Ticket opportunities rise for 'U' employees

Faculty and staff who picked up Rose Bowl tickets yesterday were pleasantly surprised to find they did not have to wait in three-hour lines as students did just days before.

In fact, there were no lines.

"I dashed right over here," said urology associate Prof. Robert Moyad. "I couldn't believe there was no line."

Senior Associate Athletic Director Keith Molin said the University limited the number of faculty and staff tickets to 2,500. If the demand had exceeded this amount, the University planned to hold a lottery to determine who would receive tickets.

Molin said that as of last night, the amount of tickets sold had not yet been counted, but it was "comfortably" less than allocated.

"It does not appear that we are going to have to go to a lottery system, which means that every legitimate faculty and staff member that filled out a ticket application will receive tickets," Molin said.

PAUL TALANIAN/Daily OB-GYN Prof. Mark Pearlman buys at ticket to the Rose Bowl game being played on New Year's Day in Pasadena, Calif.

Kinesiolgy junior Doug Gnodtke, who works at the ticket office, said the faculty and staff ticket requests are low because of the University's decision to make employees pick up their individual ticket in person at the Rose Bowl to avoid the possibility of scalping.

"In my opinion, after people found out they had to pick up the tickets in Pasadena, they decided not to come," Gnodtke said. "They were not going to go to the Rose Bowl. They were going to give the tickets to friends."

Regent Daniel Horning (R-Grand Haven) said it upsets him that students, faculty and staff must get their tickets through a voucher system while legislators, donors and alumni can receive the actual tickets before they get to Pasadena.

"The students and faculty are the fiber of our University," Horning said. "To demand that they comply to a voucher system is absolutely senseless to me."

Horning said it is unfair to suggest that students, faculty and staff might be purchasing tickets for other people.

"To suggest that they would buy tickets for any other reason than to root for the team, i.e. scalping, is upsetting," Horning said. "Certainly scalping could occur with legislators, regents, donors and alums who have the opportunity to purchase tickets."

Mark Moyad, who works at the Medical Center, said he attributes short ticket lines to the attractiveness of Rose Bowl travel packages, which include hotel and airfare along with tickets. Moyad said that even though the packages may be convenient, they are not for the frugal.

"Most faculty and staff are getting packages," Moyad said. "I'm flying to Las Vegas and I'll pick up my ticket at the stadium. I'm flying for only $300. The packages cost $1,800 - that gives me $1,500 to play with."

Ticket applications were offered to 10 different categories of people, including students, faculty and alumni. Molin said the extra faculty, staff and student tickets left over from sales this week will be distributed to meet the needs of the other categories.

"Some categories are short," Molin said. "There are also a goodly number of people who don't neatly fit into one of the categories. But these are people who still are dedicated to the University. Some of them have had season tickets for years. Now we may be able to take care of some of them."

While this mostly includes season-ticket holders, some faculty and staff were hoping to get their hands on a few of those extra tickets.

Retired University employee Malcolm Cox and his wife Nita, who works at the Medical Center, bought their tickets Wednesday, but returned to the ticket office yesterday to see if they could snag a few extras for their relatives. Their quest was unsuccessful.

"I think they've been very fair with the faculty and students," Nita Cox said. If the University had not insisted that faculty pick up their tickets in Pasadena then "a lot of people would have gotten tickets for other people."

Ticket breakdown

Allocated:
5,000-7,000

Sold:
5,300

'U' employees

Allocated:
2,500

Sold:
Less than allocated

12-05-97