Free Admission and Food on Saturday for SU Students

[OttoinGrotto]

So using that logic, if we charged $50 per person for the spring game, people would see it as value and we could fill the Dome.

You need to get on the horn and call TGD with that idea.

No, using that logic, since we don't have a comparison point where the Dome was open for free to everyone for a real football game, you look for the next most similar situation to make your comparison.

 

[Pat Kelly]

No, using that logic, since we don't have a comparison point where the Dome was open for free to everyone for a real football game, you look for the next most similar situation to make your comparison.

we are talking about STUDENTS

 

[OttoinGrotto]

we are talking about STUDENTS

That's not what Bees said that I was responding to.

So if SU opened the doors for a game next year and let everyone in free, there would be fewer people than we get now?

 

[SUFan44]

I can't believe this is even an argument, to be honest.

 

[CU44SE]

I paid a fricken activity fee at UB. A ton of schools do it, it almost goes unnoticed, just the cost of going to college. In return students get free access to games. I don't see a negative in all of this. You make more money and you give kids more access to the games, not one negative.

 

[rrlbees]

That's not what Bees said that I was responding to.

I responded to this, which wasn't student specific.

OttoinGrotto said:

Not necessarily. Its just a dumb human psychology thing. Same reason why you have more luck finding homes for a litter of pups if you sell them each for $25 instead of giving them away for free.

 

[SUFan44]

I paid a fricken activity fee at UB. A ton of schools do it, it almost goes unnoticed, just the cost of going to college. In return students get free access to games. I don't see a negative in all of this. You make more money and you give kids more access to the games, not one negative.

To expand on that, there are 14,000 undergrad students at SU. Right now the season ticket package for both men's basketball and football is $219. Let's, for argument's sake, say half of the undergraduate population bought that package (I'd be willing to bet a lot of money it's less than that, but for argument's sake.).

7,000 * $219 = $1.533 million

Not bad. But let's cut that price down to say $150 and tack it on to all undergraduate student activity fees.

14,000 * $150 = $2.1 million

SU is making over $500,000 (at minimum) more each year on student tickets alone - and the 7,000 people who bought tickets ARE STILL GOING TO GO! They're not magically going to stop going because all of the sudden - instead of paying the tickets are FREE!

Also, you don't think free tickets will maybe bring a couple more thousand students because it's FREE? I do.

This is so far beyond a win-win it isn't even funny.

 

[CU44SE]

Its just honestly so baffling to me that people are trying to say we would get the same or even less student participation if the tickets were free compared to 200 dollar season tickets or per game tickets. Just unfathomable, college kids always take advantage of free things. (I know you pay for it in student activate fees, but this is all paid through loans, they don't actually see that money at this time).

 

[CU44SE]

To expand on that, there are 14,000 undergrad students at SU. Right now the season ticket package for both men's basketball and football is $219. Let's, for argument's sake, say half of the undergraduate population bought that package (I'd be willing to bet a lot of money it's less than that, but for argument's sake.).

7,000 * $219 = $1.533 million

Not bad. But let's cut that price down to say $150 and tack it on to all undergraduate student activity fees.

14,000 * $150 = $2.1 million

SU is making over $500,000 more each year on student tickets alone - and the 7,000 people who bought tickets ARE STILL GOING TO GO! They're not magically going to stop going because all of the sudden - instead of paying the tickets are FREE!

Also, you don't think free tickets will maybe bring a couple more thousand students because it's FREE? I do.

This is so much beyond a win-win it isn't even funny.

I said this exact same thing in a thread about 3 months ago and I still had people telling me it wasn't worth it. They couldn't point out a specific negative, but continued to say if we win they will come. I tried to tell them, why continue to keep a barrier up, money out of pocket is a barrier that doesn't need to be there for college kids who like to use their money on going out but no one would listen. They would respond college kids find money and use it when they want to and winning would cause students to buy tickets. Thats Syracusian culture though, always reactionary and never proactive.

 

[UnknownOrange]

It's much more common to hear a student say "I don't have season tickets so I'm not gonna go" than "They aren't charging me for this therefore it has no value."

College students LOVE free stuff

Oh I know college students love free stuff -- but this isn't sunglasses or a gym bag.

Trust me I know how great football games are -- but they don't. Student attendance is an issue at 95% of college programs. Like I've said on previous threads -- How we would LOVE to have student attendance like you see at other colleges for FOOTBALL, they envy us for our attendance at BASKETBALL.

 

[BomberOrange]

To expand on that, there are 14,000 undergrad students at SU. Right now the season ticket package for both men's basketball and football is $219. Let's, for argument's sake, say half of the undergraduate population bought that package (I'd be willing to bet a lot of money it's less than that, but for argument's sake.).

7,000 * $219 = $1.533 million

Not bad. But let's cut that price down to say $150 and tack it on to all undergraduate student activity fees.

14,000 * $150 = $2.1 million

SU is making over $500,000 (at minimum) more each year on student tickets alone - and the 7,000 people who bought tickets ARE STILL GOING TO GO! They're not magically going to stop going because all of the sudden - instead of paying the tickets are FREE!

Also, you don't think free tickets will maybe bring a couple more thousand students because it's FREE? I do.

This is so far beyond a win-win it isn't even funny.

Also with the ridiculous amount that SU charges for tuition, the $150 would go virtually unnoticed.

 

[Pat Kelly]

Oh I know college students love free stuff -- but this isn't sunglasses or a gym bag.

Trust me I know how great football games are -- but they don't. Student attendance is an issue at 95% of college programs. Like I've said on previous threads -- How we would LOVE to have student attendance like you see at other colleges for FOOTBALL, they envy us for our attendance at BASKETBALL.

I don't see how charging for sporting events rather than preincluding it in the student activity fee makes it more likely for students to go. Students who are on the fence aren't going to go out of their way to purchase tickets.

