It’s no secret that with Fresno State under severe debt with the Save Mart Center and exiting the Mountain West Conference, the university is desperately seeking revenue opportunities.

And so, about two weeks ago, Fresno State Athletics announced that Colombian superstar Shakira would be headlining the first-ever concert at Valley Children’s Stadium on Aug. 7, an event that spread like wildfire on social media and drew the attention of several news outlets.

In a Pollstar report, it was even predicted that this concert would break records in Fresno.

However, it has become evident that this will most likely not be the case, whether due to ticket prices, typical Fresno heat, lack of student incentives or failed marketing campaigns.

“For things like concerts and big events, a lot of people who may love Shakira may not be up for sitting in the weather, especially if it’s 100+ degrees,” said Aidan Rosas, a Fresno State student.

Tickets went on sale on June 25, and people jumped at the chance to buy tickets; some of us even experienced a queue and had to wait in line. But after a few days, the hype died down.

We’re less than a month away from the event, and thousands of seats remain unpurchased, something that appears to be worrying Fresno State Athletic Director Garrett Klassy.

On July 2, Klassy sent a mass email to the Red Wave, where he not-so-subtly implied that athletics is desperate for ticket sales.

“But here’s the deal—we’ve got to sell it out,” Klassy wrote in the email. “Because when we fill the stadium, we don’t just celebrate a concert—we create future opportunities. National acts. Major revenue. Year-round visibility. These are the moments that redefine what’s possible.”

He practically begged the Red Wave, which is made up mostly of students, to sell out the concert, or else it wouldn’t be considered successful.

And the thing is, how is he expecting college students to spend an average of $100 on a ticket, with no discount, especially when it’s just to fund athletics’ already enormous budget?

Students currently pay an Instructionally Related Activities (IRA) fee in their tuition and fees, of which more than half goes to athletics. In the spring, the fee was increased from $132 to $380.

The raised fee will generate a total annual sum of $5 million in athletics’ budget directly from students, which is absolutely insane. We’re not sure why athletics is considered an instructionally related activity in the first place.

They already take hundreds of dollars from students, and they still want more?

At least give the students who have season passes to Valley Children’s Stadium some sort of discount on concert prices or food, which we all know is ridiculously expensive.

Or maybe even a giveaway that awards some students free tickets, come on. The incentives are right there if they really wanted to sell out more seats.

On top of everything, it’s going to be immensely hot, with temperatures averaging 101 degrees Fahrenheit per day in August.

And with the Central Valley being the heart of agriculture in California, a large percentage of valley residents work in these hot outdoor conditions, a motivating reason to blow off this concert.

“As an outside worker, when I go out with friends or to just chill, I always prefer to be indoors and away from the everyday environment I’m in,” Rosas said. “It brings out more fun and excitement than anything outside.”

If they really want to sell out tickets, they should be setting up and advertising cool-down stations to beat the heat, like big fans, misters, free ice water stations and more. All Fresno State Athletics needs to do is take one advertising and public relations class with Professor Betsy Hays, and they’d know this!

While things aren’t looking too great for the very first concert at our stadium, there should be some applause for trying. Hosting a world-renowned artist in a football stadium is not something that every city can do, and one way or another, it is drawing attention to the stadium and Fresno State.

It could also open the door to more artists exploring Valley Children’s Stadium as a venue option. Most of us have to drive to either San Francisco or Los Angeles to see an artist do a stadium tour, but opening the door to Fresno could save lots of money and time for valley residents.

Another thing to consider is that there have been budget cuts to the California State University (CSU) system that will affect Fresno State as a whole, and athletics are a big part of our school. So seeing Fresno State Athletics doing whatever they can to sustain themselves is admirable.

The issue is that begging the students for money doesn’t look so great, especially when there is the entire Central Valley to target. Instead of sending frequent emails to students and blasting the concert on Fresno State social media pages, athletics should be targeting other areas.

“Fresno State should have leaned on the community and brought in those local leaders from the entertainment business and asked them their opinion and how they would approach this opportunity,” said Brad Jaurique, owner of Brad Jaurique Promotions, a Fresno concert promotion company. “Fresno and [the] Central Valley [are] a strong and supportive network when you involve the right people.”

Overall, we believe that bringing Shakira to Fresno was a huge move for Fresno State and would have had the potential to make a real impact if the university had done so correctly. But pressing students to buy tickets and make them feel responsible for athletics’ financial lack is not only a poor way to treat its students, but a sorry effort to make the most of such a big opportunity.