Students expressed mixed reactions after the ASUO Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee decided on Wednesday to change its contract with the athletic department and offer 1,000 students discounted football season tickets next fall.
“I think (season) passes are a really good idea,” University senior Sam Lindsay said. “It would be such a relief. No line, no stress of getting on the Internet — you know you have a ticket; you know you can go to every game.”
Senior Krista Patterson agreed.
“It takes off the pressure of having to get a ticket every week,” she said.
The ACFC estimated the price of the season pass would be about $300, and both Lindsay and Patterson agreed that they and 998 other students would want to buy one.
“People love Duck football enough to do whatever,” Patterson said. “And judging by our friends, there would definitely be people willing to buy them.”
Lindsay’s main frustration with the current system is that there is no sure way to secure a ticket as there has been in previous years, when students physically waited in lines at Autzen Stadium and at the EMU.
“It was frustrating this year, especially if you’re a fan like me who likes to go to every game,” Lindsay said. “I couldn’t get a ticket, and I’m a senior.”
Junior Conor Berntsen said he thought the price of season tickets was too high.
“That’s a lot of money, especially to spend on a school sport which I feel like, as a student, I should be entitled to,” he said.
Berntsen said he also did not like that under the new contract, there would presumably be fewer free tickets for students.
“It’s already so hard to get a ticket, and it should be free,” he said. “It just seems kind of unfair, and it’s way too expensive. Students probably can’t pay that.”
This assumption, however, is not entirely accurate.
The ACFC negotiated to reserve four sections of the stadium for students for all Pac-10 conference games next season, as opposed to three sections for conference games and four for big games — such as USC and Oregon State — reserved last year.
ACFC Chair Alex McCafferty said the price of the season passes was 50 percent of the market value for the seats.
“I am well aware some students would not be able to afford the cost of the season pass,” he said. “The student who may not have to funds for a season pass still has plenty of opportunity to reserve a free ticket through regular distribution.”
McCafferty pointed out, however, that the season passes cost a great deal, which the athletic department agreed to offer in order to attract more students to games.
“For every seat that the athletic department sells us, they are losing at least half of what they could be making from a general admission sale,” he said. “The athletic department is a business; they need to make ends meet.”
The committee also discussed Wednesday changing the distribution system from the current online first-come-first-served system to a lottery system.
Although opinions varied on the season passes, students mostly voiced support for that over a lottery system.
“A lottery would frustrate people more than a first-come-first-served system,” Lindsay said. “Especially because standing in line was really first-come-first-served, then the Internet (system) was more of a put-off and a lottery would just be the next step away.”
Lindsay’s argument against the lottery system was similar to that of Sen. Hailey Sheldon, who argued for gusto to be the determining factor.
“You want to kind of fight for your ticket, and a lottery wouldn’t be that way,”
Lindsay said.
Berntsen said he would not support a lottery system because it allowed people into the mix who would otherwise have not put in the effort.
“It seems like if it were a lottery system, people that weren’t that into it could just enter their name and get it,” he said. “As (the system) is now, it’s a little more about who wants it the most.”
McCafferty said that this portion of the contract has not been decided.
“The lottery debate has many valid points on both sides,” he said. “I am open to hearing both viewpoints and will support whatever decision the committee
ultimately makes.”
He said ACFC wouldn’t conduct a survey of student views because of a lack of input he received when ACFC tried to change the system last year. He said he held an open forum, and only three students showed up.
“I am skeptical there will be any student engagement in the debate until after the decision is made,” he said.
[email protected]