Faculty and Staff must now buy tickets.

[SMU Football Blog]

http://media.www.smudailycampus.com/med ... 5235.shtml

Leave it to the IRS to ruin a good thing.

[perunapower]

I don't think SMU realizes how long that line to get into the stadium is going to be! No student tickets in advance!?! How many students are going to wait in an enormous line halfway through the first quarter to get in?

[LonghornFan68]

I don't think SMU realizes how long that line to get into the stadium is going to be! No student tickets in advance!?! How many students are going to wait in an enormous line halfway through the first quarter to get in?

It's called getting there early.

However:

In the past, students and faculty were able to go to the ticket office a few days before a game and pick up their tickets. That will be different this year. They will enter a designated gate with their student ID, or staff ID, have it swiped and receive a ticket at the gate.

This is a dumb idea. Even if students get there early, it will be a pain to get a ticket. All this will do is cause less students to want to go to games. Bad, bad idea.

To keep with the athletic department's motto of being a top 25 school, SMU researched what the top 25 programs in the country did regarding faculty and staff tickets, as well as the other Conference USA teams. They discovered that none of the top 25 programs give free tickets to employees and that SMU was the only school in C-USA that gave free tickets to faculty and staff.

Wow. Shouldn't "being" be "becoming" in the first sentence?

As Thad can attest to, there are no free rides to Texas games. Everyone pays and everyone pays a lot.

[mrydel]

However:

In the past, students and faculty were able to go to the ticket office a few days before a game and pick up their tickets. That will be different this year. They will enter a designated gate with their student ID, or staff ID, have it swiped and receive a ticket at the gate.

This is a dumb idea. Even if students get there early, it will be a pain to get a ticket. All this will do is cause less students to want to go to games. Bad, bad idea.

I do not see this as a problem. It says the students go to a designated gate and enter on their ID. They are then given a ticket, which I would assume is so they know their section and could leave and reenter if that is now allowed. How difficult is it to walk thru a gate and show an ID, followed by holding out your hand. College kids are good at that.

[Mexmustang]

So...students will find their seats on a first come, first serve basis. Wonder if that will get them off the Blvd. earlier or just require some Bull Pledge to reserve a section?

[Peruna2001]

I heard that the reason faculty and staff are now buying tickets is so that we can have more tickets purchased, because that is how attendance is calculated. Not sure if this is true, just what I heard.

As far as student tickets, I think that idea is great. I doubt many students get their tickets before gameday anyways. I think it will encourage students to get to the game early or as close to the start of game as possible. I remember it would suck because people that would show up at the beginning of the game would have to sit in the upper-level student section because their tickets were not for the lower-level student section. The yellow-jacket ticket-nazis wouldn't let them sit in the lower level even if nobody was sitting there at the time.

[ThadFilms]

This new rule would have sucked for me in years past as I always rounded up tickets from my pops, his colleagues, or random students in the engineering dept. to get myself and whoever else I had with me into the game.



But now, I am set... so I haven't a care in the world...

As Thad can attest to, there are no free rides to Texas games. Everyone pays and everyone pays a lot.

Well you used to drive me to Texas games.... got you on a technicality there!

But yeah, I think the only (Texas) game I can comfortably predict that I could get into for ten bucks or less this season would be the opener against powder puff U. However, I think I'll probably be sticking close to the kegs and watching some non blowouts on the TVs.

.........

I guess exclusivity may breed demand. But hopefully, this year, quality will breed demand.

[mrydel]

If I recall (which may be in doubt) all we did in my day was flash our ID's at the Cotton Bowl. We then went to the student section. Of course we were all accompanied by our "pregnant" dates who had the alcohol and snacks stuffed under their clothes.

[MustangStealth]

I heard that the reason faculty and staff are now buying tickets is so that we can have more tickets purchased, because that is how attendance is calculated. Not sure if this is true, just what I heard.

They can be counted if they are charged any sort of athletics fee (i.e. student tickets count). I don't know that faculty/staff pay that fee, so their tickets probably didn't count towards the total. However, in order for the school to be able to count them, they only need to be sold at 1/3 the normal price, so the 20% discount being offered by SMU isn't very generous. If we were selling games out then there would be justification for charging more, but at this point I'd rather see our athletic department do what it takes to get more people in the stadium.

[PonyCat]

The story headline (and corresponding thread title) seem wrong since it says in that story:

"One thing the athletic department is doing to ease into the transition is still allowing faculty and staff, for this season only, to receive free tickets."

[PonyCat]

However, in order for the school to be able to count them, they only need to be sold at 1/3 the normal price, so the 20% discount being offered by SMU isn't very generous.

From a counting standpoint yes, but the story says the IRS is the problem. I'll bet it's like the SMU Museum, which SMU faculty/staff can join at 20% off. That 20% is the IRS-allowed max discount or you'll get taxed on it like pay.

[MustangStealth]

From a counting standpoint yes, but the story says the IRS is the problem. I'll bet it's like the SMU Museum, which SMU faculty/staff can join at 20% off. That 20% is the IRS-allowed max discount or you'll get taxed on it like pay.

That's a definite possibilty. I wasn't aware of that.

[72mustang]

I work at Stanford and up to recently at your 15 years of service you would get 150 gift certificate to the Stanford shopping center.Now we select from some gift catalog because otherwise it would be taxable income. Personally give me the money.

[BUS]

My mother taught Statistics and Calculus at SMU for decades. this is the first year since 1962 that mom and dad will not have tickets. Price went WAY high for two seats in the sun with no PA system. And my folks are in their 80's.

I think the price was like 128 per seat. Could be wrong but that is what I remember.

Beat Tech

[LonghornFan68]

My mother taught Statistics and Calculus at SMU for decades. this is the first year since 1962 that mom and dad will not have tickets. Price went WAY high for two seats in the sun with no PA system. And my folks are in their 80's.

I think the price was like 128 per seat. Could be wrong but that is what I remember.

Beat Tech

I would give... well, I won't say what I would give... but it'd be a lot to only have to pay $128 for season tickets at Texas - in the sun. No offense to your folks, but that's really not very much money compared to a LOT of other D-1A schools. It's nothing compared to what you would pay at most Top 25 schools.

I'd be curious to know what season ticket prices are at other CUSA schools as well as at TCU and UNT. I'm sure they're way more than $128.