By Tracy Overstreet
tracy.overstreet@theindependent.com

The Grand Island retiree has held season tickets for 50 years in the west balcony of Memorial Stadium. But this year will be the last.

Why?

Because the university is expanding its club seating in the west balcony right where Kutz has held two seats in Section 131 since 1958.

"With this expansion, the club seating would extend the entire length of the balcony," Athletic Director Tom Osborne wrote in a March 4 letter to Kutz. "The revenue generated from the club expansion is vital as we look to the future to meet the needs of our football program."

But the university's revenue is a cost a big cost to longtime fans such as Kutz.

"The only option they gave me (to stay in the West Stadium) is to donate $1,500 per seat per year just for the right to buy the tickets!" Kutz said. "I can't afford that!"

The change would effectively raise the cost of one season ticket from $416 a year ($52 a game for eight games) to $1,916.

Kutz was also given an option of relocating to "other seats in the stadium."

Osborne said in his letter that he consented to the expansion because it came with "a guarantee that no fan will lose their ticket privileges." He approved the expansion for the 2009 football season.

"I understand that this expansion will affect you personally," Osborne wrote to Kutz. "As a season ticket holder in the west balcony, your seats will be transformed into club seats for the 2009 season."

The club seats have many benefits including game-day access to an escalator and a wide chair-back seat.

Additionally, the indoor West Stadium Club will be expanded to provide "ample relief from inclement weather where you can enjoy the numerous concessionaires and utilize rest rooms inside the club area," Osborne wrote.

Being a season ticket holder in sections 121, 122, 130 and 131 the sections where the new club seating is being installed gives first-opportunity rights to purchasing the new club seats.

"Tickets in this new area will be the same as a regular-priced season ticket," Osborne wrote. "However, an 80 percent tax-deductible donation of $1,500 per seat annually will be required, beginning March 1 of 2009."

Osborne noted that the $1,500-per-seat donation is the same level used to obtain club seating in 1999.

"I understand what's happening here, but I'm sure disappointed," Kutz said. "If you buy season tickets, now you have to donate the better the seats, the more you have to donate."

Kutz said he had previously been grandfathered in from having to "donate" to maintain rights to buy seats in the balcony, but he donated anyway. He has been a member of the university's Touchdown Club.

Kutz said he first started buying season tickets in the West Stadium in 1958 the year he graduated from the University of Nebraska with a degree in civil engineering.

His first job was in McCook, so every home-game day, he and his wife would drive from McCook, golf in Lincoln, go to the game and make a weekend of it.

When the South Stadium was built, he started buying two tickets there as well.

"I do have two tickets in the South Stadium, so I'll still be able to get into the games, but as far as taking grandkids and having the good view " Kutz said with a lift of doubt.

"I guess, after 50 years, they don't care about the individual," Kutz said. "It just kind of ticks me off."