Athletic Council to discuss football ticket sales

After months of debate about more than a half-dozen proposals, a subcommittee of the Athletic Council will present a plan to the full Council today on how to distribute football tickets when Ohio State switches to semesters in 2012.

The Council is a committee of the University Senate and is made up of faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Thirteen proposals were discussed at closed-door Finance and Facilities subcommittee meetings. They were narrowed down to three that were even more extensively discussed. The subcommittee hammered out a final proposal Monday that the Council will consider today.

After the semester switch, the Autumn term will begin earlier, and students on the Council have lobbied for more student tickets for early games. But more student tickets, which are cheaper, would lead to a loss of revenue, which the Athletic Department wants to avoid.

A representative of the Alumni Association had suggested that alumni tickets be more spread out over the season, and the faculty and staff would generally like to keep numbers of tickets they already have.

Karen Mancl, chair of the Finance and Facilities subcommittee, would not discuss specifics of the proposal. Every group's concerns had been taken into account, she said, and a majority of each group was satisfied with the recommendation.

"Every constituency gets what they asked for," she said. But within certain groups, there is "a minority who didn't accept [the proposal], a minority who will not be happy, and they will most likely be vocal," she said.

Micah Kamrass, a student member of the Council, said he was told details of the plan but has not actually seen it.

"It's an OK proposal," he said. "It's not a home run for students."

Peter Koltak, a student representative who was at the final subcommittee meeting, said there was consensus to move the proposal to the full Council.

"I don't know if that consensus will hold when the full council discusses it," he said.

The Lantern requested a copy of the proposal Monday, but Mancl refused to provide it.

"I don't want to blindside the committee and have it come up in the papers before we present it," said Mancl, a professor of engineering.

At today's full Council meeting, the recommended proposal will be discussed, but no vote will take place. Voting will likely occur at the May meeting, she said.

The Council could request that the proposal be sent back to the subcommittee. She said she hopes that doesn't happen. The subcommittee has other issues to take up, but she acknowledged that the full Council could think of something Finance and Facilities hadn't considered.

This proposal only deals with how tickets are distributed and how they are spread out over the season, Mancl said. Other issues remain to be worked out, such as the point system that determines if faculty and staff are eligible to buy tickets and full-season versus split-season ticket packages.

"It's a complicated process," Mancl said. "That's the take-away message."

The Athletic Council meets at 6 p.m. at the Jack Nicklaus Museum at 2355 Olentangy River Road.