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Thursday, 28 February 2008 |
Policy hinders attendance
At the beginning of the 2007-08 academic year, a new student ticket policy was created in order to better gauge attendance at Appalachian State University athletic events.
In the Aug. 23, 2007, edition of The Appalachian, Wesley L. Berry, an administrative assistant in the athletics office, said “The main purpose of this [policy] is to increase our accuracy of how many
students attend games and for efficiency.”
However, The Appalachian believes the policy is inefficient for students and is negatively impacting
crowd sizes and student attendance at home games.
The new policy requires students to visit www.goasu.com or travel to a designated box office for paper tickets.
According to the Student Ticketing Policy brochure, incentives for using the policy include a loyalty
program that offers prizes and would be important if there were a “high demand [for an] event such as
the National Championship game.”
However, the Mountaineers went to the championship game in December and no such lottery system
was used.
According to goasu.com, “convenience is one of the main reasons” for the new policy. However,
students can no longer gain access to athletic events solely with their AppCards and are required to
find a printer or wait in line at a ticket booth - not really convenient at all.
Another reason for the new policy is security. However, the tickets do not show photos of students,
and AppCards have rarely been requested when entering football or basketball games this season.
“We talked about security of students, especially because some students who graduated still had their
AppCards and weren’t paying an athletic fee,” Berry said.
While this is a valid point, The Appalachian believes the issue could be resolved if only active
AppCards were accepted.
If implemented, the swipeable AppCard system would also allow the athletics department to track the
number of students attending games, which was a reason for the switch in the first place.
The athletic department’s effort to increase attendance at recent home basketball games is apparent.
They have several student incentives at each game, including a free DVD player give- away and free
t-shirts. Basketball players were even handing out fliers in University Bookstore before a home game
last week.
The Appalachian believes if the athletics department is serious about increasing attendance at games
that typically see low numbers, they need to make the process effortless for students.
The Appalachian encourages the athletics department to assess the program’s success and create a
new plan that’s more student and fan friendly for next year.
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