Ticket Line Procedures

[Will]

Ninian wrote:

I've heard the arguments about intimacy and atmosphere, but anyone with these kinds of doubts about what a larger rink would do to the hockey experience at Cornell should take a road trip to Ann Arbor this season and take in a game at Yost.

Isn't Michigan also twice the size of Cornell by population?  I mean, this past weekend proves that perhaps this year could support a new, larger rink, but I know for a fact that over the past few years, there haven't been that many people.  A good amount, yes, but probably not much more than being able to fill Lynah to just beyond capacity.  If Cornell could become a perennial powerhouse (which I think we all would agree would be fantastic), maybe it'd be feasible, but I'm a realist and I have my doubts.

[Jon Auerbach]

Dear eLynah Forum members:

Let me respond to accusations concering the "line cutting" mentioned in my article today in the Daily Sun. I do not think that we "bragged" about cutting the line in the article at all. In fact, we already had people waiting on line and we simply switched places with them. When most people went home on Friday night, we were among the few who stayed over in the Ramin Room

I have had season tickets since I was a freshmen. Two years ago, we slept overnight in front of Bartels Hall. When the doors were opened early in the morning, we lost several hundred spots in line because we were not awake yet. While we did not have the best seats, we went to every game  and were probably the loudest fans in section E. Mike in fact got kicked out of the 2002 Harvard game for cursing loudly at Harvard's Kenny Smith.

I have been to nearly every home game the past two years, and went to Buffalo for the Frozen Four in April. My mom camped out for tickets when she was a student at Cornell, so I already knew about the passion that Cornellians have for hockey before I even applied.

Don't accuse me of being a "facetimer" just because you think I "cut" the line. I don't appreciate being insulted and threatened.

I'm sorry if some of you didn't get tickets this season. Hopefully the Athletic Department will be able to remedy the situation before next year's line.

Sincerely,

Jon Auerbach '05

[Jeff Hopkins \'82]

For me it's not that you cut the line.  It's that you made fun of those people who tried to police the line.  You called them idiots more than once, and nerds for thrying to keep cutters out.  It actually felt like you were encouraging people to cut the line in the future.  You weren't solving the problem, you were just making it worse.

And more importantly, it was tremendously disrespectful to those students who spent their valuable time trying to get a good seat.  Just like you, they don't appreciate being insulted, especially in a much more open, and less hockey literate forum as the Sun.  You may not be a facetimer, but if it walks like a duck....

I think you owe people an apology for how you treated them.

JH

[ugarte]

Pardon me, Jon, but how is switching places with someone (i.e., someone who has actually been waiting) different from cutting?  

So you go to a lot of games?  Scream loud?  Congratulations.  You aren't a facetimer.  Just a jerk.

[Will]

Well said Jeff.

Jon, I have a question for you, related to the alleged cutting.  Did each of the five people in your group that was mentioned (you, your friend Will, his brother Charles, Mike, and Cathy) receive a line number, and do each of you intend on making it to every game that you can this season?  Because if the article as you wrote it is 100% factual, then at least one person in your group cut the line.  As I count, the 'original' people there (that is, the people present in the line from your group before you got there) were Will and Charles.  You get there, presumedly alone, and as you said in your above post, you switched places with one of them.  For the sake of argument, let's say you switched with Charles, and Charles goes home.  So there are still two of you there, and it's still valid.  Then two more from your group, Mike and Cathy, show.  Let's say Mike switches with Will, and Mike goes home.  Where does Cathy go exactly?  By my estimation, unless you neglected to mention a member of your group who was there with the original people, one of you is cutting the line.  Is that why she was accosted?  Or was she the one who tried to switch in, while "Mike [snuck] under the rope" (by your own account of what happened)?  Or is there another explanation, like two from your group are sharing one ticket (perhaps one of them is going abroad next semester and is giving his/her tickets to the other person)?  I just want to know what the situation was.

[jason]

I agree with Jeff.  To paraphrase part of my letter to the Sun editor that I just sent about your article: the kid with the rope who made the plea to the line stuck his neck out and tried to do the right thing, you publicly belittled him, and the Sun for some unfathomable reason publishes your piece --that's disgusting.

