Let me preface my remarks with this, i know inflation has hit us all hard. We should expect to pay more for things. But sometimes, a simple heads up is well warranted. To be clear, it won't affect me in all likelihood, but it will many others in Sun City. Got an email from an old friend who asked me if there had been any discussion about increases in the Sun Dial winter concert series for 2023. I responded, nope, not that i had either seen or heard. The email was in response to his surprise in the huge ticket price increase. Seems prices had increased 42% over last years. That's a lot. It sent me scurrying to the RCSC website and i found this: Prime Seating (RCSC Cardholder) = Season Packet (All 12 Shows) = Total Price $342.27/pp; Individual Tickets: $25/pp + (fees of $3.52) = Total Price $28.52/pp Regular Seating (RCSC Cardholder) = Season Packet (All 12 Shows) = $316.71/pp; Individual Tickets: $23/pp + (fees of $3.39) = Total Price $26.39/pp Guests (non-RCSC Cardholder) = Individual Tickets: $30/pp + (fees of $3.85) = Total Price $33.85/pp Tickets used to be $20. They were a bargain, but historically Sun City has always had great entertainment at really reasonable prices. It was part of our culture, it was ingrained in our way of life. We know the free shows at the Sun Bowl are an awesome option. We know when they added the Sun Dial series members loved them. So what the heck happened? If prices increased that much, at least forewarn the members. Explain the logic. Are we now going to insure they are money-generators? Are we trying to pay for the Sun Bowl shows off the backs of the Weds evening attendees? And what the heck is the fee for $3.52?
The questions posed above are just the tip pf the iceberg. Especially when you consider we have spent the past 5 months discussing the board and managements willingness to give away our amenities. There's no pretty way to put it, when you subsidize golf for folks living outside our walls, they are giving away what we have all paid for. To see this 42 plus % increase just begs the question; why? Do we think it was the entertainment committee's recommendation? Hardly, they were dumped years back. Do we think it was the boards? I doubt they even know about it. Do we think it was the director of entertainment? Same doubts, different day eh. Nope, my best guess is management once again decided what was best for Sun City residents. Hopefully i am wrong and even more hopefully someone from the board will address this at the Member/Board Exchange tomorrow. We'll see. The pandemic clearly upset the apple cart. Before it hit us these shows used to draw anywhere between 1200 to 1500 members. They closed during covid19 and when they reopened, they went to reduced seating and running two shows. One in the afternoon and one night time. No idea on attendance, but it looks like we are back to a single evening performance. Moving forward, we should be given some answers. Are we now going to insure these performances pay the costs associated with them. To be clear, it's not just the cost of the entertainers, there are ticket sales and set up and take down of tables and chairs and the cleanup that goes with it. And, increased utilities. None of that is cheap. Just for discussion purposes, lets say they draw an average of a 1000 people with a cost of $25 per ticket, that's $25K. I expect their draw will be closer to 1200 but who knows the impact of higher ticket prices on attendance? The point here is simple, what is going on? Are we (the RCSC) trying to break even? Make money? Limit how much we subsidize the shows? Does anyone really know? If not, why not? Hate to throw another log on the fire, because the rumor is, the meeting tomorrow will already be a powder keg.
Do we know if RCSC is using a "ticketing service" - something similar to Ticket Master - for processing ticket sales? That would likely add to the cost of tickets. But regardless of the reason, such a significant increase should always be explained. It's that "transparency thing" we keep talking about.
They hadn't, i doubt if they do yet. Great story; around 2017 or 18 members were clamoring for the ability to buy tickets on line rather than getting in line at 5 am the day ticket sales began at Lakeview. The gm finally bowed to the pressure and announced the RCSC would use a ticketing service. The initial rub was there would be a service fee for anyone buying online. They gave themselves 4 or 5 moths to launch it. Unfortunately, there were technology issues (imagine that) and it never got off the ground. One of the arguments was that members loved the thrill of getting out of bed early on an October morning and standing in long lines waiting for the sales office to open at 7 am. Helped build a sense of community i guess. The upside, if there is such a thing, was they moved the ticket office to the Sun Dial auditorium which now allows ticket buyers to get out of the early morning chill and sit comfortably while waiting. Seems to me they can also call in orders, but that's using RCSC employees to try and man the the phones simultaneously with in-house purchase sales.
Finally, some good news. I stopped and got an explanation about the increased ticket prices. The $5 hike per ticket is due to the higher costs for everything, from gas, to lodging to booking the talent. Makes sense. The $3.52 is for an automated ticketing system that will be rolled out shorty. Still some bugs to be worked out and it's possible that entire $3.52 won't be charged. Some of it is for credit card charges which could be offset by paying with check or cash and it appears there can be some flexibility if you bundle all of the tickets through one buyer (as one transaction). Once everything is worked out, there will be information coming. Oddly enough, when i got home from the meeting today my wife was reading a mailer/brochure from the Arizona Musicfest 2022/2023 season. The shows listed in it were sometimes 2, 3 and even 4 times the price for a single ticket to this pretty cool selection of shows that will be shown here in Sun City. Many of those listed in the brochure were for performances at Churches across the Phoenix area. They certainly weren't shy about the prices they were charging.
