The latest version of a proposal for electronic ticketing to University football and basketball games will be discussed in a public forum today at 2 p.m. in the Ben Linder Room of the EMU.
The proposal has undergone changes since the Athletic Department Finance Committee, which negotiates with the department on behalf of the ASUO, last presented it to the Student Senate.
Blocks of tickets will still be released online and students will access them based on class standing. However, freshmen will now have access to the tickets first, unlike the previous plan where they were last. Sophomores, juniors and all other students will be able to reserve tickets in staggered two-hour blocks.
Another change is that the number of tickets available to each class will be proportionate to the number of students enrolled. For example, freshmen are 13.5 percent of the current student body, so 13.5 percent of all tickets will be released during the hours freshmen can reserve them, ADFC member Alex McCafferty said.
ASUO Finance Coordinator Matt Rose said the proposal was “much improved,” in part because any tickets that are not reserved during the initial release will go into a pool for any student to access the Thursday before a game.
Tickets that are not used by students are resold to the general public.
“That’s why we try to not have unused tickets,” Rose said, “so the athletic department doesn’t make 150 percent profit on each ticket.”
There are also incentives for students to use the tickets they reserve and “disincentives” for students who reserve tickets but don’t use them.
Students who reserve tickets but know they will not be able to use them can transfer the tickets to other students in an online marketplace.
Kyle McKenzie, who just resigned from the Senate after three years as ADFC chairman, said students who don’t use or trade their tickets for one basketball game will not be able to receive a ticket to the next basketball game.
For football games, unused tickets two games in a row will result in a student missing the next home game, McKenzie said.
However, students who attend all football games in a season will be given early access to Civil War tickets.
The ASUO buys the tickets, but the athletic department is paying for all the electronic ticketing upgrades, Rose said. Efforts were made to acquire both ASUO surplus and overrealized funds for electronic ticketing last year, but neither panned out.
Rose said the overrealized funds were approved but there was “no accessible money” left in the account, because the ASUO has to keep reserve funds.
The Senate approved surplus funds as well, but the ASUO executive vetoed the spending, Rose said.
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