Undergrad tix next year

Rumor Mill: Feb 2004

due to a lack of increased funds by the undergrad SA, and the Gradstudent SA keeping Athletics at the same funding level

Athletics is going to designate 250 free tickets to Graduate students, and increase undergrad prices again.

If this is something that interest, make sure to contact Athletics, a hockey player.. or anyone that can get more info and do something about it.

First of all, the tickets will NOT be free to graduate students as you claim.

I am a member of the GPSA and they [GPSA] were going to cut the Athletics funding b/c most grad students either can't or won't wait in line for 2 days to get tickets and feel that it's not worth the money from the
student activity fee (which is $50 but going up next year). Most grad students argued that they don't attend other sporting events so the ability to attend football games for free wasn't worth $6 per person (or something close to that).

Athletics came back and said "what can we do to remedy this?" and the GPSA suggested that they have a set of tickets available for just graduate students (at the same price students currently pay) and have a separate "grad student line."

The number was set at 250 for next year but if there are any leftover due to lack of interest (which I don't think will be a problem) those tickets will then be sold to students.

If anything, the undergrads should be happy us "grad students" can't take "their tickets" as it is now.

so grad students (law etc) can't wait in the regular line? or they can, but they could also wait in the special "waiting challenged" grad student line?

[q]If anything, the undergrads should be happy us "grad students" can't take "their tickets" as it is now.[/q]

That depends on whether the allotment of 250 tickets comes out of the general student pool or from somewhere else. It seems to me unlikely that they'll come from the "townie section". Will they cut the individual game sales?

Unlike the federal government and money, Athletics can't just print more tickets on the promise that you can see a game when Lynah and the economy grow.

Ok, sorry for the confusion.

Currently, grad students CAN wait in the line and they do. I have had season tickets (although I got screwed this year by actually showing up at 3:45 pm when they freaking told me too) and a bunch of grad students in my department have had season tickets the past few years (and some still do) and they are in the students sections currently.

This new plan, as I was told by Frank the athletics rep, would take seats from the student sections (a few in each section, e.g. A, B, C etc.)

Under this new plan, grad students who don't make the 250 cutoff, CANNOT then wait in the student line.

And the "grad student line" will still be a line with waiting. They want the most dedicated fans at Lynah each game.

The complaints voiced by the many who showed up that day to our GPSA meeting was that grad students have different obligations (e.g., if you had to TA a section of lab on friday afternoon) and they might not be able to wait in line for 2 days.

Frankly, I think this is a good idea and am for it even though I will be graduating and can't actually take advantage of it. I think it will encourage more graduate students to "have a life" here in snowy Ithaca.

That's strange. Nobody's "allowed" in line until Friday at 3:45, but they have to have a special line for grad students who can't wait in line "two days?" Anyone else smell inconsistency here?

Oh, I forgot to mention...

Coach Schafer liked the idea so I doubt your "contact Athletics, a hockey player, or anyone" shout-out will be effective.

I'm not being "inconsistent."

I was the only one (out of 17 people) who initially voted NOT to cut athletics funding b/c I am willing to wait in line.

I am only transcribing for you what happened at the meeting and what the majority of graduate students decided.

As a grad student, I think this is a *terrible* idea. As an alum and a fan, I think the whole "you MUST wait in line for 2 days to get hockey tickets" business is BS, too.

Hockey ticket lines should be simple, but apparently everyone in charge thinks they are complicated processes requiring huge amounts of planning, forethought, and supervision. It also seems like they want them to be entertaining, and they want the process to contain an element of surprise. In reality, all you really need is staff and someone with a minimal amount of foresight. Simpler is better here. The following is not terribly complicated, but it might *still* be more than we really need for a hockey ticket line:

