Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 12, 1994 TAG: 9402120058
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
You're a college basketball fan, and you notice the Virginia Tech-Virginia basketball game is coming to Roanoke on March 2. You circle the date. You're ready to buy tickets.
But unless you're a contributor to Tech or Virginia, don't expect to get one of the best seats - or even a good seat - no matter how early you order or how much you pay.
Mark Collins, assistant manager of the Roanoke Civic Center, estimates that 200 to 400 fans snub the game because, when they show up at the civic center to buy an $18 ticket, they discover the box office hardly has any tickets to sell and very few "prime" seats.
That's because Tech controls the tickets when the game is in Roanoke. This year, Tech took 9,497 tickets to divide among itself, UVa and the schools' bands.
That means the civic center gets 559 seats - most in two upper-level end sections it received only because UVa gave up part of its allotment. There are 120 courtside seats among the 559, but those are partially obstructed by the scorer's table, press row and team benches.
The civic center almost always gets some extra seats to sell. They're the ones Tech and UVa don't sell, which Collins said usually are in the corners and away from the floor.
A neutral-site arena hungering for tickets to sell to local non-contributors isn't rare. When a school rents an arena, it controls ticket allotment and sales.
The Richmond Coliseum, UVa assistant athletic director Wood Selig says, gets about one section - maybe 150 of 13,000 tickets - to sell to fans who don't write annual checks to Tech or UVa. If the schools don't sell all their tickets, Selig said, they work together to get the remaining tickets back to the coliseum.
The 12,226-seat Charleston (W.Va.) Civic Center, the site of the annual West Virginia-Marshall game, doesn't get any tickets unless the Mountaineers and the Thundering Herd don't sell their allotments.
"We think we should [get some for public sale], but we haven't been able to get them to agree to that," said John Robertson, director of the Charleston arena. "People here complain. They don't see the sense of calling Huntington or Morgantown [to buy tickets]. I think we're eventually going to come to that."
Collins said he doubts the Tech-UVa game would sell out if Tech officials reserved some good seats for public sale. Robertson said he thinks the WVU-Marshall game could sell out with the help of Charleston-area fans if WVU or Marshall was having a down year and didn't draw well.
The 10,300-seat Hampton Coliseum, in the second year of a three-year agreement to hold the Virginia Commonwealth-Old Dominion game, got about 5,000 seats from ODU.
The 23,000-capacity Greensboro Coliseum, its director said, tries to buy events so it can control the tickets and sell some to local non-contributors. The coliseum, director Jim Evans said, gets few seats when North Carolina plays a "home" game there and none when it holds the ACC Tournament.
Tech, like Virginia, wants to take care of its contributors first, said Tech ticket manager Tom McNeer, who decides who gets how many tickets when Tech plays a "home" game in Roanoke. Offering contributors the best seats is a reward and an inducement.
Collins understands, but like his counterpart in Charleston, he wants a chance to give local fans a reason to attend. After all, he says, Roanoke citizens support the civic center with tax dollars but often are shut out of an attractive college basketball game in their back yard.
"[Tech officials have] been reluctant to give up any tickets for fear they would need them [for contributors]," Collins said. "I would like at least an opportunity. A lot of people drive down here assuming they can buy a ticket . . . Then you have a disgruntled customer standing in front of you."
Collins said he would like perhaps 500 midcourt seats to dangle in front of Roanoke Valley fans. All money from the sale of those tickets still would go to Tech.
"Next time they come, try it and see what happens," he said of the Hokies. "It can't hurt. The only thing it could generate is good will."
Collins said he's never formally asked Tech to let go of some prime seats.
The civic center, Collins said, ends up referring people to Tech for tickets. Even then, a local fan is at the back of a line that begins with financial backers, a fact McNeer says he makes known to callers.
"The lifeblood [of athletic programs] are the athletic fund clubs," McNeer said. "It's not that we don't want orders from non-contributors. [But we've] always felt like [contributors] are the people who deserve the first shot."
Andrew Greenwell, the Hampton Coliseum director, understands that. He, like other arena directors and university athletic administrators, wants to get the public involved - but not at any cost.
"To keep the confidence in your ticket operation, I think [the public] had to have a shot at good seats," he said. "You've got to watch that supply-and-demand thing. You don't want to pull out too dang many [for the public]."
by CNB