Ticket Line

[pissed off]

CORNELL ATHLETIC DEPT SUCKS... bitter senior student who's not getting tix this year, because of stupid, stupid system.:-(

[A-19]

so it's probably pretty tough for anyone to answer this, since anyone with a number should be supposedly sleeping in barton, but i would be curious to get a firsthand account of the situation today, how fast the numbers went, were people in a preline, etc.

also, i see that random line checks will occur between 10pm and 6am. so do they intend to wake people up in the middle of the night? i can see how that might create (1) students sleeping through checks or (2) a bad sleep environment for students with tests. and i'm certainly not one to advocate changing the system based on prelims (get better time management), but waking people up at 3am seems pretty awkward

sewer rat, i dont think you should be too upset. you are clearly committed, since you went to the trouble of attempting to camp out 2 days early. however, you should also recognize that the preline had absolutely no legitimacy this year (in arguable comparison to four years ago, two years ago and last year). in fact, your very presence in the preline brought about the decision to move the allowable date.

pissed off, i am not sure what you have to be pissed off about. in previous years, you could have been angry that people who disobeyed the system got great seats. however, everyone had the same access to the information when it was released. if i were still at cornell, the plan would have been simple. get all of your stuff packed up in advance, and start checking the bulletin/website each evening every few minutes. when the information is released, get to the location immediately. i assume by your post that all available numbers have been given out already. but there certainly are not going to be 800 students converging on the area within one moment's notice.

finally, based upon my understanding of the situation, i believe that this is the most FAIR process that the athletic office has come up with yet. i give them credit for sticking to their guns this year (unless there is some information i am not aware of). HOWEVER, i question whether the process actually gets the most committed fans, which was the reason we moved from a lottery to a line in the first place. if 800 people show up within an hour of one another, there is essentially no way to distinguish who would have waited longer. i personally believe that those willing to wait for a longer time deserve the best seats in the house [perhaps this is why "pissed off" is pissed off?]. in achieving fairness, athletics may have sacrificed a portion of its meritocratic goals of even having a line. and i'll tell you something- as committed fans go, i'm at the very top. i would have been very disappointed to have arrived and received some number higher than 200 or so.

-mike '04

[calgARI '07]

There were students dispersed around campus.  I was in a car with three guys and we had four guys on the computers.  Saw Gene Nighman at 8:30 outside the ticket office so I knew it was happening.  I heard a bunch of guys waited for him and followed him to the location.  People were running around screaming and everything.  It was definitely exciting.  The announcement came at roughly 9:00 and I got there at about 9:03 and got #99.  By 9:20, they were at about 400 I think and by 9:35, they had given them all away.  Was it the best procedure?  No.  But I think it was decent and more fair than what we had last year.  I'm disappointed that a lot of guys that were in A/B last year won't be this year.  We were in Barton until like 5:30 and then they let us go.  I wonder how many guys in the first 98 want section A.  Anybody have a ballpark idea?  

[Avash]

[Q]calgARI '07 Wrote:
I wonder how many guys in the first 98 want section A.  Anybody have a ballpark idea?  [/q]

Two years ago, I was #150 and was the first or second person to pick seats in a completely empty and available section A. So, out of the first 98, my guess would be not many at all.


(This year, I was unfortunate enough to get #490, but as Ari implied, the difference between #100 and #500 was a matter of minutes.)

Okay bed time....

[A-19]

ari,
sounds like it was alot more craziness within a moment's notice than i expected. i didnt expect 800 numbers to go in 35 mins ["pissed off" i can now see why you were pissed off]. i guess you really could get screwed if you waited a few mins too long to check the email, or if you got stuck in traffic on your way there. following gene to the location- wow, that's a new low (though whoever thought up the idea of stalking gene is brilliant by the way). i guess to make the most of the random distribution of seats, good fans will be making sections like D alot better this year. and 99 is still a great number. i have had in the 220s, 100s, 150s, and 30s, and every time i got the exact seat i wanted. it becomes more difficult with the greater number of people in your grp of course.

in terms of section A, only four kinds of people take it:
(1) those who have friends in B on the A/B aisle (starts around #150, and they take the A/B aisle)
(2) those in large groups who can't fit in B
(3) my entire crew of about 35, for the past four seasons. in my opinion, it's still the BEST in the house.
(4) the "bad" half of the section is taken around #400+. usually there is a random good seat or so left though

so if you are thinking of doing A, you can pretty much bank on almost all of it being open to you by #99.
avash, i hope you are able to get a random seat in A, you'll keep the traditions alive.

so what;'s the word on the people who were first in line this yr? it's always interesting to know whether they "deserve it" or not.

i'm also not sure how they could maintain a fair system and encourage meritocracy, unless they opened up the line like 2 weeks ago- that'll weed out the noncommitted fans, but it certainly poses more problems with regard to academics.

wow, living vicariously through you all!
-mike

[DeltaOne81]

I can't blame the administration for everything, I think they did it fine.  They should have opened it Monday but they did the right thing due to the preline. The students ruined that themselves.

