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editorial
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Tickets 1:home
In the land of Big Red Capitalism, it
shouldn't surprise many that the Big Red
Ticket Office itself is among one of the
biggest capitalists around. In fact, it appears
Ticket Manager Jim Pittenger and his crew
may just be on the way to being all-time
greats in the sports for profit business.
In an interview Wednesday with editorial
assistant Vickie Horton, Pittenger pretty well
explained the entire rationale behind the
operations of the Ticket Office-make money
any way possible.
Admittedly, 19,374 students are given
tickets to home football games. And at a
reduced cost-a 23 discount according to
Pittenger. And most of the time there are
enough student-reserved tickets to go around.
Those tickets, however, are not
transferable, which means that only a student
can use the ticket.
But why should it matter if the student
sells or gives his ticket to someone else? What
difference does it make who sits in the
student-purchased seat? The difference begins
with a big green dollar sign. Those parents and
friends who sit in students' seats aren't buying
tickets. And that violates the "Big Red
Bucks" law: the maximum amount of money
must be obtained for the maximum number
of tickets. And if students don't like it "they
don't have to buy tickets," Pittenger said.
But enough of the students' plight at home
games.
After all, students don't really fare that
badly at home games. But then, neither do
some special interest groups.
One of those groups is the press. The
members of the bonafide press, actually
covering the game, receive from 250 to 4C0
passes per home game, according to Sports
Information Director Don Bryant.
While some would argue that members of
the press should pay for admittance to the
games like everyone else, we won't take issue ;
wl trnmrflol irrg out rticTf. There cart bTj
littledouBHihat Huskier football is a bonafide'"
news event, and as such the members of the
press deserve admittance.
One wonders, however, how many of these
newsmen would be bothering to cover
Nebraska's season if the team's seven wins had
been seven losses this year.
Another group of tickets is allotted to the
Public Relations Department each game,
according to its director George Round.
Approximately 150 complimentary tickets
are distributed through the department to
what are evidently the members of the
non-working press, radio and television es well
as state senators.
The logic here is obvious. We all know who
appropriates money to the University from
state funds. And, perhaps more importantly,
who puts the University in a good or bad light
in the great state of Nebraska.
Members of the football team receive
complimentary tickets also. The 50 certified
squad members all receive two tickets to each
home game, and an additional ticket for
each year they have lettered.
Naturally, we can't begrudge our boys in
uniform tickets for Mom and Dad. One
wonders, however if a senior three-year
letterman is shipping his five to the folks back
home of if, in fact, it's netting him a cool
$100-plus per game.
The big winners in the ticket jumble are
heavy contributors to the Athletic
Department's till. According to Pittenger, the
contributions from Big Red boosters make
ends meet in athletic finances. "Large
contributors have always received priority on
tickets," he said. "It's our way of saying
'thank you' for a better program."
The athletic department gets no tax
support and is operated solely on gate receipts
and contributions. "The public is. paying for
the football team, not the students,"
Pittenger said. For this reason, the large
contributors get prime tickets assured early.
A glass-and-concrete example of purchasing
University favors is to be seen in the plush,
heated press box which was financed to a
great extent by these contributions.
Within the press box are two separate
areas-Sections 200 and 300-which may be
purchased at will. To sit in Section 200, 241
patrons must make an initial donation of
$2,500, which assures them of a 10-year
option to buy four seats at regular cost plus
twenty per cent. In the more exclusive
Section 300, however, the initial donation is
' up to $5,000, which secures 315 donors a
10-year option on four seats at only regular
cost plus fifty per cent.
This is not to say that seats are not
available to the general public. They are, to
the tune of 40,000 per year. But ticket orders
are stacked up well in advance and one must
be extremely luck to obtain seats within the
viewing range of an electron telescope.
Despite all the blatant favoritism of the
rich and powerful in the rationing of stadium
seats, it is hard to pin all the blame for the
muck on the Ticket Office. The ticket sales
and distribution staff is just part of a larger
machine that has taken over the
University-an athl etics-above-al l-except-money
coalition.
In this realm, University athletics have
become more spectacle than sport, more
clamor than competition. The student has
become just another penny in the pocket of
big sports promotion and has been lost in the
interceding shuffle. And that's about as far
from the true purpose of intercollegiate
competition as it could be.
The Green Machine has all but destroyed
the spirit of college football.
Jim Gray
On Friday: the ticket office and away games.
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Trying
to beat
the system
miche e
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fining
Early in 1972, with much ado, hoopla and patting on the
back, the UNL administration announced that the Lincoln
campus was the recipient of a $250,000 Ford Foundation
grant. This grant was awarded with the understanding that it
would be used to better the quality of undergraduate
education at this University.
Well, you know, it'i the funniest thing. Since that time a
program has been developed which would allow students to
approach their education in an inter-disciplinary
fashion-instead of getting a piecemeal education with an
unrelated smattering of this and an obscurely related
smattering of that (after all, requirements are requirements)
students would be allowed to put together their own majors.
This is hardly a radical innovation. Other universities have
been doing things like this for a long time. With a name usually
like 'general studies', a program of this type has been
instrumental in bridging the gap between narrow disciplines
and less specialized interests.
Of course, to some persons, innovation and flexibility are
nasty words. As a result, the UNL 'University Studies' program
(as it is called), is still hung up in the University committee
system and will only be undergoing its first public scrutiny at
the Nov. 16 Arts and Sciences faculty meeting. If you're
concerned, please attend.
The only other major attempt at curriculum expansion in
the last several years has been the introduction of the
American Studies program. Ever heard of it? It wouldn't be
too surprising if you haven't. Student interest in this
program-a program which would allow an imaginative ancf
interdisciplinary approach to the study of America, its 1
Hiuuiems, pasi ana tutu re, us ricn cultural and social
heritage-has been termed low. Therefore, it has been given
probationary approval on a yearly basis.
It's difficult to support a program you've never heard of, or
one which is only given half-hearted administrative assistance.
Given half a chance, the American Studies program could be
one of the best things to hit this campus in a long while.
For as long as I can remember, students and some faculty
have complained about the insensitivity and inflexibility of
large group lecture sections and introductory courses. Some
have resigned themselves to learning little or nothing, others
have learned to beat the University at its own game. Still
others have justified the existence of such courses because
their large numbers insure more money for the department
involved. How nice.
The learning experience of the student is out weigh ted by
the economic gain involved. Keep some of this in mind if and
when thedemand comes for students to make up the $1 4
million deficit the University system has incurred during the
past year. UNL students may be asked to pay $927,000 extra
for an unimproved education of questionable quality'.
Not only does the present University administration seem
to be marginally interested in improving undergraduate
education campus-wide, in many ways, it actually hinders any
such change. 1
There comes a point when even the "most reasonable of
men and women" have dot to sav no
daily nebraskan
thursday, november 16, 1972
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