Season tickets sales for ISU men’s and women’s basketball games are 8 to 9percent lower then last season, according to the ISU ticket office.

Only 7,700 season tickets have been sold for men’s games this season, and sales for women’s games are at 6,000.

More than 9,000 men’s basketball season tickets have been sold for two of the last three seasons.

Last season, Iowa State averaged 11,743 fans per contest, the second-highest attendance in the Big 12.

“We’re in the top quarter of Big 12 schools [in terms of ticket sales],” said David Crum, assistant athletics director for ticket operations.

“We are always looking to increase our sales, but we are very competitive in comparison to our peers.”

The first two ISU men’s games against Mercer and Northern Iowa had attendance numbers of 9,898 and 9,690 respectively, with many student seats empty because of the Thanksgiving holiday break.

Crum said he couldn’t pinpoint a reason for the decline in sales, saying sales are like a “bell curve” and there are a number of different variables affecting sales.

Sales for women’s games have declined for two consecutive years.

After average sales of just 176 tickets per game in 1997-98, sales climbed to a high of 8,000 in 2001-02 before dropping back to their current level.

Other schools are having sales problems also. Iowa basketball games have an average attendance of 9,800 — nowhere near Carver-Hawkeye Arena’s capacity of 15,500.

While the ISU basketball program is struggling to attract fans, the football team raised sales from last year.

Fans purchased 25,000 tickets for the 2003 football season, up from last year’s total of 22,600.

The ticket department also sold out of student tickets, reaching the student section capacity of 7,000.

Football isn’t the only sport attracting students.

The all-sport pass — giving students tickets to football, basketball and all other varsity sports — sold out this season. Also, 605 basketball-only packages were sold to students, up from the 300 of the same package sold last season.

This is in contrast to some other top schools, said Tom Kroeschell, associate athletics director for media relations.

Iowa has sold only 800 student basketball tickets this year, he said. That number is dramatically down from the 4,000 student basketball tickets the school sold just two years ago.

With the increase in student ticket sales, some students, like Alyssa Craft, freshman in psychology, were unable to get admission into this year’s football games.

“I was going to get tickets, but they were sold out,” Craft said.

Other students, like Joe Brisbois, freshman in civil engineering — who was on the outside looking in last season — picked up tickets this year.

“I wasn’t into the ISU spirit [last year],” said Brisbois. “This year, I was more into going to school events and cheering on the school.”

Brisbois, like many others, bought tickets after Iowa State’s 7-7 2002 football season, a campaign that saw the Cyclones land their third consecutive bowl appearance.

With the Cyclones’ struggles this season, many students left their seats in Jack Trice Stadium open.

“I bought football tickets this year because we were good last year,” Brisbois said. “[This year] I didn’t go to some of the games because they weren’t fun to watch.”