In an announcement made on Tuesday, Cornell athletics laid out the policy for purchasing season tickets for the 2005 men’s hockey team.
Although some of the mandates are similar to last year’s process, the most notable change among the slated procedures is the new rule that each student can only buy one set of season tickets – as opposed to last year, where one student could buy two sets.
According to Gene Nighman ’81, director of athletic tickets and events, there were some concerns raised by faculty members that waiting on line during class days would affect their academic performance. In addition, Nighman said that to try to partially account for the high demand of tickets, using the one line number to one set of tickets system seemed to be the best way to address this issue while ensuring that Cornell students are actually the ones who get the seats.
“It’s just a fact that ice hockey is so popular, so many students want to be able to go to the hockey games, that I don’t see anytime in the near future that we’ll be able to meet the demand for ice hockey tickets,” Nighman said. “We hope this [one set of tickets per line number] helps … We want as many students to obtain tickets as possible.”
An announcement concerning when and where line numbers will be issued will be made one evening between this Saturday, Sept. 24 and Thursday, Sept. 29 in the 9 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. time slot. The athletics tickets office indicated that the announcement will be made on WVBR 93.5 FM, posted on CornellBigRed.com, as well as sent to subscribers of the Big Red Bulletin. A similar process to last year, Nighman said that he expects there to be a rush for tickets on the night line numbers are given out, but doesn’t envision that it will get out of hand.
Once line numbers are received, students are required to purchase the tickets from the Cornell athletics ticket office before the official waiting line starts on Friday, Sept. 30 at 6 p.m. Seat selection begins the next day at 6 p.m. The amount of actual wait time is thus, significantly shorter than in previous years when students on line would wait for multiple nights.
“We’re trying to find a compromise, something that will address the academic concerns of the Cornell faculty and the concerns of the fans,” said Nighman, who also said that input from the Student Assembly was also seriously taken into account.
While students are waiting on line, random line number checks will be performed as in past years and one student may hold up to four line numbers. Any number which is not present at any particular check will be invalidated.
A total of 1,662 seats – 1,462 for undergraduates, and 200 for graduate students – have been allocated for student season ticket holders. However, there will be separate lines for both groups. Nighman said that it is difficult to make all parties involved content with the process.
“If you address something to make some people happy, you’re going to make other people unhappy. I have to work with the constraints that I’m given and come up with a process which is as fair as possible,” Nighman said.
With the continued success and popularity of the men’s hockey team, the expansion of student seating does not come as a surprise. Hopes will again be high this year, with the team being selected to top the ECACHL by both coaches and media in a preseason poll released on Tuesday morning. The Red received 11 out of 12 first place votes from conference coaches, while the media unanimously selected Cornell to repeat as conference champions. Dartmouth earned the other first-place vote in the coaches’ poll.
Cornell will undoubtedly be led in goal by junior and last year Hobey Baker finalist David McKee, who along with senior forward and captain Matt Moulson, were selected unanimously on the preseason all-league team by both the media and coaches.
McKee, a first-team All-American and last year’s ECACHL and Ivy League Player of the Year, only allowed an astonishing 1.29 goals per game last season. Moulson was the Red’s leading scorer last year, garnering 22 goals and 20 assists, while leading the conference in power play goals with 12.
Archived article by Brian Tsao
Sun Assistant Sports Editor