UCLA Live: Funding cuts lead to rise in student ticket prices
By David Chang
Sept. 20, 2003 9:00 p.m.
If there has to be a root of all evil, it might as well be
money. A decrease in UCLA Live’s state funding this year was
naturally followed by an increase in student ticket prices.
Glancing through this season’s catalog reveals the ungodly
sight of “$20″ replacing the usual “$15″
next to “UCLA Students.”
“It’s not surprising,” third-year history
student David Park said. “The school did raise our
tuition.”
According to UCLA Live director David Sefton, the performing
arts program’s funding was cut by three quarters of a million
dollars. Lowering the standard was out of the question, especially
after last season’s critical and commercial success. Since
the current lineup of artists has maintained, if not surpassed,
last season’s bill, somebody has to pay.
“(The artists’) fees are really high, so we end up
relying a lot on ticket revenue in order to bring artists like
Willie Nelson here,” director of marketing and communications
Shana Mathur said. “The more lower-priced tickets we offer,
the less able we are to bring artists. Now that we don’t
really get that much university funding, we’re definitely
caught in a catch-22.”
Student tickets make up about 8 to 10 percent of the total
tickets available. The short supply results in quick sell-outs and
many students being left on the outside looking in, while the ones
inside often might as well be outside due to poor seating
locations.
“We have a lot of tickets for students, some of which are
premium, top-priced tickets in the middle of the orchestra that you
can buy for student prices,” Mathur said. “A lot of
performing arts is really geared toward early buying, but people in
general buy last-minute.”
“Drummers of West Africa,” coming Oct. 9-10, is an
event that has already sold out of student tickets. Although Mathur
plans to allocate more student tickets, the season appears destined
see its share of unhappy faces.
In the opinion of some students, shoring up these deficiencies
would be a great way for UCLA Live to compromise with students who
will be shelling out some extra cash per show.
“It’s called UCLA Live,” Park said.
“Students should matter more than 10 percent.”
