University of North Carolina Athletics
Mick: Tickets And Such
February 10, 2000 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 10, 2000
I was walking down the hallway at the Smith Center the other day with a high ranking athletic department official who's name I will not reveal due to my fervent desire to remain employed. Suddenly he stopped, smiled, and turned to me with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.
"You know what I'm almost tempted to do about this student seating issue," he said. "I'm almost tempted to say to the student body, 'Okay, I'll guarantee you a seat in the lower level of the Smith Center for every Carolina men's game IF you also come to the women's games.'"
It's not the answer to the more complex question of who should sit where of course, but there is a pretty good idea hidden in there if you think about it.
Why not move student ticket distribution to UNC women's home games? Or to wrestling matches? Or gymnastics?
Clint Gwaltney over at the ticket office says that currently, UNC students must go to the Smith Center on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday to receive a bracelet with a number on it between, say, 1 and 5000. Thursday afternoon at 5, a number between 1 and 5000 is drawn at random that represents the front of the line, so to speak, and lets bracelet holders know how lucky (or unlucky) they are.
Then, Saturday morning at 6, students exchange their bracelets for actual tickets to the upcoming home game.
I propose that, instead of making students trek across campus to the Dome of Dean, the ticket office distributes bracelets at halftime of that week's UNC v. Whomever women's basketball game, and/or during any other Carolina home athletic event in Carmichael.
You ensure huge crowds at those events, sell more concessions, and expose the student body to some other sports that they might learn to like once they tried them. And so what if a bunch of folks head for the exits once they get their bracelets? Isn't leaving early preferable to not showing up at all?
Oh, and on the larger problem of whether student seats should rim the court at men's games, I have an idea there as well. I hereby volunteer my wife, Kristin, to head a Smith Center Seating Feasability Committee to study the complete physical reconfiguration of the arena. She graduated from Carolina, loves the University, and is one of the world's foremost authorities on spending money that doesn't exist yet.
E-Mail Mick at: mmixon@tarheelsports.com.
