There are a bunch of things to know. I am in section 9 so, like you, I am in the "Players Section," although you are one section closer to the center than I am. If you look at
http://www.nba.com/celtics/allaccess/stm-benefits-seating#plyr, it will give you a list of benefits per section. Apparently, we get an exclusive photo opp on the floor. I have also done the shootaround, which was pretty well organized, and gone to the practice facility (which is a long drive). Tenure is here:
http://www.nba.com/celtics/allaccess/stm-benefits-tenure. I'm in year three and will get some branded gear. Whoo-hoo!
I find that both my sales rep and the general STM line really try. They're pretty good about getting answers or returning phone calls. They've been very helpful when it comes to the perks, like getting a kid's name on the scoreboard.
I'm a bit of a cynic when it comes to the "value" they place on STHs, as my experiences have been mixed. But I keep renewing, so the good clearly outweighs the bad. And this year, when the team was pretty bad, they lowered prices and threw in some small incentives to get me to renew.
It was very hard to resell Loge tickets last year and I don't think it will be any better this year. They probably told you that X% of tickets that are listed get resold, but they don't tell you the average price at which they were resold. Out of the 27 games that I didn't go to last year, I ended up donating about a dozen. One or two of those were ones that I gave away to charity on my own, but those were tickets that likely would not have sold. For the remainder of the tickets, I generally got back 50-80% of what I paid for them, but there were more in the 50s than in the 70s. The plus side is that it is pretty easy to resell tickets and I'm told better than in previous years, although I'm not a big fan of showing the TM surcharge of 21.5% on the resale page rather than buried on the third page, like it is for the Celtics' own tickets. I couldn't put into words my reasoning for that feeling, though. I've used Craig's List before and will continue to do so.
As was mentioned upthread, you can probably figure out what games are going to sell (although with Durant on the bench, I'm not sure this year is going to be so good.
). Holidays, especially Christmas, games should sell well. Midweek against the Raptors won't. I target getting back 75% of what I paid for unused games. Two years ago, I got 101%. Last year, I got 59%. I think I'm going to be in that range again this year, although the way that the Celtics have priced games individually (which I can't stand, for tax purposes) will make it look better optically, if not in actuality.
Every once in a while I'll get something which is just a small "thank you" for being a STM. I mean small, like a t-shirt or something, but at least it's something.
Keep posting if you have any more questions and we'll try to help!
Mike