Men’s basketball senior night tickets have no ASB discount; leadership students in protest

PHOTO: Frosh/soph, JV and Varsity games all are scheduled to be played in the North Gym, with 500 tickets available in total to the public.

By Elliot DeJong,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Davis High administration recently announced that ASB cardholders would not have access to free tickets for this Friday’s ‘senior night’ basketball game. 

According to ASB advisor Anthony Vasquez, cardholders have been admitted for free in the past, which has angered students who were planning on attending.

There are 275 tickets available for general admission Davis fans for all three games. 75 are reserved for Pleasant Grove families, and another 75 are reserved for ASB cardholders. Parents of seniors have been given reserved tickets.

The money raised from ASB card sales is split between leadership and athletics, according to Vasquez, and funds the majority of ASB events like dances.

“Both athletics and myself are very invested in that program (…) and people getting value out of it,” Vasquez said. “So that’s why it’s frustrating both for me and for students when people are not getting the value from their ASB card.”

ASB cards cost $65 apiece, and allow free admission to home games.

“I’m afraid people are seeing themselves losing value from it. And then if they don’t buy them (…) the quality of our events next year will suffer,” Vasquez said.

According to Athletic Director Jeff Lorenson, 75 free tickets have been allotted for cardholders at previous games over the course of the past three weeks.

“Out of 4-5 games less than 10 people came to pick up a ticket,” Lorenson said.

ASB members Apurva Mishra, Janessa Rodriguez, Ryan Sahar, Mikaela Hinton and Shea Kordana are frustrated with the decision and have come up with a possible solution.

“Right now they have a total of 500 tickets,” Sahar said. “But that doesn’t account for the people who are going to leave after the junior varsity games and the freshmen games.”

They suggest splitting up the tickets for the games by hosting the JV and freshman games in the South Gym, with the Varsity game in the north gym. This would likely increase ticket sales and overall attendance.

Lorenson says there are not enough officials to have one set in each gym.

The ASB students see this as part of a larger issue, though.

“Our main concern is that we feel like the student body isn’t going to be fairly represented,” Rodriguez said. “Stud Gov has been shut out of a lot of decisions that have been made and so a lot of our plans have been changed last-minute without us knowing.”

“It’s not fair that people are paying $65 to get nothing out of it,” Sahar said. “It honestly at this point looks like a scam.”

Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for senior citizens and students. They are available online-only at dshs.djusd.net/athletics for general admission starting Friday (2/11) at 8 am. ASB cardholders can get tickets at the finance office during lunch on Thursday (2/10), and must pay $5 per ticket.