Mr. Pollard, you’ve disappointed us.

Yes, our students’ section on the east end of Hilton Coliseum is virtually empty, but to place the fault upon the student ticketholders of this university is not only erroneous, but blatantly egotistical. Furthermore, to effectively threaten us with some sort of sanction lest we do not attend basketball games is, to say the least, arrogant, and at worst unprofessional and demeaning.

First, a few facts and a little reasoning. We are students at a university. The university exists because we are here, and without us, the university’s existence is neither necessary nor possible. Our university also happens to play host to a basketball team, as well as a football team, and many other intercollegiate activities. The existence of these organizations – the entire athletic department, including Mr. Pollard – is predicated on the existence of students in the first place. Simple application of the transitive property.

These student tickets, before fees, carried – at least for this year – a $95 price tag. Given that identical seats on the opposite side of Hilton were sold for $99 and included the entire home basketball season, not just the ball games that fall during the term, it’s a wonder anybody bought student tickets. Look up there, Mr. Pollard. You will find more than a few of your students. It doesn’t take an economics professor to explain marginal costs versus marginal benefits to see that’s where the better deal is.

That’s where many of the more loyal Cyclone fans are spending this basketball season after the athletic department’s faulty marketing tactics ended up giving our diminished students’ section to apparently less loyal fans.

Alex Hofstad’s comments in Tuesday’s Daily article “No students. no balcony” with regard to the targeting of orientation students is not only accurate, but highlights the weakness in Mr. Pollard’s position. The problem is not created by the students, but rather a side-effect of marketing to sell out at any cost, in search of headlines and dollar signs.

You, Mr. Pollard, are this university’s athletic director – a department head, if you will – not unlike the department heads of agronomy, chemistry, music, finance or any other academic department. Would such untoward comments directed at the student body be taken lightly from any of them?

Then there is the very interesting “chicken-or-the-egg” dilemma posed by the supposed effect of the emptying seating on recruiting. Do empty seats impact the basketball team, or does the basketball team impact empty seats? How, it is left to wonder, will this fall’s football season be spun and hyped in order to sell out Jack Trice yet again? Let’s just say that the Drake Bulldogs aren’t having this problem this year.

Our vaunted athletic director might also do well to watch a little ESPN now and then. If the size and location of a team’s student fan base is really a definitive factor in-game, where are many of the students’ sections of major NCAA powerhouses located? A quick survey of ESPN Sportscenter discerns another trend: many (this may be the only aspect of NCAA athletics that lacks a statistic) successful programs – Duke and Florida, for example – seat their students on the sides of the court, rather than the ends.

Who is scheduling these ball games, anyway? At 12:30 on a Saturday, more than a few college students, for whatever reason, are hardly out of bed yet. It can be reasonably assumed that most of the capacity crowds in NCAA basketball are playing in primetime, rather than in the midst of the lunch hour.

People who aren’t going to ball games have their own reasons. Instead of trying to scare us into our seats, why not provide incentives? Almost any manager, economist or psychologist can verify that positive incentive is almost always preferable to the negative alternative.

Don’t get us wrong. We love our Cyclones – as much of an exercise in patience and humility as it may be at times. There’s nothing more exhilarating than Brian Petersen bringing the ball down the floor, or Craig Brackins cashing the 3-pointer. For those of us who’ve grown up as Cyclones, it brings back old memories of men like Hoiberg, Cato and Hornacek. The basketball team is not the problem here. What we can’t stand is the politics. Upsetting Hawkeye fans is one thing, and is acceptable in every case, but threatening your own student body is never taken lightly – and rarely taken well.

Oh, and Mr. Pollard: You’re more than welcome to come sit with us. There’s plenty of room.

We are the students of this university. We are Hilton Magic. Go Cyclones.

– Ryan Frederick is a senior in management from Orient.