No true fan should be turned away
By Asad Ramzanali
Feb. 3, 2010 9:00 p.m.
The current UCLA student ticket system for men’s basketball games is a mess. It dampens the intensity of the Den, the section that makes home-court advantage the vital benefit it is in college basketball.
Tickets are sold through a lottery, and the lucky students whose names come up get one of two half-season packages or both, with many fans left empty-handed.
That is all thankfully about to change.
The old system leaves die-hard Bruin fans who camp out for games one season, ticketless the next, because they were snubbed by the lottery.
Another major issue with the old system is that student tickets cannot be transferred because student “tickets” are all electronically held on BruinCards.
A survey commissioned by the office of General Representative Thach Nguyen highlights some of the major issues of the current system: students missing games in their package and using friends’ BruinCards to enter games.
Tickets of those who do not show up to games are sold to ticketless students after tipoff.
Yet many seats go unfilled probably because most fans do not know this ticket re-sale structure exists.
So a large number of student seats remain empty. Last season, an average of 660 seats were filled up in a student section of 1,750. Compare that to Duke’s student section, which is known for packing 1,600 students into a section that has a capacity of 1,110. This is a sad fact because UCLA basketball boasts 11 national championships, while Duke only has three.
“The no-show factor is greater than we want it to be,” said Scott Mitchell, assistant athletic director of marketing and new revenues.
This “no-show factor” has led UCLA Athletics to revamp the student ticket system, a welcome change, albeit a late response to years of student cries.
For the 2010-2011 basketball season, there will be no lottery, according to Mitchell. Instead, any student can purchase a season pass, which would give students the opportunity to go to games but would not guarantee admission to games. Admission would be determined on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Although there won’t be an immediate emergence of week-long campouts for big games like those at Duke, this new plan will change the dynamic of the student section at basketball games in a great way.
We will no longer see true Bruin fans snubbed by a lottery. Ardent fans can attend every game. We will no longer have to look like our friends when borrowing BruinCards to sneak into games we don’t have tickets to. Anyone who really wants to go to a game can.
“Hard-core fans will appreciate this,” said Nguyen, whose office worked on a ticket transfer system earlier this year.
Presently, many fans are stuck watching big games at home because they do not have tickets. The new system will hopefully solve that issue.
Under this system, an empty seat in the student section will be harder to find. This new system will make getting seats in the best parts of the Den more competitive.
Camping out for priority passes will likely be more frequent and start earlier, said Jamie Arneson, president of the Den.
This will lead to all of the intense fans being at the games, not just the lottery-lucky segment. The student section will inevitably be more powerful.
A good student section is important for the success of our basketball team, especially in seasons like this one where every basket counts.
After a close victory over Washington this season, men’s basketball coach Ben Howland tweeted, “The student section was awesome tonight! You guys have no idea how much you helped our team. We have the best student section in the Pac-10!”
Realistically, we should be the best in the nation.
Need a campout buddy? E-mail Ramzanali at [email protected]. Send general comments to [email protected].
