Students of SS

[darksenay]

There was nothing in the ticket/contract/ or information sheet that said they would not do a lottery, they said a line would form at 8am on friday morning and thats what happened.

[cfm567b27]

Am I reading that yet another policy was bungled by the REA? (read Club Rooms).

[The Sicatoka]

cfm: This was Student Government controlled, not REA.

I asked these same questions at USCHO:

The system (whatever it was that turned into this lottery) was just for the ~500 student section season tickets in the lower bowl (Sections 108 and 109), right?

Students can still go to games (free?) if they sit in Sections 307, 308, 309, and 310, right?

Sounds like you didn't get lower bowl student section 'reserved' seats but can still go to the games in the upper deck student 'GA' sections, right?

What am I missing?

One response was that "fair weather fans" got tickets in the lower bowl and some "real, good fans" will have to sit in the upper. How do we know that? Consider my USCHO response to that:

People who won this lottery made the same effort every other fan did: The were in the line/lottery for tickets.

Their (lottery) number just happened to come up.

What am I missing?

PS - The view of the game is immeasurably better in the upper deck.

[cfm567b27]

cfm: This was Student Government controlled, not REA.

My apologies to the REA.

On the topic of Student Government - anything that hints of even the slightest amount of politics is bound to be screwed-up. Must be democratic leadership.

[The Sicatoka]

All I know is that the lower bowl portion of the student section at REA had better be full night in and night out.

It looks better on TV that way.

Plus, if it's not, someone at REA just might start to pencil those in as "Coaches Club".

Someone clearly needs to go ask some questions of Student Gov't as to why this "lottery" when they had worked on a "system" all summer.

[jimdahl]

There was nothing in the ticket/contract/ or information sheet that said they would not do a lottery, they said a line would form at 8am  on friday morning and thats what happened.

Being neither a student nor in Grand Forks, I didn't see the ticket/contract/information sheet. However, the Dakota Student article I read indicated:

Student Government representatives will be at the REA today to count the number of students in the line. After that number exceeds 540, students who get in line will be informed that their chance at actually receiving tickets is small. There is a policy in place to raffle off an additional 90 tickets to those who were not able to wait in line for their tickets.

That certainly implies first-come first-serve for the 540 tickets (particularly since it refers to raffling off an additional 90). I'm either grossly misinterpreting that article, the Dakota Student got it very wrong, or the plan changed. Given that the article contained quotes about the planning of the procedure from the Student Body President, #2 seems unlikely.

[redwing77]

Being at work and getting the message that I didn't get in with my group (none of us did) made my senior year a rather somber one athletics wise.

Knowing that my job will keep me out of the GA line until just before the gates open brings my spirits down further. I support Fighting Sioux hockey, but my eyesight isn't exactly perfect. I find it hard to follow the game from the nosebleeds so I am thinking about just watching it at home on TV or listening to it on the radio. I think there is one more lottery drawing left and I'll enter it, but I know that I'm just dilluting the odds because I've never won a lottery in my life. Heck, I never even won a school lottery when I had odds of 1 in 20 to win and there were 10 prizes! Ok, maybe the odds I wrote up aren't accurate, but the point is made.

I'll cross my fingers but I'm not going to hold my breath.

[Cratter]

They though students would show up at 8:00 am Friday morning and get in line? Common sense tells a person people are going to get in line early to "get in that line."

This is only an issue for two reason:

1. Students are so disrespectful, foul mouths, drunks who can't control themselves that they must know who sits in that seat so they can watch them with the cameras for disorderly conduct and take away their seat when they say a bad word or stand. (the first part was tongue in cheek in case you didn't notice)

2. Engelstad is only out to make a buck regardless of the situation. They don't care about the atmosphere. This wouldn't be a problem is their was such a SMALL student section in the lower bowl. "hmmm how can we make more money...well lets put twice as many students in the upper bowl as their is in the lower bowl so we can sell those seats for good money...perfect."

