Hocky Tickets 2006/7

Trotsky · August 30, 2006, 04:03:54 PM

[quote cth95]I agree with you that a line will weed people out who don't care as much. I meant that the current scenario is very different than the one you described.

Spending one night in line just to reserve a ticket you already have doesn't take nearly as much effort nor does it have the reward of being able to vie for a spot close enough to the front to make the cut. If one can freely choose how early they commit to the line, then there is a direct relation between their effort and the chance of getting a ticket, whereas the current system rewards anyone lucky enough to win a lottery number who is willing to stay over one night. I imagine that includes almost everyone. Only the real die hards (like the people on this forum :-) ) would camp out for three days straight to get one of the first spots in the line and assure themselves a ticket.[/quote]

I agree with you. My thinking is that in the absence of a good policy on the awarding of tickets in the first place, the best we can do is have an overnight line that weeds out the facetimers unwilling to even devote that short period to retaining their tickets.

A good system should:

1) reward the hockey obsessives with their first choice in seats

2) prefer upperclassmen to underclassmen, as the latter will have chances in later years, but

3) retain enough slots for underclassmen to bring new fans into the building

A way of distributing seats to the people who want them the most would be to make all student seating GA. Lines would be longer for high-demand games, as more students would be willing to wait longer for those. If you have GA, then you may as well tie ticket-availability to those game-specific lines and simply do away with season tickets. This would also lessen the total cost burden for people who could only see some games because of conflicts, and it would drop the facetimer total because a few select games (like Harvard) would become the velvet-rope events that those type are attracted to. (No facetimer has ever sought to increase his or her prestige by attending a Union game.) Also, without the huge up-front cost of season tickets, the AD could increase individual ticket prices to find the natural market price of tickets. People who care more will pay more, and so you get a crowd of invested people.

KeithK · August 30, 2006, 04:15:46 PM

[q]If you have GA, then you may as well tie ticket-availability to those game-specific lines and simply do away with season tickets.[/q]The AD is not going to want to do away with season tickets because it guarantees a full house every night. Let's say Cornell is in the middle of a mediocre season and plays Union on a Friday night in February. Under a single season format this game is not likely to sell out and will probably have many, mnay empty seats. The potential lost revenue from these empty seats probably outstrips the costs associated with having a line.

[q]Also, without the huge up-front cost of season tickets, the AD could increase individual ticket prices to find the natural market price of tickets.[/q]They could raise ticket prices sufficiently to counter these losses. But that's dangerous too. Demand for hockey tickets is quite inelastic for eLynah types, but not necessarily for freshmen who don't know much about hockey (I would have been in that category) or just the more casual fan. Raise the prices enough and the you depress demand and end up lowering revenue. The hardest part about this (aside from increased prices for the die-hards) is that the AD doesn't know where the revenue maximizing price is. Experimenting has the potential to cause short term revenue loss.

When all is said and done, the AD cares first and foremost about revenue, so they want a season ticket system that guarantees sell outs with as little trouble as possible. A good crowd is a added bonus, but not essential. Thus the lottery.

pat · August 30, 2006, 04:37:57 PM

[quote canuck89].I still say an unannounced quiz on cornell hockey would reward the best fans with better numbers, and it is SAFE.[/quote]


MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. When Cornell is on the power play, I should:
  a. Get up; now's the time to take a leak without missing anything.
  b. Cheer loudly and watch the play develop in the attacking zone.
  c. Yell "SHOOT" every time a Cornell player comes near the puck.

2. RPI forward Tyler Eaves makes a hand pass in his own defensive zone. I should:
  a. Answer my cell phone.
  b. Cheer loudly and watch the play develop through the neutral zone.
  c. Shriek "HAND PASS" at the top of my lungs.

3. Harvard defense Brian McCafferty is penalized for holding. As he's going to the box, I should yell:
  a. A pox upon your house, you gorbellied moldwarp!
  b. Ahhhhhh, see ya!
  c. Ahhhhhh, see ya; YOU LOSE.

ESSAY
Clap a steady beat for 4 bars and repeat without speeding up.

Tub(a) · August 30, 2006, 05:09:16 PM

[quote Winnabago][q]They may also choose seats in Section F which is a general admission section.[/q]

Did anyone catch that? What does GA in ONE section accomplish?[/quote]

Perhaps it is a test section to see how easy a GA section would be to manage for future ticket distribution systems...

Dafatone · August 30, 2006, 05:13:30 PM

Couldn't they just take everyone interested in getting tickets, and make them wait overnight, and then have a lottery? This would result in a lot more people staying over, and therefore require a bigger room, maybe barton's main room.

But instead of staying overnight once you know you're guaranteed a ticket, you have to stay overnight in order to have a chance. A lot of lame "fans" will balk at the idea of doing the overnight without being guaranteed a ticket at the end, and this will weed out many of them.

