CU to charge students for athletic events

[Beeeej]

[quote KeithK]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?)[/quote]

I don't know how attendance is at sports like football and basketball now, but as I recall, when tickets became free, attendance to both plummeted.

[02]

I can't say I took much advantage of athletic events other than hockey, having gone to maybe parts of 5 football games and half an hour of an indoor track meet (because a friend asked some people to cheer for her) in my 4 years.  

However, whatever Athletics fault may have been in this, it strikes me as more foolishness from the SA.  The SA and all other attempts at student politics and government at CU are a waste and run by the people who should least be in charge, the kinds of students most of us unfortunately knew and generally disdained who would show up at parties or bars on Thursday night just to be seen and shake a couple hands before heading off to the next place with more constituents.  I never saw one who knew how to down a beer or cheer for Baby or go after a hot girl without thinking first about her vote.  Damn politicians all and damn poor Cornellians, I must say.

[Ben Rocky '04]

Having stupidly been on the SA, I can tell you that you're 100% correct.

[David Harding]

In my day you bought a coupon book.  The right coupon got you into the game of the day, be it football, hockey, basketball, or whatever.  For football, about a week before the game you could exchange your coupon for a reserved seat ticket.  We would collect a bunch and some cash and get a block.  For hockey, after your three days in line, you forked over the appropriate collection of coupons, some extra cash, and you had your season tickets.  Freshman year I just showed up at the game with my coupon book and got standing room every time.  I can't rmember how much the coupon book cost, but it was much less for students than for faculty or townspeople.

[French Rage]

[quote Ben Rocky 04]Having stupidly been on the SA, I can tell you that you're 100% correct.[/quote]

Dont blame me, I voted for Kodos.

[Cactus12]

CUontheslopes...

Your point is idiotic. The degree to which a student follows Cornell lacrosse, basketball, or football has ABSOLUTELY ZERO bearing on how big a Cornell hockey fan he or she is. I know many die-hard Cornell HOCKEY fans that neither claim nor desire to be "die-hard Cornell" sports fans. If you want to be, that is your perogative. Furthermore, many of the real Lynah Faithful are professional hockey enthusiasts (as can be evidenced by the "Alumni in the Pros" threads). This respect for the game of hockey in turn denotes respect for the Cornell ice hockey program.

[CUontheslopes]

Their support of other sports has no bearing on how big a hockey fan they are, but it means they are the biggest supporters of CU Athletics and the biggest supporters of the agency - the Athletic Dept. - that gives out the tickets and should be rewarded for their loyalty and spirit.  I believe the pep band has some sort of points system (correct me if I'm wrong) requiring people to attend other events in order to gain enough points to garner hockey tickets.  This would be no different.  Prove you're a real Cornell fan.  I'd have no problem with them scanning your ID at every cornell sporting event you attending and then giving out a portion of the tickets based on the number of athletic events a student has attended.  At least then you'd know you had a fan who was committed to Cornell, more than likely an upperclassman, and a sports fan.  You certainly could do worse than packing the rink with people who bleed Carnellian and White.

[canuck89]

Interesting point.  For some months now I have had a similar idea in mind.  The Athletics Department obviously wants the safest, fairest, and most academically feasible method for handing out tickets.  So I say:

1.  Continue the method of waiting at night for a week for an announcement by radio/email.
2.  Upon hearing the announcement, a server with a ~10 question CUhockey quiz opens up (with pre-registration, kerberos, something...), and those who score best and complete it in the shortest amount of time (some formula for this or just pick one?) get the highest "line number."
3.  At this point, they can continue their idea of waiting overnight or whatever, it's irrelevant.

The idea here is that safety concerns are taken into account, and there is no more stampede or running across roads.  Also, the best hockey fans will do better on the quiz and get the most desirable tickets.  Finally, there is no line during the day so nobody will miss class.  Basically, the only change from last year would be a quiz done at home on the computer when the announcement comes, instead of fighting for your life with 2000 other students.

Any thoughts?

[Larry Mullin Jr]

All I know is that Harvard doesn't charge the students...

go Crimson.

