That's not fair! I'm an old man!

From the Columbus Dispatch today, more complaints about OSU's revised football ticket lottery for alumni.

Personally, I don't see what the issue is. I've got two cherry seats to the Youngstown State game that I'll definitely end up unloading for less then face value.
The old system of course rewarded alumni that bought their tickets year in and year out. The longer you paid for tix, the better chance you had of getting a good game. That's all over as of this year.

From the Dispatch...

"It's disappointing," said Dennis Alexander, who flew in from Tampa, Fla., for football games. "Everyone should wait in line and earn their seniority."

The university gave the alumni group 86,000 tickets this year, of which about 79,000 were used for the lottery. (Others went to clubs within the association and to people such as participants in awards ceremonies.) Last year, the university gave the group 89,000 tickets.

"It seems incredibly unfair," Dennis said. "It's unbelievable to me, the fact that I've been participating for so many years means nothing."

Unfortunately sir, tickets to Ohio State football games are not your birthright. I certainly would be pissed off if I was in his position but the school has the right to change things anytime they want to. Frankly, the alumni that are in the association only to buy football tickets once a year, aren't exactly the people OSU wants to keep happy.

The real crime is in the numbers. Only 86K tickets were allotted to the alumni association for the entire season. That's less then 12% of all the tickets available for the 2008 season.

Even more egregious then that statistic is the fact that freshman get a ticket only to one game. That is an absolute crime. If you're not going to take care of the students then what's the point?

This is where E. Gordon Gee's comments about the "professionalization of college football" ring completely hollow. You have a school-sponsored organization that you are no longer making available to large sections of the student population, and many of the dues paying alumni. So what is the football team anymore in relation to the university except for a source of revenue?

In the grand scheme of things I do not have a problem with nor am I surprised by the change in the lottery system. There are simply too many requests as the popularity of the program has soared since Jim Tressel arrived. Excluding some of those alumni that are only providing the minimum required to get football tickets every year is natural.

If the school is taking those extra tickets and providing them to alumni that make larger contributions each year, I think that's OK. If on the other hand they're taking those tickets and providing them to corporations that make donations and otherwise have little or no connection with the school that seems a little slimy.

Face it folks, the price of attending sporting events has gotten out of control all around the country. That's not going to change anytime soon. Go to a minor league baseball game if you want cheap sports entertainment.

And look on the bright side, football is WAY, WAY better on TV then it is in person. No one is going to convince me otherwise. Oh, and sitting in some corporate box doesn't count as attending the game either. You might as well be in some hotel suite where the game is on the big screen.

Personally, I'll take my TiVo, my refridgerator, and my own throne to be used whenever I need to over The 'Shoe these days. Sad but true!