Student Attendance, The Line, and Ticketing Policy

In today's DP, I looked at dwindling student attendance and considered some causes and solutions for the problem. But of course, today was just about the busiest news day ever at Penn, so I don't blame you if you missed the column. Either way, I thought it would be good to continue the discussion here at The Buzz.

So I encourage you to read it anyways, but if you don't want to take the time, my basic points are this: 1. The Palestra will be packed again when the Quakers are again a winning team 2. The student ticketing policy needs to be changed if the Quakers want to enjoy a true home court advantage.

Read below the jump for some further analysis. Basically, I argue that lagging student attendance is a direct consequence of poor play, and point to UCLA's dwindling attendance figures as my basis. From what I saw at the Cornell game, students will return to the Palestra when they again expect Penn to win. This isn't too much of an argument, in my opinion, as just about anyone would rather see a win than a loss.

But I don't think that a winning team is enough to solve the core issues. Two years ago, the ticketing policy was changed to a general admission system, a move that I personally have always been in favor of. But to preserve a meaningful Line, the general admission policy came with the stipulation that only students who participate in The Line would get to sit in the lower bowl portion of the student section, while other students would sit in the upper bowl.

This, I believe is a fatal flaw to any hopes of a legitimate home court advantage, as you can read in my column. While I toyed with eliminating The Line altogether, my solution is three simple factors: 1. Keep The Line, and perhaps even extend it to make it more of a commitment 2. Reward Line participants with free season tickets 3. Have a complete general admission policy for student season ticket holders. The first students to show up to games at the Palestra get the best seats, regardless of whether they participated in The Line.

So what do you think of my plan? Love it? Hate it? Think it's absolutely unreasonable? Got a better idea? Sound off in the comments below, I'd love to hear some feedback.