Friday, March 11, 2011

Somebody listens, in some small part, and fixes the Husky Stadium student ticket price issue... for now.

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I oppose the massive (1/4 billion dollar) amount of money they're dumping into Husky Stadium. If possible, I opposed it even more when I discovered the tentative rape of the price for students to attend their school's football team's game.

That this is, essentially, a massive waste of money is hard to deny: we have a public stadium used by the Seahawks that would, I would think, do the job just as well as Husky Stadium, and Qwest is already built while having all of the goodies the Alumni, who want better facilities for their cocktail parties, could possibly want.

Here's the new ticket schedule for students, far different then that first announced by Huskyville a few weeks ago:

--- Discounted Dawg Pack tickets for three years, with Dawg Pack ticket prices at $120 for six games in the current stadium and in the current location in 2011, $99 for six games in Qwest Field in 2012, and $99 for seven games in the new Husky Stadium in 2013. Savings to students amount to nearly $320,000.

--- The creation of a Dawg Pack scholarship program, which will provide complimentary tickets in the Dawg Pack student section for low-income students, beginning in the 2011 season.

--- Complimentary transportation to Qwest Field arranged by Intercollegiate Athletics for Dawg Pack ticket holders for the 2012 season.

--- A discounted concession plan for Dawg Pack ticket holders.

--- The creation of a Dawg Pack Advisory Committee, which will provide Athletics with ongoing student input on "making the Dawg Pack the best student section in the nation.''

--- A student-only entrance at the front of Husky Stadium, which will be visible, easy to access, and will feature recognition of students' original investment to build Husky Stadium.

The plan announced earlier was this:
But in the new Husky Stadium, the price would jump to $900 for student season tickets on the 50-yard line, or $375 for season tickets located above the tunnel
the team runs through on the way to the field. McKenna said students are unhappy
that they weren't brought into discussions earlier.
The student section, of course, SHOULD NOT BE MOVED.

This is THEIR SCHOOL. Everything the Alum do should continue to focus on that, and the student section, which is in only one side of the stadium, SHOULD NOT BE MOVED.

Addressing the moronically high ticket prices is a good first step. But there are many steps left to go, ultimately culminating with ending the idiotic idea of blowing $250 million on a stadium to turn it into a version of something we already have available down the street, relatively speaking.

1 comment:

Blogging around the Pacific Northwest said...

Hey Kelly, everyone of those suggestions you listed still comes with a price tag of some sort.

But I can agree with you, that if UoW can't show a serious need for this major renovation and can't show how its going paid for without taxpayer dollars, why is it worth doing?

And with a proposed light rail system going right by that stadium, is there any real reason why they need some shiny, new improvements?

There are two physical stadiums paid mostly by tax dollars, short amount by the teams and from concessions,fees and many other user pay things. So both Safeco and Qwest are good options?

And high school teams from all over the state still play at the Tacoma Dome. THERE shows you it CAN be dome still.