University of Virginia Library

From The Sidelines

ACC
Tourney
Tickets

By Hugh Antrim

TICKETS TO THE ACC TOURNAMENT are priced at $20 a
set (four sessions at $5 each) but they never get as far as "public"
consumption. The Charlotte Coliseum seats approximately
12,000 individuals, with each ACC institution receiving 1,350
tourney tickets from ACC headquarters in Greensboro.

But if you haven't bothered to get your tournament tickets
yet and want to roll to Charlotte forget it, they went weeks
ago. Even Virginia's allotment, although the cagers are hardly first
division seeds, is all accounted for. But as Assistant Athletic
Director Bus Male proclaimed, "Any of our students who made
application ... could have a ticket," that is, if that student was to
use the ticket himself.

BACK IN JANUARY when University Hall got her share of
the ticket payload, had any student previously expressed interest
in getting a tournament seat, he would have received from Mr.
Male the following policy announcement:

We cannot possibly satisfy all the requests we are
receiving for tickets to the Atlantic Coast Conference
Basketball Tournament. Therefore, the Department of
Athletics and the Student Aid Foundation will adhere to the
following in the distribution of Virginia's share of ACC
Basketball Tournament tickets.

1. To members of the VSAF contributing a minimum of
$100 annually, two tickets.

2. To University of Virginia students on the basis that
they personally use same, one ticket.

Because of the distance, cost, and duration of the tourney, few
Virginia students have taken their option to buy the $20 tickets.
Mr. Male estimated that only ten or 12 students had gotten
tickets through his office this year, but he reiterated that this
group indeed comprised all those who had filed application and
were to use the tickets themselves.

Most ACC schools don't let their students near tournament
tickets. "We're the only school I know of in the conference that
doesn't close the students out," Mr. Male commented. An
Associated Press story stated that rights to tickets cost willing
boosters $500 and more at one school.

WHAT IS IRKING is Mr. Male's estimate that of the 1220
tickets sent from University Hall to the Student Aid Foundation,
only 60 or so go to persons who will be genuine Virginia
supporters down at the tournament. Many entrepreneurs choose
to claim their tickets only to pass them on to others, most of
whom perennially live in the Carolinas.

The ticket office in University Hall has been flooded for weeks
with requests for tournament tickets. Mr. Male has
correspondence from gentlemen as high in prestige as U.S.
Senators, to a person as unlikely as the UNC Security Police chief.
(The real poop on that Senatorial question has it that the Virginia
Senator petitioned for a ticket to give to a Senator from South
Carolina.)

MOST OF THE REQUESTS come from out-of-staters. Some
hopefuls enclose blank checks in an effort to seduce our U-Hall
officials. One fellow from Wake Forest promised to cheer for the
Cavaliers if we would send him a ticket.

And there was the lady who based her entreaties on the
prospect that since Virginia wasn't going to win anything
anyhow, she should have a Virginia ticket to root for someone
who would do better - she certainly gets the top prize for effort
- though her initial theory is fairly presumptuous.

THE WHOLE SITUATION around the tournament is a sticky
one. Even the Cavalier basketball team is having difficulty finding
a place to stay. Motel rates in Charlotte have a way of soaring
around Tournament time, and ticket scalpers are looking to have
a field day.

And our friends around the ACC tend to make matters worse
by telling optimistic buyers that Virginia (or Maryland) might
have surplus tickets, because these schools are so much farther
away from the tourney site. Such is not the case, as Mr. Male's
bulging folder of ticket requests and denials testifies.

THE CASE FOR PRIME ticket consideration going to Student
Aid members is a clear one. Their financial assistance to the
Athletic Program is vital: and yet we wish more than a dozen
Virginia students could make the trip to Charlotte, fully realizing
that perhaps no more than 12 people really wanted to go.