We all got that e-mail Monday, promoting UCLA Athletics’ newest venture: The Den Sports Pass.
Basically a downgrade of the previous season ticket plan where we could choose between football only, half of the Pac-10 basketball games or all of the basketball games, then hope to win the lottery, the new “Sports Pass” makes it simple: 99 bucks for football and basketball, and that’s your only option.
It’s all or nothing.
On top of that, there’s no more lottery. Anyone can get Den tickets, and your seats are on a first-come, first-serve basis. Incoming freshmen, never fear. The Den is open for you.
And if you don’t get the Den Sports Pass but you want to go to a football or men’s basketball game?
Thirty-six bucks for a football game, 40 for men’s hoops.
And why all these changes?
“With demand higher than ever and in an effort to accommodate as many students as possible,” it says in the Den Sports Pass Rules and Regulations, they created this newer, simplified ticket option.
But there’s a lot more to this new Den policy ““ there’s obviously lots of positives and negatives, so let’s explore.
For one, it’s cheaper. At $99 (plus a $4 handling fee), you can get an awesome (I hope) shirt and access to every UCLA sporting event, aside from playoffs and bowl games.
That’s a lot less than the $153 it cost this year.
Den President Jamie Arneson said the removal of the lottery system, which gives anyone a chance to get Den tickets, is a move toward changing the culture around football and basketball games, which currently caters to fair-weather fans.
So, though not as many people may want to get in on the action because Howland’s boys aren’t doing as well, Arneson and the Den are trying to change people’s reasons for going to games.
“We want to create a culture of people who would go regardless of how good our team is doing,” Arneson said.
This change puts the onus on the student, Arneson said, not the system of delegating season tickets, to make the walk down Bruin Walk to Pauley.
So now, anyone who’s willing to throw down $99 (that’s like half the price of an LS2 textbook) can get tickets. There’s, at least potentially, more competition to get into basketball games.
But, if sunny days at the Rose Bowl fill your fancies and Pauley Pavilion’s air isn’t pleasant, that’s too bad because you’ve still got to shell out the money for basketball tickets.
Go to any combination of three football and men’s basketball games, and you’re already paying more than the season ticket cost.
So, if you plan on attending a few football or basketball games, it’s a better deal to get those Den tickets ““ well, at least Athletics made it a better deal.
Okay, well, what about the “demand higher than ever” part.
Really?
Come on, you’re telling me the three-straight NCAA Final Four Bruins had less demand than this year’s team, which probably isn’t going to the tourney?
Well, maybe students want to sit in Pauley for its last year before it undergoes a $185 million renovation.
Doubt it.
Of course you should read the rules for yourself, but this new Den system just seems like a way to make up for the loss in ticket sales due to a less competitive men’s basketball team.
Just give us one option ““ all or nothing ““ and raise the competition for seats. And now, single-game tickets don’t really have a “student” price.
Forty bucks for a sporting event is not a “student” price. I can get into a Lakers game for less than $40.
This is really a smart move by Athletics at trying to encourage more students to go to all UCLA sporting events (and by all, I mean football and men’s basketball) while making more money, too.
But is it in our best interest? In the age of 34 percent fee increases, this is nothing to get up in arms about, but I don’t think that making essentially one option for football and basketball tickets is fair.
Athletics should offer us the choice of how much football and/or men’s basketball we want.
If you’re designing the new Den shirt to get that $500 UCLA Store gift card, then e-mail Mashhood at fmashhood@media.ucla.edu.