Students might have to scoot over and make room for the general public at preseason, non-conference football games at Autzen Stadium next fall, giving up what students say are prime seats.
The athletic department Finance Committee and the Athletic Department stagnated in negotiations Tuesday about preseason student tickets when the ADFC refused to sign a contract that would move students out of Section 9 at the stadium.
The Ducks will play against the University of Nevada and the University of Idaho before the beginning of fall term.
Students have had Sections 5 through 9 for the past 13 years during regular and preseason games, but only about 2,500 students have attended preseason football games in recent years. In light of having had leftover tickets in past years — Sections 5 through 9 contain a total of 6,098 seats — the ADFC agreed last year to let the athletic department sell those extra tickets to the general public.
Last year, preseason tickets for students were given out starting at Section 9 going toward Section 5 while tickets that had not been picked up by students four days prior to the game were sold to the public starting at Section 5 going toward Section 9.
“We agreed in good faith to give [the athletic department] an opportunity to make more money,” said ADFC Student Senator Spencer Hamlin.
This year, the athletic department wants to switch the order and give the public first shot at Section 9 tickets to avoid past complaints the athletic department frequently receives about obstructed views because students tend to stand during most games. Apart from being moved out of the better section, the students would also lose 349 seats because Section 5 seats fewer people.
“It’s a little frustrating that [the athletic department] is trying to rework the arrangements that we’ve had for so long,” said ADFC member Jeff Kershner, a senior business and Spanish double-major.
Each year the ADFC has a budget funded by the student incidental fee to negotiate a contract for the football season, specifying the number, location and price of student seats for the regular season. Preseason games are not negotiated in this contract, but students were able to use the same sections they have during regular season in the past, until the ADFC agreed to give up leftover tickets for sale to the general public last year.
Sandy Walton, senior associate athletic director of intercollegiate athletics, said students do not pay for preseason tickets and thus have no right to any seats in any section. She said the athletic department needs to make more money, which it could do by selling the more attractive Section 9 seats to the public.
“If [tickets] are free, it seems to me we should have some say in it,” Walton said. “We can sell more tickets. We need all the money that we can raise.”
Walton said that most intercollegiate sports lose money and the burden of carrying the program cannot rest on the shoulders of two programs alone.
“Football and men’s basketball have a hard time generating profit for everything else,” she said.
Hamlin said he understands that the athletic department needs to cover rising costs, but it should not use students to pay for them.
“They’re trying to make more money by taking away our best seats,” Hamlin said. “Our job is to make sure that we protect our seats and not use the students as another source of revenue.”
The ADFC and athletic department are now looking at a mediation process, which might start by bringing in a neutral third party and could go as far as each party presenting its case to the administration, which then might have to make the final call on the issue. At this point, however, ADFC members and Walton said they were not completely sure how the process would work.
On Wednesday, the ADFC gained support in its fight from the Student Senate, which voted to back the ADFC’s decision not to agree to the suggested contract unless students start getting tickets in Section 9.
While this is the first time negotiations between the ADFC and the athletic department have come to a stalemate, disagreements have occurred earlier this season when season tickets for students were on the agenda.
The ADFC and the athletic department had looked into the possibility of offering a portion of student tickets for football as a season ticket package for an additional fee of about $20 that student season ticket holders would have to pay.
“We thought it would be a good idea, just to shorten the lines in front of the ticket office,” Hamlin said.
Walton explained that having tickets ordered before the beginning of the season and making sure students are actually enrolled at the time of the order and by the time they pick up their tickets would add extra work. To make up for the extra work, she said, would require a minimum of 2,000 tickets in order for the tickets to make financial sense.
“It’s pretty labor intensive,” she said.
The ADFC, however, was only interested in offering a few hundred student season tickets for a number of reasons.
“With the season tickets, if we offered them, a lot of people would probably pick them up even if they weren’t die-hard fans,” Hamlin said.
ADFC Student Sen. Jennifer Greenough and Hamlin said they hope all parties will remember that the reason there is college football and a stadium in the first place is the students.
“The University is for students and the students are a lot of the times the ones who are the most enthusiastic,” Greenough said.