Seeing as it is impossible to donate enough money to the University of Southern California to join an alumni donor group to get guaranteed seats in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, school officials are upping the ante, announcing this week a three-year series of price hikes for existing donors.Membership in Cardinal and Gold, the Committee and the Scholarship Club will increase betrween 20 and 40% between 2006 and 2009. Hardest hit will be membeers of the Committee--which will be able to purchase tickets to Notre Dame away games in 2007 and 2009 and Ohio State--whose buy-in raises from $5000 to $7000 on top of their Cardinal and Gold membership and Cardinal and Gold members under 30 years old, who will see prices rise from $1500 to $2000.
Top-level donors will no have to pony up $30,000 to join the Scholarship Club--an increase of $5000.
The reason? Athletic Scholarships have gone from $36,000 to $45,000 a year thanks to tuition increases at USC, according to a letter by Athletic Director Mike Garrett. By my count, that means you'd need only 153 members of the Scholarship Club to cover the increased cost for all 85 players on the football team, so it looks like Heritage Hall will be doing more than just covering its costs.
Previously: Trojan Away Tickets Harder Than Ever
