Don’t look now sports fans, but if you’re not
careful, you might be an inadvertent subscriber to the Los Angeles
Times next year.
In an effort to recoup money lost from deep budget cuts, the
UCLA Athletic Department has added a $30 Times subscription to
every student sports package for the 2004-2005 season.
The renewal period for current student package holders ended
March 1, and packages will go on sale to the entire student body on
Monday.
At least initially, students will have the option of declining
the offer, which would reduce package prices to the face value of
event admission.
The 30-week subscriptions would take effect next academic year,
with 10 weeks of daily delivery for each of the fall, winter and
spring quarters.
Scott Mitchell, director of marketing for UCLA Athletics, said
the bundled deal, which works out to $1 per week for the
subscription, represents an “outstanding value” and is
a way to increase revenue for the athletics program in a time of
financial hardship.
“We’re in a situation where we have to look at
everything we currently offer and make some hard decisions with
what we can afford to do,” Mitchell said.
Last spring, the Student Fee Advisory Committee, which makes
recommendations to the chancellor on student fee distribution, cut
the Athletic Department’s share of fees by 30 percent, a loss
of about $900,000.
The department, along with UCLA Live, was among several campus
units to receive severe deductions in its student fee
allocations.
In a letter to Chancellor Albert Carnesale detailing
SFAC’s budget decisions, last year’s chairman Dean
Gerdeman explained that athletics sustained major cuts because the
committee believed other services were “of greater priority
in the current budget reduction.”
Ticket package prices are advertised in promotional materials as
ticket costs plus the Times subscription.
The John Wooden Package, which includes admission to every UCLA
home athletic event, is shown on the Web site at $149. Only in fine
print do customers find out that the price includes the Times
subscription, and that the actual price of the tickets when opting
out of the subscription is $119.
But the fine print isn’t always there. During the renewal
period for current student sports package holders, students
registered for next year’s tickets on a Web site affiliated
with the Central Ticket Office.
The only mention of the bundled Times subscription on the CTO
registration Web site was a single line above a prompt for credit
card information, which read, “I do NOT wish to receive the
L.A. Times.”
Some students believe the Athletic Department is trying to trick
them by using this marketing strategy.
Jay Herwitz, a third-year electrical engineering student, said
he thinks advertising the higher price will work, as most people,
including him, just “cruise through” the ticket
application.
“If I didn’t know it was there, I wouldn’t
even give it a second thought,” Herwitz said.
“I don’t think students would think they (UCLA
Athletics) would do that to (them),” he added.
Times Spokeswoman Martha Goldstein said the contract between the
newspaper and UCLA has not yet been settled, and declined to
comment further until an agreement has been completed.
Changes to the deal are possible while the contract is still
pending, but Mitchell said UCLA is “moving on the assumption
that this is done.”
Mitchell also said the Times has been unwilling to offer the
discounted subscription prices to anyone other than current UCLA
students, so the subscriptions will not be included with tickets
available to the general public.