Changes are coming to Carnesecca Arena as well as Madison Square Garden for St. John’s basketball season ticket holders.
The school announced on Tuesday afternoon that plans to reseat all its season ticket holders will take place this offseason and each person’s contributions to the university, athletic programs, and NIL – as well as longevity of being a season ticket holder – will play a major role in determining where each person in seated.
“College athletics is changing every day at a rapid rate and we are doing everything we can to keep up with the changes,” athletic director Ed Kull said in a letter released to season ticket holders.
“With the proposed House v. NCAA settlement and the anticipating decisions to be made regarding Revenue Sharing, we need to do everything we can to financially compete in this new era of college athletics.”
This is not the first time that St. John’s has underwent a reseating process, most recently after the current renovations to Madison Square Garden.
The school will use a ‘Priority Points System’ to allocate season ticket holders based on the number of consecutive years of being a men's basketball season ticket holder, contributions to the athletics department and to the university, consecutive years of charitable giving to the school, and contributions to Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) opportunities for St. John’s student-athletes.
“As these new policies are expected to go into effect next year, we need to be ready for how they will impact our St. John’s student-athletes and department,” Kull added in the letter.
No points have been finalized for the current season and will not do so until May 31. Student tickets will not be impacted by the reseating, remaining behind the baskets at both Carnesecca Arena and Madison Square Garden.
“Every school in the country is currently doing that,” Kull said on Monday via Zoom. “Most of the Big East schools are doing that, so we are just trying to catch up from the standpoint of what other schools are doing in terms of the reseat and the priority points system.”
St. John’s, which plans to break ground on its new practice facility this spring, is still looking at potential upgrades to Carnesecca Arena, but nothing is imminent.
“I’d love to see us have additional seatbacks on both ends,” Kull explained. “We need to remove and upgrade some of the bleacher situation.”
“Improvement of the concession space. We need some more hospitality space, in terms of not only entertaining donors or trustees or investors in the program but even providing the students more entertainment space in terms of their ability to have fun on campus.”
Ed Kull also views the remainder of this season as a litmus test to see how many games St. John’s could play at Madison Square Garden moving forward. With the team currently inside the AP Top-25 as well as sitting in first place of the Big East standings, Kull is hoping for large crowds that drive revenue for the program.
“It’s not easy trying to break ground on a 60-year old building…we’re trying to do that tastefully and carefully.”