by Whitney Martin
After two final four appearances, it is no surprise that demand for men’s basketball season tickets is at an all time high. This season the Bulldogs will host 18 home games, including tough showdowns against Louisville and Xavier, in addition to the Horizon League games.
Since 2009 season ticket sales have increased 25 percent.
Matt Harris, manager of fan development and tickets, said that ticket prices are about $2 per game higher than last year.
Season ticket holders enjoy perks such as away game bus trips, lower-priced tickets to games, the opportunity to buy single game tickets before they go on sale to the general public and priority in purchasing post-season tickets and tickets to neutral site games like this year’s Crossroads Classic.
In 2007-2008, to make the process fair to all season ticket holders, the athletics department implemented a system that numerous Division I universities use for men’s basketball season tickets. With this system, anyone who turns in a season ticket application will have a computed number of Priority Points.
A ticket holder’s points will take into account the number of consecutive years they have had tickets and their gifts made to the athletics department over the last five years. When all points are calculated, the total points will then be converted into a number of priority points. Priority points will be calculated by taking the total points and dividing by the number of tickets requested for the 2011-2012 basketball season.
In the fall, season ticket applications are ranked in descending order starting with the application with the highest number of priority points. Season ticket holders are awarded seats according to their ranking due to their priority points and specific requests for changes. According to the season ticket brochure, all renewals and upgrades will be based on the priority points system. Therefore seats from the previous year are not guaranteed.
Darlene Waddell is the department secretary for the College of Education and a non-consecutive season ticket holder since 1979.
“I loved watching the team grow to a national high,” she said. “I loved seeing the country see ‘The Butler Way’ and the history we made. We are a part of that.”
Currently the lower level seating, costing $549, is sold out this season. Compared to the students who get in free with their student IDs, this cost is high. Waddell said it includes benefits though.
“Well to me there are a lot of benefits,” she said. “The first is that we support our school and our team. It is something that my entire family has great passion for so it is a personal benefit for me.”
