Ag13 said:

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LJF78 said:

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Can't blame the OP

Many of you saying .. oh it's a college basketball game, who cares enjoy it blah blah

Don't bluff with that card .. I doubt any of y'all were actually sitting in those sections last night

I sat in 203 last night

I Saw several families with young kids and elderly couples have to fight the craziness. If you have young kids or are elderly then no you're not going to want to sit in the student section and anyone who replies to them as " oh it's a college basketball game, more students the better just enjoy it… is an idiot.

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Hey man you can just quote me next time instead of being vague and calling me and idiot. I was in 218 in my season ticket seats. Unfortunately had to ask a pair of students to leave our seats but they were nice about it.

A donor purchased a bunch of upper deck tickets to give to students without sports passes. A great gesture but unfortunately wasn't announced until the afternoon which did not leave time for any planning or communication. Somehow that got communicated to students (through the ushers I assume) that the upper deck was general admission student section. The late arriving crowd (due to parking and traffic issues) didn't help as some students were in those seats at least an hour before tip off.

The issue was two fold:
1) Way too many students were let in compared to what was actually available for them.
2) They were told to go where they shouldn't and paid ticket holders were left to clean it up as they arrived.

With that said, I wish we could make the normal student section bleachers and actually let in as many students as possible. There should also be a way to know before hand if you can get in (and stay in) the game. Students that got rejected or kicked out last night may never try to go to a game again which is a real shame.

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No not directed at anyone specifically but I'm just saying if your thinking is " it's a college basketball game so if you sit in a student section then oh well"

That mentality is ridiculous.

So your options are to just open up all the seating as student seating , or keep it the way it is with designated areas as student seating and designated non student seating

But you have to pick 1 .. you can't have it both ways

And again there is a reason that every major college venue in America has designated student sections and also has a capacity on students allowed in… as well as ticket holders.

Yeah it sucks for the students who were turned away at the door.. but that's nobody's fault. There were too many people inside the building. It has a capacity, it has a fire Marshall limit capacity and once you get to that point you cannot allow more people inside.

Yes my point is students should be prioritized for college basketball and the student section should be bigger to start (not that any paid customers should be kicked out or denied entrance after paying). It's obviously a problem if seats are double booked because of students thinking they are all GA. But that's on the people that run the logistics of Reed Arena which has been discussed ad nauseam since around 7 last night.

Ag13 said:

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LJF78 said:

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Wicked Good Ag said:

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They simply let way too many students in last night and then for some reason someone told them to go sit in the upper levels. It created chaos


They simply let too many student into a COLLEGE basketball game. I have heard it all.

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Again if that's you're thinking then why not just 100% open all the seating to general admission and allow as many students in ?? Make the non students wait outside in line to see if seats open up …. I mean come it's a COLLEGE basketball game

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I would actually love this. Texas did an all student game at Gregory gymnasium a few weeks ago and it was huge success.

But on a serious note It would be great if some of the upper deck seats were permanently reserved for student overflow. AKA make the student section bigger in seats that rarely get bought by the general public anyways. The student enrollment is much bigger now than when Reed Arena was built. Yes, this would make it harder for non students to get tickets to the biggest games, but you know what - it's hard for Duke and Kansas fans to get tickets to their games too. And it's much better than kicking students out of the game that have already been let in. If you have season tickets this wouldn't be an issue at all.

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You understand Duke student section is about 1200 capacity

And Kansas is about 3400

We let in a lot more students than that at Reed.

LJF78 said:

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Ag13 said:

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LJF78 said:

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Wicked Good Ag said:

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They simply let way too many students in last night and then for some reason someone told them to go sit in the upper levels. It created chaos


They simply let too many student into a COLLEGE basketball game. I have heard it all.

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Again if that's you're thinking then why not just 100% open all the seating to general admission and allow as many students in ?? Make the non students wait outside in line to see if seats open up …. I mean come it's a COLLEGE basketball game

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I would actually love this. Texas did an all student game at Gregory gymnasium a few weeks ago and it was huge success.

But on a serious note It would be great if some of the upper deck seats were permanently reserved for student overflow. AKA make the student section bigger in seats that rarely get bought by the general public anyways. The student enrollment is much bigger now than when Reed Arena was built. Yes, this would make it harder for non students to get tickets to the biggest games, but you know what - it's hard for Duke and Kansas fans to get tickets to their games too. And it's much better than kicking students out of the game that have already been let in. If you have season tickets this wouldn't be an issue at all.

