Photograph by Kevin Abbot/freeimages.com
Athletic ticket distribution has been a problem for most students and alumni who wish to go to football games but don’t have time to stand in line.
Members of the Student Government Association senate wish to present a “raffle ticket” idea to the university in order to improve the distribution of tickets to the student body. This system is used for other major universities such as Michigan State and Iowa State.
The raffle system would be done online, and students would not have to wait in line on a certain day at a certain time. Students have a 50-50 chance of winning a ticket.
Sen. Kevin Carlson said the resolution suggested that allowing students to get athletics tickets online, especially football tickets, would be fairer to students.
Sen. Lucas Thibodeau said more research should be put into the legislation before voting because it could damage attendance at non-football events.
“I think it is a good idea because waiting in line is terrible, but I am concerned for the less attended sports,” Thibodeau said. “For a sport that gets sold out every time, it makes sense, but why waste the 50-50 chance when there are still tickets available.”
There was some issue raised about how the legislation, through a point collecting system, would give students who frequently attend games a higher chance of getting a ticket.
“For the first few years of this, it will be a first come first serve thing because you won’t have points accumulated for putting your name in the raffle,” said Sen. Matthew Coleman. “For sports that aren’t football, you will for sure get a ticket when you enter the raffle.”
Carlson said the legislation does not incorporate the fact that some students have a better chance of winning a ticket, but if a student does not use the ticket that they win, they will have a somewhat smaller chance of winning the next time.
The senators who wrote the legislation said they are leaving the logistics and some of the research up to the university when they adopt the system.
“While we would have loved to research all of the specifics, we didn’t think that it would really be necessary for us to do but rather the university go in and sort out those specifics,” Carlson said. “As students, we don’t really have the knowledge on those sorts of things.”
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