Officers vote to sell student tickets to public
Utah State University Student Association officers voted Tuesday night to release 500 student tickets to the general public for this weekend’s football game.
The tickets, which will sell for $38 apiece, were given to the Utah State Athletics Department. This is in addition to the 500 tickets released to the department last week when athletic director John Hartwell presented to the executive council on Oct. 6. So far, only 45 of those tickets have been sold.
“It’s not a whole lot, and I don’t anticipate them selling too many more, either,” said student involvement director Linda Zimmerman.
The Aggies will take on Boise State over fall break, when many students leave town. Hartwell said historically, student attendance during fall break and Thanksgiving games has been low. As of Tuesday evening, 2,650 student tickets were distributed.
Although the executive council’s vote was unanimous, there was some concern at the initial meeting with Hartwell last week. Tickets in the student section are funded by student fees – students are required pay $135.14 each semester for the privilege of attending all athletic events.
“We’d rather have a full stadium cheering on our Aggies than see us with empty bleachers,” said athletics vice president Thomas Rogers. “If this wasn’t over fall break, I don’t think we’d be giving away tickets at all.”
Hartwell said athletics would never ask for more than 1,000 student tickets. Usually, 6,500 seats are reserved for students — most of what remains of the 25,513-seat stadium goes to the public. Rogers said the majority of public tickets are sold out for this weekend.
“They’re pretty pricey tickets, for sure,” Rogers said. “I can’t say exactly dollar-for-dollar amount where it is going.”
If the athletics department sells the additional tickets now available to it, that would make a $38,000 difference.
“The revenue that they really gain from using any of our seats, probably is slim,” Zimmerman said.
With the funds, Zimmerman said athletics may host some sort of event for students. She explained that athletics and USUSA have a close working relationship, and the entities work together to meet common goals.
“It’s tough to give away student tickets. It’s not something I enjoy,” Rogers said. “I’m hoping if we beat Boise our fans will start sprouting out of nowhere and will come to everything.”
— brennakelly818@gmail.com
As the students have already paid for these tickets, I certainly hope to see accountability from this. I want to know how many they sell, how much is made, and how exactly they give that money back to students.
But I’m well aware that won’t happen.
This is the worst written article I have ever read. The facts are all wrong. The results of sold tickets must have some benefit for the HURD, otherwise they would not have agreed to do this.
To squrrl, the students have paid for the right to attend games through their fees, but the biggest game of the year only had 2,650 students claim ticket three days before the game is PATHETIC! There are 6,500 student tickets and they should be full on Monday before each game.
Result – The USU Students don’t care about football, so why not sell the empty space and make money from people willing to pay to come to the game?
This whole debate is stupid. The USUSA made the correct choice.