When I was a freshman, Oregon football and basketball tickets were not secured online.
They were obtained at the EMU, or the Autzen Stadium ticket windows, or the Casanova Center ticket offices. Our tickets were actual pieces of paper that required our student identification cards and had to be scanned in to confirm entry.
To get tickets under the current system, which was implemented in 2008, students have two options. One is a season-ticket package (football only) that can be purchased for $200. (An option to purchase men’s basketball tickets under a similar deal is purportedly in the works.) The other is to wait until the prescribed time to log into GoDucks.com, the athletic department’s website, and purchase tickets at that time.
More often than not, students have been left out in the cold. Chasing a limited supply, many are simply unable to get beyond the first click of the link to the buying page. Students can log in even hours before the start of the sale, continually refresh the page, and still not receive a ticket.
Under the old system, students waited in line to obtain tickets, as they were palpable, physical copies. As a result, people would line up to receive them, sometimes waiting entire days. On the day of the release, hundreds of people would trudge up to the ticket office over a period of several hours.
Professors complained — rightfully — of students missing Monday morning classes, and being ill-prepared for others, after spending a night outside and exposed to the elements. (Exempted from this were blanket fortresses and the occasional tents.) The athletic department pushed online ticketing as a means of saving money and manual labor. And voila — a new system.
I understand that the athletic department’s first instinct these days is to make a profit, in order to keep itself sustainable into the near future. Charging higher prices to the ASUO for student tickets and offering the season-ticket packages for a nominal fee accomplishes that end.
So call me sentimental, I guess.
Some of my best times in college took place in various student sections or outside of various locations waiting to get tickets. I made many friends that I would not have otherwise as we bonded through sheer camaraderie, appreciation for modern spectacle and lack of warmth outside.
I graduate from the University in three weeks. During my tenure at this school, I feel that students without extraordinary athletic ability have been pushed away as stakeholders of the events put on and managed by the Oregon athletic department. The reasons for this makes sense economically.
Decisions in college sports have always been made with at least some economic considerations. Some have, indeed, been made with the students in mind — the Pit Crew would not sit where it does at Matthew Knight Arena without that.
I still stand by a few principles that I consider integral to the student fan experience:
Everyone who wants a ticket should be allowed to get a ticket.
Students should decide how best to handle transactions related to tickets.
No student who has ever logged on up to the minute of an online sale and failed to receive a ticket has ever acted in the wrong.
And finally, students should fight for their rights to tickets and be heard by those in charge.
It should come as no surprise to the athletic department that even now, students have been able to sneak into games without tickets. In fact, dare I say it, they’re probably getting smarter about the whole affair.
They want the same thing we all do: The ability to congeal into a massive, belligerent group bent on supporting the home team and assailing the visitors into making mistakes.
Some traditions are simply timeless.