While students will still have to shell out for the initial cost of OU men’s basketball tickets this season, a new initiative will allow them to get all their money back.
The OU Athletics Department will give students a full ticket refund of $130 to their bursar account if they purchase a basketball season ticket and attend at least 16 of the 17 home games, said Billy Ray Johnson, assistant athletics director of ticket operations. Students can miss three games and still get a $50 credit.
The refund will be given even if someone else uses the owner’s ticket for a game, Johnson said. Anyone can use the ticket, but a non-student will have to pay an upgrade fee to use it, he said.
Student attendance at men’s basketball games has declined during the past five years, Johnson said. Last year, the number of student season ticket holders dropped to around 600 out of 1,800 available tickets.
Johnson said the refund will help increase student attendance at home games, which will make a difference in the outcome.
“Our men’s basketball program is a really important part of our athletic program, and we really want the student body to come out and support it,” he said. “We’re really trying to create a home court advantage, and sometimes we don’t realize what an important role our student body plays.”
Amanda Holloway, UOSA president, also said increased student attendance will benefit the basketball team.
“The basketball team doesn’t feel as great and confident as they could be if they’re not playing in a full arena,” she said. “You’ve seen the school spirit around football, but the athletics department is so much more than that.”
OU is one of the first universities to offer this incentive, but dwindling student attendance is also a problem at many other schools, Johnson said.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations with other universities that have heard we’re doing this,” he said. “They’re anxious to see how this goes.”
Johnson said the athletics department has been working with student leaders to find ways to increase game attendance. They have tried incentives in past seasons, like in-game promotions and shuttles from the residence halls, but most were unsuccessful.
Students motivate the team, said Rohit Rai, a member of the OU Basketball Attendance Task Force, an organization dedicated to creating a better environment at OU men’s basketball games.
“If you have people there cheering you on when you make a big shot, that definitely motivates you,” said Rai. “I think that’s definitely something you can see. It will really help our team out.”
Johnson said it is harder to get students interested in attending basketball games, as opposed to football.
“There’s a lot of socialization that’s planned around home football games, where basketball you can play on almost every night of the week,” he said. “So certainly we know we run into class schedules.”
Tyler Knowles, president of the task force, said he helped start the student task force last year because of declining student attendance at games.
“I think a lot more students are going to come out and support the basketball team this year,” he said. “Also, those kids that can’t make it to all the games will still want that refund and they’ll give their ticket away.”
Johnson said the refund incentive could be a financial risk to the university if enough students purchase tickets.
“We could take a pretty big hit if the entire student body were to show up for every game,” he said. “But we’re willing to take that chance because we believe that’s how important the student body is to us.”
The athletic department also changed the student seating configuration, Johnson said. The number of student seats decreased from 1,800 to 1,400. The department also removed the CrimZone, the student standing area, to keep the student section in one place, which has been shifted to the north side of the stadium.
“We really hope that will help,” he said. “We want [students] close to the floor, and Coach [Jeff] Capel is a big believer in students making a big difference.”
Student basketball tickets go on sale Sept. 23 for upperclassmen. Freshmen and new students can enter their name in a ticket lottery the following day.
Johnson said he has high hopes for the upcoming season.
“We think it starts and stops with the student body when it comes to the environment they create,” he said. “We really want to create an environment that’s second to none—that basketball is a big deal here in Oklahoma.”
The Oklahoma Daily is pleased to provide you the opportunity to share your thoughts about this article. We encourage lively debate on the issues of the day, but we ask you refrain from using profanity or other offensive speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting advertising, or straying from the topic at hand. To comment, you must be a registered user of OUDaily.com. Thanks for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Log in | Register
u2dy 3 years, 8 months ago
Killer! Now if we can only keep the donor seats filled.
At least towards the end of last season all fans were invited to fill vacant seats on the lower level after tip-off. This really improved the atmosphere during low-attendance games.
I'm looking forward to the season however. And will definitely purchase season tickets. And you should too!
basketball_defense 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Wish i had enough cash to come over to Oklahoma... and play and watch some basketball with you guys...maybe one day..