More WSU Donors Gain Ticket Access List Includes Those Who Gave $1,000 To Programs Other Than Athletics

Washington State University has won the Pacific-10 Conference football championship, but Cougar fans are finding there still are winners and losers when it comes to watching their team play in the Rose Bowl.

The list of winners was expanded Tuesday to include about 1,200 people who have given $1,000 or more to WSU programs other than athletics. Those people now can ask for Rose Bowl tickets along with season ticket holders, athletic boosters and students.

The list of losers still includes tens of thousands of alumni, including some 50,000 people who helped WSU raise $275 million in the recent Campaign WSU fund drive.

For the purposes of the Rose Bowl, Cougar loyalty is being measured in dollars, preferably to the athletic department.

That has fans such as Carl Liggins of Spokane taking offense to Athletic Director Rick Dickson’s reference Monday to non-boosters and over-the-counter ticket customers as “Joes off the street.”

“Just because they’re not a season ticket holder or haven’t contributed to the Cougar Club this year, they still go to Cougar games, they still take their kids to Cougar games and they still buy Cougar paraphernalia to support the old Cougs,” Liggins said.

“And to a certain extent, they don’t appreciate being called ‘Joes off the street.”’

Rod Commons, WSU sports information director, said the athletic department meant no disrespect to other fans but felt obligated to guarantee tickets to athletic donors, whom he credited with helping win the Pac-10 championship.

If the department could honor every ticket request, he said, “we’d fill the stadium and leave Michigan out. Obviously, that’s not feasible. There have to be some lines drawn somewhere.”

That line is being measured with money, although the marketing department’s formula suggests bigger donors aren’t necessarily making out better than smaller ones.

Cougar Club donors who gave just $100 are eligible for one ticket each and can “increase their giving level to $250” for a second ticket. Donors of, say, $9,000 are eligible for only eight tickets - a substantially higher donation-to-ticket ratio.

University officials decided Tuesday to open the ticket pool to President’s Associates who have given $1,000 or more to other university programs besides athletics.

Connie Kravas, vice president for university advancement, said school officials had hoped to open up ticket sales to people outside athletics. But first they had to see how ticket requests were going to make sure athletic donors would be able to get seats.

“We can’t have a person who’s been a season ticket holder year in and year out and then we go to the Rose Bowl and that person can’t buy a ticket,” she said. “That’s untenable.”

Other tickets will likely go to a few dozen alumni directors, but regular alumni for now appear to be out of luck.

Keith Lincoln, executive director of the WSU Alumni Association, said he’s been getting ticket requests “constantly, constantly.”

He was then interrupted by a phone call.

“Almost impossible,” he told the caller. “I’m telling you the truth. They’re weighting the thing … I can’t do a damn thing for you.”

The University of Michigan has opened up ticket sales to its alumni association members, but Lincoln defended WSU confining sales to students and athletic boosters.

“What I’m hearing is there is frustration, it’s undeniable,” he said. “If you as an alumni made a contribution to engineering or to veterinary medicine or the multicultural center and not athletics … in all probability you will not get a ticket.

“Does that mean you are not appreciated or it’s not important what you do for the university? No. A decision had to be made on how to allocate the tickets. We as an alumni association live with that decision and support the decision.”

Tickets or not, both Kravas and Lincoln, a former WSU and pro football player, encouraged Cougar fans to venture to Pasadena, Calif., as part of the overall Rose Bowl experience.

Lincoln said he is already looking into finding a space near the stadium where Cougars can watch the game on big screen televisions, just as they did last Saturday in an Apple Cup get-together called “Ticketless in Seattle.”

, DataTimes