Spectrum South: The HURD fundraises for the Mountain West basketball tournament

Every year, the Mountain West Conference basketball championships takes place in Las Vegas. In years past, the Mountain West gave each school in the conference 100 tickets for each school’s student section. In recent years, the 100 tickets have not been enough for Utah State University’s student section the HURD. The HURD has had an average of 500 students go to the tournament and has needed to fundraise in order to financially support the students in the student section.  

This year, the conference has not extended their offer for student tickets. USUSA Athletics & Campus Recreation Executive Director Ben Burdette was not aware of this change when he was elected to office.  

“We’ve known for a couple months now,” Burdette said. “We’re not sure why, but this year, no schools will receive 100 free tickets from the conference, and so we’re responsible for purchasing all of them if we want to give them out to students.”  

Because of this lack of tickets, the HURD Committee is fighting to get more fundraising done to get students to the championships.   

“We obviously have very high attendance in Vegas based on previous tournaments, and so we’re doing our best so we can provide that experience for students,” Burdette said. “I’m sad because the students make or break the tournament atmosphere, and in the past, we’ve seen how students support their teams. I was obviously disappointed, but I think it fired us up as a HURD Committee even more to be able to fundraise — to show the conference that no matter free tickets or not, students are going to show.” 

Many students love going to the tournament every year. With the men’s basketball team’s record this year, many students are excited about going.  

“I want to go to Vegas for a few reasons. It’s fun to travel with your team. Going to away-style games is always fun to show that we have that community outside of just our home arena,” said first-year student Cal Talabot. “It’d be fun to travel as a HURD, as a family, and to go support us in an area that might be unfamiliar or really intense to support our team.”  

These students wanting to go to the tournament are not happy about the change. Between costs of travel, housing, food and tickets, students are worried they cannot afford the expenses of the championships. 

“The travel down is not a light drive. It’s pretty consuming when it comes to gas and other things,” Talabot said.  

Many students struggle with finances, and the $35 ticket per session is not a feasible purchase. Between potentially three sessions for the conference tournament, each student would end up paying about $105 dollars in tickets alone.  

To help fundraise for student tickets, the HURD has put their plans into action. On Feb. 10, the HURD Committee had a Spirit Night in collaboration with Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers. The event ran from 4 p.m. to midnight at the restaurant in Logan and became an exciting student environment following the game. The committee had multiple giveaways, including Minky Couture blankets, a Blackstone grill and Aggie swag. Many members of the men’s basketball team and community showed up to show their support to the many students in attendance. 

Photo by Dani Packer

Utah State Men’s Basketball players Tucker Anderson, left, and Mason Falslev eat at Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers on Feb. 10.

The HURD’s plans don’t stop there.  

“Obviously, we want to do a lot of the same things that we did last year because we did a ton of fundraising for tickets last year. So, a lot of that includes reaching out to businesses,” said Natalie Baker, HURD Committee member. “A lot of people are willing to donate, especially if they’re USU alumni. Also, we offer the ability to put their logo on our Vegas T-shirts if they donate a certain amount.”   

Baker said the HURD is hopeful through their fundraising and dedicated work, students will be able to come to Las Vegas for the tournament.  

“It was the highlight of my year last year,” Baker said. “I don’t think that there’s a better way for students here at Utah State to really picture and visualize the really awesome community that is being an Aggie.”