Monday, February 20, 2012
If it’s not broken, don’t try to fix it.
The Kansas basketball camping system survived a week of upheaval after a 59-57 vote decided to retain the traditional lottery system for the remainder of the season. The campers’ votes shot down a tier system that supposedly gave the most dedicated 24 camping groups priority seating for the upcoming Missouri game.
I can see the reasons for implementing a tier system or an incentive for attending the lotteries, but at the same time, it goes against the very concept of a lottery.
While most college students are asleep, these camping groups showed up to Allen Fieldhouse every day at 6 a.m., but now the “Select 24” don’t want to see casual campers cash in on undeserved hard work, drawing a top seat to the Missouri game. I understand the frustration, but that’s just the nature of a lottery — anyone can win.
According to the KU Athletics website,, the official camping rules have remained the same since at least December 2004. There have been many highly anticipated games at Allen Fieldhouse in that time, and the current camping system worked fine then. Why change it?
The way the camping operators implemented the rule is what ultimately doomed the amendment.
Even if the incentive rule was enacted during the first lottery of the season, there was no public announcement of any kind. An official camping rules sheet hangs on the window next to the sign-up sheet, and this new rule remained absent. The Twitter page for Kansas basketball camping never acknowledged this rule until last week. The fact that the rule was kept so under wraps makes it seem selfishly motivated.
Had the camping incentive rule been made public knowledge from day one, then it may have passed in the re-vote. There are camping groups that camp for every game, but can’t make the lotteries. Many would have found a way had they known about this rule.
The students sometimes don’t realize how lucky they are. As a blue-blood program, the demand for tickets inside Allen Fieldhouse is always high, but Kansas rewards 4,000 seats (24.5 percent) to its students at one of the best spots in the venue. Kansas could easily follow Kentucky’s example, where a majority of Rupp Arena’s student section is far from the action, giving the premium seats to high-paying donors.
When the cheapest listing on StubHub.com for Saturday’s game is $450 a corner ticket, there’s no reason to complain about student section seats.
Feb. 25 could be one of the most memorable days in the history of Allen Fieldhouse, and students should keep that in mind rather than argue over camping groups.
— Edited by Gabrielle Schock
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Comments
Joseph: Should lottery-style basketball camping change?
A poster on phog.net claims the rules are still the same as they were when he was a freshman in '97.
Joseph: Should lottery-style basketball camping change?
Weren't they camping outside at that time? KUathletics posted the camping rules on Dec. 2, 2004. A month before the KU-GT game at Allen Fieldhouse (the #9 Georgia Tech team with BJ Elder and Jarret Jack).
http://www.kuathletics.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/120204aaa.html
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