Have 1 pool of season tickets for those with valid student IDs, grad(*see note) or undergrad. Tickets go on sale at 5 PM on Sunday (or whenever). If a line begins to form well before the ticket sale start time (which it will, but not more than a few days earlier most years), athletics will hand out line numbers and keep a list of students and student IDs. Line checks will be held at random, but no more than once an hour. Miss one, and you lose your line number (i.e. you have to go to the end of the line). Each student (or pair of students, if each number can buy 2 tix) will be required to have his or her own line number. No proxies. You have the wrong ID, you lose your number and have to go to the back of the line. Unsold season tix will be folded into the single game ticket allotment. Above all, DO NOT provide any entertainment. DO NOT allow the students waiting in line to meet the players in any formally arranged manner. If you want ticket buyers to get a chance to meet the team, fine, but don't make it part of the line. If some of the guys on the team want to come say hi to their friends or thank some of the fans, fine, let them, but don't make it an official to-do.

(*note) This is an issue if grad students don't pay an extra activity fee to get athletics discounts. If that's the case, and it sounds like it is, then you'll have to separate the lines. Sell a limited number of graduate student tickets at the graduate student rate (whatever that is) *before* the regular undergrad line. You can even put them all in sections F and G if you want. If a grad student really wants tickets in sections A, B, D, or E, there will be ways to get them. (edit - this is assuming the grad rate is NOT the same as the undergrad rate, if the rate is the same there's no need for this extra line, unless you put all the grad students in section G or something).

In fact, there are a number of other possible solutions to this grad activity fee issue without having two separate lines so that grad students can still get tickets at the same exact prices and in the same exact sections as undergrads. At that point, you may as well put them all in one line, and let the grad students occasionally get 300 of the student tickets at student ticket prices. If they waited in line long enough to get them, then they probably deserve them, and since athletics was *already* going to sell those at student rates, it makes no economic difference to them.



Post Edited (02-10-04 00:57)

Báby_Fan wrote:

Oh, I forgot to mention...

Coach Schafer liked the idea so I doubt your "contact Athletics, a hockey player, or anyone" shout-out will be effective.

Schafer should be fired. I found a perfect replacement for him too.

Ben Hysell, coach of Cornell's club hockey team. Hysell has turned around the club program back to a respectable team, worthy of being a part of Cornell hockey tradition. This last weekend, he coached the team from a 3-1 deficit in the 3rd, and won the game 4-3 against a talented SUNY Fredonia squad. Hysell does not complain to the officials when the team loses, and is respected throught the league. Hysell is a disciplinarian, relying on good clean hockey, fundementals, good coaching, and a rauchous crowd at Lynah, all of which are missing under Schafer and his staff.

You heard it first on Adrianno Macchio's eLynah Forum.

[Q]You heard it first on Adrianno Macchio's eLynah Forum.[/Q]

Related to Ralph, no doubt.

"He's gonna fight! Daniel LaRusso is gonna fight!"

[Q] I got screwed this year by actually showing up at 3:45 pm when they freaking told me to[/Q]

Somehow I doubt that anyone told you that. The ticket line was supposed to start at 4:45, so you were "early".....

Is anybody else amazed and amused that an institution of alleged higher learning has not figured out how to do this fairly, simply, and without, to use Tom Lento's beautiful term, "entertainment", after 30+ trials?

Amazed, yes. Amused, no. Disgusted? As usual.

Facetimer wrote:
You heard it first on Adrianno Macchio's eLynah Forum.

You sound like telemarketers calling my answering maching. Only 4 letters wrong. Guess we can scratch spelling off your list of many talents.

Hey, the system would be much easier if they just gave me my tickets, let me give as many tickets to my friends as I want, and then let the rest of the fans fight in deathmatches for the remaining tickets. Yeah, you all know that would be the best system.

Nah, no holds barred Jello wrestling would be the best way to distribute titckets....

I agree that this is essentially a bad idea. Obviously Athletics is catering because they don't want to lose the GPSA money. From a business sense understandable, but still a bad idea.

As one of the GPSA members who originally pushed to for athletics funding/free tickets for grad students, I think it's sad that the GPSA would've voted to eliminate this. Another example of grad students with blinders on, not wanting to participate in campus life. You can't spend all your time in the library or lab. (Obviously I'm not ripping you, Bâby_Fan). But that's democracy in action.

