Changes that can be made for Football ticket prices for students at home games with the new bleachers done.
New Bleachers. What are they for? I would say the bleachers are for Students and sports fans to fill them while attending the sporting events.
But there is a problem in the way that the powers that be at Lincoln see this situation.
Issue: Should the students be allowed special benefits or reduced ticket prices to go to home football games, now at Lincoln's new bleachers which will hold almost 2,000? Yes, it could only help in the long run.
Current condition: The students are, I am informed, charged the same price for football tickets at the same rate as non-students, a little over $3.00. What is the benefit of being a student if your own school will not grant you some discount on the tickets?
Important considerations.
1. We would like to have the team do the best we can. Win or Lose. But the team would really do better if there was some feeling of support by the school administrators, faculty, and students.
If the students are going to have to pay upwards of $3.00
each, we have problems. There is the expense, first of all, of coming up
with that for each and every game, if the student is one who is going to
attend the games loyally.
Next, suppose you have the money to spend without much problem. Then
you consider, "Is it worth this money to go to the game when there
are other things that I could do with the money?" As unflaterring
as it may be, the choice of going to the game may not seem to be so good
anymore.
Money has always been a student concern, and mostly because of a
lack of it. The higher the ticket price, the lower the likelihood that
students will choose the game over other things. RESULT? Less
students in attendance at the games.
Fact/Rumor: Students are not really very concerned with support of the few sports teams that remain at Lincoln. There has been no tradition of attending the games at Lincoln's football field since there have been no regular stands with a decent view of the game for about 10 years until NOW.
Task: How to get more students into the stands and revive the tradition of having your students show up for games and support the teams.
Ideas
Since the first home varsity game will
be on October 16, 1998, and this is the first time that the stand will
be in use for a Varsity game. There should be a special event considered
by the school, and forget about selling tickets at the regular price.
That way some of the students who would not otherwise consider going to
the game would go and see what is going on for NO CHARGE for at least
this game. Some students may decide to come back; some may decide
not to return. But at least the students could have an opportunity
to check out the game without much financial expense, and there would be
a maximum number of seats filled for this first varsity game.
The other choice is to do nothing different, and students will have no push to become more involved in the support of school programs and continue being disinterested in general.
If the school wants to have the stands filled as much as possible, it could make up the price difference by having more students come in at a cheaper price./ It would be embarrassing to have the visitors bring more fans to Lincoln's home field than Lincoln brings.
The first game should be free or 50 cents, almost free. This is the time to get the sports program supported and to get students morale up. Too many already don't care, and without giving in on the ticket situation, it looks like the school doesn't care about its students either.
Note about things which were in the past tradition of Lincoln that have almost dissappeared:
School Yearbooks
Letterman's sweaters and jackets
Senior Class sweaters and class rings
Restricting "Senior Court" to the Seniors only.
Sports Teams/ there is no tennis, swimming, or gymnastics team, on my information... This is subject to correction....
Let's hope that the people or persons in charge are not so short-sighted and uncaring that they miss the opportunity to give the school a boost in this area.
Robert Guevara
Oct. 11, 1998.