Students line up for tickets

Despite long lines, high ticket prices and even higher travel costs, few students are experiencing buyer's remorse where the Rose Bowl is concerned. But if Christmas came early this year for Wolverine fans, many are seeing first hand why the holiday season is so stressful.

Purchasing tickets was an exhausting process in itself yesterday. The ticket line outside Yost Ice Arena snaked around an adjacent parking lot during the first day of student ticket voucher sales.

Tom Karunas, game day supervisor of ticket sales, said about 3,000 student tickets were sold yesterday.

JOHN KRAFT/Daily LSA senior Bill Hasler and his brother, Engineering sophomore Brad Hasler, camped outside Yost Ice Arena yesterday for Rose Bowl tickets.

"I've waited 45 minutes and moved about 35 feet," said LSA senior Jim Schumacher, one of the estimated 5,000-7,000 students expected to buy tickets for the Rose Bowl game in Pasadena.

"It's a hell of a lot longer than I expected," he said. "I'll probably be (here) another three hours."

Although the line was long, students remained intent on attending the New Year's Day game.

"I think it'll be at least two more hours, but I'll wait as long as it takes," said LSA first-year student Reza Kafi. "I don't think the line has moved. People have just squished together."

LSA junior Danielle Cross, LSA senior Cynthia Chen and LSA sophomore Eric Prowse arrived at 8:15 a.m. to be among the first in line when tickets officially went on sale at noon.

Like most University students, Cross and Chen will fly to Los Angeles. Students are paying a range of prices for travel. Some, like LSA first-year student Candice McNeal, say they have purchased reasonable fairs.

"I'm just glad I don't have to pay $1,000 for plane tickets," she said. "I got mine a while ago for $300."

Cross and Chen also saved money by booking a flight prior to the Ohio State game, a bit of optimism that paid large dividends. They even had a back-up plan in case Ohio State won.

"We would have just had a nice vacation in L.A.," Chen said.

Flying, though the favored means of getting to the game, is not the only method - especially if time is not a concern.

Prowse, along with approximately 100 other students, will take a bus to Pasadena from Ann Arbor.

"It's going to be a two-day trip," Prowse said, saying he expects the drive to take around 35 hours.

For some, like LSA first-year student Mike Fatt, Michigan's Rose Bowl berth is a great excuse for a family vacation in the area.

"My friends are going too, but I'm going with my father," Fatt said.

Michigan Journalism Fellow Dan Popkey was planning a family vacation to Disney World. Instead, while the rest of his family is celebrating 1998 at Cinderella's Castle and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Popkey will celebrate the football team's success in Pasadena with several other journalism fellows - and his 86-year-old grandmother.

"She's a sports fanatic, and she had never been to a college football game. She grew up rooting for Michigan," Popkey said.

Popkey invited her to attend the Iowa game this season.

"During the game she kept saying, 'I can't believe I'm here,'" Popkey said. So when she called to wish congratulations after the Ohio State game, Popkey had a novel idea. "I asked her to come with me," he said.

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