Friday nights in late fall and early winter mean different things to all Quinnipiac University students. For some, it means the end of a week filled with school work, exams and papers. For others, it means the beginning of a weekend which they may not remember due to heavy intoxication. Yet for others it means only one thing, a hockey game.
I attest there is no better way to get the weekend going then by having a few too many drinks, jumping on the shuttle to the Northford Ice Pavilion, and joining your student body in boisterous cheering in honor of school pride.
Imagine that you’re about to kick off your weekend in a similar fashion. Your selected apparel for the evening involves your yellow Quinnipiac Bobcats shirt that was given to you during orientation and yellow and blue face paint. In your hand, a bottle filled with whatever yellow and blue concoction of alcohol you could conjure up, just incase you run out of school spirit.
You arrive at the TD Banknorth Sports Center to the chant of “Let’s go Bobcats.” This chant, most likely started by your most obnoxious and rowdy friend, happened to start the second you stepped off the shuttle and will continue into the foreseeable future. You weren’t able to get a ticket at any of the tables in the Recreation Center or in the Student Center, however you were told that plenty of tickets would be available at the game.
As you walk up to the ticket window to get the ticket you told would be waiting for you; you see a sign. A sign you may have witnessed plenty of times before, but never for a Quinnipiac function. The sign says, “Sold Out.”
This hypothetical situation may soon become a reality.
This winter sports season marks the first where Quinnipiac University will offer season tickets to the general public for men’s and women’s hockey and basketball. The reason being that the university needs to fill up all those brand new seats at the TD Banknorth Sports Center any way they can.
The student allotment per game upon entering the TD Banknorth Sports Center will be between 400 and 500 tickets. These tickets will come at no charge to the Quinnipiac community. However, if these tickets sell out, students will have to purchase tickets at the door. If no tickets are left, due to a combination of season tickets, walk-up ticket purchasers and student ticket holders; admittance will have to be declined.
The new arenas should be able to accompany any onslaught of people. The new hockey arena will seat 3,286 while the basketball arena will seat 3,570. However, keep these numbers in mind. The Northford Ice Pavilion seats 1,750. Quinnipiac’s home ice for hockey until the completion of the TD Banknorth Sports Center was filled to capacity for the Bobcats first two home games against Robert Morris on Oct. 13 and 14.
I hope that the university realizes that school spirit comes from the students. Every effort should be made to make sure that any student who wants a ticket can have one. The university mascot can’t be the Bobcats if there aren’t any in the stands.
