As a student who logs on GoDucks.com every chance I get for the “random lottery” to get student football tickets, I’ve been following the conversation over our current ticketing system closely.
This year, the athletic department is demanding $228,000 increased charges to student Incidental Fee funds to provide the exact same amount of tickets per game next season. Already, we are paying too much for far too little in the way of student football tickets, and despite outcries from the student body, athletics wants to jack the price up on students without offering a single extra student ticket per game. We need more tickets, not more wasted money.
This is a clear-cut case of highway robbery. When the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee (the ASUO committee in charge of contracting out student tickets from the athletics department) is asked to fork over more money for the same crummy ticketing system, not only are students being robbed of the right to participate in their own school traditions, other student services contracted by ACFC get robbed as well.
This means that athletics is stealing money from other student programs; students who need affordable legal council, students who need access to public transportation, nontraditional students who need family support, students who need a safe ride home at night and others. If the athletic department is allowed to get away with this price hike, meaningful reform to the ticketing system will never take place.
No more waiting. No more disappointed students wasting time every Sunday and Thursday night to no avail. We need a better student ticketing system now, and it starts with telling athletics that if they want more money, they need to earn it by allowing students access to more tickets.
Joanna Tomas@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Joanna+Tomas@@
University student