[Husker] Student tickets

[Rod Wellman]

On Sep 2, 2011, at 10:47 AM, Mike Jaixen wrote:

> There is a problem with that approach...where do we get the inventory of tickets to expand the student section? This will be the fiftieth season of sellouts at Nebraska. Who gives up their seats when more freshmen than in past years decide to go to the games?

I've already covered how to get the inventory.  There's a brand new addition being built.  There's the inventory.  I've also covered the fluctuation issue "when more freshmen than in past years decided to go to the game".  Not an issue with modern ticketing technology.  You can provide each student the chance at a ticket with absolutely no risk to the sellout streak.

> 
> The reason why students don't have more tickets is because they frequently don't show up. 

Really?  I think the reason NU only allots 8,500 instead of 20,000 student tickets is that 11,500 seats times the "regular" price of ticket plus a hefty "donation" is a bunch of money in the coffers.  Another example of how the almighty dollar trumps common sense.  Common sense tells you that if you attend the school, you should be able to see the sports teams play their games. 

> Remember the empty student sections in 2007 and 2008?  There are some logistical issues with student seating who's interest in the games wanes from week to week.

I'm not sure how you "force" the students to show up.  I don't want to see empty student section seats either (how much noise can they make if they're not there?).  I don't know what the answer is...students will be students, whether you're at a tradition rich school like NU or not.  I think putting a good product on the field and scheduling opponents that people want to see would help keep students in the stands for every game. If you have to schedule an FCS opponent, then you take the risk of losing some student attendance, I suppose.  Same as if you have a game starting at 11 am :) 

> 
> Personally, I'd rather have the problem of not enough tickets for freshmen than what happened at Wisconsin last night, where large sections of Camp Randall sat empty.

I watched the game, and the crowd closely (trying to pick out where my seats for the game will be.)  At the beginning of the game, there were empty seats in the endzone, where the band is.  It filled in after awhile, though.  I can't blame students or anyone else for not getting too excited about seeing their team play one of the worst teams in the FBS on a 97 degree heat index night.

Rod W.
Sioux City, Ia.