CU to charge students for athletic events

[CUontheslopes]

I'm sure most of you have seen, but due to the utter stupidity of the SA (Tim Lim), Cornell has been forced to announce that it will charge students for other sports, most notably football, basketball, and lacrosse which should send attendence plummetting.  Cornell will be selling a ALL SPORTS PASS that would allow students into every sporting event (except of course hockey).  Obviously, this is a bit of a nuisance and it will hurt Cornell Athletics because many cash-strapped will obviously opt not to buy tickets or the pass.

Cornell, however, should make lemonade this SA lemon. Cornell has always said it wanted the most diehard fans to get hockey tickets and I think we all agree that's the best policy. Therefore, what Cornell should do is sell season hockey tickets only to students who have also purchased the all sports pass.  This would have 2 effects. First, it would make anyone interested in hockey tickets buy the pass and would boost attendance at CU sporting events. (Hey, I paid for this thing, I might as well go check out the football game today...)  Second, only real Cornell sports fans would get hockey tickets.  Imagine how much doing this would cut down on facetimers who don't care about sports at all.  This would cut down on the number of students even eligible for the hockey line and help make the numbers more managable.

I think this would be a great way for Cornell to take Tim Lim's stupidity turn it into a way to have students support all Big Red teams.  I am going to write Gene an e-mail tomorrow expressing, more elequently, of course, what I have outlined here. Any comments would be appreciated.

[Chris \'03]

I think for a lot of students, the cost of season tickets isn't a bar to their getting in line and buying them. Demand outstrips supply so much that the price is pretty much inelastic.  Tying these two things together would just be a hockey ticket surcharge. Instead of $100 for the season, not it's $175. I don't think it would do much to draw more than the usual crowd of dozens to other sports. The only effect would be cutting out students who can't afford the surcharge from the pool of demand, a pool that likely includes at least some hard core hockey fans and not just facetimers.

Further, one should be able to be a cornell hockey fan and not care about other teams. It doesn't cast their hockey fandom in doubt if they couldn't care less about basketball.

[Trotsky]

Mandatory written exam on Cornell hockey history.  Top 4000 scores get tickets.  :-D

[Trotsky]

Note: although Cornell is barred from offering Athletic Fan Scholarships, there will be needs-based scholarships offered concentrating on fans with "special gifts."  Leather lungs.  Cowbell.  Tank top talent...

[CUontheslopes]

[quote Chris '03] Further, one should be able to be a cornell hockey fan and not care about other teams. It doesn't cast their hockey fandom in doubt if they couldn't care less about basketball.[/quote]

I have to disagree - the tickets should go to the biggest CORNELL fans.  In fact, I find it incredibly annoying that some people only turn out for hockey.  Don't get me  wrong, i've been to every single ice hockey game since i've been on campus, but I also make it to all the football and lacrosse games as well as maybe 5 basketball games a season.  However, fans should turn out to watch other sports as well.
 
Hockey is just one sport, obviously the most noteworthy (with some recent competition from lacrosse). Hockey tickets should go to the most diehard Cornell sports fans.  Those who support all of Big Red athletics deserve a chance to watch their favorite Cornell sport hockey, as opposed to those who, excuse me for saying so, are not real Cornell fans, but only Cornell Hockey fans.   This is no different from people here who complain that students only show up to the Harvard game or the Dartmouth game and don't care about other games don't deserve season tickets.  I assert the same is true for people who don't care enough about the rest of cornell sports to get a sports pass - they do not deserve the chance to buy hockey tickets because they are not real Cornell fans.

[Ben Rocky '04]

Reminds me of a cheer I heard at the Yale/Brown weekend at Lynah this winter:

Hey Goalie, your mom called, she said:  YOU SUCK
Hey Goalie, your boyfriend called, he said:  YOU SUCK
Hey Goalie, Tim Lim called, he said:  YOU SUCK

:-P

[KeithK]

I think your analogy to facetimers who only show up to the Harvard game falls short.  Those who are only interested in attending fish and fowl are clearly not hockey fans - they're just there for the event. On the other hand, one can be a huge Cornell hockey fan and not care about, for instance, basketball.  There's a big difference in degree between the two cases.