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You understand Duke student section is about 1200 capacity

And Kansas is about 3400

We let in a lot more students than that at Reed.

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Yes and it's not enough for the big games. Evidence - last night.

Also A&M is almost 4x as big as both of those schools and we sell WAY more sports passes due to football.


Edit to add - both of those schools also have a well defined system for what students get into the games and how. Selling 40,000 sports passes and hoping that less than 5,000 students show up (or however big the student section is now) is a recipe for chaos and potentially dangerous. Nobody is denying this.

Ag13 said:

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LJF78 said:

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Ag13 said:

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LJF78 said:

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Wicked Good Ag said:

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They simply let way too many students in last night and then for some reason someone told them to go sit in the upper levels. It created chaos


They simply let too many student into a COLLEGE basketball game. I have heard it all.

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Again if that's you're thinking then why not just 100% open all the seating to general admission and allow as many students in ?? Make the non students wait outside in line to see if seats open up …. I mean come it's a COLLEGE basketball game

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I would actually love this. Texas did an all student game at Gregory gymnasium a few weeks ago and it was huge success.

But on a serious note It would be great if some of the upper deck seats were permanently reserved for student overflow. AKA make the student section bigger in seats that rarely get bought by the general public anyways. The student enrollment is much bigger now than when Reed Arena was built. Yes, this would make it harder for non students to get tickets to the biggest games, but you know what - it's hard for Duke and Kansas fans to get tickets to their games too. And it's much better than kicking students out of the game that have already been let in. If you have season tickets this wouldn't be an issue at all.

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You understand Duke student section is about 1200 capacity

And Kansas is about 3400

We let in a lot more students than that at Reed.

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Yes and it's not enough for the big games. Evidence - last night.

Also A&M is almost 4x as big as both of those schools and we sell WAY more sports passes due to football.

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Why wasn't it enough? Reed was sold out
You really expect A&M to make the whole arena student sections and no limit on students?

Well that's not gonna happen

As I said you have to have designated student sections and non student sections. You don't mix them.
And A&M makes $ off season ticket and general ticket sales.
If it was all students in on sports passes they don't make $.. or the sports passes cost would be raised to offset the lost revenue from ticket sales which would be a whole new issue.



We can agree to disagree all day

At other schools, you actually are forced to be an adult and understand you are getting a scarce subsidized ticket and are forced to get there several hours early to get in line at the singular student ticket entrance.

Your ability to get in with your subsidized ticket is overcome by the desire you have to get in by investing time that others won't.

It is the tried and true method and builds a rowdy student fan base who places high value on being there.

At A&M we now charge exactly $0 to add men's basketball to the sports pass you have for football.

There are tons of solutions to this and I'm glad we are talking about it because there probably haven't been 200 students outside the band and dance team type groups at any previous game this year.

Some people would appreciate that experience. It couldve been a 3rd and short at Kyle Field against Bama and the dumb**** behind you tells you to sit down. Ill take the kids in the aisle any day. All the kids around my spot were super friendly.

LJF78 said:

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Ag13 said:

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LJF78 said:

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Wicked Good Ag said:

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They simply let way too many students in last night and then for some reason someone told them to go sit in the upper levels. It created chaos


They simply let too many student into a COLLEGE basketball game. I have heard it all.

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Again if that's you're thinking then why not just 100% open all the seating to general admission and allow as many students in ?? Make the non students wait outside in line to see if seats open up …. I mean come it's a COLLEGE basketball game

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I would actually love this. Texas did an all student game at Gregory gymnasium a few weeks ago and it was huge success.

But on a serious note It would be great if some of the upper deck seats were permanently reserved for student overflow. AKA make the student section bigger in seats that rarely get bought by the general public anyways. The student enrollment is much bigger now than when Reed Arena was built. Yes, this would make it harder for non students to get tickets to the biggest games, but you know what - it's hard for Duke and Kansas fans to get tickets to their games too. And it's much better than kicking students out of the game that have already been let in. If you have season tickets this wouldn't be an issue at all.

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You understand Duke student section is about 1200 capacity

And Kansas is about 3400

We let in a lot more students than that at Reed.

