Penn takes a new line on 'The Line'

Even if they're first in The Line, Red and Blue Crew members will likely no longer receive choice seating for men's basketball games.

Athletic Department officials are overhauling the season-ticket policy for the men's basketball program in an effort to transform the student section into a more formidable sixth man.

Starting this year, participants in the annual tradition of The Line - the surprise nighttime announcement and overnight Palestra bash where students trade sleep for tickets - will now get a general-admissions pass to the student section of the Palestra, rather than a reserved seat for every game.

The new student section will consist of the lower level seats behind the west end basket - where Line participants will cheer - and the seats above them, which will be available to all students. The adjacent chairbacks will not be included in the student section.

Moving students out of the south side chairbacks and into the west end seats is a reaction to feedback that the Palestra's student section often appeared too spread out, Athletic Department officials said. Now, they hope the student contingent at games will become more centralized.

At the same time, the more expensive chairback seats had been falling out of favor among students, and the cynic might add that having students and adult season-ticket holders next to each other had been a less than perfect arrangement.

"Over the course of the last two years, students were choosing to sit end-court more so than side-court," associate athletic director Alanna Shanahan said. "Some of our most rabid fans wanted to be front-row behind the basket, and many of the chairbacks were not filled until days into the student sale."

The general admissions policy in both sections aims to reward students who get to the games well before tipoff, a problem with which athletic director Steve Bilsky said many comparable programs are grappling.

"I remember getting dressed and being in the locker room 30, 40 minutes before the game and the building would shake," said Bilsky, the point guard for the 1971 team, considered Penn's best ever.

"Everyone who's ever played in the Palestra believes that our fans make a difference. It's important to have that, especially as the Ivy League gets better at basketball and more competitive."

Bilsky acknowledged that since getting to The Line in a flash will no longer guarantee a choice seat, the importance of the tradition may suffer. But he and other officials said that perks to being a season-ticket holder - concession promotions like Dollar Dog Night or social networking events - will keep The Line relevant.

It is unclear how the Red and Blue Crew's role might change under the new system. Shanahan suggested that because of the new version of The Line and the general admissions policy, Red and Blue Crew leaders likely will not receive the seating privileges they have enjoyed in the past, although she said the Athletic Department would still employ and reward some students.

The initiative is part of a broader plan to cultivate a base of reliable fans. To study what worked, the Athletic Department researched the attendance-boosting tools used by schools such as Temple and Villanova.

"We tend to look at the Big 5 schools when we talk about basketball more so than the Ivy League, because I think we'd like to in many ways consider them our primary peer group," Shanahan said.

Asked what her research had taught her about promoting attendance, she said, "It seems to work."

Comments (9)

I agree with Jon. I'm tired of walking into the SJU or Drexel game hearing "you have no fans" or "this is our house." We look ridiculous when we can't fill our own student section before the jump ball and I hope this changes that. This move is overdue. Hasn't the DP been calling for this for several years now? Good to see that the the athletic department is finally listening. And good to see that our student section will finally look like everyone else's not the old two split up masses with big clusters of empty seats mixed in.

They tried this the pass two years (St. Joe's in 2006-2007 and UNC last year) and nothing changed. The same people who get there first with assigned seating got there first with general admission. The real fans will roll in first followed by the bangwagons through 10min left in the 1st. This will make the student section more uniform and appear more crowded as they are utilizing fewer seats in 119-122, makes sense given the falling demand. Also this does make tailgating a real viable option, although I won't hold my breadth for it. This does completely nulify the line, make it first come first serve, hand the tickets out then and give everyone back a friday night and a saturday to enjoy college at The Blarney Stone or Smokes (or the library if you so choose). -Bring back the Taco, the Hot Dog, and Comcast Commercials.

A good team will bring more fans, but strong fans will improve the team. aHa! Peggy will not be happy to deal with us loudmouths for another hour or two before each game. I love princeton

how will they time out the roll-outs if they dont know where they are sitting from game to game? also, the palestra women's room is an absolute foul place to have sex in.

This idea has more AIDS than Keving Manning.

This is a sad day for The Line, but potentially a great day for the student section. In my day, I almost understood when students would saunter in after tip-off against a Columbia, but I was flat out embarrassed when our student-section was one-half or two-thirds full during warm-ups against a St. Joe's. There is nothing worse than hearing the visitor's section cheering "where are your fans?" in unison. If this is what it takes to correct the problem, I'm in favor of the Athletic Department's move. Under a general admission scheme, the most fervent fans will still be rewarded - as they were under the The Line's prior incarnation - provided they show up to games early. If we have to choose between eviscerating a great Penn tradition or taking a step to reward the most rabid students on game day and incentivizing their timely attendance, I am in favor of the latter. Ultimately however, there is really another variable that is far more dispositive of student promptness - the quality of our Quaker team. It should be noted that Penn earned a top five ranking in 1971, the year Bilsky so fondly remembers in your article. I won't recount here the accomplishments of the 2007 squad. The passion and intensity of the Red and Blue Crew will be there year in and year out. But the passion and intensity of the casual student fan often comes down to wins and losses. Jonathan Lubin, C'05/RBC '01-'05

There's no way I'm spending the night in the Palestra just to get "general admission" seating season tickets. Way to take another good tradition and make it suck, Penn.

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