This one’s kind of a head-scratcher.
It’s just a week after an abysmal turnout against Rice and
still a week before students arrive on campus.
So what does the athletic department do for the big game against
Oklahoma on Saturday?
Give every non-season ticket holding student an incentive to go
to the beach instead by jacking up ticket prices to $25 and $50 for
guests.
That’s quite a rude awakening for those who don’t do
their homework and stop by the bank on the way to the Rose
Bowl.
When I found out myself, I quickly checked for my press
credential and contemplated whether it’d be better off in a
safety deposit box or on the black market.
$75 for a student and a friend?
A pair of tickets was cheaper on e-bay earlier this week.
I suppose this is the department’s way of reminding
students that this is a premium game. Perhaps it should triple the
cost of parking too, just so season-ticket holders recognize the
magnitude as well.
Upping prices for big games isn’t entirely a new
phenomenon though, and it makes sense to a certain extent. Tickets
to the USC game have always been higher, and in the past few years,
home games against Colorado and Ohio State were considered premium
as well. However, in those latter two contests, the premium only
bumped the cost up to $10 for students. I doubt the athletic
department will argue a 150 percent inflation rate since 2001 has
created the difference this year.
Apparently, those nominal increases in previous seasons
didn’t help the department reach its goal of selling more
student sports packages though.
“We want people to buy season tickets,” director of
marketing Scott Mitchell said. “So if students want to buy
tickets for a single game, they have to pay $25.”
I may not be a marketing director, but it doesn’t seem as
though punishing those without season tickets is going to lure them
into buying them. By and large, the students who purchase the
package plan are either devoted sports fans or freshmen absolutely
giddy about doing eight-claps all day long. In short, they
don’t base their decision on the individual prices of a
couple games.
The typical student, on the other hand, is drawn to UCLA
sporting events by the on-field success of teams, not the cost
savings of a ticket plan. Joe Bandwagon isn’t going to fork
over $139 for season seats regardless since he only cares about the
few marquee games that sprout up when the Bruins are riding
high.
He’s perfectly comfortable watching most games at home on
television, where there’s a remote control that allows him to
tune in and out whenever his halfhearted school spirit pleases. The
Oklahoma game, however, is the prototypical event that would get
Joe Bandwagon off the couch and into the stadium.
With the most promising year of the Karl Dorrell era two games
in and a perennial powerhouse visiting, it’s a great
opportunity for the athletic department to bring new fans into the
fold and hopefully keep them. That’s a lot less likely,
though, if the students they are targeting enter the Rose Bowl
already resentful after shelling out $25 for a ticket.
I understand that the athletic department is on a tight budget,
and needs to capitalize on some opportunities to make more money.
The strategy could potentially pay off, considering that many
students will make an hour-long commute without realizing how much
they’ll have to pay.
But it will also undoubtedly dissuade some of those who checked
out the ticket prices ahead of time from attending.
School officials are only expecting 50,000 for the biggest
non-rivalry game UCLA has hosted in some time.
The athletic department would surely like to see that number
rise. Unfortunately, there’s another rising number
that’s taken precedence.
Finley is a 2005 football columnist. E-mail him at
afinley@media.ucla.edu.