University of Virginia Library

From The Sidelines

Ticket Mania

By Tom Bell

FEW ISSUES AT THE UNIVERSITY THIS YEAR have
produced as heated a reaction as the ticket policy instituted by
the athletic department for basketball games. The Judiciary
Committee has called it "insane". Numerous candidates in the
upcoming elections have denounced it in their campaigns. The
Athletic Department has been besieged with calls ever since
tickets ran out so early last Tuesday, as students realizing they
will not be able to see one the year's biggest games, have
screamed in protest.

Granted, the ticket distribution last Tuesday turned into a
fiasco as small numbers of students with large numbers of
identification cards gobbled up the 3,800 tickets within an
hour, leaving a number of students who had waited all
afternoon empty-handed and furious.

THE REAL PROBLEM, OF COURSE, is that University
Hall is suddenly too small to accommodate the number of
students who want to see the basketball team. This problem
arose last year when the team started to win after years of
losing, and going to the games became the thing to do. The
year before, when the team was less successful, a student could
arrive at the half and get just about any seat he wanted. Now,
however, there are more students who want to go than there
are seats available, and, necessarily, somebody is not going to
get into University Hall.

A major gripe among the protesting students has been that
not enough seats are available for students. Of the 7,600 seats
in the building, half have been given to students, with an
option for students to buy any general admission tickets
which remain after season ticket sales are concluded. Critics
have said that this is unfair, and that season ticket sales should
be reduced or eliminated to accommodate more students, who
are forced to pay a fee to the athletic department.
Furthermore, it has been said, students should be allowed into
the remaining general admission seats free of charge.

IT WOULD BE NICE IF THE ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT
could throw open all of University Hall to students.
Financially, however, this would be impossible if the
University wishes to maintain the caliber of program which it
now has. Recruiting, equipment, travel, coaching, and other
costs are rising, and it is the season ticket holders who pay the
bills.

Each student pays $20 per year to the athletic department.
This fee pays for student admission to football, basketball,
lacrosse, and baseball games, as well as for maintenance and
support of minor sports. Therefore, the basketball program
gets only a few dollars from each student, and more is needed
to run a good program. For this financial support, the
department must look to paid admissions. In addition, the
scholarship athletes are supported entirely by the Student Aid
Foundation, which relies totally on gifts. The Foundation can
hardly be expected to pay for the scholarships if its members
are not allowed to watch the players for which they pay
perform.

LAST SPRING MANY STUDENTS WERE SAYING
something had to be done about the seating policy in
University Hall. Students had had to go to University Hall
hours early to get seats for the South Carolina and Maryland
games, and it was easy to see that the crush would get worse
and the waits longer as the team got better. With this in mind,
the student members of the Athletic Advisory Committee sat
down to look at the problem.

The committee based their policy on four points: 1) that
half the seats in University Hall must be available for sale to
provide the necessary revenue to support the program: 2) that
the student ID card is not a guarantee of admission, but rather
gives the student the right to compete with other students for
the right to sit in the allotted student section: 3) that students
who cannot get into the student section have top priority in
obtaining the remaining general admission seats: and 4) that
tickets should be distributed before the day of the game in
order "to avoid the inconvenience and confusion of being
denied admission" on the day of the game.

WITHIN THESE GUIDELINES THE POLICY WAS
formulated and it got its first test a week ago. I failure came
about mainly because of the rule which said one student could
pick up an unlimited number of tickets. In an effort to make
the system more fair, the Athletic Advisory Committee
restricted the number of tickets a student could pick up to
four, changed the time of pickup to the morning, provided an
alternate pickup site at Memorial Gym, and limited pickup to
one game at a time. These changes should make the system
more convenient, and prevent some of the inequities of last
week from reoccurring.

The Department of Athletics instituted the ticket policy in
an effort to make the acquisition of tickets as convenient as
possible for the student, and also to allow students who
cannot get into games priority on general admission tickets, a
policy which would not have been possible under the old
system. The number of general admission tickets available is
smaller than expected due to high season ticket sales, but still
there are more tickets available to students than there were
last year.

THE POLICY FAILED ON ITS FIRST TRY, and many
students are asking for a return to the old system, which, after
all, gives those who put out the most effort a chance to see the
game. The new system, they say, only transfers the waiting to
another day. There is much to be said for this argument, but
this writer thinks the new policy, with the recent amendments,
deserves at least one more try. One has to wait either way, but
the new system offers advantages for those who cannot take
an afternoon off to sit in University Hall, and at least lets the
student know in advance he cannot get in. The students who
were mad on the day of ticket pickup would be at least as mad
when they could not get in tomorrow night. They had a right
to be mad, for there were problems with the policy. They,
however, have hopefully been worked out by the recent
changes.

THE WHOLE PROBLEM IS THAT UNIVERSITY HALL is
just too small to handle the demand for seats. People who
cannot get in are going to be mad no matter what system is
used. The ticket policy is an effort to make things easier for
the students. It deserves another chance. If its fails, then let's
go back to the old way, but before we do, let's make sure that
it is the policy, and not just the shortage of seats, that is
causing problems.