Student season ticket sales

Cornell has announced the procedure for sales of season tickets to students.

[cornellbigred.ocsn.com]

Well this sucks. Someone tell me why they always do this on a tournament weekend? Ah, for it to be last fall when I was too gimpy. . . no, wait, I take that back. (Relatively) non-gimpy is good. Think I can get top of section G if I go in on Monday morning?

wait. so what is differeent aside from getting tix on sunday instead of monday? any rules about when you can start the line, whether it'll be policed to prevent the problems present the last few years, etc? it appears that the students who had input in ticket line changes did squat with it.

Well, they seem to have negotiated the opportunity to go home and get some beauty sleep Saturday night...

Well, I think some improvements have been implemented.

1) Prepayment only. I think a big problem last year was the confusion over when you have to pay. People who fought to prepay were then involved in another fight with the people who didn't prepay. This year, you must prepay on that Saturday night. And it sounds like you can pay at your leisure after you get your line number on Saturday. That gives 1000+ people about 10 hours to pay. Certainly doable. No payment line to make a rush for. Line checks are announced 5-10 minutes in advance, so you can get back to your place in line.

2) An announced timeframe for random line checks. University officials will check the line from 1 pm to 11 pm on that Saturday. If your line # isn't there during a check, it's invalid. Prior to 1 pm Saturday when line numbers are given out, there doesn't seem to be any university responsibility. It's up to whatever line forms before 1 pm on Sept. 21 to police themselves. (I'm sure if there's a threat of roudiness, the CUPD will be present). It sounds like they won't disperse the line for getting line numbers. Yes...a return of the traditional spontaneous style "hockey line".

3) Splitting up distinct times for ranges of numbers during seat selection on Sunday. 200 line numbers per hour. That'll prevent everyone from cramming in at the same time. And to select a seat you must have your line number form and a receipt.

4) Actually announcing the specific procedure in advance. Last year, the only thing we got out of the Athletic Dept. was "tickets go on sale on Friday at 5 pm." Only to find some convoluted surprise system with line-numbers, vague seat selection methods, and payment confusion. Which of course led to several mini-riots. Letting people know what the deal is in advance is a simple thing, but can make a big difference.

I like the improvements, and it sounds like Athletics will be ready for once. Let's hope the students can actually self-police the line-number line. Yes, the university screwed up last year, but part of the problem was also a-holes who jumped into lines. Sounds like some sort of student-run Hockey Line is back, and it's up to the students to show they can handle the responsibility.

[Q]4) Actually announcing the specific procedure in advance.[/Q]
Yes, I agree that this was the major problem last year. No one had any idea how the system was going to be run or what it would entail. Had I known you could get your line number and leave, I woulda shown up early Friday morning. Instead I figured you had to stay all day, so I only showed up once that was possible, leading to a number in the mid 500s. It's only fair if everyone knows the rules to play by.

[Q]Let's hope the students can actually self-police the line-number line[/Q] Assuming I get a group of people to wait overnight with, I plan on taking this on if someone else hasn't. I'm believe the faithful will be more than willing to make sure it's more orderly this year.

-Fred

I do not understand why, if they are requiring you to do line checks until time X, they don't do seat choice right then. Am I missing something obvious?

The way I would do it:

1. Announce "seats will go on sale on Sunday morning at 10 a.m."

2. Announce that line numbers will be assigned in order of showing up starting on Saturday afternoon at 6 p.m. After that, line checks with IDs will occur every hour on the hour. You are permitted to go pee or whatever any other time. If you miss once you're gone. If you're impersonating or being impersonated, you're gone (sorry, frat boys). Each line number gets one seat, period.

3. Put a couple rent-a cops out there to keep people from getting out of line (so to speak) before the 6 p.m. cutoff. No alcohol or drugs, but otherwise let the kids do their thing.

Why won't something that simple work?

Ah how I wish for a return to the days when seniority ruled, I feel bad for all the poor bastards having to deal with all this stuff, no way to treat the best college hockey fans in the country as far as I'm concerned. BTW, I was at a Red Sox game in the bleachers in early may and I heard the famous "RED" somewhere in the section 37-39 area, it warmed my heart.

Rich Hovorka '96 wrote:

4) Actually announcing the specific procedure in advance.

I have to agree with Fred, that's the most important thing right there. Call the actual process a bad one if you like, I'd personally rather have a bad system where everybody knows what it is, than a good one that you have to guess at.

Why don't they just randomly drop the tickets across the campus. Maybe start at the Straight and work their way up to the vet school or something. The best tickets would be the greatest distance from the starting line. A sort of 'Far and Away,' manifest destiny thing, if you will. Everyone could line up on the Plaza at 10am on a Saturday morning and make a dash for it.

Probably many injuries, fights, and other problems....but quite amusing to watch.

Greg-

If they announced tickets would go on sale Sunday morning, people would start lining up Friday (or even Thursday) night since it's the weekend. Do *you* want to pay for two grave yard shifts of rent-a-cops? Or leave students to their own devices for 36 hours or more (sad to say, but people would cheat).

As for the difference between every hour line checks for *everybody* versus randomly and the ability to hold a spot for a friend, the current way allows you to go home, take a shower, get dinner, and then let your friend to do the same. It's just a tad more flexible while still being reasonably strict. What if someone got very sick (like throwing up and feverish) part way through. Your way would force them to stay in line, which isn't good for anyone involved, while the current way allows their friends to give them a break.

[Q]Each line number gets one seat, period.[/Q]
Personally, I'd object to this most. I love getting two tickets so I can bring friends along and expose them to Cornell hockey. I've made new season ticket holders out of some of them. Besides, how would Age get tickets in B then??? We can't let that tradition stop .

Oh and Thom,
[Q]Ah how I wish for a return to the days when seniority ruled[/Q]
Schafer'll never let that happen again. And if this is the kind of teams he gives us, well, I'll let him have his say in that area. I have noticed though that the new procedure hasn't helped the 'half empty at faceout' problem. Just because you're a big hockey fan doesn't mean you're prompt .

Overall, I don't really have any issues with the current way. It's a big of a pain, but that's really the idea. So the most committed fans get the tickets. We can all put up with it once a year for the joy of Cornell hockey.

-Fred

A few crazy people will line up two nights in advance. I don't have a problem with that, and I don't have a problem with them self-policing (when the stakes are line #8 vs. line #16, people -- or even kids -- are a lot more considerate). It used to happen all the time back 25 thousand years ago when I slept overnight on the uncovered dirt of the indoor baseball diamond and I hope to hell they never do that again -- can you imagine the stench of 750 adolescents rolling in mud-encrusted sweat? Yuck.

Anyway, it was good enough for me, and good enough for you, damnit -- now where did I put my cane and my victrola...?

They have always had a 2 tix per person policy, but I don't see why. You wanna the ticket, you wait for the ticket. Remember that if they *didn't* have a 2 tix policy, people who came later would not be at nearly as great a disadvantage, so it would depressurize the whole thing thus leading to happier parents, happier administrators, happier students. And anyway, how hard is it, if you want two tickets, to bribe your roomate with a case of beer to wait overnight and play hackysack and sneak reefer when nobody's looking? You are Cornellians -- use your initiative.