[Diggler]

I think the best idea when this whole thing went down the crapper, would've been to make the entire student section GA. REA doesn't want that though because then they don't know who sits where all the time. Makes you feel real nice when you are assumed guilty only to prove innocence.

How much damage have students caused really? There is that whole standing up thing, but that got solved. Every problem there has been, has been solved. I don't think GA would've been that big of a problem, but I guess REA disagreed.

[The Sicatoka]

cfm:

Everyone seems to be screwing things up.

http://board.uscho.com/showthread.php?t=41728

[jloos]

I voiced my concerns, but it was being run by the student government, there didn't appear to be any oversight. It is sad that college students need to be supervised by adults. I forsee the lower seats to be fairly empty this year, especially early and late in the game. These people show up to find out where the parties at then leave. I sat by dozens of them last year. This year there appears to be more of these types.

I've never seen a raffle like the one they had. Instead of drawing one number and having everyone like up from there; they drew numbers until the number of seats were full. This process took a couple of hours.

I guess I'm too old to sit in the student section anyway.

[Cratter]

The process, per say, did not switch half way through the process. The students were told to start lining up at 8:00 in the morning on Friday, but some students BROKE the rule and lined up last night (thursday) given them and unfair advantage over those who payed attention to the rules and showed up "on time" Friday morning. They had to make it fair to those who showed up Friday morning like they were suppose to. What should they have done have people line up on the streets at 8 remove the barricade and let them run to their spot in line?

The fair solution would be to have a weighted lottery. They could have given more entries to the Junior and Senior class. OR last years went fine. People who are DIEHARD lined up early and waited in line. There was no excuse to switch the procedure. You want to wait in line a week go right ahead its your life. You had class and work to attend?..You couldn't find friends that would hold your spot in line?

[U2Bad1]

The best thing would have been to allow students who had tickets the previous year to renew their tickets for this year. The rest of the tickets would then be given out by a lottery.

[rochsioux]

If you say the line starts at 8 am Friday it doesn't take a genius to figure out that some people will try to get there earlier to get an advantage. This had to be known in advance and some plan should have been devised for dealing with this.

If the plan was to do a lottery then this should have been published ahead of time.

In the end there is no perfect system when more people want tickets than there are seats available. A lottery will distribute the tickets randomly (assuming it is run fairly) but it will not respect the diehard fans more than a casual/social fan. The ticket distribution needs to respect the diehard fans as it is those fans that bring the atmosphere to the area. The only way I can think of is to track student attendance and deny tickets in future years to those that didn't use their tickets a specific amount or at least drop their priority. Given the demand for tickets and the minimal student cost to purchase, I think it is reasonable to expect those students that get tickets to actually use them for most games.

REA should also sell rush tickets after the game starts and these tickets could then be used to sit in the student section if seats are unoccupied. If there is concern that casual student fans will show up late then you could deny entry once the rush tickets start selling or the first period is over.

[Fedorov]

friends of student government were given no priority whatsoever. The fact that you even bring that up is absurd. If you ask many of the good friends to the president or other members of the committee, they also did not recieve tickets. The fact of the matter is if they had more than one lottery ticket, they cheated the system, and that is simply beyond the control of those in charge. You cant blame Jordan for this, and those of you who do, should be ashamed.

And one more fact, we also sit in the center seats in the greatest hockey arena in college sports. There is no bad seat in this whole arena, and anyone who says so is simply wrong. For all of you who are gonna complain about the situation, please keep it to yourselves, or actually take the initiative to give some input into the hockey ticket distribution program.

Should we really value someone's opinion that just signed up to do damage control?

[cfm567b27]

Should we really value someone's opinion that just signed up to do damage control?

VERY good point.

[forecheck]

I asked these same questions at USCHO:

One response was that "fair weather fans" got tickets in the lower bowl and some "real, good fans" will have to sit in the upper. How do we know that? Consider my USCHO response to that:

Beware, this is going to get long.

