COLUMN: Needed: 243 NCAA tickets ASAP

From Mark Edelman's, "Old School 'Mawk' Talk" Listening to the Quakers themselves, it is obvious that they are ready for March Madness. On Locust Walk, excited student conversations indicate the fans are also raring to go. However, there is one contingent in in the post-season mix that just doesn't seem psyched. The University of Pennsylvania athletic ticket office. The Penn ticket office won't announce a policy regarding NCAA Tournament ticket distribution until Wednesday, March 3. One may argue that this delay is built on superstition, claiming that the ticket office refuses to make post-season plans until Penn is crowned champion, much like a baseball announcer won't comment on a no-hitter until it's in the books. But this is simply not true, given that last Tuesday's Villanova game and next Tuesday's Princeton contest were on the schedule all season, yet tickets were not awarded until the final minute. In reality, the major source of problems is that the ticket office continuously struggles to make decisions regarding ticket distribution. The 600 upper-level seats available for the Princeton game were initially offered on an unpublicized first-come, first-serve waiting list for students. That list was replaced, however, by a three-day allotment favoring season-ticket holders after a slew of angry phone calls enlightened them on the absurdity of the original proposal. One reason student ticket-holders became angered was many were initially told that seats go to the "full-price ticket holders," meaning the alumni. This was the message originally given to College seniors Ben Cohen and Adam Cohen, although it was later recanted. "The Penn ticket office's policy of ticket distribution is currently that they have no policy," said Adam Cohen, a four-year campout season-ticket holder. "They should put the list on a computer," College senior Ted Mann added. "They should distribute tickets farther in advance. They should publish the rules governing away ticket purchases, and finally, they should see what they can do about getting better seats for the away games." But despite recent complaints, the status quo has not changed. "When you have 300 tickets for who-knows-how-many constituencies of fans, it's tough," conceded Penn band director Greer Cheeseman. Since the Penn ticket office seems reluctant to make a policy, it should formally continue its 1995 distribution pattern, which granted tournament tickets first to students who camped out -- before distinguished alumni and the program's financial contributors. "Students and the associated campouts are part of what makes Penn basketball a fine tradition," said 1997 Penn graduate Kushol Gupta, who currently maintains the unofficial Penn basketball World Wide Web site. "Students are the loudest and a driving force of support for the team. Alumni are great and all, but students are only here for four years." Given the tradition behind the yearly ticket line camp-out and the addition these fans bring to the game, the most feasible way for Penn to allocate seats for the NCAA Tournament would be to immediately set aside 243 ticket vouchers -- one for each student who camped out this fall. Distributing these vouchers immediately would show a commitment to providing the 243 ticket-line students their due respect. Once those students who camped out for season tickets in October have received their vouchers, the ticket office should then distribute vouchers in a two-to-one ratio, favoring the student season-ticket holders over alumni ticket-holders. No fan, under any condition, should receive more than one seat. Indeed, the ticket office will argue that alumni pay more for their tickets and deserve special perks. However, current students already pay in excess of $30,000 per year to attend Penn. If green is really the issue, then the Athletic Department should realize one thing -- students provided with a trip to the NCAAs are more likely to contribute money to the program as alumni than those who felt shafted by the program as students. Ignoring the students for financial reasons is simply bogus. The Quakers suit up tomorrow for Columbia, kicking off the final home basketball weekend of the season. Penn is playing great, the fans are active and even the Athletic Department has revived its marketing. This should be a fun time of year, a happy time and a party time. It should not be a weekend for the Palestra's most faithful fans to worry if their loyalty will be ignored come the NCAAs. The Penn ticket office should take the pressure off its student body immediately. Provide the 243 students that camped-out for tickets with automatic March Madness vouchers and promise the rest of the student season-ticket holders that they, too, will earn a fair chance to go to the Big Dance.