I am no longer a student but I was thinking about the home basketball schedule for next year and how there will be high demand for student seating for a number of games while this year is a down year as far as the schedule is concerned. After thinkinhow this can be handled I thought maybe we should implement some type of “frequent flier program” which leads to “priority seating”. I’d propose having something like three class levels: Blue (highest), White, and Pewter (lowest).

Here is how this would work. The university tracks who attend football and basketball games (other sports could be tracked but I don’t think they should be weighted the same). Students get points for attending a game and the points are cumulative over seasons and years. Based on those points, students would either be assigned to a class level or not. For basketball (#’s could change for football) I would say the Blue class be capped at 750 students. In other words, the 750 students with the highest point totals are in the Blue category. The white could have 1,250 and pewter 1,500. That would leave about 500 seats plus whatever seats don’t get used by people from the categories for the remaining students who want to generate points.

When the doors open, it would be like boarding a flight. Blues would go first, then white, pewter, and then whoever else. Camping out before and waiting in lines would still occur but only within the different groups. It makes sense to me that those who show up for the lesser games get rewarded. This would give incentive for students to attend those cold November football games against Idaho or basketball games against St. Joseph's Mary Lewis and Clark College. Hopefully, regardless of who we play or when, the student section would always be full.

I think this will have greater ramifications for basketball than for football if something like this is implemented. However, I think it should still be used for football as an incentive. Obviously there would be a lot of details to work out to implement this. But if something like this is to be done, it should be announced this year that attendance at basketball games during the 2012-2013 schedule will count towards the classifications for next year so students will attend some of the lesser games this year.

I like the idea here but there are a lot of things that would still have to be thought out. What would you do to incoming freshman next year if basketball games this year counted towards getting them in next year? Do they automatically start at the bottom? If so then that isn't a very good way to get them becoming die hard fans. I also see it being very hard to manage. How do you recognize which group students are in? It already takes way too long for students to get into football games and if you are having to check their color group to see if they can enter yet then you are going to make that a lot worse.

Kind of a nice idea but I'd like to see the ticket office be able to handle a sell out with no problems getting people in and an accurate attendance count first. Good luck.

This is a lot of bureaucracy for some seats, show up early=seat selection

For what it's worth, Stanford already does basically what you suggest. Students get points for every game they attend. Certain popular games (i.e. Cal, UCLA, Arizona) are designated "priority" games, and only students who have accumulated a sufficient number of points can get in to those games. This gives students an incentive to attend OOC games against weaker opponents, and it also ensures that only the most diehard fans get in to the most popular games. I don't know if our athletic department has the infrastructure to do something like this, but I like the idea in theory. It would help our attendance against weaker opponents and would ensure that the Spectrum is at its rowdiest when BYU or UNLV comes to town.

I don't think we need gimmicks to get butts in seats for basketball. Football maybe, but things are on the up-and-up there too. I like what trevordude said. You want a good seat? Show up early. And by early I mean at least several hours early if not sleep overnight.

StanfordAggie wrote:For what it's worth, Stanford already does basically what you suggest. Students get points for every game they attend. Certain popular games (i.e. Cal, UCLA, Arizona) are designated "priority" games, and only students who have accumulated a sufficient number of points can get in to those games. This gives students an incentive to attend OOC games against weaker opponents, and it also ensures that only the most diehard fans get in to the most popular games. I don't know if our athletic department has the infrastructure to do something like this, but I like the idea in theory. It would help our attendance against weaker opponents and would ensure that the Spectrum is at its rowdiest when BYU or UNLV comes to town.

That is nice to know that another university does something similar. Maybe for the sake of the people at USU they could maybe issue tickets to the people with the highest points for high demand games (when they anticipate a full student section). Maybe issue 3000 tickets for basketball and 4000 for football. These tickets would only guarantee entrance if you are present when the gates open. Once everyone who has tickets that are present have entered, those students who don't have tickets may enter. Ofcourse they would want to scan their id's as they entered so they could get points. I just don't know how you would prevent tickets from getting passed around.

Are there other ways to promote attendance at lesser games while giving those who do priority at the bigger games? Again, in would be nice to include football in the equation some how.

treesap32 wrote:I don't think we need gimmicks to get butts in seats for basketball. Football maybe, but things are on the up-and-up there too. I like what trevordude said. You want a good seat? Show up early. And by early I mean at least several hours early if not sleep overnight.

I don't really care where people sit as long as they are there. Those who want a good seat know to get there early. The problem is that only a handfull of games during the year is the student section full for football and basketball. They should always be full and can be full if some incentive is provided to attend lesser games so someone can watch UNLV in the spectrum. Like I said before, I've completed my time so it's doesn't directly effect me either way. I'd love to see the day when the student section is full for the Gossner's or for a snowy day in November when we play an 0-11 Idaho team and its miserably outside.

The moment you start implementing stuff like these, things will die down. You'll still have the true die hards in the top priority group that change nothing. But some of the people in the top priority group, and the lower groups, will be content knowing that they are assured seats in a certain area and will stop going as early or camping over night. They go early now because they want close seats and they know that's the only way they'll get them. Give them another way to get them and they'll stop going as early. You'll never change the habits of the true die hards, but you'll change the habits of everyone else by changing the rules of getting a seat.

UncleDude wrote:The moment you start implementing stuff like these, things will die down. You'll still have the true die hards in the top priority group that change nothing. But some of the people in the top priority group, and the lower groups, will be content knowing that they are assured seats in a certain area and will stop going as early or camping over night. They go early now because they want close seats and they know that's the only way they'll get them. Give them another way to get them and they'll stop going as early. You'll never change the habits of the true die hards, but you'll change the habits of everyone else by changing the rules of getting a seat.

I doubt that. Well, at Stanford, if it is a priority game, you can't get in to the game at all if you don't have enough priority points. But having enough points still doesn't guarantee a seat; we still had people camping out to get tickets when Arizona came to town. Granted, Stanford is a different situation, because USU's student section is much larger. But if we awarded (for example) 3000 priority tickets to big games, the diehards will still be camping out, since having a priority ticket may guarantee a seat but it doesn't guarantee a seat close to the court. And it would help fill the Spectrum on nights with less attractive opponents. I think it would make our student section even more intimidating if implemented correctly. I'm not so sure that the benefits are enough to justify the costs of implementing it, though (and it could be harmful if implemented poorly).

That's a really innovative idea. Would this be calculated before every semester and an e-mail sent out, or would it change prior to every home basketball game. It may cause a lot of confusion.

I like 1st come 1 served as it used to be. It used to be the front row was the front row, because they'd been there for hours All of them were, at least 3-4 years ago. Now the front row (at least claims) that they are entitled to it, and that it is permanent. This may increase entitlement.

By going off how many times people go to previous events, I feel like some good fans may get the shaft. (Freshman, and RMs).

What do you think about the way the Orange Krush does it at Illinois. Students pay a premium to get in earlier, but that premium goes to a good cause?

I have been thinking this same thing, but hadn't quite gotten around to posting it;
Anyhow, we wouldn't award the points for ALL games, just the ones we have a hard time with. Like for football, don't award any points for the BYU game, or even the other September night games, but only award them for the fall break game and the cold November games. And basketball, only award them for the low demand games. And, to avoid shafting next year's freshmen and RMs, we could minimize the points one gets for the basketball games this year, like say that you earn just as many points for the fall break football game next year as you do for eight basketball games this year.