Indy Eleven 2018 ticket prices

In case you missed it, the Indy Eleven announced today that they will be playing "most" of their home games in Lucas Oil Stadium this year. What happens next year are all to be determined.

Indy Eleven, the Capital Improvement Board of Managers, and the City of Indianapolis announced today that Indy Eleven home matches will be scheduled at Lucas Oil Stadium for the 2018 season.

Welcome to your 2018 Home Turf, Boys in Blue!

Join us » https://t.co/XcJ2g31XUr pic.twitter.com/3Mv94sGNQl

— Indy Eleven (@IndyEleven) January 29, 2018

With the announcement, the team's website that allows people to reserve their season tickets was updated to include a cost breakdown, which is what I want to discuss. Many people, myself included, were concerned about what a change to Lucas Oil Stadium would do to ticket prices. Now we know.

From the IBJ article today about the venue change:

Belskus doesn’t expect ticket prices to change much from the team’s games at IUPUI.

“Some ticket prices could be a little more and some could be a little less,” Belskus said. “General admission—what we charge the Brickyard Battalion—in Carroll was $15 and that will stay the same.”

Here's where I want to dive into that statement a bit. As a reminder, here was last year's seat map showing the sections (I've removed the prices for now):

Now, for comparison, here is the new seat map for 2018 in Lucas Oil Stadium:

So it looks like the team intends to still use just predominantly one side of the field for spectators (edit: for season ticket holders). The Brickyard Battalion, at least graphically, gets substantially bigger and there will still be seats on the opposite end line. Between all that is where it gets interesting. Sections 107, 108, 113, 114, 115, 207, 208, and 209 of Carroll Stadium roughly translate to the Sections 108, 109, 110, 116, and 117 of LOS. Yet, what was two price points has now become one price point; the higher price point. If you were in the "Endline" sections in Carroll Stadium, be prepared to fork out significantly more money for the same site lines at LOS that you had at The Mike.

As Doc Brown said, "I apologize for the crudity of the model, but I didn't have time to paint it and make it to scale." What my model tells me is that the season ticket holders who were sitting in the "Endline" seats in Carroll were paying $180 (not including the 10% facility fee) for a 17 game package or $10.59/game. With the elimination of that price point, for the same sight lines, those people will now be paying $289 for a 17 game package or $17.00/game. That's right, a $6.41 increase in price. The "Sideline" and "Midfield" price points also see an increase in their ticket prices, between $2.12 and $2.59 more per game.

"Some could be a little more and some could be a little less." I'm sorry, but a 60% price increase for tickets is not "a little more." Belskus wasn't lying about the some will be less part since the East Goal (now South Goal) and the BYB prices stayed the same per game or went down, respectively.

As a family who sits in one of those "Endline" sections, I'm not enthused about the additional expense that my family is going to have to endure with this change. The high end tickets didn't change, the low end went down, and it's the middle class fans that are going to be stuck with financing this move to LOS, with the lower middle class bearing the brunt of the price changes.

At least Ersal gets to use the stadium rent free...

The Indy Eleven will play its home games rent free at Lucas Oil Stadium and the city and team will each pay part of the operating expenses at the city-owned venue.

The details of the one-year deal are still being worked out, said Capital Improvement Board President Melina Kennedy after a Monday press conference.

It’s not clear yet, Kennedy told IBJ, what share of the operating expenses the city will pay versus what the team will pay to play most of its games at Lucas Oil, rather than IUPUI's Carroll Stadium, which has been its home. Kennedy said the deal will be finalized “soon.”

Well, that's just more salt in the wound for the fans in those sections. 160% increase in ticket price and the owner gets to use one of the nicest NFL stadiums in the country rent free.