This policy is in line with members of the MVC. I don't think the policy is needless, if it is standard practice at venues for conference rivals. In fact, other valley members have policies that would be considered egregious to these standards. IE. Not offering free ticketing, but instead only offering a season pass discount or only offering MBB tickets at reduced prices.
I'm not going to claim that the policy isn't annoying and a headscratcher as for many many years the previous policy was the case, but it is not a policy I would consider egregious.
@rezynezy I will quote MJ08 again: "Justifying your actions by saying other people are doing the same is lazy." Or, as I said, such thinking is contrary to maintaining a distinctive character.
Its not lazy. Its taking a look at your peers and seeing how your policies compare to others to open a dialogue as to how egregious a new policy is. Why would anyone be against a source of information to further conversation. As for distinctive character. There is going to be a different definition for that depending on who you ask so as to not get blown over over a matter of pure opinion, I will not be elaborating further. A distinctive character is an opinion. As for the policy I am flat out stating that this policy is annoying and a puzzling development for a school that struggles to fill seats. However, I am not going to immediately take up torches and pitchforks until I research how this policy compares to other schools in the conference. I researched, and provided said research, and came to the conclusion that while the policy is certainly troubling and unnecessary. Said policy is not egregious and excessive when compared to conference rivals.
How much extra money is being generated? Or is the university trying to save money because free tickets have an associated cost from the new ticketing company?
Valpo hasn’t done anything recently that tells me we should give them the benefit of the doubt.
The money saved/gained from this is negligible. Hence why this seems to be on the end of Vivenue and the ticketing agency
TBH, the intensity of this online discussion is surprising me. Maybe I'm just not in the right sporty circles to have heard of these policies past or present, but I have heard zero chatter about this on campus from students, staff, or faculty. I didn't even know that retirees had this benefit, nor have I really ever heard anybody discuss getting tickets or going to games. I guess that itself is not a great thing (why aren't students and faculty more invested in the sports? isn't it a problem that people are disengaged?). But I am just not convinced that this is the heated controversy that this online convo would suggest. I have gone once or twice to a game where a student told me about it and explicitly asked me to come to a game that afternoon or evening. But in general, I admit, it's not really been on my radar as a thing to do with friends or family. Maybe that's been a missed opportunity if there were really great deals that are now evaporating for employees? But I guess if we had extra bandwidth, we've tended to go to VHS games or into Chicago for Wrigley field or theatre shows. I would be curious to know how many employees and retirees have been using the free/discount tickets and whether this is really a major thing?
VUIndiana brings up a solid argument. Forgive me for mentioning the HS again, but VHS has seen significantly better draws for sports such as basketball and football. VU is a D1 institution, however, folks are choosing to attend Friday night lights over the Saturday set, and basketball games at VHS over basketball games at VU. I'm curious as to why this is the case. Albeit football is looking to improve their fanbase given Saturdays turnout, but basketball, not so much.
As for student presence, something tells me the different sports teams are going to put a lot more emphasis on attending the games to their athletes. There was a completely full Valparaizone for the Popcorn classic for a little while, completely filled with the football, baseball, bowling, and WSO teams. Basketball was even a major Prescence at the football game this Saturday. Not a bad idea if you ask me. Sort of a "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours".
You can be sure those athletes aren't arranging two days in advance to attend those games.
In the past students have been bribed with pizza or the chance to win $$ to attend basketball games. Crowd size has been a problem since Bryce we joined the MVC. Putting up barriers (and eliminating perks for underpaid, demoralized staff members) seems a por choice.
Students must get a season pass from vivenue. All games are free with student pass
Winning basketball games will solve most of the attendance issues, having a player that stays for 3 or 4 years, a fan favorite. Maybe Cooper becomes that or the Shaw kid. Also, Valpo prolly leans more fiscally conservative, so their limits to how much people will spend/attend especially on a mediocre product at facilities that are not as nice as the high school facilities. Has Valpo U athletics done a good of building relationships in the community, brand awareness? Are their bill boards all over the city, a good social media presence etc..?. The popcorn display is a good idea and showing up at Zao Island for autographs etc... Asking fair questions........