[JasonN95]

My thought (which has been inspired by the various discussions on this board about this issue):

Students get a coupon book each with a unique number that appears on each coupon and is registered in that person's name.  Athletics will collect coupons as follows (a) two for arriving at a men's home game at least 20 min in advance of game time *even if you don't have a ticket to get in* (obviously you can't see the game if you don't have a ticket, but it allows a freshman/non-ticket holder to show their enthusiasm/sacrifice), (b) since Athletics seems to want to promote both the men's and women's teams, one for attending a women's hockey game (have to arriving before game time) and a second one after the third period as you file out for a total of two if you stay for the whole game, (c) three for attending a road men's game, (d) four for attending a road women's game.  (The actual weighting may need some tweaking but you get the idea --some efforts are rewarded more.)  Line numbers are then distributed next year in order from who has the most coupons collected by Athletics to the least until line numbers run out.  A simple drawing is used for braking ties at each coupon tally level before moving to the next lower one.

This allows the tickets to go to the most devoted without creating the policing headaches/risk of injury that the line has devolved into. No line cutting. No mobs. No facetimers (unless they can convince someone who put in the effort and then bought tickets to sell them; but that can't be avoided unless Athletics wants to try to make season ticket's non-transferable, which seems like a very difficult thing to do without a lot of complication).

The kicker, and what may kill this, is that it requires Athletics to have a coupon collector(s) at each home and away game, men's and women's, and some sort of tabulation method. I have no idea how expensive barcode readers are, but if each coupon had a barcode identifying the book's unique identifying number, then it might be feasible to pull this off without a big cost or a lot of man power--plus they'd be saving the time and money spent on the line process.

[Dpperk29]

clarkson doesn't charge their students either.

[Liz '05]

I know you realize that you haven't completely thought this through...but here are my thoughts on your idea:

1) It would be relatively easy to scam.  Pick a non-descript friend that's going to an away game, and have them bring both his/her and your coupon book up to the coupon collector.  As long as he/she doesn't hand the collector two books at once, and the collector doesn't recognize him/her, you've just scammed the system.

2) Think of the number of coupons you'd have to print and bind for the die-hard fans...and how many coupons would never get used by the facetimers making minimal effort.  edit: Unless they're scanned...in which case, why have a coupon book to start with?

I think this would be a little easier: use an ID scanner at home games (hockey and otherwise), and then track the number of away game tickets bought through the ticket office, with the caveat that if you receive a ticket from an away ticket office, you can still get credit for it by bringing it in to Gene.

You already have a discrete identification number on the ID, the photo makes it much less likely that people will try to scam and much easier to get caught, and the basics of your idea are kept.

[RichH]

[quote Dpperk29]clarkson doesn't charge their students either.[/quote]

I'm sure there's a hefty list from the ECAC of schools who either don't charge their students for athletic tickets, or incorporate the cost into an activity fee imposed on all students.  The schools in the league are generally small and academically oriented.  Just doing a small sampling of online research...I'm willing to bet that only Cornell and RPI charge students for season tickets in the ECACHL.  Maybe someone with more time could figure it out for all the league members.  Even at UVM, students are are allowed one free ticket per ID the week of the game.

That said, it's a different story for the playoffs.  Either the ECACHL or the NCAA has a rule that requires the schools to charge admission to students for post-season games.  As a result, the student sections for Clarkson, Harvard, et. al. are usually empty for the hosted playoff games, save for the rabid fans and bands.  While they usually get criticized for this in student papers and online message boards, it's somewhat explainable that when there isn't a usual admission fee, the sudden demand for $$ will keep the casual student-fan away.

[Cactus12]

You seem to repeatedly miss the point- I'd rather Lynah packed with people who care about Cornell HOCKEY...
I (and many others) have no interest in attending many other Cornell athletic events and couldn't care less about the athletics dept. administration. They're inept as far as ticket distribution is concerned.  A Cornell Hockey fan should have access to tickets based on devotion to the hockey team and the great sport of hockey. Whether or not I like lacrosse (which I don't) or football (which I do when it's well played- see Big Ten, Pac-10, etc, not Ivy league) is irrelevant. If you're a real Cornell hockey fan, that's all that matters.

An additonal note- The pep band is a completely separate issue as they ARE representative of all Cornell athletics. Fans are not.

[Red Neophyte]

[quote Larry Mullin Jr]All I know is that Harvard doesn't charge the students... [/quote]
and Harvard hockey SUCKS!