[NU Sports] Attendance

[Jonathan Hodges]

Starting in 2004, there is a mandatory athletics fee ($25 per year or
something like that) tacked on to undergrad tuition.  Students can then scan
their WildCard (ID) to get into any athletics event (including football &
basketball) for free.  It's general admission, which means that the first
5,000 or so get in for football (there's also a men's basketball maximum).
I know there were a few instances where undergrads had to be turned away
(Michigan '05) but typically there's enough room.

Grad students (along with recent alumni - who graduated within the past 5
years) can purchase half price season tickets for seats just north of the
student section (the seats are assigned).  This section was moved to the
south end zone for a couple of years but was moved back next to the student
section last year.

Prior to '04, students had to buy season tickets (they were relatively
cheap, about $8 per game), but the hassle was too much for some students to
get the tickets to go, hence the change in the policy (one that makes sense
and that I support).  I am guessing NU began charging for tickets sometime
in the 90's when demand went up, but I don't know.  (Also, some of the dates
may be off by a year or two, but you should get the general idea).

The thing is - many have noted this as well - that student attendance is
hardly the problem.  If NU students fill up their ~5,000 seat section (they
rarely fill it all the way but generally do a good job putting people in the
seats) then it's really just about 10% of total stadium capacity.  There's
not much anyone can do about the nonconference games prior to the start of
the academic year (besides switching to the semester system).  NU's
undergrad population is about 7,500-8,000, so getting 5,000 students to the
game is actually pretty good.

Jonathan

On Sun, Nov 1, 2009 at 11:15 PM, Mike Nolan <nolan at romaine.tssi.com> wrote:

> > I think it is dumb to charge grad students for tickets, if I was paying
> > Kellogg $40,000 a year I would expect a little consideration. An empty
> seat
> > generates no revenue, and looks bad on TV.  Does the student section ever
> > fill up? i.e. students are turned away?
>
> What is the ticket policy for both graduate and undergraduate students
> these days?  When I was at NU (67-72) we got in just by showing our
> student IDs.
> --
> Mike Nolan
>
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