 

[Ozcuse]

What about a compromise- the school could set aside 500 "free" student season tickets for SU football. It could be administered by Otto's Army and combined with their current points system. It could include a contract for each ticket that: you WILL show up to each game (on time), you won't get in trouble while at the game or at gameday activities, and you won't leave at halftime. Breaking any of those things would get your season ticket taken away.

It could be self policed by Otto's Army and if it works well, increase the allotment by 500 per year until there is a balance. There could be a small pool of funding also created for t-shirts, vuvezelas, orange sunglasses, towels, etc. for students who are good SU football ambassadors.

 

[cto]

I agree with Stephen Bailey here. If I had paid for season tix this year, I'd be pretty unhappy if other students were getting them for free. If there are to be free tickets, it should be implemented before the start of the season... so you don't have a situation where some are paid for... and some are free.

Also, if there are free tickets, how does the school know in advance how many students will show up... and therefore how many seats to offer to the public (this would certainly be an issue at well-attended basketball games). There would have to be some kind of mechanism whereby students would have to pick up their tickets in advance of the game... so the school would know what its inventory was.

 

[Millhouse]

It's the closest comparison point we have.

i think you should take whatever textbook you read and and hit yourself in the head with it until you forget it. i can do it for you. FOR FREE

 

[Millhouse]

I agree with Stephen Bailey here. If I had paid for season tix this year, I'd be pretty unhappy if other students were getting them for free. If there are to be free tickets, it should be implemented before the start of the season... so you don't have a situation where some are paid for... and some are free.

Also, if there are free tickets, how does the school know in advance how many students will show up... and therefore how many seats to offer to the public (this would certainly be an issue at well-attended basketball games). There would have to be some kind of mechanism whereby students would have to pick up their tickets in advance of the game... so the school would know what its inventory was.

we all pay for stuff ahead of time to make sure we get a seat. people next to us on planes might've paid less

 

[cuseinchina]

I agree with Stephen Bailey here. If I had paid for season tix this year, I'd be pretty unhappy if other students were getting them for free. If there are to be free tickets, it should be implemented before the start of the season... so you don't have a situation where some are paid for... and some are free.

Also, if there are free tickets, how does the school know in advance how many students will show up... and therefore how many seats to offer to the public (this would certainly be an issue at well-attended basketball games). There would have to be some kind of mechanism whereby students would have to pick up their tickets in advance of the game... so the school would know what its inventory was.

I think they can look at the box office and say based on many years of past data, what is the maximum number of people who will buy Maryland tickets before the game. And then they can say ok lets say 20% of the student body turns out (which would be way too high) and you can decide if free tickets work.

I think as long as season ticket holders (students) get better seating, and as long as they charge students for the big games- then this won't leave many students feeling like they got a raw deal.

Making the atmosphere fun at the lesser games will make them want to pay for the better games.

I love this concept.

 

[cpatrocks]

I can't believe this is even an argument, to be honest.

Couldn't agree more - this is silly.

 

[Millhouse]

Especially if it's crappy, not entertaining football, and you figure your time is better spent doing something else.

But if you sacrificed for that crappy, not entertaining football...

i think that the risk of attending a bad football game is lower than the risk of caring for an animal that someone can't sell but that's just me. it's not that hard to figure out whether a game might be worthwhile to go to. that's why i think it has nothing to do with price for anyone with any income. hard to give tickets away for lots of games.

maybe they should jack up the price. students will say wow they must be good because they can't possibly know what to expect without that price to tell them

 

[CUSU]

I am currently a college student at a smaller university. I can tell you personally that if we were charged for our D1 games that the student section wouldn't even be close to what it is. The die hards will go of course but if you want to fill the student section free tickets, in my opinion, will certainly help.

 

[UnknownOrange]

I agree with Stephen Bailey here. If I had paid for season tix this year, I'd be pretty unhappy if other students were getting them for free. If there are to be free tickets, it should be implemented before the start of the season... so you don't have a situation where some are paid for... and some are free.

Also, if there are free tickets, how does the school know in advance how many students will show up... and therefore how many seats to offer to the public (this would certainly be an issue at well-attended basketball games). There would have to be some kind of mechanism whereby students would have to pick up their tickets in advance of the game... so the school would know what its inventory was.

Adding football cost $20... I'm sure they aren't too mad

 

[TrickySU]

I'll address some of the questions/issues brought up in this thread so far. I agree that giving students free tickets to games is successful in getting more students to the games. The issue is that students who bought season tickets are left wondering why they bought season tickets in the first place. I heard first-hand from many freshman last year that they wouldn't get season tickets for football again because free tickets are given out to some of the games anyways. There's not a big enough incentive to buy the tickets in that case.

The idea of including season tickets in the student activity fee has been brought up and is still discussed. I'm not sure of the seriousness of the discussion, but it was brought up as recently as the end of last year.

Admission to all of the Olympic Sports is free. Football and Men's Basketball are the only two sports that you need to pay for tickets. There is no points system either. It was tried in the past and then stopped.

As far as the number of student seats set aside, I believe the maximum number is 5,000. I don't think 5,000 seats are always set aside, but I'm almost positive that is the max (I will check on this).

Lastly, seats are on a first come, first serve basis. Students who buy single-game tickets have just as much of a chance to sit in front as do students with season tickets.

 

[Franz69]

They should let the students in free if they promise not to jingle their *cking keys.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I responded to this, which wasn't student specific.

OttoinGrotto said:

Not necessarily. Its just a dumb human psychology thing. Same reason why you have more luck finding homes for a litter of pups if you sell them each for $25 instead of giving them away for free.

Students are humans too, Bees.

 

[bevosu]

The original Napster...did college students listen to less music?