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If we capped student attendance at 3,400, we would have had about 10,000 people there last night.

t.u.'s all-student game at Gregory Gym was against Sam Houston St. on Thanksgiving weekend.

Game sounded wild on TV, and I loved it. A person can have that opinion, but also agree that A&M failed last night. People possessing a physical ticket to the game with an expectation of amenities (things like their actual seat, ability to go from seat to concourse easily, etc) shouldn't be **** on. The students weren't the problem. The holders of reserved tickets were not the problem.

Beyond just the annoyance, it sounds like a safety issue. Was the fire code completely ignored last night?

Ag13 said:

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Yes my point is students should be prioritized for college basketball and the student section should be bigger to start (not that any paid customers should be kicked out or denied entrance after paying). It's obviously a problem if seats are double booked because of students thinking they are all GA. But that's on the people that run the logistics of Reed Arena which has been discussed ad nauseam since around 7 last night.

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You think the student section should be larger because they show up in force for one game like this every few years? I'm not saying last night went perfect but a solution based off the exception rather than the rule doesn't work long before considering the financial side of the sport. Having said that, if we had student support like that on a regular basis I'd certainly be more willing to consider alternatives because they create an incredible atmosphere when they show up.

kalltamu said:

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Ag13 said:

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Yes my point is students should be prioritized for college basketball and the student section should be bigger to start (not that any paid customers should be kicked out or denied entrance after paying). It's obviously a problem if seats are double booked because of students thinking they are all GA. But that's on the people that run the logistics of Reed Arena which has been discussed ad nauseam since around 7 last night.

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You think the student section should be larger because they show up in force for one game like this every few years? I'm not saying last night went perfect but a solution based off the exception rather than the rule doesn't work long before considering the financial side of the sport. Having said that, if we had student support like that on a regular basis I'd certainly be more willing to consider alternatives because they create an incredible atmosphere when they show up.

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The non students only show up to sell out the arena once every few years too (at least lately).

If Buzz starts us on a new run of NCAA tournaments this year then I'm sure sell outs will happen more frequently. Maybe even more to come this year.

And yes, I think a 70,000 strong student body with 40,000+ sports passes sold should have a larger chunk of the arena reserved for them given the environment they are able to create and their ability to show up on weeknights more consistently than the general public (caveat - when we are good).

But I also think there has to be a better system for allocating whatever tickets are available for students than what happened last night, but that's a whole separate discussion.

Ag13 said:

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kalltamu said:

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Ag13 said:

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Yes my point is students should be prioritized for college basketball and the student section should be bigger to start (not that any paid customers should be kicked out or denied entrance after paying). It's obviously a problem if seats are double booked because of students thinking they are all GA. But that's on the people that run the logistics of Reed Arena which has been discussed ad nauseam since around 7 last night.

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You think the student section should be larger because they show up in force for one game like this every few years? I'm not saying last night went perfect but a solution based off the exception rather than the rule doesn't work long before considering the financial side of the sport. Having said that, if we had student support like that on a regular basis I'd certainly be more willing to consider alternatives because they create an incredible atmosphere when they show up.

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The non students only show up to sell out the arena once every few years too (at least lately).

If Buzz starts us on a new run of NCAA tournaments this year then I'm sure sell outs will happen more frequently. Maybe even more to come this year.

And yes, I think a 70,000 strong student body with 40,000+ sports passes sold should have a larger chunk of the arena reserved for them given the environment they are able to create and their ability to show up on weeknights more consistently than the general public (caveat - when we are good).

But I also think there has to be a better system for allocating whatever tickets are available for students than what happened last night, but that's a whole separate discussion.

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I get what you are saying and I agree with the last paragraph but I think you are just completely ignoring the financial aspect of things. It feels like you are arguing for something that just has no basis in reality. As the student demand goes up, so does the non-student but the non-student side generate revenue while the student side simply doesn't. No AD in the country is going to give up more revenue generating seats than they have to for seats that aren't. Some will be given up for the improved atmosphere but there will always be a limit anywhere. If we are doing well enough to truly need a larger student section, we will also have a lot more demand from people paying for their seats so it will just never happen. If you are simply arguing for your ideal view then I actually admire that, but if you actually think it can happen then I think you are in for some disappointment.

