.After what is now being billed as the “Lynah Stampede,” in which hundreds of Cornell students rushed to Section A of Lynah Rink in an attempt to gain the best ticket line numbers last Monday night, there was a return to normalcy during the annual waiting line this past weekend.
On Friday evening, the waiting began at 6 p.m., as hundreds of Cornell students poured into the 27,000 square-foot Richard M. Ramin Room in Bartels Hall with everything from computers to lounge chairs spread across the room’s artificial turf floor.
On the first night of waiting, the men of the hockey team joined head coach Mike Schafer ’86, who addressed the audience – and joked about the fiasco which took place last Monday, noting a meeting that he said took place on Wednesday with Gene Nighman ’81, director of Tickets and Events, and a girl that was injured in the stampede.
Schafer said that while discussing suggestions about the line number distribution for next year that, Nighman proposed that they “‘get a plane, go over the Arts Quad, drop one package of 1,800 tickets off, and make one person very happy,'” noting that the lucky person would be able to distribute the tickets as he or she saw fit. Then Schafer said that he offered a suggestion of his own.
“I said, ‘no, no Gene. Let’s get the plane, go over the Arts Quad, drop 1,800 individual tickets down, and make 1,800 people very happy,'” Schafer said. “Then [the girl] said, ‘no, let’s get the plane, throw Gene out, and make everyone very happy.'”
Saturday had much of the same frivolity, as the line happened to coincide with the second game of a three-game set between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, which led to the room being littered with shirts that read such things as “Buck Foston” and “Yankees Suck.” Many fans followed the game on their laptops and ate hot dogs and other concessions that were being sold in Bartels Hall.
The same type of fervor was displayed by the Big Red Pep Band, which headed over to the line after cheering on the sprint football team earlier in the day, and played its entire repertoire from a typical night at Lynah Rink, which is headlined by the Alma Mater.
Another highlight of the line on Saturday for a select group of individuals was when the co-ed service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega announced the winner’s of its raffle prizes. The proceeds of the raffle, which amounted to over $700 according to Matthew Berenthal, a member of Alpha Phi Omega and the pep band, went to benefit the American Red Cross in its effort to aid those who were victims of Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Katrina.
Some of the prizes given out included four hockey sticks, a jersey signed by the majority of the Red squad and a hat which was autographed by Joe Nieuwendyk ’86 after he won the Stanley Cup with the New Jersey Devils in 2003.
Seth Canetti grad won the jersey and was ecstatic to have done so after his 23rd hour on the waiting line. A friend of Canetti’s even congratulated him during The Sun’s interview with him, as the friend responded with “nice, dude” after hearing Canetti had won the jersey.
“I’ve been here pretty much since yesterday at 6 [p.m.],” he said. “I’m psyched. I am really glad I finally got tickets, too.”
Jesse Adland ’06 did not win a prize. He was just happy that he was able to get a seat.
“The best version [of the line] was last year,” he said. “But I can’t complain too much because I got tickets this year.”
However, both Adland and Canetti offered their suggestions on how the ticket process can be improved in the future.
“I think they should put the line in a slightly less obvious place,” Adland said. “Because if 1,000 people know it’s all going to be by Lynah, then it’s not exactly fair.”
Canetti had less of a problem with the line number distribution than he did with the waiting line.
“I think it’s probably better to have camping out before [purchasing tickets],” he said. “Because camping out is fun, but there’s no real point, whereas camping out for numbers is the what you want to wait for.”
Archived article by Chris Mascaro
Sun Sports Editor