Ticket Procedure Posted

[JDeafv]

The hockey ticket procedure is posted online.

It still includes a waste-of-time night in the the Ramin room, and an attempt to boost attendance at an otherwise anemically attended Cornell sporting event.

[ugarte]

A half-hearted attempt. You don't have to go to the game.

On the other hand, it has a genuine attempt to boost sales of the Big Red Sports Pass.

[ebilmes]

It's basically the same system as last year, And, between offering the $45 sports-pass-and-MSG-ticket combo last spring and the 200 reserved seats this year, Sports Pass sales should go up.

Bring back the real line...

[French Rage]

Again the line is the end and not the means.  But I'm sure all the Long Islanders will think they look cool in their "I did my time in the line" t-shirts.

[BMac]

Any reason to believe there's a time that's better to sign up in than others? I vaguely remember them screwing that up as well last year.

[Josh '99]

Fake camp-outs are lame.

[evilnaturedrobot]

yes they are, and I think most students (atleast the ones that go to games) would much rather have the camping take place outside on an organicly formed line.  However, the situation being as it is, I will admit that I enjoy the night in Bartels.  It's a bit lame, but that doesn't meen it's not fun.

[ebilmes]

[quote BMac]Any reason to believe there's a time that's better to sign up in than others? I vaguely remember them screwing that up as well last year.[/quote]

I was starting to think about this. If they choose the #s the same way as last year...

0 and 1 had an equal chance of being chosen as the first digit. Since the #s only went up to ~1700, each of the 1000+ #s had a better chance of being the starting number.

This doesn't really help determine an ideal line number. I'll be more concerned with figuring out a time to get numbers with the people with whom I want to stand.

[Chris '03]

If they're going to waste everyone's time with a fake line, they should at least incorporate some sort of community service element or something. At least there would be something to show from the pointless waiting besides a nasty ramin room.I suppose that would be asking too much of both those in line and those running the line.

[ugarte]

[quote Chris '03]If they're going to waste everyone's time with a fake line, they should at least incorporate some sort of community service element or something.[/quote]
Making license plates?

[sah67]

[quote French Rage] But I'm sure all the Long Islanders will think they look cool in their "I did my time in the line" t-shirts.[/quote]

I don't know which I prefer: Long Islanders who think they look cool in their "I did my time in the line" shirts, or Long Islanders who think they look cool in their new London Knights jersey ;-)

[mttgrmm]

To elaborate on Chris '03s statement above, what if the procedure for getting season tickets included a community service aspect?  What if the students who wanted guaranteed tickets had to perform an 8-hour day of service to a local organization?  

I realize it'd take some serious organization, but local organizations like homeless shelters, soup kitchens, Habitat for Humanity, and many others would be happy to utilize the captive labor.  I'd also be willing to bet that one of the community service organizations on campus would step up and organize it all.

I envision it like this: Students sign up for the line numbers, fully understanding that if they win a position in "line", then they have to do a days community service work.  The weekend of seat selection, students with line numbers arrive at 9:00am on Saturday morning to do their day of work.  There is a "line check" at 9:00 to determine that everyone is there.  The students leave for their day of work, going to various locations for the day (assume, for this argument at least, that there are pre-arranged places for people to go... like #s 1-25 go there, 25-45 go there, etc....).  After a day of work, everyone comes back to campus for a 7pm line check, at which point they begin doing seat selection.  The catch is that in order to be eligible to buy tickets, the students must have both their line number form AND a signed form from the leader of their service group.

I realize that you'd have to work out some kinks in there. For example, what do you do about kids who are unavailable to do their day of service due to respectable commitments (which is solved by the 4-spots-per-person thing now)?  What if you let students do their service on one of a few Saturdays, but still required that they bring both forms to get their tickets (or gave both forms to their proxy in line)?

In principle, would that be something that you (the Faithful) would support?  I'm honestly interested in your thoughts.  I personally think it'd be a pretty good system, as it would provide some genuine disincentive for the casual fan (aka facetimers) to get tickets because, "Oh, well, they're not that hard to get, and maybe I'll show up late to a few games this year...."  On the flip side, actual fans wouldn't hesitate at satisfying this requirement if that's what it took to get tickets.  Oh, and we could do some good in the community... which is nice.

What do you think?

[KeithK]

I'm no longer a student so this would never affect me.  But I absolutely hate the idea of forced community service.  If people want to volunteer their time to help others then that's great.  Let's encourage it.  Advertise at the line.  But making it a requirement misses the whole point, IMNSHO. Then it's just slave labor.

I do appreciate that you're trying to be creative about the line, provide incentives (disincentives) and help others.  I just don't like this idea.

(For the record: I've done plenty of volunteer tutoring through the years. I'm not against service. I just like it to be a voluntary thing.)

[amerks127]

While I think that's a great idea, I think the athletic office would worry that it might discourage season ticket sales, thereby reducing its guaranteed income.  Their bottom line is grounded in facetimers.  I'm almost positive season tickets did not sell out last year, too.

It also would require far more logistical planning than the office is willing to put in.  Seeing as the current line is basically an ad hoc quick fix, I highly doubt anyone there would volunteer to plan an event of that magnitude.

On the other hand, if they brought an activity to Bartels and anyone who wanted to volunteer could, I think the faithful would participate out of sheer boredom.  For example, card making for the elderly or something.

[Jacob 03]

[quote KeithK]I'm no longer a student so this would never affect me.  But I absolutely hate the idea of forced community service.  If people want to volunteer their time to help others then that's great.  Let's encourage it.  Advertise at the line.  But making it a requirement misses the whole point, IMNSHO. Then it's just slave labor.[/quote]I guess if the point of the community service is to take a headcount of who's willing to perform it with no tangible incentives, then maybe such a project misses the point.  If the point of community service is to, you know, help someone (and split infinitives)...then I would think coercion by the ticket office really wouldn't miss it at all.  It would obviously increase the amount of work performed, and it's not like there's a shortage of it.  Not long ago you wrote that a student who really made hockey a priority would be willing to get another job.  I guess if the student really really makes hockey a priority, he or she will let the University pick the job.  

I can see a million different ways for Cornell to screw it up, of course.  Hell, they'd probably consider students stuffing envelopes with alumni mailings all night in the Ramin Room "service."  Still, I'm all for a ticket system that gives incentives to those willing to do something for someone, instead of a system that gives incentives to those students with more money and fewer other obligations.