Don’t ask to borrow money any time soon from freshman math and education major Sean Franklin — he’s going to the ACC men’s basketball tournament.
For the chance to see the Terrapins battle some of the country’s best teams in a dizzying four-day tournament just miles away at the MCI Center — the first time in more than 18 years the event has been in the Washington area — Franklin could justify emptying his bank account for the $325 ticket.
“It’s a lot of money … but I figured it was a once-and-a-lifetime thing,” he said. “It’s almost always in North Carolina and I figured the tournament is going to be here in D.C., let’s take advantage of it.”
Franklin isn’t alone. There were 1,600 requests this year for the university’s 100 student tickets to the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. Only 57 requested tickets to last year’s tournament in Greensboro, N.C., and just 11 followed through.
Despite their recent struggles, the Terps’ surprising ACC championship victory last year and the tournament’s proximity has piqued interest, said Greg Schiller, assistant athletic director and head of ticket operations.
“You just have to buy a [Metro] fare card. You don’t have to worry about lodging and everything. Some see it as a one-time opportunity,” he said.
The ACC hasn’t made tickets available to the general public since 1966. Instead, an equal amount of tickets are distributed to member institutions, which then divide them among students, athletic donors, corporate sponsors and office staff. Because it’s their first year, Virginia Tech and the University of Miami will receive a smaller allotment.
While the tournament may be in the university’s back yard this year, things haven’t been so great for the university’s athletic boosters, some of whom had been giving for years, jockeying for position for when the tournament came to town. Giving has more than tripled in the past five years because of the success of the basketball and football teams, but converging factors wiped out hundreds of tickets.
The MCI Center is the smallest tournament venue since 1989, and 4,500 seats smaller than last year’s host, Greensboro Coliseum. That, coupled with the added strain of accommodating the conference’s two new teams, resulted in 500 fewer tickets this year for the Terrapin Club, which received 1,400 of the university’s 1,900.
“We have a number of people who are used to going and like to go and can’t go this year…” said Joe Hull, an associate athletic director who oversees the club’s ticket distribution. “People are disappointed.”
The Terrapin Club uses a priority system that accounts for contributions, tenure with the club and referrals, among other things. Many families accustomed to attending the tournament either did not get a ticket at all or had their ticket allotment cut in half.
The student allotment of 100, however, remained intact.
Only eight students purchased tickets in the first round of the online lottery, but all were snatched up in the on-demand period.
“The general opinion of everyone is it’s a better atmosphere when students are there,” Schiller said. “That’s why every school tries to get students to the tourney.”
Things will get worse before they get better. Boston College will join the conference in 2005, receiving a partial allocation for its first two years before receiving a full share in 2008. The tournament that year will be played in the Charlotte Bobcats’ new arena — expected to hold between 18,000 and 19,000.
This year’s tournament — with 2.5 million people in the Baltimore and Washington corridor — is the hottest ticket in town, with high-profiled lawyers, businessmen and the nation’s top politicians competing for seats and working connections to find a way in.
And on eBay, tickets are going for as high as $3,400 in the lower level or $4,300 for club seats. The worst seats are about $800.
For $325 — $65 more than last year because there’s two additional games — this university’s students have some of the best seats in the house. Student tickets in Section 105 — behind one of the baskets — are closer to the court than other school’s sections.
Freshman business major Ryan Levin got his tickets for Christmas in lieu of an iPod and plans to skip classes to attend.
“I’d probably skip a relative’s birthday, or a wedding or bar mitzvah or a lot of family activities to go,” he said. “Oh — I’m gonna skip a lot of classes to go to the game.”
