it amazing that LSU requests season ticket renewals so far in advance of the actual seasons, but yet the Arizona St. refunds are still pending. I ordered ten tickets ($360) and to date have been refunded on only four. Also, can LSU please quit blaming the Arizona St. game for most of its financial woes? The loss of that game will be replaced by 12-game seasons from here on out. I suggest delaying any of a multitude of projects until the funds from the extra home game in 2006 are in the bank. That's how it would be handled from a typical business or household standpoint. Brian, the Arizona State home game loss will be offset by the 8 games this year....over two years we will have 14 home games....an ave of 7 per year....just like always. The increase was due not to the loss of the ASU game or the Hurricane specifically, but moreover the cost spikes that have occurred in our non controllable costs as a result of the storms. Non controllable costs include grant in aid costs..energy related costs...fringe benefit costs for employees....travel costs and facility maintenance costs. I believe you will see in our press releases and in Coach Bertman's letter to fans that the ticket increase is due to rising operational costs, and this increase was going to be put in place in 2007. The events of the fall of 2005 only served to move the ticket price increase up byone year to 2006.

2) While the "thank you" note for buying Peach Bowl tickets was a nice gesture, I'd love to know what the postage expense was to the athletic department. I got two of the same notices at my home. Couldn't that have been done via e-mail? Decision was made to utilize regular mail for the "Thank you" to make it more personal. Couldn't it have been done one week earlier before postage went up to 39 cents?

3) My son got the opportunity to go into Tiger Stadium on the night of the Hornets home basketball game. He noticed that every TV was on in every suite of the stadium. An LSU employee told him that the TV's stay on 24-hours per day. That night Dec 16 there was a function in the suites and the TVs were on...they are not on throughout the stadium since many of the TVs were not operational for the 2005 season due to the construction......any lights on in the West stadium are part of the construction costs and not factored into any increase in energy costs for the 2006-07 year Why??? Relative to utility costs, shouldn't this be a concern??

4) A recent article in The Advocate indicated that LSU is planning on building a $2 million gift center. As a commercial real estate appraiser, I suggest that this is not financially feasible and is not a prudent use of funds. I can guarantee that a private firm would not spend that amount of money on a retail sporting goods outlet. With the availability of LSU gear at existing retail outlets and on-line, I can't imagine that sales can amortize the cost of supporting a new building. There are only eight home football games per year. Secondly, I would think that the typical fan would not fight the traffic/parking situation to buy LSU products when they can conveniently buy elsewhere. The figure of $2,000,000 is a very high figure and our prelim estimates show the actual construction costs will be significantly lower than this. The LSU athletics gift center ....prior to its closing due to the West side construction.... was a very significant revenue generator for the department....net profits of over $500,000 per year. The new location will be adjacent to the Mike the Tiger Habitat with its thousands of yearly visitors as well. This project will pay for its self in a relatively short time

5) As previously noted, I have been an LSU basketball season ticket holder since 1998. What have I gotten for my loyal support?? I've gotten bumped from the 200 level to the 300 level!! I annually pay for tickets (and attend!) games against non-conference "rent a win" teams. What do I get for this loyal support?? I get special offers for SEC ticket packages or for tomorrow night's game against Georgia ($6.00). I guess I'm the stupid one here. Why buy basketball season tickets when I can just wait for the specials??!! Maybe next year I'll wise up and drop my basketball season tickets. Brian you ...and about 200 others were moved due to construction changes for the wheelchair patrons....If you will reconsider your decision to drop basketball tickets for the 2006-07 season, please keep my email address...contact me next September ... and I will deliver your renewal with the request to change seating to our ticket office. Thank you again for your note.

As you can tell, I'm pretty disgusted with the LSU athletic department at this point. I'll always remain a loyal fan and supporter, but you're pushing me out of the door relative to disposable dollars that will be spent on LSU tickets.

Thank you for your time,

Brian Falgoust (LSU '84)
Baton Rouge, LA