But think about... do you all think that there are really 800 diehard hockey fans who are committed to waiting 3 or 4 days for tickets. There's no way. What's happening then?

Here's the sad truth, in my opinion, and from accounts: the hockey line has turned in face time.

Yup. Its the cool thing to do. To be there, to be seen, its what you're supposed to do. I know of numerous people personally or through friends, who are on the hockey line that have never been to a hockey game (that's not a problem in and of itself, more are always welcome to the fold), have never mentioned or been interested in hockey, are of the popular/drinking/partying/sorority/frat type. People who have no interest except their friends are going. People who have put drinking on a Friday ahead of family and friends regularly through parties on the weekend (and you think they'll stop for hockey? yeah right).

This is the best procedure yet, this is the longest people have ever waited in line, but I wouldn't be surprised at all, that when the 7 pm faceoff comes, that it just may be the emptiest Lynah yet. I hope I'm wrong, but I wouldn't be shocked at all.

I hope I'm wrong, but some of the people that have gone, they're not there cause they love hockey, I guarantee it. What to do? I don't know. Its beyond me. Personally I think the Sun shouldn't talk about it every day for a week leading up to it. In fact I think they should refrain from all coverage until its over, so that only the real fans seek it out. But that's neither here nor there and would have to be their choice. The problem is an attitude. Diehard hockey fans miss out on tickets for facetimers. Let's just hope the facetimers sell their tickets instead of letting them sit, and lets hope their do it without ripping people off.

And, "pissed off", don't be pissed off... I wouldn't be surprised if you have no trouble getting tickets.

[Bio '04]

Just curious, but does anyone know how the ticket line went for the grad students?  I know they had said it would be held at Barton before they announced when they would distribute the tickets.

How many people were there?  How fast did the tickets go?  (And I'm assuming the distribution was on the East end of Barton.)

[Will]

I'm surprised more people aren't pissed and posting here for a wholly different reason than those already posted.  This year's system may have been the most fair, but by my account, it was also the most dangerous.  When the notice went out, people literally raced up to where the numbers were being distributed.  People were running.  People were driving and speeding.  Unfortunately, the two mixed together made for an extremely dangerous situation.  As a driver, I had trouble navigating around the running students, and I very nearly got hit by a driver who couldn't wait for his light to turn green.  While it's true that students are going to use every method at their disposal to get to the distribution point, Athletics didn't have to make it worse by putting that distribution point IN THE MIDDLE OF A FRICKIN' PARKING LOT.  That was just begging for trouble.  To the best of my knowledge, nobody got hurt, much to my surprise (and relief).  Nevertheless, I'm shocked that Athletics opened themselves up to a huge lawsuit risk like that (since everything was taking place on University property), or at the very least bad publicity over the whole ordeal.  (People simply being unhappy and pissed off is one thing, but when people start getting injured or Dryden forbid killed, that takes the situation to a whole new worse level.)  Given the choice between this and permitting people to break the rules with the preline, I think I would have preferred the preline (and that's not just because I got a much better number that way).  Cornell hockey is awesome, but it's not worth dying for.

Sigh.  Well, I guess I'll be figuring out what the heck I'm doing over the next few nights, since I am in RabidSewerRat's group.

[MB]

Well, since I live out by the airport, I was at a bit of a disadvantage.  The e-mail came out at 9:15ish, factor in about 5-10 minutes to drive over (slow driver on Freese), and by the time I was out at the track (9:25-30ish), the numbers were all handed out, so I'm basicaly up creek without a paddle.  I hope those numbers went to people who actually care about CU hockey-- those who will try their damndest to show up to every game ON TIME.

To answer the question "is this the best way to distribute tickets?"  No, it may be a bit better than last year, but still, it's probably not the best way.  As Will stated, it's unsafe.  Before you say "damn safety buff," I have to say that once I reached campus, I was almost T-boned twice by reckless drivers heading off towards athletics.  I know that students are inherently bad drivers, but this was just a bit too crazy.  Also, this whole line number crap-- it's just dumb!  Look, how much effort does it take to "camp out" in Barton Hall from 10PM-6:30AM for 3 nights?  You'll miss a party or two on Friday, but that's it-- they might as well have sold the tickets yesterday.  Nobody is going to leave that "line" at all!  It's a friggin slumber party, and is not, in my honest opinion, what "camping out" for tickets is all about.  Standing in this "line" is the "in" thing to do now at Cornell, and ever since we made it to the Frozen Four.  I'm 100% positive that there are a bunch of good guys in that line, those who are true die-hard Cornell fans, but I'm also 100% sure that there are going to be lots of morns in that line who really don't care about the hockey and see games as a social gathering-- the people who show up late, or not at all (even if they're in sec. B), show up plastered to each game, and are dumbasses in general.

