Blue White Illustrated

PSU works to maintain its attendance despite challenges, economic and otherwise DRAWING POWER T ERIC THOMAS|B L U E WH I T E C O N T R I B U T O R he phone lines at Penn State's ticket office haven't been ringing as frequently lately as athletic of- ficials would like. Worried about a stagnant econ- omy and fluctuating fuel costs, some Penn Staters have been closely exam- ining their finances before purchasing tickets for the 2012 football season. The economic difficulties that the na- tion has been dealing with for the past few years have compounded the chal- lenges that Penn State faced when it rolled out the Seat Transfer & Equity Plan two years ago. And while there's no way to quantify the effect, it's as- sumed that sales have been hurt by the Sandusky scandal and the subse- quent firing of Joe Paterno last Novem- ber. During Blue-White Weekend in April, athletic director Dave Joyner said that sales were lagging behind previ- ous years and that Penn State was "still feeling the impact" of the scan- dal. But he said he anticipated that the spring game would help reignite fans' passion for Nittany Lion football. "Obviously the ticket sales and every- thing remain to be seen," he said. "There's plenty of time to see what hap- pens." The STEP program is clearly a con- cern among fans. Some who previous- ly participated in a season ticket pro- 36 A U G U S T 2 1 , 2 0 1 2 gram may have dropped out once STEP was enacted. The program took effect last season, establishing a tiered per-seat price structure that requires ticket purchasers to donate to the Nit- tany Lion Club in addition to paying for their season tickets. No donation, no tickets. Beaver Stadium was only partly full for some games last season, and the Alabama game in particular remains a sore spot with many fans. The Crimson Tide traveled well, and those fans had little trouble securing tickets, leading to what some attendees deri- sively called a "Pink Out." Will the attendance problems contin- ue into 2012? A quick perusal of the ticketing website TicketCity.com shows hundreds of seats still available for the Nittany Lions' season opener against Ohio on Sept. 1. In fact, tickets are still available for this year's entire slate of seven home games, and that slate in- cludes games against Big Ten powers Ohio State and Wisconsin, as well as the return of Navy. One of the factors that may be affect- ing sales is that while the opponents are familiar, the Nittany Lions are not. They have a new head coach in Bill O'Brien, a mostly new assistant coach- ing staff and new schemes on offense and defense. Change used to come slowly and grudgingly to Penn State, and many fans liked it that way. Those fans knew only one head foot- ball coach, and they liked that, too. When Paterno was fired last Novem- ber by the board of trustees after 46 years on the job, it created a firestorm that has yet to subside. After such a tumultuous off-season, fans might be waiting to see what is in store for Penn State in 2012 before making a de- cision about future years. Still, not all fans have been bothered by STEP or rising ticket costs amid a struggling economy. Longtime Nit- tany Lion fan Geoff Alaishuski makes the trip from Philadelphia for every home game and has no plans to change that practice anytime soon. He's been buying season tickets since 2001, the year that Penn State opened its most recent stadium expansion. These days, he has six tickets: four he uses for his family, and another two that he passes on to friends. "I go to every game," he said. "Once in a while, if we can't find two others to go with us, or the people we planned on taking have to bail, we'll have to sell them. But that's not common." STEP and the donation to the Nittany Lion Club have not been a problem for Alaishuski, who said he didn't have to W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M

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