The Sicatoka, first to answer your questions. Yes the lottery was just for the 540 seats in the lower bowl. Students that didn't get season tickets can get GA tickets for the upper bowl at I believe $6 per game (which I would need to purchase every Monday on a week that there is a series), vs. the $2.36 per ticket that I paid last year for season tickets. Almost 3x as much. We are not guaranteed seats since those tickets are first come first serve, which is always a problem for the Gophers series.

As far as there being fair weather fans in the lower bowl, we won't find out for sure until the hockey season starts, but I would bet my financial aid that at least half of the lower bowl student section will be empty by the time the puck drops at 7:05. I agree with what others have said. People who are die hard fans find a way to get in line for tickets and are the ones who should get first priorty. I myself asked for Friday off of my first week at an internship to stand in line for tickets. There should definitely have been a weighted lottery today, with juniors and up getting priority.

Here is my point of view of how this process went, and it's all I'm going to say about it. I am a 5th year senior who went out of my way to make sure I would be present to wait in line for tickets. I have been to every home game in time for warmups in the past 4 years I have been a student, several away games each year, and 3 out of the last 4 Frozen Fours. Last year my group was waiting in line Thursday night to make sure we got our tickets. Obviously going to the hockey games is important to me.

Last week there was a Q & A with the student body president for anyone who had questions about the ticket distribution process. I attended with probably about 10-15 other people to make sure I knew exactly how this was going to work. Supposedly those present got "inside" information as to how the process was going to work, and it sure as s&!t did not involve a lottery. There were supposed to be 2 check in points halfway between the end of REA property and the front doors where students would need to get their cards stamped before lining up. That way if people ran to the doors, they would not be the first people in line, the person who got their card stamped first would. This was their idea of making it safe and avoiding mass chaos. It doesn't take a genius to realize that this idea was just as stupid as having 1000+ students make a made dash to the doors. How were we going to know when it was exactly 8:00 you ask? The president said they were planning on having FLARE GUNS or something else visible, kind of like shooting a gun at the start of a race.

I got in line last night after the bars closed and accepted the fact that I was farther back in line. It's orderly, no one is drinking. Yet at about 2:30 am, members of student government come out and start handing out tickets for a lottery, claiming that they were concerned for the students' safety with the prospect of having 1000+ students rush the doors. First of all, this was an absolutely stupid idea in the first place, which is partly why I went to that Q & A last week. It was a dangerous plan to begin with, thinking that that many students could line up in an orderly fashion at 8am without causing a riot. So why did it suddenly dawn on them just how bad it would be at 2:30 in the morning?? They were absolutely naive if they thought people weren't going to line up Thursday night, especially since the student government president himself was calling people Thursday to tell them where their best chances of lining up were. And before people try to call me out on spreading rumors, yes I know this for a fact. Second of all, and this is my biggest complaint about this process, I don't think it was right that they changed the process at 2:30 in the morning on the night before the event was supposed to happen. I went to certain lengths to make sure I knew what was going on, and in the end I got screwed.

I don't have season tickets this year, and I am pissed.

[206Jockey]

BLAH BLAH BLAH

It

[southpaw]

BLAH BLAH BLAH

It

[Csonked Out]

First of all the ralph shot down the GA request, that is what everyone wanted. And second it clearly said it would be at random, what other random way is there to do it besides a lottery or raffle, doesn't take a genious to figure that one out, or maybe it does because none of you have figured it out yet. I did not get a ticket either and am not mad about it, because i talked to jordan that night about it. Maybe before all you guys start whining about everything, you should become more informed. If you think you got screwed because you were waiting in line thursday night think again. You were breakin the rules by being there the night before, the rules were there for a reason, and you guys' broke them, there for it was your ignorance if anything for apparently getting "Screwed over". If ya really want to be a die hard fan think of and idea that would pass through REA and the Student gov't. If you dont like something try and change it instead of just bitching. Oh and by the way, The president that supposedly screwed you, gave all of the 90 tickets that were reserved for student gov't and put them in the lottery for you guys. Jordan didn't get a lower bowl seat, so tell me how was anyone screwed, you were unlucky just like me, deal with it.