[LETS GO RED!]

As far as the people "policing" the line are concerned...they WERE idiots...

It was plain to see that the very people who were trying to "police" the line, were also the ones letting in friend after friend in the front of the line. The front of the line doubled in width after people succumbed to these guys' speeches. I noticed it, my friends noticed it, but what were we to do. They had already brainwashed most of the crowd. If there is one set of people to blame for everyone moving back about 150 spots in line from 2:00-4:00, its them.

(This is not to say that the athletic department is not the most to blame, just that these guys clearly had a plan.)

To me, it was refreshing to see someone finally make fun of them for their ridiculous speeches. I really wanted to respond on friday but I didn't want to start a riot.

Either way, I got section D when I probably should have had section B, but ticket purchasing is over, and I am looking forwared to a fun, exciting season at Lynah.

LETS GO RED!!!

[A-19]

My name is Mike (obviously from the username) and our group was directly in front of the Sun writer's group. I was, in fact, the one who chased the list stealer and also helped police the line all goddamn day. And now all I'm getting is shit for it.

I don't know for certain if Jon and his friends cut the line, and indeed they may not have, as i saw someone in a tie dyed shirt in that group obviously step out of line so that someone in a dress shirt could switch with him. The tie dyed shirt guy left in a 1:1 switch. Additionally, while I don't know if the Sun writer's group cut at all, I do know that there were several people who split our group up, between our last number at 49 and the next guy at 70. Some girls, for instance, were sitting by the line and claimed they were going to switch with someone, though they never did, and joined the line when it moved. This is what, I'm sure, happened along the entire line.

Now, if you want to say that cutters didn't have to respect the line because it was unofficial, go right ahead. But if you "sneak" under, that's hardly a vigorous attack on the line itself-- it's the same as the guys who stole our list- if they felt the list was so meaningless, why did it need to be taken?

I agree with Jeff's point whole heartedly. You may not have broken the rules, and you probably do care very much about Cornell hockey. However, your article unnecessarily berrated those who were trying to keep some semblance of order. I, in "last year's Faithful shirt and pants" did not think that people had to listen to me because I had been there last year (or the year before, or the year before, or the year before.) I did HOPE that people listened to me, because every cutter we stopped held the integrity of the places in line for all those behind them. If Athletics or CUPD weren't going to help us police the line, responsible students like myself made every attempt to get people in a single-file line, behaving in an orderly manner, so that there was fewer cutting and so we gave the police no excuses to disband the 500 or so people who had showed up by 3PM.

If you make fun of people roping off the area, pressuring cutters, maybe you don't remember your experience two years ago that well. One kid, who we dubbed the "Enforcer" stayed up all night policing the line while frat boys let dozens of their friends in, and I saw him toss nearly hundreds out (or to the back) between 6PM and 7AM. So if it wasn't for him, maybe you would never have had a seat.

So maybe you're a real great fan. Maybe you're a real nice guy. But all I get from your article is that you're too good for the process, and for those who tried to make the best of the situation.

-Mike Rosenberg, 4 yr lynah faithful, '04

[A-19]

In response to "Let's Go Red,"

-If you got tickets in D, you were probably #300 (ultimately) or so? You certainly benefitted from us preventing people in front of you cutting. Maybe the more accurate statement is, "You got tickets in D, should have been in F."

-As to the "they were the ones who let people in," an individual at the back of the fence counted very early in the day, when the line had just formed, and there were 230 people lined up on just the 1 side of the fence. From the front of the line to the back of our group, there were 48 people. When we got our numbers at 4:45, the last member of our group was 49. If cutting occurred "up front," it didn't occur there.

-The front was not single file-- people at the back refused to move back more so that we could be single file.

