Student football tickets sell out
after two straight national titles
By Chad Lorenz
Senior Reporter
For the second straight year, some
University of Nebraska-Lincoln stu
dents who wanted season football tick
ets were turned away at the ticket win
dow.
The 8,400 tickets allocated to stu
dents sold out in mid-July, athletic de
partment ticket manager Cindy Bell
said. Student tickets went on sale April
1. Incoming freshmen received ticket
applications with their admissions
packets.
The allocation for student tickets
shrunk to 8,400 in 1991 after student
ticket sales took an all-time dive since
1977. Even though enrollment was in
creasing, students were buying fewer
tickets.
In 1994, the ticket office hit bottom,
selling only 6,375 students tickets.
After winning the first National
Championship in 24 years, students
rushed to the ticket office in 1995 to
jump on the Comhusker bandwagon,
causing UNL’s first student ticket short
age.
The first shortage wasn’t enough to
make the athletic department expand
the student section for this year, Bell
said.
The remaining 63,600 seats in Me
morial Stadium are sold to faculty and
the public, Bell said. Public ticket hold
ers can renew their season tickets ev
ery year, so the athletic department
couldn’t give that seating to students,
Bell said.
Expanding student seating would
require a collective decision by the
university, starting with the chancellor,
Bell said. Before a move starts, stu
dents would need to prove they will
keep demanding plenty of tickets, she
said.
“Before we jump the gun and start
throwing people out of their seats, we
should see if there’s any trends here,”
Bell said.
Past records showed that student
ticket sales picked up following
Nebraska’s National Championship
win in 1971. But in 1972, the Huskers
won only nine of 12 games, and in
1973, student ticket sales dropped by
1,464.
“If we don’t win a National Cham
pionship or lose a few games, we might
be sitting here at this point next year
trying to figure out what to do with the
rest of these tickets,” Bell said.
In past years when students didn’t
buy all 8,400 tickets, the rest were sold
to the public, Bell said.
Compared to universities in the Big
12, UNL students receive the smallest
ticket allotment. And the cost of stu
dent tickets, $87.50 for 6 games, is the
highest price in the Big 12.
Oklahoma State University comes
close with an allotment of 8,500 stu
dent tickets, but the student population
is 18,500. Nebraska’s 8,400 are sold
to a student body of 24,300.
Stephanie Sharp, a second-year
graduate student in urban planning,
waited until July to look into her stu
dent tickets.
“I thought, ‘It’s only mid-summer.
I’ll still be able to get them.’”
Sharp didn’t try to buy tickets when
they were first available during the
ticket lottery in April because she
couldn’t afford them. She later regret
ted her decision.
“I was really disappointed because
I’ve had football tickets since my fresh
man year,” Sharp said.
Sharp said the athletic department
should have arranged seating so more
students could still buy tickets.
“I realize they make more money
off public tickets, but it’s our school,”
she said. “We’re the ones paying to go
here.
“They’re obviously not accommo
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Big 12 Student
ootball Tickets
Nebraska students are in poor shape for football tickets
compared to the rest of the Big 12 schools.
School
Student ticket
Allotment
capacity Ticket price
&V; n " rmw
Oklahoma (no limit) 74000 $40 (5 games) 20000
* wm* i
Texas Tech 10000 50700 $42.50 (5 games) 24300
Iowa St;'ItKKK)".'* MM'''
Missouri 13000 62000 $71 (6 games) 24000
Texas
■ffeftsSt
Baylor
OkMc
Kansas
15 - 23000
75000
Mmism
(no limit) 49500
$ 95 (sports pass)
.
Free (5 games)
50000
mi
12200
(no limit)
51500 $37 (5 games)
25000
Aaron Steckelberg/DN
dating students.”
Jason Bynum, head of the ASUN
student-athletic relations committee,
said he and athletic department offi
cials discussed the anticipated sell-oul
last spring.
“They were meeting supply and
demand, earlier, but now there’s too
much demand,” Bynum said. “I don’t
think it’s anyone’s fault.”
Athletic department officials told
Bynum the student ticket allotment
would be expanded if tickets keep sell
ing out. No one specified how many
seasons would need to sell out before
the allotment would be increased, he
said. *
“As far as expanding seating or get
ting more tickets, that might require a
lot of discussion,” Bynum said.
Students should tell the Association
of Students of the University of Ne
braska their complaints and concerns,
he said.
If enough students voice an opin
ion through ASUN, they could start a
movement equal to the one that saved
student football seating from being
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