UO students are upset with the way the University of Oregon (Athletic Department?) has handled student tickets for the BCS National Championship Game in Glendale, AZ on January 10th. From the R-G:
Of the 17,000 tickets allotted to the university, 1,000 are set aside for students. But the UO isn’t selling any of those as individual tickets for the face value cost of $200.
Instead, all 1,000 are being offered through a local travel agency as part of packages that include extras ranging from post-game parties to airfare and hotels. The minimum price for the most pared-down package is $450, and that’s sold out. So is the next cheapest, at $1,135.
According to UO professional baller (dean of students) Paul Shang, the decision was made in order to avoid the complications individual tickets created at last year’s Rose Bowl, where students with tickets were unable to find places to stay and had to deal with counterfeit tickets. (Editorial: I’m unsure how selling travel packages helps with the latter concern. Indeed, wouldn’t more people be inclined to find face-value tickets instead of paying for a travel package? But I digress.) Additionally, the travel packages have flights back on January 11th to make sure students can get to class on the 12th.
Students are also frustrated with how face value tickets were distributed. An email went out to students with ticket information immediately following the Civil War game on December 4th at OSU’s Reser Stadium in Corvallis. If students had attended the game, as die-hard football fans are wont to do, they did not reach a computer in time to gain access to the ticket-only packages.
Shang acknowledged that a portion of the package price goes to cover the university’s cost for providing transportation around Phoenix, pep rallies and an after-game party. He said he didn’t know how much it will cost to provide those services or what the per-ticket mark-up is.
The least expensive package, which is sold out, is the $450 game-day-only package. That’s $250 above the ticket cost, and covers a ticket lanyard, transportation from the hotel where tickets are picked up to the stadium, and a pre-game party.
But even that is more than what some students want.
I am unsure of the real goal of this new system. What is the UO hoping to gain out of this? Additional money for the university and providing these services, obviously, but why distribute tickets directly after the game, knowing full well that many football fans would be in Corvallis? What are its intentions? What is it planning?
Lyzi Diamond is the editor-in-chief of the Oregon Commentator. She is a member of the Student Free Press Association.
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