Winning basketball games will solve most of the attendance issues, having a player that stays for 3 or 4 years, a fan favorite. Maybe Cooper becomes that or the Shaw kid. Also, Valpo prolly leans more fiscally conservative, so their limits to how much people will spend/attend especially on a mediocre product at facilities that are not as nice as the high school facilities. Has Valpo U athletics done a good of building relationships in the community, brand awareness? Are their bill boards all over the city, a good social media presence etc..?. The popcorn display is a good idea and showing up at Zao Island for autographs etc... Asking fair questions........
With the modern era of NIL and the portal, there is little hope for a player making a real commitment to a school for many many years. Although, Powell can prove me wrong here as he is a well respected recruiter and basketball mind. As for facilities, Powell has to sell himself and his team culture in order to generate recruits. The ARC surely isnt doing him any favors. It seems as if he has been successful, and can continue to be successful with talent acquisition, even pulling Shaw away from his own uncle to play for his program under the number that said uncle used during his time at the school. I trust his judgement given his resume when it comes to maintaining a high level of play at the mid-major level.
As for brand awareness and relationships. Athletics is doing mountains better than academics on that end. From what I know, Hosmer is directly involved in the community and alums beyond the transactional relationships. She herself comes from a marketing background and her and Powell have been working more closely with local business to establish meaningful relationships. Some of which I will discuss later. As for bill boards, they rent out a space behind home plate at The Rate occasionally, there aren't too many places within the city to plaster signage aside from the billboards off of 30 and state road 2. The new marquee and welcome sign should prove to get word out about events albeit the wording is a little small. As for social media, its excellent. All of those partnerships are well marketed and events seem to be posted frequently on official accounts. Powell himself even engages in social media fun with his Instagram lives and content surrounding different local businesses. The athletics you tube page even has a series surrounding Powell and his family doing different things within The Region. I have reason to believe that athletics is going to be in a good place in the future. However in order to maintain athletics, academics needs to step up, kindly refer to VUIndiana's words on the enrollment page for some information regarding that can of worms.
Although @valpopal overdoes the tradition argument which at times defer progress, I agree with him on the bogus 48 hr time window to reserve your tickets. My feeling it is more of a ticket service company policy rather than what Valpo athletics wants to follow. I get that paper tickets usage are pretty much gone, and actually I am trying to adjust to this. However, practices change over time. Can the website and algorithm be modified to perhaps make the time window 2 hours? Change the non volatile memory parameter from 48 to 2 and move on! Let’s be serious - for almost any Valpo event, serious supply will never be a problem.
In my experience, you have to give some sort of a time frame to help manage flow. If it's up to the day of for everyone you're dealing with everyone waiting til then. If you set a 2 day ahead limit you will most likely get most done and then can deal with late asks.
Also, I have heard that staff and faculty can request for the entirety of a season at one time and then just choose to use the virtual tickets or not when the day comes. It does not sound like advertised it clearly though.
Also, I have heard that staff and faculty can request for the entirety of a season at one time and then just choose to use the virtual tickets or not when the day comes. It does not sound like advertised it clearly though.
Sounds like something that needs to be on the FAQ asap for clarity sake.
Someone call the ticketing office, or contact someone in athletics and inquire as to why the staff tickets have been reduced, or why there is now a premium on buying tickets at the gate.
Took your advice and got word straight from the top. The petty withdrawal of the benefit to retirees was done simply as an attempt to make more money, as was suggested by some here. The change for faculty and staff to an email process with submission at least 48 hours in advance was done through the new ticket platform primarily as a means to harvest data from those folks, though it also has the result of now charging these people a premium of full cost for same day walk-in admission.
