Sticking it to students

Athletic Department raises hockey ticket prices

In response to Michigan hockey's second national championship in three years, one would assume that Athletic Director Tom Goss would want to allow more students a chance to experience the frenzy and excitement of Michigan hockey games at Yost Ice Arena. But instead of increasing students' access to the program, Goss has opted to more than double the price of season hockey tickets for students.

Weighing the penalties and benefits of the price increase, there can only be one conclusion: This ill-informed decision will tremendously hurt the athletic program and the students who love Michigan hockey.

Michigan hockey fans are a different breed. They swear, taunt and cheer until their throats and bodies ache from exhaustion. The Athletic Department should recognize that students are the driving force behind Michigan's firm home- ice advantage.

Athletic Department officials who were selling tickets said that there are usually long lines. But this year, the $155 season ticket price has kept hundreds of students from purchasing tickets. While the Athletic Department allotted 2,200 tickets for students, only 1,600 students had secured seats for the upcoming season with one day left until they stopped selling on Friday. Since students just had to spend hundreds of dollars on books, how can the Athletic Department expect most of them to drum up $155 and still pay their bills? Just as professional arenas have lost their blue-collar spectators by raising prices and catering to skybox-seeking businessmen, so will Michigan hockey as it is making it harder for the non-affluent to participate in a rich Michigan tradition. In addition, very few first-year students will purchase season tickets at such a high price, thus breaking the tradition that upperclassmen hand down to the first-year students at Yost.

Last year, each individual ticket prices ranged from $4 to $5; this year, it will be $9 to $10, with some tickets costing as much as $17. Why would an already economically healthy athletic department make such a change? Officials say they just realized, out of the blue, that other comparable teams like Wisconsin, charge their students more than Michigan does. These officials travel to road games and certainly have seen other schools' prices. It appears to be a greedy attempt to bring in more money for a department that hardly needs financial help.

If inflation were out of control or the hockey program were bankrupt, one could forsee a $85 increase. But in reality, inflation is the lowest it has been since the 1970s and the hockey program is thriving. Thus, there seems to be no valid excuse as to why students have to shell out twice the amount to attend games as they did last year.

While Tom Goss and the Athletic Department have tried their best to enable all students to attend football games, they have done the exact opposite in this case. Many believe that hockey games are the most exciting events a student could participate in at the University. If anything can be done to return students' money or make tickets more affordable for students in the future, the Athletic Department owes it to students to do so in exchange for their long-lasting dedication to the program.

09-22-98