So if we’re the ones camping out… After
three nights of camping out in an attempt to secure the optimal
cheering location for the Stanford game, many students were visibly
upset as they poured in. The reason for their dismay: much of the
first arena student section was already filled. The tenants of
these spots were found to be members of the Student Alumni
Association. As a two-year veteran of sleeping out for arena seats
at all big basketball games, I am writing in criticism of whoever
or whatever granted SAA the privilege of sitting in the prime arena
area usually reserved for the true die-hards. Now, although SAA
might do some important behind-the-scenes work that I am not aware
of (in addition to the all-important job of handing out leis),
there is no excuse for allowing this theft of seats from those who
legitimately earned them. These SAA members, many even ticketless,
blended in with the crowd and were never forced to give up their
seats to the 160 or so emotional Bruin supporters who had spent
countless hours in front of gates 10 and 15 since Wednesday. The
situation was not an unfamiliar one to priority-pass holders
because, just two days earlier SAA dominated much of the same
section. The occupation of the best student seats in the house
should be left to individuals who, game in and game out, express
their fire and enthusiasm for the team rather than to such campus
groups for social functions. Alumni already get the vast majority
of good seats at Pauley Pavilion. Let SAA work a deal to borrow
those seats for a game if need be. The student section is not the
place for campus groups to hold office parties.
Sean Green Second-year Business economics
Here’s why I don’t go to games So
Peter Dalis again complains about declining attendance at Pauley
Pavilion. Perhaps Dalis should actually step into the shoes of a
UCLA student and try to buy a ticket. As a graduating senior, I had
been lamenting the fact that I had never been to an actual UCLA
basketball game, so I decided to try to attend the California and
Stanford games. For reasons to which I am oblivious, I discovered
that UCLA only sells individual student game tickets 30 minutes
before the actual game. Most students who attend the games buy
season tickets at the beginning of the year. So with only one
option available, I began the trek to the UCLA ticket office with
my friends three hours before the Cal-UCLA game. As the game time
approaches, hundreds of students are in line eagerly waiting to buy
a ticket. Seven o’clock arrives, yet there is no attendant at
the box office. As the countdown to 7:30 marches on, people begin
to enter Pauley Pavilion, yet we ticketless students are still
standing out in the cold. Finally, at 7:35, after many requests, a
Secret Service-type man appears and begins to count the students.
He tells the first 20 people that there are tickets for them to
purchase. I do not make the cutoff. Then he demands (instead of
politely asking) that the rest of us immediately leave the area
because there are no tickets for us. As the rest of us students
stand in dismay at how little tickets there were, this man
continues to yell at us to leave. Seconds later he orders the
police to come to get rid of us. I asked the man why we had to
leave. He replied that they had been having trouble with crowd
control. So, from 7:34 p.m. to 7:35 p.m., this harmless crowd of
200 students had suddenly transformed into the reincarnation of the
police car-destroying thugs of the L.A. Lakers championship
celebration. I returned home stunned and saddened. I had just
wasted three hours of my life to stand in the cold for nothing. Why
couldn’t they have told us earlier that there were only about
20 tickets for sale? Why did they wait until five minutes after the
start of the game to sell tickets? Why do they treat students like
third-class citizens while catering to every need of the boosters
and alumni? So before Peter Dalis continues to grumble about the
lack of attendance, maybe he should take a little time to
understand just why many students don’t attend the games.
Alex Yu Business economics Class of 2001
More about student seating I never attended
UCLA, but my father was a professor at UCLA, and we always had
season tickets during the Wooden years. I will never forget the
wonderful teams that Wooden put on the court and I don’t
remember there being empty seats even against the bad teams that
were beaten by more than a 2-1 margin. The administration is trying
to maximize its cash flow by selling good seats to the wealthy.
However, in the long run, it might be losing money by lessening the
atmosphere and not making the games as exciting, not to mention
perhaps losing some star recruits. If the administration wants to
sell expensive tickets, fine. But it has to make the policy that
unsold tickets will be sold cheap to students (like a $1 apiece).
That would increase revenues and help the team. It might even help
to sell more expensive tickets. The airlines do it. Curt Schilling
recommended the same thing to help solve baseball’s problems.
Why can’t UCLA do it?
Scott Wallace Accounting instructor, Blue
Mountain Community College Pendleton, Ore.
Sports Letters to the Editor can be sent to
sports@media.ucla.edu. Include UCLA affiliation, if any. Students,
include year and major. Letters will be edited for clarity, grammar
and length.