Iowa could easily have raised football ticket prices even more

Often, price-hikes in sports ticket prices are accompanied by loud howls from the consumers.

The news Iowa is raising its football season-ticket prices $3 per game to $360 for 7-game season tickets won't make a ripple. That's what happens when a) you're coming off an 11-win season and Orange Bowl win; b) you're expected to be good again in 2010 and c) the Big Ten foes on the home schedule are Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Ohio State, and Iowa State is also a home game.

Iowa could have jacked the rates up even more without much grumbling. The story remains the same in a free market. Namely, people will pay for what they feel is quality.

Iowa sold 53,000 season-tickets in 2009. That's a lot. I look for that number to inch upward, if anything.

Here's something else that surprised me: Iowa is charging $55 for single-game seats for the Eastern Illinois, Ball State and Michigan State games, and $65 for Iowa State, Penn State, Wisconsin and Ohio State.

Frankly, I think Iowa could have gone to $75 for those four "premium" games, and could have gotten $65 for Michigan State. Again, I doubt the complaints would have been many or loud.

But ... you always run a risk when you raise prices too much at once. Football is a fickle game. If the Hawkeyes stepped back toward their 2006 and 2007 ways on the field, you're looking at hefty prices in 2011 for a product that might be slightly less marketable.

There's no reason to suggest Iowa will backslide to a 6-6 regular-season in 2010. But injuries to key players happen, the ball bounces funny, etc. It really wouldn't have taken too much for Iowa to have lost two, three more games than it did last season, lest you need reminding about the wins over Northern Iowa, Michigan State and Indiana. The Arkansas State and Michigan victories weren't exactly routs, either.

So here's one time when I would actually commend a price-raise because it's far from exorbitant. In fact, it's prudent.

Single-game tickets won't be available until July. My advice to "entrepreneurs" would be to snap those up the first day they're available. The guess here is tickets to the Penn State, Wisconsin and Ohio State games will be valued by many at a lot more than $65 come autumn.