[darksenay]

BLAH BLAH BLAH

It

[Diggler]

1. This situation was handled poorly, whether you want to admit it or not.

2. From everyone I spoke to before last night, there was not going to be a lottery. Then all of the sudden there was a lottery. That's going to make people mad and they have a right to be, once again whether you want to admit it or not.

3. The people on here complaining, are more frustrated than anything. Many have had basically the same seat for three years and they truely care about Sioux hockey. They aren't just frustrated that they won't get that seat, but that somebody who doesn't really care about hockey and is just there to be seen will instead have that seat. That is annoying.

4. For all of you people who are telling others to shut up and quit whining, you seem to be going completely against what Jordan said this morning. Before today I had never met nor talked to Jordan. I had heard he was kind of a frat boy and that didn't appeal to me much. When I talked to him though this morning he was a great guy and very nice. He said he welcomed the complaints (he is insane) as he knew people would be unhappy. Rather than telling his fellow students to sit down and shut up, he seemed to encourage them to speak their minds to him. This wasn't really his fault, yet he seems willing to take the blame. So please quit acting like people who are complaining are doing anything wrong. They aren't. I'm sure all of you have complained about something in your life that you weren't involved in. Sure getting involved would help, but just because you weren't directly involved in the decision making process, does not mean you should have to remain silent.

5. You know why so many people are complaining here? Because they care. I'd rather have 1000 people complain about the system for how much it sucks and how they got screwed out of tickets, then have no one complain about anything because no one gives a crap about the hockey team.

[Goon]

If I was a young single college guy I would be too upset with that.

They should require a basic hockey test for those that want tickets, it would weed out about 1/2 of the people. Then just put chearleader uniforms on the ditzy girls that just go to the games to pick up guys and talk on their phones. So we would easily have enough cheerleaders for each section, plus all the students get tickets. Problem solved.

Is any student on here getting tickets?

I'm an old married third year law student who sits next to his wife who dissaproves of watching the trashy looking 18 yr old coeds.

[yose]

I am outraged as to the actions the Student Government did on Thursday night. It was said that we can not camp on the Engelstad property. We were not on the property. The police officer told us to line up on the sidewalk because we could. Everyone was peaceful and there were no problems. At around 2:30 our waste of space Student Government shows up and they say there will be a lottery because we broke the rules. It seems they don

[SiouxTupa]

Ok, yes, I am frustrated. I am, however, involved in the decision making process. Through the great democratic system that allows us to vote for our student leaders. I understand that Jordan is a great guy...that's why I voted for him.

What I am upset with, is the representation we got to the city police, and in the "emergency SAC" meeting.

The only interaction I got with a student senator, or other, was a guy in a yellow shirt who flipped us all the bird and acted in a very unprofessional manner with Joe, our security officer.

Whether or not the process was changed in the middle of the night is, apparently, up to speculation. I, and about 300 others, think that it was. We did everything we could to make sure we knew what was to happen, and in the end, were thrown for a loop.

The last thing I'm going to say is that, when you call for a line to form outside a building, how exactly do you intend that to happen? Everyone can't show up at once, it turns into a mad dash as previously stated. If 8:00 is when people are getting stamped, in order to get a good spot in line you have to leave early. Often leaving early entails camping out the night before. Joe, GF city police officer, allowed students onto the sidewalk adjacent to the road near the Betty through an order given by the chief of police. Our yellow shirted friend was clearly upset by this, and acted like a 12 year old kid when confronting Joe. If this camping was unanticipated, then SG underestimated the gusto that UND student fans posess.

I'm not upset at the Ralph, UND Athletics, or even that I did not get a ticket. I'm upset at how I, as a student, was represented...rather, misrepresented