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Cutting tickets

The Emerald reported today that the ASUO is considering cutting the contract for student tickets.

The discussion began when members of the budget committee that administers the ticket purchases asked senators for their suggestions. Sen. Cassandra Gray then asked her colleagues what they thought of “moving this completely off of the contract for the ASUO,” which she said would be fair to students who have no interest in attending Ducks games.

I just want to ask a couple questions and point out some stupidities here.

The question:

I realize that money is tight and blah, blah but when did the Senate think to themselves, “You know taking away free student tickets to football and basketball games won’t backfire at all. We won’t upset a majority of the campus in doing so. In fact, I bet we’ll make people very happy.”

When?

Because there is no way that taking student tickets away won’t blow up in their faces. Now, I realize that they offered some compromises like not offering tickets to pre-term games but Gray’s initial suggestion seems like the least thought out suggestion to ever grace the lips of an ASUO senator.

The killer part of their argument is really that last quote though. It would be fair to students who don’t care about Duck sports, wouldn’t it?

If that’s the logic we’re taking here, I’d like to suggest that we defund the LTD contract, remove all the student unions, also the contract student lawyers, I don’t use the craft center either, LGBQT doesn’t need money because I’m not gay so I don’t need their services. Fortunately, if we use this logic OSPIRG gets the axe too (but other more logical reasons should get them cut anyway).

I wonder what kind of protests, if any, would happen if they actually decided to go through with a full cut.

  1. nike urbanism duk says:

    my second dumbest post….do not drink and blog ducklings.

  2. nike urbanism duk says:

    How about having Harbaugh running through the Autzen tunnel at halftime and bearhugging the fighting Duck mascot and dipping him into a 55 gallon drum of boiling tar? Then UO would really have what Frohnmayer refers to as a “hot brand”. Perhaps this is what Kulongoski envisioned when he bought the 450,000 dollar slogan “OREGON, we love dreamers”.

  3. Vincent says:

    Let the Duck mascot be the next UO president. Then when the

  4. Scott says:

    Kai –

    The proportion of students who get the tickets is pretty significant.

    The UO has 20, 376 students.

    As seen here: http://www.uoregon.edu/about/

    The ticketing office gives out an average between 2,000 and 2,500 tickets for pre-fall term games.

    That’s about 10% of the student body before the year starts.

    During fall term the ticket rate rises to about 5,000, which is 25% of the student body.

    Basketball gets between 1,000 and 1,500 tickets for students depending on when the games are (i.e. school vs. winter break).

    Again, about 8% of the student body.

    This information can be seen here: http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&KEY=&ATCLID=24631

    I’d do it in HTML but I’m lazy, so y’all can just copy paste.

    Anyway, these events draw a significant proportion of the student body as compared to say the MCC which may get 50 members and bring maybe 250 people, that aren’t them, to an event.

    Consider the football tickets are generally sold out for EVERY game, and the basketball well…this season being an outlier, I’d say about 90%+ of the tickets get used.

  5. nike urbanism duk says:

    Why not just have the students all pay for tickets and not actually get them? That is what the Duck sports mafia already does with the bonding, tuition hikes, indoor waterfalls, wrestling cut,Westmoreland sale for arena parking etc. Welcome to the shell game with the notoriously violent Duck mascot. Let the Duck mascot be the next UO president. Then when the “fund academics” whiners start chirping at faculty senate meetings the mascot can simply tackle them. Fluffy Duck smackdowns are the only answer to the crisis the UO faces. Also, the mascot needs a change after acting as shadow editor for the Emerald this term.

  6. C.T. Behemoth says:

    They did. People still complain, but it’s better than the lines. I would think.

  7. Vincent says:

    Do people still stand in line for tickets? I thought they moved to an “online” model, or something.

  8. Sakaki says:

    Cassie Gray, one of the two people who erroneously rejected CJ’s nod to the Senate because he “made fun of Obama”. She’s a laughing stock.

    The only thing that Student Tickets are really useful for are Football. And, frankly, with the money saved from the I-Fee every year, students would be able to buy tickets on their own on the weekends in which they want to go. None of this standing in line crap.

    There just needs to be a discussion with the ticket office and the athletic department about holding student ticket seats until…say…the Thursday or Friday before the game, when they get put up on sale to the general public at a higher amount.

  9. Timothy says:

    Scott – Oh, young padawan, remember that in the right direction the needle must move.

    CT – There are some problematic issues with that idea, legally speaking. Rosenberger v Reactor, Southworth — given that the fees are mandatory and therefore a defacto sort of tax — allowing students to pick/choose runs you afoul of viewpoint neutrality pretty fast. Ideally you just nix the fee and let people spend their $600 on what’s important to them instead. Say, a big red sign.

  10. CJ Ciaramella says:

    The fact that that the ASUO Senate would even bring up the idea of cutting student tickets when OSPIRG is still sucking up $120,000 of student money every year speaks volumes to its general stupidity.

    And people thought I was joking when I called senators trained circus bears.

  11. Scott says:

    Timothy:

    I’m not really debating the idea of fees but more the idea that they would consider cutting a fund for something that benefits a majority of students.
    My list was to showcase a few things that only a few students use (except LTD which many students do use) but the Senate would never consider cutting.

    Basically, I’m amazed at the level of spending that goes to little used programs but when ever something that positively affects a majority of students is considered they about shit a brick with complaints.

  12. Kenneth says:

    Elections are coming up soon, I’d like to see an Athletic Tickets Slate. The Slate could further its mission by coming up with other ideas that people actually would use, in the same way the current executive proposed keeping the library open overnight and such. That slate would also probably cut OSPIRG quicker than the first grievance gets filed this year!

  13. Ossie says:

    Is it time for Dolberg to bust out the big red “KILL THE I-FEE” sign?

  14. C.T. Behemoth says:

    Give people a choice of what to ‘buy’ with their fees.

    I know we’ve been down this road before, but would it REALLY be that hard for individual students to contribute funds to what they want to see funded? Even if they don’t use it but want it funded anyway?

    It would never happen since the U of O loves its fees….but still.

  15. Timothy says:

    Speaking of lack of institutional memory…this path they are treading down – it is the responsible one. Now, we can argue about what is and is not a good deal for students, but in this crazy mixed-up system we call capitalism it’s generally the practice (and this is weird, so hang with me) people purchase goods and services they desire from the relevant suppliers.

    If that

  16. Betz says:

    …[it] would be fair to students who have no interest in attending Ducks games.

    You hit the nail on the head, Scott. I had to re-read that line a few times before I could fully fathom the meaning of this statement coming from a representative of the ASUO; an organization that spends a good deal of its time doling out funds to student groups that benefit the net amount of a dozen or two students for each group.

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