Morgantown, West Virginia – When the West Virginia Mountaineers play their home opener tomorrow afternoon against North Texas, some fans will have paid $125 to have a cutout of themselves in attendance for the game.
Instead of charging a reasonable rate for a piece of cardboard, West Virginia University decided to make cutouts in the upper level $40, $60 for lower bowl baseline cutouts and a whooping $125 for lower sideline behind scorer’s table cutouts.
According to the website, “We are all excited that West Virginia basketball is back! Since a lot of fans may not be able to make it to games at the Coliseum this season, we are offering a way to still give our fans a chance to be there in person (well, sort of) and spirit, supporting the Mountaineers!”
However, recent photos of the Coliseum reveal that not-surprisingly not many people purchased the overpriced cutouts. Instead, there is only a smattering of cutouts spread throughout the Coliseum.
Why wouldn’t West Virginia University offer these cutouts at a more reasonable price so that West Virginians could afford it and so that it wouldn’t ridiculous on television? At its current state, the cutouts look embarrassing and unfortunate.
There’s simply no way that WVU can rationalize the price of cardboard with a photo on it. Instead of price gouging the people of our great state, it would have been far better to fill up the Coliseum seats by offering the cutouts at a more reasonable price.
