KANSAN.COM
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SPORTS
Seat reallocation to lower student ticket prices
► WESLEY DOTSON
@WesDotsonUDK
A new agreement reached last month between the Student Senate and Kansas Athletics will reallocate a part of the student section in Allen Fieldhouse to donors, as well as lower the price of student ticket prices next season.
Section 19 - which is located behind Kansas' bench in the middle and upper sections - will be reallocated to boosters, which will directly lower the student all-sports combo pack from $179 to $159. The section has about 400 seats, according to Associate Athletic Director Jim Marchiony.
One of the main driving forces behind the agreement was the decline in student attendance.
"The key fact, and the fact that made this all work so well for students and [Kansas] Athletics, is that students were not using nearly the number of seats that were allotted to them," Marchiony said. "That means that Athletics isn't 'taking away' seats from students, and students aren't 'losing seats."
Students will now be
According to the Kansas City Star, Kansas Athletics has typically reserved around 4,000 seats for students for home games, but student attendance has declined recently.
strictly assigned to the end zone sections behind each basket, as well as corner sections 20 and 21.
Marchiony said the agreement will benefit students, as it will lower the cost of football and men's basketball game tickets.
"We give a lot of credit to KU student leadership, which was purposeful in its desire to lower the price of student season tickets and saw this as a way to gain something
for students without sacrificing anything," Marchiony said.
The agreement will also have another benefiter: Pell Grant-eligible, low-income and first-generation students.
Kansas Athletics will reserve 20 season tickets for these students, and those seats will be given away for free through a lottery on a game-by-game basis.
"We also credit student leadership for caring
enough about their fellow students to ask Athletics to provide 20 free tickets every game for Pell Grant-eligible students," Marchiony said. "That displayed to us a genuine concern for students who otherwise would not be able to attend the games, and we were very happy to make that part of this arrangement."
according to the Kansas City Star.
This is the second time in the past three years Kansas Athletics has relocated student seating,
In 2014, Kansas Athletics switched 120 seats in Section U — located directly in front of Section 19 - to a donor location as a response to the University's student government voting to eliminate a student fee that provided Kansas Athletics with more than $1 million annually.
However, Marchiony said he doesn't believe this newest change will impact
the student experience at Allen Fieldhouse.
"I don't think this arrangement will have any effect on the student experience; the students will continue to make game day at Allen Fieldhouse the awe-inspiring home-court advantage that it has always been," Marchiony said.
ALLEN FIELDHOUSE STUDENT SEATING CHART