JQH Arena season ticket requests exceeding expectations

SPRINGFIELD, MO – Only one month into the process, season ticket requests for the JQH Arena are both ahead of schedule and exceeding expectations. To date, more than 1,400 season ticket requests have been received for either Bears or Lady Bears. This is in addition to the 22 private suites, all of which have been leased and all of which have 16 seats for a total of 352 seats.

“The early reaction has been very, very positive,” said Brent Dunn, director of athletics development who becomes the new vice president for university advancement on Aug. 1. “It is very exciting to be this far along this early in the process. Every day we have a new stack in the mail and a new batch from the web site.”

While the reservation process will continue through April of 2008 when the seats will actually be assigned, to be fully considered under the point system, season ticket requests should be submitted by October 1, 2007.

The order for assigning seats will be based on a point system, which was developed to provide a fair way for putting individuals in order to select their desired seat. Beginning in April 2008, Dunn and other staff members will have individual meetings with all individuals to finalize their purchase of season tickets. With both Bears and Lady Bears, that means about 3,000 individual meetings.

For the Bears, 381 season tickets requests have been made for Premium One seats, which include courtside seats at $5,000 each, Loge seats at $2,500 each, and other Premium One seats in lower bowl (approximately rows 1-6) at $2,000 each. And those numbers increase every day, says Dunn. Another 584 Bears season tickets have been requested in all other areas of the Arena, ranging from $1,000 per seat to tickets with no annual seat assessment.

Orders for Lady Bears tickets include a total of 102 Premium One requests for courtside seats at $3,000 each, Loge seats at $2,000 per seat, and other Premium One seats in lower bowl (approximately rows 1-3) at $2,000 per seat.  In all, 478 season tickets have been requested for Lady Bears games, with all ranges of seat assessments represented.

On June 11, following a pre-sale to Bears Fund members, more than 5,000 JQH Arena season ticket brochures were mailed to Bears and Lady Bears fans, as well as businesses and individuals who might have an interest in season tickets. A new web site with season ticket information also was launched:  www.missouristate.edu/arena.

The new $67 million JQH Arena, named for John Q. Hammons in recognition of his $30 million gift, is under construction and will be completed in time for the 2008-09 basketball season.  The facility will have more than 11,000 seats, a grand entrance, a Hall of Fame, a team souvenir store, and a ticket office.  JQH Arena will be built just east of Hammons Student Center, with a connecting corridor between the facilities. Ground-breaking for the project was December 21, 2006.

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