On Thu, 1 Sep 1994, Dave Kaufman wrote:
 
> All this talk of ticket prices got me to thinking about my reactions when I
> first got tickets back in '87-'88.  RPI student season tickets were about $3.50
> per game back then.  I was shocked and angry at the time that I actually had to
> pay to go see my own team play.  I (well, ok, parents and I) were contributing
> thousands of dollars to this school and I can't even see my beloved Engineers
> battle the Crimson without forking over some more money?!  Back home, it's free
> for any University of Maryland student to watch the Terps in any sport,
> including football and basketball.  The same is true and U of Virginia and many,
> many other schools.  I thought of two reasons for this.  One, RPI didn't have
> the football and basketball TV money coming in to cover the other athletic
> programs.  Or two (and more likely) it was just the 'Tute Screw again.  But
> later I found out that RPI wasn't the only place this happens.
 
Yes, some schools do include an athletic activity fee in the tuition
which allows all students to access sporting events free of charge.  The
major problem with this system is that there is yet to be a university or
college arena or stadium to set aside one seat for every student.  Not
every student that wants to see that event is going to be able to get a
seat if the demand outweighs the supply.  After all, the more seats you
have more alumni, the more ticket revenue you can generate.  Look at
those schools that are trying to move students from prime seats so that
they can turn around and sell those seats at a much higher price to more
financially secure alumni and donors.At Maryland, how hard is it to
get a basketball ticket when Duke or North Carolina comes to town?  You
have to camp out a day or two in advance to try to get a ticket.  While
this happens even at schools where students have to pay for tickets, at
schools like Maryland, you are shutting out the students who can't
tickets and taking the money of those that don't want tickets.
 
> Here's my question.  Do students pay for hockey tickets at schools with big time
> Div I football and basketball as well as hockey?  And do you also have to pay
> for the football or basketball tickets?
 
At Michigan, which you could say is successful in all three, students
have to pay for tickets to all three sports.  While they don't pay the
full price of season tickets, they do still pay about $80 for football
tickets, $80-85 for basketball, and $40-50 for hockey season tickets.
 
 
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* Robb Dunn                         University of Michigan *
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* [log in to unmask]            Cal '93, Michigan '94 and '97 *
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