After last season's Final Four appearance and a close loss in the national championship game, the Univ. of Michigan men's basketball program has "sold 4,500 student tickets, the most since available records were kept in the early 1990s," according to Mark Snyder of the DETROIT FREE PRESS. But this has "created a new problem -- too many ticket holders for the available 3,000 student seats" in the Crisler Center. So UM "had to get creative" with an incentive program "using a 'pod system.'" Students will have 72 hours to pick up their tickets "for the initial pod of games and, based on whether they attend those in their initial pod, they will have the chance to get the next pod." Should they "skip games in a pod they requested, they will not be allowed to get tickets for the following pod." UM Associate AD/Media & Public Relations Dave Ablauf said, "They have to prove attendance to continue moving along." Snyder notes the idea is to "keep the students section full and lively at all times, something that was lacking last season." UM "totaled a 46.1% show rate for the season, well below the Big Ten average of 67%." Only two UM home games "topped 70% last year." The cost of student tickets for the season "are $200, an average of $11.76 per game" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 9/18). Student newspaper MICHIGAN DAILY's Alejandro Zuniga noted students who do not like the new policy "can request a full refund," but those not requesting full refunds "will not receive a refund for games not attended during the season." UM Senior Associate AD & CMO Hunter Lochmann said that demand for student tickets is "at its highest point since the Fab Five era in the early 1990s" (MICHIGAN DAILY, 9/17).
