Check's in the mail

As students recover from the initial shock of finding that men's basketball season ticket packages will be reduced, they can find solace in the next two weeks when refund checks will be mailed out for the games that are being deducted.\nThose students who ordered season tickets will receive a refund of $11 per ticket, totaling either $33 or $44 depending on how many games they receive.\nAll checks should be mailed out by Nov. 18.\nEvery season 7,800 tickets are reserved for students per game included in the student season package, which includes 10 games for the 2002-2003 season. This year, however, 12,200 students ordered the 10-game student season ticket page for $115, causing the athletic ticket office to decrease the number of games students will receive from 10 to a minimum of six, and for some seven games. A computerized lottery will determine who will receive a seventh ticket. \n"Some students will receive seven games due to the full six-game rotation not selling out," assistant Athletic Director Jeff Fanter said.\n"I'm glad we are getting our money back, but it doesn't make up for the games we don't get to see," sophomore Jamie Greenbaum said.\nThe numbers of games was determined by taking the 7,800 tickets per game and multiplying it by 10 games which gives 78,000 student tickets for the season ticket package. The 78,000 tickets were then divided by the 12,200 students ordering tickets giving each student who ordered six or seven tickets.\n"It's really frustrating that we expected to get 10 games and we only get six or seven, because it's their responsibility to give us all 10 games, and just because they oversold and made a mistake we have to suffer," sophomore Kathryn Nelson said. "It doesn't really make sense."\nThe ticket office accepted orders after the Oct. 15 deadline, however the number of orders exceeded 7,800 before that date came around, Fanter said. Those orders received after the 15th did not affect the six-game seat rotation system. \n"Any applications received after Oct. 15 were accepted to best accommodate the student body and provide access to as many students as possible," Fanter said. "This has been the acceptable procedure used in years past."\nThe 12,200 students able to watch an IU basketball game is the highest in the Big Ten, and one of the highest numbers in the country, according to the IU Athletic Department. Last season, IU had the third largest home attendance average in NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball with 17,183 people per game during the 11 game home season last year. That was large enough for tops in the Big Ten, with Ohio State and Wisconsin ranking in at 5th and 6th, respectively. The average home attendance was up from 2001 when the IU was ranked 14th in the country among Division 1 teams at 14, 905 fans per home game. \nIU was also the most watched team in the country at home, on the road and at neutral sites in Division 1 in 2001-2002 with 644,641 people seeing the national runner-ups. \nThis system of assigning season tickets has been in place for over a decade, Fanter said. It was developed to ensure that every student receives a fair distribution of seat locations within the student section. \nThe seat rotation system was last used in 1995 when student season ticket sales was at 9,499. For all the seasons before that year, within the 1990s, the seat rotation system had to be applied. \nThe 12,200 students ordering tickets is the highest since 1992, when 15,097 students ordered tickets, when coincidentally the Hoosiers won the Big Ten tournament in 1991. \nThe largest amount of students tickets ordered in the 1990s was in 1990 when 16,842 ordered, and each student received four tickets each. \nStatistics show that following a successful season, student season ticket orders has increased dramatically. Last years number was 7,748, which is under the allotted student seats. \nThe notion of using a lottery system or a priority system has been brought up, but nothing has come of it. As of right now, the Athletic Department is content with the system in place.\n"A loyalty and priority system has been looked at, but nothing has been made of it," Fanter said. "We always evaluate our systems here, and so far this is the best system that allows us to give the students an opportunity to watch a game."\nFanter said the goal in athletics is to attempt to accommodate as many students as possible with season tickets.\n"We do this in a manner that does not force students to wait in long lines for hours and even days to be able to purchase tickets," Fanter said.