Hundreds of die-hard Duck football fans filled the hallways of the EMU and surrounded the Autzen Stadium ticket office on Nov. 19, eager to get tickets to the Civil War game on Dec. 1. The Civil War is one of the most highly-anticipated games of the season, and students were willing to camp in the rain, deprive themselves of sleep and skip classes in order to receive a tiny piece of paper that would allow them access to the event.
Ticket distribution problems have been mounting for years, and last week’s episode at Autzen and the EMU only proves the issue is worsening. Phone calls flooded ASUO and University President Dave Frohnmayer’s office, because parents were angry that their children skipped their classes to stand in line. Now rumors are running rampant about student groups misusing their EMU keys to enter the building early to be at the head of ticket lines.
There has to be a better way to distribute student tickets, without wasting time in lines. A few more effective distribution models that we came up with:
* Tie the distribution in with ASUO elections. Create a modified lottery where students who vote on ASUO issues have a chance at being selected, at random, for football tickets in the fall. Admittedly, this model means students would be bribed into voting, but it might spark more interest in campus issues.
* Using DuckWeb, each student could register their intent to attend a game in the fall. A lottery system would randomly chose from the pool of ticket seekers, and an e-mail sent to University accounts would notify the winning students of their ticket number and a date when they could pick it up at the ticket office. This would save many from the hassle of long lines and skipping class if pick-up times are incremental.
* Sell season tickets to students at a reduced price and take money out of the incidental fee. Many other schools in the Pacific-10 Conference sell their student tickets instead of using a portion of the fee to pay for a student seating section. If the Athletic Department Finance Committee’s cut of the incidental fee — which this year totaled $1,042,252 — was removed, it could lower tuition overall. The money students save could then be used to purchase individual or season tickets.
Any of these models would work, if the University was willing to change the current structure. If students want tickets to be included in the cost of the incidental fee, there should be equal opportunity for all students to obtain them. However, if students want to pay for tickets on their own, the $1,042,252 from the annual incidental fee should be returned to students — especially since a lot of them don’t attend games, and shouldn’t have to pay for their peers who do. This is not to say that we don’t support the incidental fee; but rather, that programs that receive funding from the fee should make sure students will have equal access to those programs and benefits that their funds go toward. The current setup for ticket distribution doesn’t allow equal access for all students, and needs to be replaced. As Duck football’s popularity increases, so should the availability and abundance of student tickets. After all, if we’re paying for the tickets to begin with, there should be enough to go around.