On Monday morning, Oct. 21, students were either overjoyed or devastated when opening their inbox to find an email from the athletics office announcing the results of The Game’s ticket lottery. Some years, tickets have been available to Yalies on a first-come, first-serve basis. But unlike the much better Yale Bowl, which can fit over 70,000 spectators, Harvard Stadium can only seat 30,000. Instead of reducing the number of general admissions tickets, Harvard cut the number of student tickets available to Yalies. Abby got a ticket, and Alyse did not. We are still friends, but neither of us thinks this new ticket system is a good thing.
The core problem with the lottery system is that it incentivizes people who win the lottery but have no intention of attending the game to acquire tickets anyway for the purpose of reselling them. This is an absurd process. On every platform imaginable — group chats, Instagram and the anonymous posting app Fizz — students are begging for any extra Yale-Harvard tickets for themselves or their less fortunate friends who lost the lottery, which drives up prices.
When tickets are dispersed on a first-come, first-serve basis, everyone who truly cares about the game and knows for sure that they’ll go has a higher chance of obtaining a ticket — all they have to do is go to Payne Whitney Gymnasium and stand in line. Under the lottery system, tickets are doled out to those who don’t actually want to go to The Game, while being denied to those who do.
Regardless of the ticket distribution system Yale devises, Harvard should still save more tickets for Yale students to purchase. General admissions tickets sell for $150 and are generally bought by alumni. The Game is the oldest American college football rivalry and a beloved experience cherished by generations of Yalies and whatever the demonym is for people who went to Harvard. Who doesn’t like to don a blue or red sweater, drink subpar beer and root for the football team they watch once a year? For this tradition to continue — and for future alumni to have fond memories of the game that entice them back, year after year — current students must be able to attend.
Last summer as a prefrosh, I was sitting in my brand-new Yale sweatshirt when an old man walked up to me and asked “What college?” I proudly exclaimed “Saybrook!” He was in Pierson College back in the ’60s and said I was so lucky to be starting such an amazing time in my life. Yale alumni have an incredibly strong connection to the school and its traditions. Alumni buying tickets, attending tailgates and reminiscing about their bright college years strengthen this connection. Yale and Harvard need tickets to go to alumni to continue this relationship, but this shouldn’t happen at the expense of undergraduates getting those very same experiences.
Because their stadium is half the size of ours, Harvard might argue that without these extra general admission ticket sales, they lose more potential revenue than Yale does when hosting the game. Currently, with 2,000 student tickets going to Yalies and 7,000 going to Harvard undergrads, Harvard would make $3,150,000 in revenue off general admissions tickets if they sold all of them. If they afforded every undergraduate at both schools a discounted ticket they would still make $2,400,000 in revenue from tickets sold to alumni and friends of the schools. In the grand scheme of Harvard’s $6,500,000 yearly operating budget, this loss of revenue is a rounding error. $750,000 is equivalent to about 12 out of their 7,000 students’ tuition.
However, it is likely that the money the schools make from hosting the game is not rooted in relatively small profits from ticket sales but rather as a result of alumni donations springing from their positive experience and nostalgia at The Game, remembering their golden years. We doubt that the alumni who are donating significantly to the schools are unable to secure tickets. If this ticketing ordeal is about money, the alumni who attend simply for a good time and aren’t giving back to the schools don’t need tickets any more than undergrads.
Alumni want to go to the game, but they also want to experience the game as it was when they went to college: rambunctious and full of undergrads from both schools. We can’t say whether having a more genuine experience with a higher number of students will impact alumni donations. It is quite likely that Harvard will lose a little bit of revenue to give more tickets to Yale undergrads. But the amount of money seems so marginal that it is not worth it to dilute the experience in order to save. Even if Yale and Harvard sometimes seem like hedge funds that also partake in research and teaching, it is important to remember that these universities don’t exist to make money. Experiences like the Yale-Harvard Game are part of the legacy and tradition of these historic institutions and should be available to all of their students. Yale’s traditions foster a culture that sets our undergrad apart from other schools. Traditions reaffirm our belief in a long-standing commitment to an undergraduate liberal arts experience. This experience necessitates connection with one another, found not just in classes, or debates, but drunkenly cheering for our classmates on the sidelines in Cambridge.
Are you still interested in our ticket? We are selling it for $149.
ALYSE GRAHAM-MARTINEZ is a first year in Saybrook College. She can be reached at alyse.graham-martinez@yale.edu.
ABBY NISSLEY is a first year in Ezra Stiles College. She can be reached at abby.nissley@yale.edu.