Give us our seats

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Bryan Rosenbaum

Arizona has the highest winning percentage of any college basketball program over the past 11 seasons (.816), 11 straight 20-win seasons, has amassed a 71-game home winning streak from 1987-92 and won a national championship in 1997.

You would think McKale Center would be the one of the most difficult places to play in the country.

That'd be the case, if you didn't consider this one thing: there are hardly any students in the building.

Take a look at Duke. Its home court is one of the loudest, craziest places in all of college basketball. Its current home game winning streak of 22 (Arizona's is 18) is impressive, but the most amazing statistic is the number of seats given to students.

Out of 9,314 seats at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the majority of the 5,000 lower level seats are reserved for students. These fans, the "Cameron Crazies," camp out for days just to get a good seat. When they get in, they surround the court and swallow the opposition.

The country's longest current home winning streak belongs to Kansas, which has won 60 in a row at home. Kansas gives 7,500 out of 16,300 seats at Allen Fieldhouse to students, most of them the best seats in the house. In the past four seasons, the team is 58-0 at home.

To put things in perspective, let's talk about the UA.

McKale Center holds 14,489. The university has generously reserved 2,350 seats for students. And there is no collective student section.

Worse yet, the season ticket packages are split into two seasons, Season A and Season B.

Feeling shafted?

As a student, you have a right to go to all the basketball games, sit close to the court and stand together.

But as a student at the University of Arizona, you have to be content with watching the game on television while rich alumni take your seats.

In a great example of selling out, the university has established a point system for those fans who want to buy season tickets.

A "charitable gift" of $10,000 to $15,000 gets you 200-300 points, while a "mere" $3,700 to $5,000 will only get you 75-100 points. The more points you have, the better your chances are of getting season tickets.

Apparently, student tuition does not qualify for any points. Otherwise, we'd all be in that building.

Ask any of the players and I'm positive they would rather play in front of a bunch of screaming students their own age than they would in front of silent, white-haired old-timers. Student sections are clinically proven to give the home team an advantage, something Arizona would be unstoppable with.

The issue of school spirit and fair-weather fans has been popular recently in this part of the paper. I've apologized to Wilbur for questioning his one-arm push-ups, but I'm sure he'd agree that he'd like to see more students at the basketball games. Every basketball game, not just UCLA and Stanford, either.

Since this is your only chance to be a college student, you might as well say something to your university about this.

You could pay $24 for a season ticket now, or $20,000 for one in a few years. It's your choice.

Bryan Rosenbaum is a sophomore majoring in journalism and can be reached via e-mail at Bryan.Rosenbaum@wildcat.arizona.edu.