This isn't a real line, but whatever, what's done is done.  I hope I can get tickets next year.

[A-19]

it seems as if the undisclosed location aspect really made the process fair. safety is always a factor; that was the point i used to argue to the police and athletics that they shouldnt disperse last yr's preline- i mean, what did they expect, 2000 people to be milling around in an unorganized fashion, and at 4:45 pm to make a mad dash to biotech? similarly, there was the trampling incident of my sophomore year (the sept 2001 line) where people were woken up at 6am with those behind them walking over them to get tix.

with that said, i think the only way they can really improve on the fairness to bring about a more meritocratic system is to allow the first person in line to get there way earlier than 3 days. granted, they attempted to do that with the monday opening, and the prelines ruined that. but i'm talking more like 2 weeks. you can bet that all 800 people arent going to wait 2 weeks in line, so you'll get a slow trickling over time. that way, the most diehard fans not only GET seats, they get the BEST ones. possible negatives of this proposal: (1) the pressure to join a line may be immense, and the entire process may be needlessly moved 2 weeks in advance. solution: on the determination of athletics, tickets may be able to be distributed earlier than the deadline, in case of this problem. (2) $. it will cost alot to have staff on hand for the 2 week supervision, not to mention getting the facilities reserved. (3) academics. think losing a few minutes sleep before a prelim is bad, due to random night line checks? imagine permanently living in barton or the ramin room for 2 weeks and trying to get all your work done. no computer is probably one of the bigger problems here.

ideas?

mike

[KeithK]

[q]Here's the sad truth, in my opinion, and from accounts: the hockey line has turned in face time.[/q]Surest way to get rid of the facetimers is a season like '93...

[DeltaOne81]

Yeah, it seems the only way to get a fair ordering of showing up is to start way way way in advance. Find some time, be it 2 weeks, 4 weeks, or May the school year before, when only a few people will show up, and then let the most dedicated fans wait the longest.

Obviously, when the difference between number 1 and not getting tickets is willingness (or, in this case, sheer ability) to wait 3 days and 10 minutes versus 3 days and 20 minutes, then there is no actually ordering within the line, or between line and no line, beyond sheer chance. In order to get the best fans, it would have to be long enough such that people show up slowly and only the most diehard are willing to wait that long, and then people come trickling in later. A-19 nicely explained the downsides of those procedures too though.

The 10 pm to 6 am thing was both a brilliant compromise and a bad idea. I can't blame athletics, you can only blame the administration, who refuses to let the line even begin to interfere with athletics.

I don't know, I really don't know. I just wouldn't be very surprised to be very disappointed with this year's crowd.

[CowbellGuy]

If you don't set a start time and let people line up when they want, there won't be any kind of mad rush, or even what you saw with the preline. 200 people won't just decide that "today" is the day to start. If it's a slow trickle of people, they should be able to police themselves. It's in their best interest, and students managed to do that just fine with the original line. When the line is small, you won't need official policing. And athletics can decide when the line is long enough to warrant supervision, but it probably wouldn't happen until the last week or so. And I can think of one student organization *cough* Red Line *cough* that was willing to help out for free. As long as there isn't a mass influx of students in a short period of time, a self-policed list should work fine.

Athletics can not under any circumstances hand out tickets earlier than a pre-defined date. Becuase once they do that, it will undermine the whole process in future years. In fact, the less athletics tries to structure the ticket distribution, the better it will probably run. Set a date, let students do what they want, and perhaps offer official supervision for the last week or 5 days. Bottom line, you can't have any kind of official starting time or everyone will be there.

And for the love of God, make them sleep outside. On concrete and in the rain, if possible. That's the best way to curtail the line.

[calgARI '07]

Unquestionably, the line should be 2-4 weeks long.  That will lower the turnout.  I would sleep out every night for 4 weeks without hesitation.

[CUlater 89]

I'm not positive if I remember all the details correctly, but I think what Age is suggesting is similar to what was done in the late 80s, pre- Internet and e-mail.  I think they just announced (in the Sun and on the radio), more than a week in advance, when tickets would go on sale and that people who wanted to do so could line up around the outside of Lynah.  The line was policed, with random line checks, but everyone had to sleep outside, except for the night before tickets were actually sold, when we moved inside Lynah.  Upon entry into Lynah, we traded our line ticket for a "class line ticket", meaning that seniors got first priority, then juniors and so on.  I'm not sure about grad students or if there was a limit on the number of seats available to each class (although I suppose there must have been some limit).

My recollection was that people slowly started sleeping out during the course of the week and once word got around campus that a substantial number of people were there, then people came en masse.  Obviously, freshmen and sophomores had a lot less reason to get there substantially early.  As a junior and senior I got good seats in B and slept outside one or two nights, and one night inside.  As a sophomore I had decent seats in B, which was the equivalent of D today and as a freshman, good seats in A (but back then C was available to the student).