Ticket Line Procedures

[A-19]

i'd rather wait in line all day friday then get in some mad rush at 4:45.

[DeltaOne81]

That's not exactly the point Mike...

The point is would you rather have a rush at 4:45, or would you rather get knocked back 10% in line position between 4:45 and whenever they hand out line numbers (I made a couple counts, I got knocked back from about 500 to over 550 last year from 7 pm to 12 am).



Post Edited (09-06-03 23:27)

[ugarte]

If they aren't going to reward slavish loyalty by allowing people to start lining up as early as they like, I think all of the proposed (and implemented) solutions are a joke.  They reward insiders and cheaters, not the most devoted.  They should just do a lottery.

My solution?  (Hey! Where did you go? Keep reading!)  Announce the date of the sale.  Let the fans line up as early as they like.  Let a tent village rise up.  Give numbers to whoever shows up - as soon as they show up.  Allow people to hold up to three additional numbers (to allow people to attend class and rotate nights sleeping on line).  Do random line checks (even if people start lining up a week early) and ding anyone that isn't there when a line check is done.

[Natalie]

I am a transfer student so this is my first year at Cornell.  I want season tickets to the hockey games (obviously, I am not the only one).  I have picked up (yes, I am so intuitive!) that this experience can be a rather charged one on this campus.  With that in mind, I am curious to hear from those seasoned-veterans if they could offer some thoughts on what things one should show up with when they start the camping-out process.  Obviously a semi-comfortable chair and a blanket, but what else should I be thinking about?

Thanks to all.  I am preparing myself mentally for the mayhem that will no doubt ensue shortly!

-N-

[French Rage]

Well, also the usual stuff you'll need to sleep over - tooth bursh, contact solution if you got contacts.  Bring some of your textbooks, since you'll be sitting around all Saturday, so it couldn't hurt to get some reading done.  Alot of people bring TVs with video games / VCRs / DVDs, so if you and some friends have those that'll also help pass the time.  And if you wanna get some exercise, a football or a frisbee to throw around couldnt hurt.

[Sgt12]

We go through this every year.  Changes have been made over the last couple of years to try an avoid the meyheim that occurred a few years ago when people literally got trampled and crushed up against the fence behind the crescent.

The current process is the best that I've been involved with in my 15 years on the hill.  It will be as sucsessful as the participants make it.  If people try to circumvent the "spirit" of the process then there will be problems.  If people respect the procedure then there should few if any complaints.

I understand people are passinate about the Big Red Hockey team, and they should be.  Lets just use common sense and good judgement come Friday at 4:45.

I will see you all there - I won't be hard to find.

Sgt. Rich Gourley

[Sgt12]

We go through this every year. Changes have been made over the last couple of years to try an avoid the meyheim that occurred a few years ago when people literally got trampled and crushed up against the fence behind the crescent.

The current process is the best that I've been involved with in my 15 years on the hill. It will be as sucsessful as the participants make it. If people try to circumvent the "spirit" of the process then there will be problems. If people respect the procedure then there should few if any complaints.

I understand people are passinate about the Big Red Hockey team, and they should be. Lets just use common sense and good judgement come Friday at 4:45.

I will see you all there - I won't be hard to find.

Sgt. Rich Gourley

[Rob Komorowski]

Any word on when the single ticket games will go on sale??

[Anne 85]

[Q]Any word on when the single ticket games will go on sale??[/Q]

Oct 15

[Shorts]

Personally, I think that the system the Pep Band uses for distributing its tickets is pretty good.  People earn priority points for attending events, with extra weight given non-hockey home games.  That way, the most dedicated fans get tickets (well, it doesn't work out perfectly like that, since we have to balance different instruments, but to a first approximation), but instead of sitting around idly in the Ramin room, the line is replaced by attending other Cornell games, which are at least marginally entertaining.  Plus, it's a great way to get enthusiastic fans to show up to some of the less popular sports.

