Early Wednesday morning, the Athletics and Contracts Finance Department met with a representative from the athletic department to decide its budget for the 2010-11 school year. The result: a total budget of nearly $1.5 million, an 11.26 percent decrease from last year.
The committee decided to modify the system from last year to allow students the opportunity to purchase discounted season tickets. About 1,000 would be available, whereas the rest of the tickets — about 4,445 — would be available to the student body on a game-by-game basis using a distribution system similar to this year’s.
“I think it’s a great compromise and I’m really excited,” ACFC Chair Alex McCafferty said.
“It’s so cool that we have the ability to give die-hard fans the ability they seek, while significantly lowering our budget and also not decreasing the amount of tickets.”
Senate recommended that the committee not exceed zero percent growth for next year’s budget, a recommendation the committee took to heart when determining the budget.
The hearing included opening remarks from athletic department representative Garrett Klassy and public testimony in which members of the public were invited to voice their opinions on the discussion.
“I think it’s a positive for both the students and the athletic department,” Klassy said.
Although Klassy mentioned during the meeting that he would prefer that the seniors next year not have four different ticketing systems, he agreed the committee’s ultimate decision was the best one.
“I’m not opposed to change, and I think that this addresses the concerns of everyone who pays the (incidental) fee.”
McCafferty said he formed the idea after combining several ideas that came from a meeting held during finals week of fall term. He then brainstormed these ideas with Klassy and Dean of Students Paul Shang in a meeting on Tuesday.
“It turned out that we had this great proposal, and we presented it and I’m happy with the feedback,” he said.
After the consensus of the group was that the student season ticket idea was the best model, the discussion that followed was that of distribution for the remaining 4,445 tickets — whether to keep a first-come-first-served system or to change it to a lottery system.
The room was split on the decision, discussing the fairness of each system and which
variable should be used to determine who got the remaining tickets — eagerness to go to the game or chance.
ACFC Vice Chair Ben Eckstein was in support of the lottery system because he believed it increased fairness.
“The first-come-first-served is more vulnerable to technological issues,” he said.
Eckstein, who responded to every complaint during the fall distribution system, said the complaints he heard increased his desire to change the system.
“Mothers were telling me about the social effects of loneliness of their freshmen because they weren’t getting a ticket,” Eckstein said.
McCafferty also supported the lottery system, saying it evened out the playing field.
“Currently, I support the lottery system because of the inconsistencies with supply and demand of the current system,” he said. “If it were made into a real lottery system, students wouldn’t feel they were unjustly served — it would actually be luck of the draw and wouldn’t be the luck of Internet connection.”
ACFC member Hailey Sheldon, on the other hand, was adamantly in favor of the
first-come-first-served system.
“To me, it’s who you go to a game with that is the big deal. With a lottery system, how are you ever going to orchestrate that? You zero out chance of ever being able to do that,” she said. “My variable to base who gets a ticket is gusto.”
ASUO Sen. Sandy Weintraub agreed with Sheldon, saying that a lottery system would only create more complaints.
“A lottery creates demand, exceedingly large demand,” he said. “We need to be realistic about it. The better idea is to work very hard to make the (current) system better.”
ACFC decided to vote on the structure of the budget and hold off voting on how to distribute the 4,445 tickets that would be open to students on a game-by-game basis.
McCafferty said ACFC will make its final decision by the end of the term.
The budget amount also includes 1,600 tickets to basketball games, which will be held next year in the yet-to-be-finished Matthew Knight Arena.
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