Pacers reach out to college students with new promotion

The Indiana Pacers want a younger crowd at their games. To accomplish this, they are offering a special promotion to college students. \nChris Bence, director of group sales for Pacers Sports and Entertainment, said the team is trying out new promotional ideas to expand its fanbase.\n“We’re trying more segmented promotions which led us to this idea on (Tuesday) nights,” Bence said.\nThe promotion offers a ticket for the best available seat in the balcony for $10 and a free T-shirt for every college student in the state with a valid student ID card. The offer runs for every Tuesday home game this season, and the next opportunity will be today’s game against the Pacers’ conference rival, the Detroit Pistons. The Pacers’ next college nights come against two of the NBA’s elite teams, the San Antonio Spurs and the Boston Celtics on Feb. 5 and 12, respectively.\nBence also said the Pacers considered selling inexpensive tickets particularly because college students usually have a lower income.\n“We want an affordable price point for all college students,” Bence said. \nStudents at IU had mixed reactions to the promotion.\nSenior Kevin Halter said he did not care for the Pacers’ offer.\n“I don’t go to Pacer games, so I am probably not interested,” Halter said.\nHowever, freshman Brad Antcliff was excited to hear about the promotion. \n“Ten dollars for a Pacer ticket is a great price,” Antcliff said. \nBence said the promotion’s success so far will allow it to continue for the foreseeable future.\n“This is the first year of the promotion and each night gets better, so we will continue it as long as we can,” Bence said.\nToday’s game against the Pistons opens a four-game homestand for the Pacers after the team played 26 of its first 45 games on the road. After hovering around .500 earlier in the season, the Pacers have fallen to 19-26.\nThe Pacers are 9-10 this season at Conseco Fieldhouse.