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It is not often that my jaw drops when I read news stories. It does happen, but not often.

Then I started looking around at some stories that were floating around today... bang, it dropped.

The Ohio $tate University’s Board of Trustees is expected to vote Friday on a proposal that would increase the price of Buckeye football tickets by seven dollars, to a whopping $70. Yep, 70. Seven-Zero. That's dinner out with the missus with a decent sized salad, entrée, and a nice bottle of wine. You might even get to throw in dessert for that.

"$70. That's dinner out with a decent-sized salad, entrée, and a nice bottle of wine. You might even get to throw in dessert."

Now take all that money, go to the box office, and plunk it down for one ticket to one of those barnburner games against Marshall and Eastern Michigan next year. Or plunk it down to watch the Buckeyes either barely win or barely lose to the Ohio Bobcats on September 18^th (I’m telling you right now... it's going to come down to a field goal).

Hurts like a mother, doesn't it?

Now let's look at the expense for, say, a family of four: “Okay, honey... get the kids and get in the car. It's time to go to the game. Oh, speaking of the car, did I make the car payment this month? Oh. Right. That went to the tickets for this barnburner against Eastern Michigan.

“Wait a sec... say, where is the car?"

Yeah, it’s a tad extreme… just making a point.

Athletics Director Gene Smith is giving the media the usual sob story about how the increases are necessary to “offset increases in operating costs and losses caused by a flagging economy.” He told the Columbus Dispatch the men’s basketball program could lose more than $350,000 this season.

I have one word for Gene Smith: Waaaaaahhhhhhh.

Cry me an Olentangy River… I’m not buying it for a second.

True, Ohio $tate is a borderline elite football program. There are a lot of sports within the athletics department’s budget, and football and men’s basketball pay for a good chunk of it all (well, apparently not basketball). I can accept that football carries most of the weight in the athletics department’s budget. However, O$U makes a crazy amount of money on merchandising, and packs a 102,000-plus capacity Ohio $tadium seven or eight times a year with people who currently pay $63 to squish onto a bench and watch some MAC, WAC or Mountain West team get splattered all over the turf, or else watch the Buckeyes lose all-too-often to non-conference opponents from BCS conferences.

"[Gene Smith has] a secure job. A lot of people in The O$U Athletics Department have secure jobs. A lot of other Ohioans right now don’t."

News flash, Mr. Smith: We’re in a recession. Your department’s “woes” are not unique… hell, they’re not even rare. The rest of us are in a recession, too. You know that 11.1% increase on football tickets you’re talking about? You know what other percentage is comparable to that? Ohio’s unemployment rate. You, sir, have a secure job. A lot of people in The Ohio $tate University Athletics Department have secure jobs. A lot of other Ohioans right now don’t. And they’d probably like to buy tickets, too.

So, O$U fans are hearing about this today, and many of us are already resigned to the fact that this is probably going to happen, and $70 football tickets will be a sick reality. So you’re dropping this bomb on fans, but did you at any point consider any other options to deal with this “tough economy?” Or did you skip right to raising ticket prices? I’m guessing I already know the answer.

The cold, hard fact is this: O$U raises ticket prices because it can. O$U knows it can do whatever it wants, and Buckeye Nation will still flock to Ohio $tadium like lemmings to the sea. Buckeye Nation will complain, but they’ll still buy the tickets. Gene Smith probably never has to worry about a fan backlash so horrible that Ohio $tadium is only (gasp) 90% full. That will probably never happen.

"O$U knows it can do whatever it wants, and Buckeye Nation will still flock to Ohio $tadium like lemmings to the sea."

But that doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t make Gene Smith or O$U look any better. It doesn’t make fans feel any better. And it doesn’t hide the fact that there is only one reason this is happening.

Greed. Pure greed. Again, because O$U can. O$U knows thousands of people will sell their souls/mothers/kids (maybe even plasma) to get O$U tickets. It’s not enough for O$U to schedule eight home games in 2010 and 2012. O$U now has to charge more money for the “privilege” of watching the Bucks slaughter EMU or UAB? At least we know now that there's more to it than O$U's apparent fear of non-conference road games.

"Buckeye Nation has a right to know if the fat has been trimmed from the Athletics Department budget before they have to take on an 11.1% increase in the cost of a football ticket."

Now, the O$U Board of Trustees could do the right thing here, although I have very little faith that it will. I hope, however, that someone in the room asks this one very important question: “Mr. Smith, what other options have you considered?”

In times of economic trouble, some other corporations (yes, I called the O$U Athletics Department a corporation… just calling it like I see it) consider their options before passing along increases to consumers. Has Gene Smith considered any cost-saving measures in this process?  I doubt it, but no matter what the answer to the question is, Buckeye Nation has a right to know if all (or any) of the possible fat has been trimmed from the Athletics Department budget before they have to take on an 11.1% increase in the cost of a football ticket.

So let’s see it, Mr. Smith. Show us why we need to pay more to watch football. Show us that you have made some changes to save costs, and that this 11.1% increase is the absolute last resort. O$U’s fans deserve at least that much… and probably more.

Prove me wrong.

Whatever happens, I plan to attend the OU game on September 18^th. After that, O$U knows what it can do with the rest of its $70 tickets.

Tags: gene smith, ohio state buckeyes, ohio state football, tickets