[Will]

I don't like that system exactly the way you described it.  Hockey should be kept separate from all other sports, particularly since hockey is the only sport where students are charged.  What I would recommend is that somehow the more hardcore fans of hockey can be rewarded in succeeding years, perhaps with getting the chance to get better seats in succeeding years, although I don't know how to do that without severely changing the campout process.  The only way I've seen to make a reward system work was to give season ticket holders a chance to get Frozen Four tickets this past year (albeit via lottery).

[judy]

Here's how you could work it. More points for more years you've had season tickets. Extra points for the away games that you've been to and even those can have different weights...like let's say 1 point for going to Harvard (since everybody tries to go there) and maybe 10 points for Princeton (since that's really far away and the Yale/Princeton hike is a pain).

5 points for having gone to lake placid
1 point for hitting a deer on the way up to lp
5 points for going to albany
10 points for the north country trip in the middle of break and the weather conditions are snow snow and some ice in between...

point numbers can be tinkered with. but there are some trips and some experiences that separate out the day to day fans and the crazy people, or I guess y'alls would refer to the crazy people as the hardcore. but, we're all just crazy.

[Will]

Well, it's one thing to have season tickets and another thing to actually attend the home games.  I knew plenty of people who were in my block of people (I wouldn't call them my friends so much as friends of friends of friends) who bought season tickets last year just for the Harvard game, and that's it.  I didn't see them the rest of the season.  (At least their other tickets went to some real fans, people I would describe as my friends.)  By your system, those facetimers would receive the same amount of points as someone like me, who cheered harder than most others and tried to come up with unique ways to mock the opposing goalies.  That doesn't seem quite fair, does it?

As for only awarding one point for going to the game at Harvard, while it is true that "everybody tries to go there", they're still some of the hardest away game tickets to acquire.  (To be fair, I have a vested interest in changing that point, since the two games at Harvard I've attended make up 40% of my Cornell away games I've seen.  Then again, I still get ten points for that away game at Princeton I've been to! :-D)

Of course, I'd make recommendations that more points be added for regular eLF and USCHO posters. ;-)

[Cornell Fan]

Well, one possible way around this "mad bolt" scenario while discouraging people from lining up early would be to pool the people who are there say from 4:44 to 4:46, and assign those first n line numbers by random number selection.  This would hopefully prevent people from rushing the head of the line, knowing that it would not change their chances of getting a higher line number as long as they were there at the "official" start time.  Anyone who shows up from 4:46 and onward would form into a regular FIFO line, whose first number would be n+1.  As far as I can see, this would be a fair way of distributing numbers to those who follow the rules and show up at the correct time, and also eliminate any advantage coming extra early would have.  Any thoughts?

French Rage wrote:

Mike, the biotech line last year was an attempt to prevent a mad rush at the official line formation time.  If you just had groups wandering around the Bartel's area until 4:45 and then bolting to the front of the line, the result would be chaotic and possibly dangerous.  At least with the biotech line, there was an orderly procession to the front of the line once the official line formed.  I agree it sucked for the people who arrived right at the line time, but the blame for that falls on the administration, who created the procedure, then the people who started the biotech line.  Those of us in the biotech line we merely trying to get some order for when the official line was created.

[Anthony Marino \'03]

That is perhaps the worst idea I have ever heard.  Besides being a logistical nightmare, it is completely unfair.  People who show up early aren't trying to break the rules, they simply want to make sure that they get the seat they desire.  There is a reason why Section B has the dynamic it does.  It is, for the most part, the people that are crazy about Cornell Hockey and are willing to wait several days to get those seats.  The idea that someone who was there two minutes early gets a better number than someone that was there two days early is ridiculous.  A system such as that would compromise the feverish atmosphere that is Lynah.  

I like the system as it currenly stands.  It is far from perfect, and I myself am uneasy at the idea that I may not be able to get back the seats that I have cherished for the past two seasons, but I just have to hope that the ticket line gods smile down on me.