-I had nothing to gain from helping around the line. Not a damn thing. Our entire group, and a friend's group behind us WANTED AND RECEIVED TICKETS IN SECTION A. Last year, I was #209 and got the same seats I did this year at #38. Between our groups, there were 55 people, all who have a very large block on the aisle in A. So it's not like I was driven by a concern for my seats here. What I was trying to do was to prevent cutting and mass pandemonium which could have ensued at 4:45 if there were 800-2,000 people milling around. Agree with the line forming early or not, it became obvious by 3PM that they weren't going to disperse people who were, more or less, orderly. I'm not asking anyone to kiss my ass for helping out, but don't be a prick. If you didn't like all the free help, which got you a higher number than you would have had if no one policed, keep you damn mouth shut.

-Mike

[A-19]

Post Edited (09-16-03 17:34)

[ssd\'05]

I'd like to stand up for Mike.  Don't call the "line police" idiots or accuse them of letting people into the line.  Belive it or not, the front of the line was policed exceptionally well.  I'm sure line cutting happened somewhere, but it certainly did not happen within the first 50 people.  If it wasn't for that rope and a few students telling several people to get lost, many of you would have much worse tickets.  They did what they could, and what they felt had to be done to maintain order.  Its a shame that nobody was responsible enough to do the same where, supposedly, one person held spots for 30.  That should never happen, and may not have happened if that portion of the line was policed by a few students.  Thanks Mike (and anyone else who policed).

[Mike Pandolfini]

Let me preface this by saying that you have no idea who was in our group at all.  Our group was represented by 5 people over night, but there were 10 people in the group overall.  The other five were not mentioned because we didn't spend most of the time with them.  These were the people with whom we switched at around 3:00.

The article was intended to be funny, and to make light of a situation that many people take all too seriously.  While the people policing the line had good intentions, I still watched several people walk right past the rope well after it was up.  In addition, several people who were friends with those who were supposed to be preventing others from sneaking under came right in with no flak.  When I was first on line (which, by the way, was around noon, although I'm sure you assumed that the first time I came was when the article said I did), I estimated that we were about numbers 30-40.  Somehow we ended up with numbers 50-54.  I'm not complaining because those line numbers are great, but clearly some of our line gods who are so quick to preserve their own spots were a little hypocritical.

In conclusion, you don't know the whole story, and I'm frankly tired of responding to comments about this.  The article was supposed to be funny.  If you don't think it was, good, because we had to edit out all the amusing parts (which you probably would have found much more offensive).  In addition, to all you preaching to have this awesome amount of hockey knowledge, I'll have you know that I've been playing since I was 8, and watching since I was 6.  So please don't make assumptions if you don't know the whole story.

Let me just end this by saying that we are all Cornellians and all big hockey fans.  It's ridiculous for us to fight about this garbage considering that it's already over.  We have much bigger problems considering we just lost several critical members of the great team we had last year.

-Mike Pandolfini '05

[Mike Pandolfini]

Bravo.  Let that be a lesson to the alumni who knew absolutely nothing about the ticket procedure and are relying completely on hearsay.

[Will]

Let me preface this by saying that you have no idea who was in our group at all. Our group was represented by 5 people over night, but there were 10 people in the group overall. The other five were not mentioned because we didn't spend most of the time with them. These were the people with whom we switched at around 3:00.

Fantastic.  So long as there were five or more people for five or more line numbers at any given time, that's great.  Glad to have that cleared up.

When I was first on line (which, by the way, was around noon, although I'm sure you assumed that the first time I came was when the article said I did)

So long as you had the minimum number of people there at all times to obtain the appropriate amount of line numbers, I don't really care when you yourself first arrived.  Although, now that you mention it, I'm starting to wonder why that particular detail wasn't mentioned in the article, since it would seem to be a part of the total experience.  Was it cut out by the editor?

[Jack]

Hi,

I think that people don't realize that this article was completely harmless.

I was in line and the self-proclaimed leaders did much more harm than good and deserve any criticism they received. It seemed to me that they had only selfish reasons to police the line. They did nothing admirable and I found them to be pretty abnoxious.

I think this issue is over because the tickets are sold. Everyone should now focus the energy they've been spending talking about tickets and use it to root for the team.