Student ticket idea to be discussed

An idea for a different way to distribute student tickets to men's basketball home game's is expected to be presented to a student committe today

A proposed idea for a new process of distributing student tickets to men’s basketball games would change student seating to general admission, assistant athletic director Steve Weakland said.

The idea will be discussed in an 8 a.m. meeting today with the Student Basketball Ticket Distribution Committeee, he said.

The idea, Weakland said, calls for student tickets to be given out with assigned sections but not assigned seats in the Save Mart Center. Under the current process, 2,000 free student tickets are available for each home game and seats are assigned on a predetermined, best-seat-available basis.

Some students have complained that the current process makes it difficult to sit with friends because, with a limit of one ticket per student, the only way to get seats next to each other is for students to pick up their tickets at the same time.

“ If you want to go with your friends, you have to get everyone together to wait in line,” Fresno State junior Brian O’Rourke said in a Dec. 5 article in The Collegian. “It’s difficult when you have conflicting schedules.”

Some campus organizations, such as fraternities and sororities, are allowed to send one representative to get up to 20 tickets, Weakland said.

The student section had more empty seats than any other part of the arena for much of the season until a game against Rice on the first day of the spring semester.

If applied, the new idea, which Weakland said hatched in the athletic department, would allow students to sit anywhere in the section assigned to them on a first-come, first-served basis.

This plan would have to be accepted by the committee for the distribution process to change. Weakland said the idea, which is still in its preliminary stages, could be put into action as early as the next home game if the student committee approves. The Bulldogs host Texas-El Paso on Feb. 12.

Student tickets are available in the University Student Union starting at 1 p.m. each Friday before weeks in which there are home games. To pick up a ticket, students must present a valid ID card.

Tickets are available until Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. for Thursday games and until Friday at noon for Saturday or Monday games.