In Reply to: Some folks just aren't into sports. posted by ej on October 23, 2026 at 11:21:47
The year Pauley opened, Alcindor's freshman year, 5000 tickets were allocated to the students, 3000 as a season package and 2000 individual games. They were snapped up quickly. In the next few years it went to 3000/1500. One had to line up for hours, if not days, to get a season ticket. Eventually they went to a lottery to make it fair and there were many more entries than tickets.
As the years passed the student section was gradually reduced to maybe 1000 with more allocated if seats were available.
College age students are different than those years ago. It's all about social media. For example, they don't watch entire games, just the highlight videos. "School spirit" isn't what it used to be. Times have changed.
All the free tickets and perks won't be as effective as a game against a top flight team. The students showed up for those games last season. Who wants to see Arkansas-Pine Bluff? Only the hard core fans.