Illustration by Arnulfo Bermudez
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By Wildcat Opinions Board
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Friday May 2, 2003
Student government and the athletics department announced a new plan on Tuesday for selling men's basketball tickets. The plan is embedded in something called Zona Zoo, but ultimately tickets will be sold through a lottery system rather than first come, first serve.
And for the most part, the plan works.
Drafters have taken former student senator Peter Wand's Zona Zoo T-shirt and expanded on it. See, Zona Zoo is no longer just a cotton shirt, it's now a state of mind.
Students can join the club, receiving a shirt and newsletter, for $35. The real advantage is that they get priority and a double shot at men's basketball tickets by join the club. In addition, the possibility of better seats, near the floor, is in the mix.
The tickets are a hot commodity, so why not give priority to those who are willing to pay a little bit more?
And while the Zona Zoo movement is being billed as a club for dedicated fans, students will most likely be paying the 35 bucks because they want the men's basketball tickets. That's all fine.
The disadvantage is that all of this ushers out the old idea of making sporting events as affordable for students as possible. While you can still get tickets, and get them cheap, without being in the Zona Zoo cult, you will have to pay for other sports that were free in the past. Right now, those include volleyball, women's basketball, softball and baseball. See, the games will only be free for students who pay to be in Zona Zoo.
That's a shame, and the plan could still work without charging for those sports.
The effort to cut down on the chance of another so-called riot, like the one that occurred last fall over men's basketball tickets.
And while the idea of just letting students camp out for tickets is a romantic image of fan dedication, it seems necessary to create
a system that does not result in anarchy or encourage students to miss class.
So keep the plan, but ditch the fee for the smaller sports. That's what's best for both students and the athletics departments.
