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In an interesting post this morning, ESPN writer Darren Rovell revealed a letter from Florida State to their season ticket holders in the following tweet:
Schools asking boosters if they want to pay for their 2018 ticket donations associated with their seats now, as new tax law could reduce deduction from 80% to 0% pic.twitter.com/tJ407aPbMi
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) December 14, 2017
Again, this is not to be political at all, but to reflect on how this could affect Boston College’s controversial donor based seating program. If you aren’t aware how this works, there are certain prime seats that are reserved for those donors that give a certain amount to the Flynn Fund each year. This happens in both football and basketball. This was a good program if you wanted to give to the school and receive a tax write off
According to the aforementioned tweet, that tax deduction is going to drop from a reported 80% to 0%. That is going to definitely impact donors who now will receive zero financial incentive to spend that extra money on tickets. I guess a few financially successful individuals may still donate out of pride or duty to their alma mater, but for the general folk, this may spell the end of these donations.
The letter itself only spells out donations for tickets, so it is unclear whether this will also effect the Boston College tailgating program. If this tax bill does pass, the school will need to be clear on that. If there is zero financial incentive for the tailgating donation, there most certainly will be a huge hit on those who will be able to continue to donate.
Again, this post is not to be political at all, but just to reflect on a situation that may effect Boston College Athletics. For some of us, it could return prime tickets to the general public that were priced out of their exorbitant “donation”, but the Athletic Program could lose out in some key donations. But if donors can still donate in other ways or just directly to the Flynn Fund and still receive those tax benefits, it might be a net positive for the school. Surely there will be more updates if this bill passes.
EDITORIAL NOTE: Feel free to comment on the bill’s effect on donor based seating in the comment section but please keep the politics off.