I'm sure there are plenty of big Cornell hockey fans who don't care much about the other sports on campus. I'd rather have the diehard hockey fan in the rink than some more casual fan who's also a casual fan of Cornell basketball and football. The diehards are more likely to pack the rink.

I respect your general pro-Cornell sports attitude, but I think you're trying to take it too far with this suggestion.

[Rosey]

[quote KeithK]I'm sure there are plenty of big Cornell hockey fans who don't care much about the other sports on campus. I'd rather have the diehard hockey fan in the rink than some more casual fan who's also a casual fan of Cornell basketball and football. The diehards are more likely to pack the rink.[/quote]
Agreed.

I went to about 4 football games, and a grand total of one each lacrosse game, soccer game, and track meet during my time on the hill.

While I'm sure this behavior isn't universal, it is probably the norm even for the die-hard hockey fans.

Kyle

[Josh '99]

OK, I give up.  Who's Tim Lim and how did the SA bring this about?

[Liz '05]

I agree with what I think is the general consensus that while it would be nice to have more people attend the other sporting events, this is probably not the way to do it.  Reasons have been outlined above.

I'd consider myself a pretty die-hard hockey fan, a casual fan of football, wrestling, and lacrosse through this board, and a casual fan of crew, polo, gymnastics, and a variety of club teams because of friends on the team.  My casual fandom usually didn't extend to attendance, though I could talk somewhat knowledgably about the team.  I might've gotten the pass in order to get the hockey tickets, but I almost certainly wouldn't have used it more often than the (maybe) two football games, a gymnastics meet, and handful of water polo games (which are free anyway) I already made it to.  I'd say this idea is unfair to those who can't afford the extra charge, has the potential to change the composition of the Lynah Faithful, and is unlikely to significantly change the attendance in other sports.

A possible alternative is this:  Between periods, give away a free (pair of?) ticket(s?) to an upcoming game that doesn't conflict with hockey.  Having the ticket in hand is likely to get the student there, which might bring along a few friends and develop an interest in a new sport.

[KeithK]

[quote jmh30]OK, I give up.  Who's Tim Lim and how did the SA bring this about?[/quote]I don't know the details.  But I do know that the only reason that Cornell sports like football and basketball were free to students for a while was that the SA allocated a portion of the activity fee to the Athletic Dept.  This started in the early to mid nineties.  I assume Mr. Lim successfully lobbied the SA to cancel this allocation and as a result the AD went back to charging for sporting events.

Back in the day students had to buy individual tickets for football or basketball.  I don't know if attendance improved when the games became free to students, but I suspect revenue improved or at least stabilized (or else why would the AD do it?)

[jtwcornell91]

[quote KeithK]Back in the day students had to buy individual tickets for football or basketball.[/quote]

Although IIRC they were about $5 a piece and you could get a season ticket for approximately 5 home football games for about $12.

[jtwcornell91]

[quote CUontheslopes]This is no different from people here who complain that students only show up to the Harvard game or the Dartmouth game and don't care about other games don't deserve season tickets.[/quote]

There are people who only show up for the Dartmouth game?  ::nut::

[ftyuv]

Athletics didn't get SA funding this year because they didn't realize that the deadline had changed.  Somehow other groups managed to get it done, and I'm sure the blame doesn't fall only on the SA.  Takes two to tango.  And besides, when it was clear that the SA funding had fallen through for whatever reason, the University as a whole should have picked up the tab.

Anyway I've got to agree that being a hockey fan doesn't mean you have to be a basketball fan.  I love watching hockey.  By senior year (I was a late bloomer in terms of catching the bug), I was going to not just the men's games but also almost all of the women's -- I think the first time I missed a women's game, it was cause I went down to Pton for the men's.  And yet I didn't go to a single basketball game, or any other sport for that matter.  Does that make me a bad Cornellian?  Maybe, whatever.  But I was still a pretty decent Cornell Hockey fan, and I don't see why I should have been forced to pay for a season pass to the other sports.

[dietlbomb]

Maybe they could discount the price of the hockey tickets to the season pass holders.