[Q]The complaints voiced by the many who showed up that day to our GPSA meeting was that grad students have different obligations (e.g., if you had to TA a section of lab on friday afternoon) and they might not be able to wait in line for 2 days.[/Q]I do disagree with this statement. Grad students can get out of their obligations too. It just takes a little more thought and creativity (trade sections, for instance).

Keith K '93

To put the vote in context, the GPSA (again, not me) initially wanted to cut Athletics funding b/c the student activity fee is jumping to $60 (a ten $ increase) this coming year due to the overwhelming number of grad student groups (now reaching 200) on campus which are requesting an overwhelming amount of money to fund "outside of lab/library" fun time (i.e. events).

So, really, the GPSA wasn't doing it to cut out "fun time" for grad students but rather to finacially support events that are created for grads students by grad students and attended by grad students without raising the student activity fee even more.

The return offer by Athletics was unexpected to say the least, and yes, I agree that they made a sensible "business decision" here. The GPSA's argument that most grad students couldn't get tickets (for whatever reason) was abided and the GPSA then felt that it was a valid allocation of funds.

Perhaps the undergrads who are upset about this should consult their SA about why they cut funding to Althetics this year. Where was that money allocated instead?

The undergrad Student Assembly refused to fund athletics at the desired amount as Athletics refused to provide a break down for over $100,000 they requested. It was like the disney-pixar fight, both sides acted dumb and didn't expend the effort to find a solution. Don't take issue with the GPSA or the grad students, they submitted to Athletics demands, take it up with the SA for not fully funding them, or tell the admin. in Athletics to better explain where student's money is going.

[Q]So, really, the GPSA wasn't doing it to cut out "fun time" for grad students...[/Q]OK, I was being a little harsh before and I'm glad grad students are doing more. I was just remembering too many cries of "grad students don't care about Cornell sports" from other GPSA members when we were pushing this issue.

Maybe if your name wasn't so stupid I would spell it correctly. Ever think of that before you criticized?

[q]Is anybody else amazed and amused that an institution of alleged higher learning has not figured out how to do this fairly, simply, and without, to use Tom Lento's beautiful term, "entertainment", after 30+ trials?[/q]

When was the first serious line for hockey tickets? I wasn't conscious of a big deal my feshman year, but I could have missed it. I walked into every home game with my cupon book that year (68-69). It seems to me that the next year we got into line late Thursday evening after hearing on WVBR that people were gathering. We stayed, in shifts, until tickets were handed out Sunday morning. Pretty much the same story the next year.

The "inconsistency" I was talking about would surface if Athletics:

1. Continues to offically prohibit a 2-day line.

-and-

2. Establishes a special procedure for grad students to buy tickets so that they can avoid a 2-day line (which shouldn't exist in the first place if they actually enforced rule #1 fairly and effectively).

Didn't mean to imply that the GPSA itself was being inconsistent, Bâby_Fan

To establish an upper bound, by my freshman year (Fall 81) the line was already well established. I actually liked the way they did it that year the best of all subsequent systems -- no restriction on when to line up, random checks, one miss allowed per 24 hours, limit 2 tickets per person. We self-policed and kept the cutting to a minimum. It worked. Freshmen/sophomores were relegated to wait until upperclassmen had gone in and chosen their seats, so no upperclassman got shut out and no underclassman who showed up early got shut out. I waited for 1.75 says, burned my one miss on a class, had a great time, and wqund up with absolutely terrible seats but in the building.

[Q]David Harding wrote:

When was the first serious line for hockey tickets? [/Q]Well, there was hardly a line for 65-66 (at least not that I can remember). But there was definately one for 66-67. I remember it well, being second or third in line and sleeping part of the night in my car parked in front of Teagle. At that time the tickets were sold much closer to the beginning of the season, when it was alot colder than Sept. or early Oct..

We policed our own line till the AM, only one overnight.