Tery Tuschen writes:
 
>This is very interesting and a good example of what happens when sports
>teams coddle the corporate dollar.  When a team struggles, the "corps"
>stop showing up.  Wisconsin too had some problems with empty seats the
>last few years, due to their struggles. That is starting to  turn
>around.  But, as far as I know, the good seats between the blue lines
>were not sold-out to the corporate $ in Madison because those season
>ticket holders have been there for many years.
>
>I hope that when UW hockey moves to the Kohl Center, the UW officials
>will fill the visible seats with deserving fans - students and
>nonstudents - who want to come to the games, and keep the corporate $
>locked away in their luxury boxes.
 
Consider these two sections from the article that was quoted:
 
> Most of the unused tickets are held by corporations, and most of those
seats,
> because a premium was paid, are the prime seats between the blue lines.
...
> The Gophers believe they need to sell all the tickets in advance because
they
> are paying off the debt service on the the arena without any taxpayer money.
 
The arena must be paid for somehow.  At some places, state funding or large
private donations have paid the lion's share of arena building costs.  That
didn't happen at Mariucci Arena, so Gopher fans pay the highest ticket
price in college hockey, see advertising wherever we look, and endure the
sight of unused corporate seats.  Without those corporate dollars, no
arena.  *Sigh*
 
-- Erik
 
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