Liz '05 · August 30, 2006, 06:38:01 PM

[quote pat][quote canuck89].I still say an unannounced quiz on cornell hockey would reward the best fans with better numbers, and it is SAFE.[/quote]


MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. When Cornell is on the power play, I should:
  a. Get up; now's the time to take a leak without missing anything.
  b. Cheer loudly and watch the play develop in the attacking zone.
  c. Yell "SHOOT" every time a Cornell player comes near the puck.

2. RPI forward Tyler Eaves makes a hand pass in his own defensive zone. I should:
  a. Answer my cell phone.
  b. Cheer loudly and watch the play develop through the neutral zone.
  c. Shriek "HAND PASS" at the top of my lungs.

3. Harvard defense Brian McCafferty is penalized for holding. As he's going to the box, I should yell:
  a. A pox upon your house, you gorbellied moldwarp!
  b. Ahhhhhh, see ya!
  c. Ahhhhhh, see ya; YOU LOSE.

ESSAY
Clap a steady beat for 4 bars and repeat without speeding up.

[/quote]

Nicely done. I especially like 3(a)

las224 · August 30, 2006, 07:10:18 PM

Does anyone think any sort of protest would do any good? Granted, I'm a senior, which *hopefully* gives me a better chance at tickets. But they should really go to the deserving fans, not just anyone who wants to lottery...

Ben Rocky '04 · August 30, 2006, 07:32:54 PM

Aside from a quiz of Lynah knowledge, thats the best idea any one has put forth.

Will · August 30, 2006, 07:33:53 PM

[quote pat]A pox upon your house, you gorbellied moldwarp![/quote]

Oh, we absolutely must add this to the repertoire.

Trotsky · August 30, 2006, 08:53:01 PM

[quote las224]Does anyone think any sort of protest would do any good?[/quote]

No.

Trotsky · August 30, 2006, 09:01:34 PM

[quote KeithK]The hardest part about this (aside from increased prices for the die-hards) is that the AD doesn't know where the revenue maximizing price is. Experimenting has the potential to cause short term revenue loss.[/quote]
Does Kohls know whether if they raise the price of a pair of socks they'll take a net loss on sock revenue? I do agree that Cornell athletics has the problem that hockey is a much larger percentage of revenue than Kohls socks. But, they have their history of selling tickets and they can compare what other barns charge to help them formulate the price point, not to mention that one could also argue the same thing about the AD's imperfect knowledge about the optimal price of season tickets. Finally, the premium they would be able to charge for Harvard and playoff* tickets might go a way towards absorbing the under-selling of those red hot Thanksgiving weekend Wayne State tickets.

* Edit: this is not an assumption that there will be home playoff games. Please take note, Woofing Gods.

Cactus12 · August 30, 2006, 10:29:16 PM

I'll second that "no."

On another note:
A senior as well, I'm not all that comfortable with the consecutive tickets idea. I seem to remember packs of about 20 freshman at once going down to the line or whatever it was in 2003-2004. If too many pre-register you can likely see entire freshman sections.

ebilmes · August 30, 2006, 11:24:02 PM

A lot of my freshmen friends have heard all the stories of Cornell hockey craziness and were all excited to camp out for tickets...until I told them the system had changed. There are also a lot of freshmen who know nothing about hockey who will be registering for tickets. As much as freshmen need to experience the games to pick up the cheers, etc., there is no way any of these people should get season tickets over an upperclassman who has had tickets in the past and knows what to do.

Any ticket distribution system needs to make sure that the most dedicated fans get tickets. I don't care if it's a cheering audition, written test, campout, whatever. The team will need all the fan support it can get this season, and it's not going to get that if the best fans are locked out.

WillR · August 31, 2006, 12:14:35 PM

[quote Ben Rocky 04]Aside from a quiz of Lynah knowledge, thats the best idea any one has put forth.[/quote]

Why not do all of them.

1. You must preregister with a quiz, a few things Cornell specific would be great as would some general hockey knowledge. Admittedly it's easy but at least it could force people to expose themselves to hockey knowlegde so they can better understand it from the beginning.

2. Camp out at Barton to considered eligble, you must have taken and gotten 100% on the quiz at preregistration.

2a. If AD insists on a lottery, throw the lottery in at this stage.

3. Then once the honor is earned from the above two completed tasks, still make the lucky winners spend a weekend camped out somewhere.

BTW, the idea of a scavenger hunt is great. We did one for grad week and had to take pictures of ourselves at various places on campus, find general trivia information, like rows of seats at Schoelkopf. It was a great way to see a few things at Cornell i hadn't seen before.

-WillR

Dpperk29 · August 31, 2006, 12:30:05 PM

can I ask a question?

what makes one fan more deserving than another? and does athletics(or the university as a whole) care if these "most deserving fans" get tickets over a bunch of "non-deserving fans?"

Think about it... Tickets are going to sell out, so why would Cornell University care who gets tickets and who doesn't? all they care about is selling out the arena, which they will most likely do every year for along time. Even if by some miracle the student sections didn't sell out, there are more than enough townies willing to pay significantly more for tickets than students that would fill in the holes.

Cornell doesn't care!