The price of a student-section ticket to football games increased 260 percent from last year, and it’s not because demand for tickets was too great. In fact, the opposite is true.
Last year, students who did not have the Den student-ticket package could purchase a single-game football ticket for $10.
This year, the same ticket costs $36. This price unfairly targets casual fans and should be reduced again.
UCLA Athletics increased the price to encourage students to purchase the improved and now cheaper Den season pass at $99, instead of single-game tickets. Essentially, they want more students to buy the pass so they can attend more games and there are more people in the student section.
But selling single-game tickets for $36 is not the right solution to the problem of a lack of students in the student section. It is merely treating the symptoms of a larger student-body issue: a lack of school spirit among UCLA students. Curing that issue will require much more than just a pricing change. It has to be a cultural shift on campus.
So while changing the ticket price back to $10 won’t fix the bigger problem, it is a step in the right direction.
It does not seem like UCLA Athletics changed prices to profit off of students. Student ticket sales accounted for .003 percent of athletics’ $65 million budget last year.
“It’s not so much a price increase, we want to drive people to buy the season pass,” said Scott Mitchell, the director of marketing and new revenues for UCLA Athletics.
In this respect, their plan worked: The number of season passes sold to date this year has already passed the number sold all of last year.
But it also pushed many fans that were going to only attend a few games to spend their Saturdays watching the game on TVs in Westwood.
Many students can only make it to a few games because UCLA students on the whole are overcommitted to full course loads, research, internships and student group commitments.
They should not be penalized for being overachievers because that is how we all got here. The single-game student ticket price really needs to return to $10.
Regardless of the single-ticket price, the season pass is better than ever, but it does not get students to commit a Saturday to sitting in traffic on the three freeways. It doesn’t get students to tailgate, stand (not sit) in the student section and make noise on third down.
If we really want to change the lack of spirit at UCLA, many parts of campus have to realize this is a problem and push their solutions forward.
It starts with the first day students step foot on campus as Bruins. We should be teaching these starry-eyed freshmen more than just the 8-clap.
There is rich UCLA sports history to talk about. The Common Book program should give them a copy of “They Call Me Coach,” we should take them to the J.D. Morgan Center during orientation and let them view the 106 national championships UCLA has won, and we should teach them the Frisbee chant the Den uses at basketball games.
Next, the Office of Residential Life needs to do more to encourage students to attend games.
Students should not be allowed to move in that first Saturday before Zero Week if it is a home game, and ORL should suggest that students come in that Friday instead. It should be expected that they are at that game. There should be advertising on the Hill for every home game, and ORL should also organize tailgates for Hill residents.
Athletics can also push for more. The Rooter Bus price should be included in the price of the student pass. As someone who drives to the Rose Bowl, I am OK with subsidizing that cost for Hill residents. There should also be earlier buses for those who want to get there early and tailgate.
Athletics does a good job of marketing on campus and should continue its ways. The wooden signs on Bruin Walk, e-mail blasts and fliers for games get students thinking about UCLA sports, which is a good thing.
None of the recommendations I have made are difficult, but it is difficult to coordinate all of the groups involved. It comes down to student groups such as The Den and the UCLA Rally Committee to coordinate the different parts of UCLA and what we need to do to increase school spirit.
Filling up the nonstudent section of the Rose Bowl comes with winning more football games and advertising to the L.A. community. But the student section should never look empty.
That’s embarrassing.
If coach Rick Neuheisel’s team keeps playing like it did against Texas this past weekend, attendance will be less of an issue this season. More students will buy the season pass, and there’s no real reason to keep the single-game price as high as it is.
_Think $36 is a fair price? E-mail Ramzanali at
aramzanali@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to
opinion@media.ucla.edu._