During Saturday’s Cream and Crimson football game, action will not be limited to the turf of Memorial Stadium. The IU Athletics Department plans to set up ticket booths in hopes of raising season ticket sales.\nIU Assistant Director of Athletics for External Operations Frank Cuervo said the department hopes to increase student season ticket sales by at least 2,000 compared to last year. Their first step, Cuervo said, is bringing the market to the students. \nThe IU ticket office has been setting up kiosks around campus this week, and Cuervo said that, despite the weather hurting their efforts, the reception from students has been generally positive.\n“It’s great we could bring the ticket office to them,” he said. “Unfortunately, due to the geography, the ticket office we have set up at Assembly Hall is a little remote from where the dorms and the main campus are. So this helps bring our operation to them, and makes it more convenient.”\nStudent season tickets cost $64 for next year and will include all seven home games. Though the tickets cost $10 less than last year, the package does not include a T-shirt, which was included for student season ticket holders the past two years. \nLast season nearly 7,000 student season tickets were sold and Cuervo said he hopes to have at least 9,000 to 10,000 student tickets sold for this upcoming season. \nBoth students and the general public attending Saturday’s Cream and Crimson game will be able to purchase tickets for the 2007 season at a kiosk on the west concourse of the stadium.\nSelling more football tickets is the crux of the department’s five-year budget, which it hopes will end a nine-year string of deficits.\nIn the 2005 season, the department exceeded its football revenue expectations, earning nearly $1 million more than anticipated. Attendance in 2005 was driven by home games against powerhouse Ohio State and \nrival Purdue.\nBut, with neither of those teams on the home schedule in 2006 and one rainy game, attendance plummeted in 2006. The football team drew 6,000 less fans than it did in 2005 despite playing one more home game. On average, attendance decreased by more than 6,000 fans per game. Still, the 2006 mark ranks third in the past five years.\nThe department hopes that by selling more tickets early, they will be able to boost their attendance marks.\n“We are nearing right now the deadline for general public renewals which is on April 20,” Cuervo said. “The nice thing is if you renew your seats for the general public before that date, you save about $30.”
The Big Ten network\nThe brand new Big Ten Network will also be at the spring game as part of its spring football tour in order to promote the network, which is scheduled to launch in August. Fans will have the chance to win jackets and T-shirts and learn more about the network.\n“It’s a great opportunity for us to meet with the schools to find out what’s important to them and us to explain what’s going on with the network,” said Big Ten Network President Mark Silverman. “The network today has grown tremendously from just a few months ago. We’ve added some staff, and we’re moving towards having a full staff of 130 people by the time we launch in August.”\nThe network will televise more than 35 football games each season, at least 105 men’s and 55 women’s regular season basketball games, as well as the first round of the men’s Big Ten Tournament and the first three rounds of the women’s tournament. In addition, the network will carry 170 events from the Olympic sports, which include baseball, softball, soccer, wrestling, swimming and track. Each school in the conference will also be given up to 60 hours per year for original programming, which can include their coaches’ shows.\nCurrently, DirecTV and AT&T have announced deals to carry the network. The network has not reached a deal with local cable provider Insight Communication, nor with Comcast Communication, which will control the Bloomington cable market by the end of 2007. Silverman said he did not anticipate there being a problem getting cable companies on board.\n“We will have more Big Ten Network games in every sport than any other network,” Silverman said. “We’ll have more football games than everyone else; we’ll have tremendously more basketball games than everyone else. So it’s a very exciting time for us, for all the fans, alumni and students of these universities to have their own network.”