Well my ideal view would actually be students having the whole first deck area behind the benches, but I do understand the very obvious financial implications of that. This is however what Duke does and they choose to invest heavily in their program and atmosphere. Mix in a few national championships and you have the best atmosphere in college basketball. Is that realistic at A&M/Reed Arena? Probably not given the money people have thrown around to sit there over the years.

But, expanding the student section could be done in the cheap seats. The cheapest seats last night were just $20. If you gave up selling 1,000 of those last night you would have gave up $20,000 in revenue. For most other games it's just $10, so $10,000. For almost every game since 2016, it wouldn't have mattered at all as those seats did not sell anyways and the student demand wasn't there to fill up what was available. So a completely moot point. Blame Kennedy.

For numbers - let's hypothetically say we get really rolling and have a year where every home conference game is/would be sold out of any tickets for sale to the general public and ticket prices could be raised to match demand (let's just say to an average of $25 for the cheapest seats). 9 home conference games x $25 x 1,000 seats = $225,000 in lost revenue. But meanwhile you have built a rabid fan base of students and have presumably a top 10 type team (if it's not a top 10 team you aren't selling out every game regardless). Financially this doesn't sound too bad for what is already the highest grossing athletic department in the country. Add in a perennial top 10 basketball team to what Jimbo is doing and those numbers are going to look even better. Don't forget we already pay Buzz $4 million a year with annual $100,000 increases just for being our coach.

The only people that lose out in this scenario are non season ticket holders that have trouble finding a ticket last minute because they didn't want to invest in the program. And if we ever got to the point where all available tickets are sold out as season tickets then 1) ticket prices can be raised to offset some of the loss and 2) hell yeah Reed Arena would be a bomb atmosphere

Also all the above is talking about taking some seats away from the general public and giving them to students. Changing the layout of the student section and taking away the folding chairs in the lower part of the student section could also increase the size of the student section (with no revenue loss) and make the environment even better with a few hundred more students that much closer to the court.

The students are the best part of college athletics not old people sitting on their butts.

Students are great but olds pay the bills and have a right to watch their financial investments.

Ag13 said:

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Well my ideal view would actually be students having the whole first deck area behind the benches, but I do understand the very obvious financial implications of that. This is however what Duke does and they choose to invest heavily in their program and atmosphere. Mix in a few national championships and you have the best atmosphere in college basketball. Is that realistic at A&M/Reed Arena? Probably not given the money people have thrown around to sit there over the years.

But, expanding the student section could be done in the cheap seats. The cheapest seats last night were just $20. If you gave up selling 1,000 of those last night you would have gave up $20,000 in revenue. For most other games it's just $10, so $10,000. For almost every game since 2016, it wouldn't have mattered at all as those seats did not sell anyways and the student demand wasn't there to fill up what was available. So a completely moot point. Blame Kennedy.

For numbers - let's hypothetically say we get really rolling and have a year where every home conference game is/would be sold out of any tickets for sale to the general public and ticket prices could be raised to match demand (let's just say to an average of $25 for the cheapest seats). 9 home conference games x $25 x 1,000 seats = $225,000 in lost revenue. But meanwhile you have built a rabid fan base of students and have presumably a top 10 type team (if it's not a top 10 team you aren't selling out every game regardless). Financially this doesn't sound too bad for what is already the highest grossing athletic department in the country. Add in a perennial top 10 basketball team to what Jimbo is doing and those numbers are going to look even better. Don't forget we already pay Buzz $4 million a year with annual $100,000 increases just for being our coach.

The only people that lose out in this scenario are non season ticket holders that have trouble finding a ticket last minute because they didn't want to invest in the program. And if we ever got to the point where all available tickets are sold out as season tickets then 1) ticket prices can be raised to offset some of the loss and 2) hell yeah Reed Arena would be a bomb atmosphere

Also all the above is talking about taking some seats away from the general public and giving them to students. Changing the layout of the student section and taking away the folding chairs in the lower part of the student section could also increase the size of the student section (with no revenue loss) and make the environment even better with a few hundred more students that much closer to the court.

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I'm heading to work and want to read through your post another time or two to make sure I understand all your points but I did want to say I appreciate the fact you are seriously thinking this through. This is the entire reason I like the basketball board. As I said, I admire the thought behind what you are saying because an atmosphere like the other night has a value of its own and I would like to look at what you are saying closely to see if I could ever see a future where that value adds up against the financial cost. Of course this entire discussion depends on us being a winning program.