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Thursday
September 24, 1998

Hockey student ticket sales plummet

I

By Erin Holmes
Daily Staff Reporter
Students trying to cram into the Big House
,r Michigan-Michigan State the game this
eekend may find more open seats if they wait
until the two rivals suit up for hockey at Yost Ice
Arena.
Athletic ticket office officials said yesterday
this year's numbers reveal a significant drop in
student season ticket purchases - down from
2,276 last year to about 1,500 this fall - despite
the icers' 1998 National Championship title.
This year, in an attempt to match the prices
of other universities with comparable hockey
*ograms, the Athletic Department raised the

Students link high ticket prices with low sales

season ticket price nearly $60 to a record-high
$155.
"You're coming off a national championship
season," said Bruce Madej, director of media
relations for the Athletic Department. "I think it
is safe to assume the lower numbers are because
of the increased (ticket) price."
Last year, student hockey season tickets sold
out in only a few days, with some students still

receiving split-season tickets due to the high
demand.
Ticket office officials have extended the
application deadline this year even though the
ticket office has been accepting season ticket
applications for more than a week.
If student season tickets don't sell out, Madej
said, the department will sell the remaining tick-
ets on a per-game basis. That could put non-stu-

dents in the infamously raucous students sec-
tion.
But LSA first-year student Chris Joob said
the decrease in ticket sales may be because of
the sport's lack of popularity.
"More people are fans of sports other than
hockey," Joob said. "I don't think people know
enough about this year's team to even have any
expectations."

"We sell tickets on an individual basis
because (ticket sales) can tluctuate so much,
Madej said, citing as an example the 7,000 indi-
vidual game requests for football tickets that
fans made this year.
But the hockey team, also riding in the wake
of a national title, isn't receiving as much atten-
tion.
"When I went to buy tickets, the line was not
long at all," Joob said. "There were at most 20
people waiting."
Madej said the general public who get the
leftovers from student season tickets would be
placed "off to the side" and not in the heart of
See HOCKEY, Page 7A

Georges
kills
,nore
than 110
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican
Republic (AP) - Hurricane
Georges killed 70 people in the
Dominican Republic and left hun-
reds missing before sweeping over
uba on yesterday and threatening
the Florida Keys. In all, more than
110 people were killed in the
storm's three-day rampage through
the Caribbean.
South Florida was put under a
hurricane watch and Gov. Lawton
Chiles declared a state of emer-
gency in central and southern
Florida, allowing the state to use the
National Guard, lift tolls along
acuation routes and purchase
mergency supplies.
Dominican Republic President
Leonel Fernandez, in a televised
address to the nation last night, con-
firmed the 70 dead and the missing,
including 45 who disappeared when a
school being used as a shelter washed
away yesterday
He said more than half the power
rid in the Dominican Republic was
4stroyed by Georges' 110-mph
winds at a cost of $111 million.
Seventy percent of the country's
bridges were damaged or destroyed,
and 90 percent of its banana and
other plantations were flattened.
Fernandez asked for unity in
reconstruction efforts and urged
residents "to pray and ask the
Almighty to help the destiny of our
people."
"We have a titanic task ahead of us"
I declared.
Georges pounded the Dominican
Republic on Tuesday after barreling
through Puerto Rico. It struck Haiti
yesterday, where 27 were reported
killed, before moving on to Cuba and
threatening southern Florida.
Up to 80,000 people were ordered to
begin evacuating the exposed Florida
Keys.
Cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles
amed along the, two-lane highway
linking the island chain to the Florida
mainland.
At 11 p.m., Georges was centered 60
miles northwest of Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, and was moving west-northwest at
12 mph with 75 mph winds, down from
110 mph when the storm swept over
Puerto Rico and the Dominican
Republic.
In the Dominican town of San
Cristobal, the Nizao River overflowed
Wd knocked down a part of a school
used as a shelter, leaving five dead and
dozens missing.
In the shanty neighborhood of La
Cienega, the swollen river invaded thou-
sands of homes, covering some up to
their roofs in fetid water.
Residents swam out to their houses to
retrieve their belongings, some using
empty gallon water jugs tied to their
rms to keep afloat.
Looters in Santo Domingo, the
Dominican capital, waded waist-
deep in water, balancing televisions
and air conditioners on their heads
Tuesday as the fierce winds toppled
trees and crushed houses.
Bands of youths with machetes

Drill time

Slow season
brings down
ticket prices

By Jennifer Yachnin
Daily Staff Reporter
Michigan football may hav
ing record this season, but
for Saturday's Michigan-M
State game are still coma
prices as high as $300 dollar
Ticket prices have dropp
last year, when some fans pa
per ticket to sit at the 50 yar
Spartan Stadium for an after
While several factors are i
in the price decrease, many f
the lower rates are in part
due to the poor showing
of the Wolverines and
Spartans, who are both 1-
2.
"You can't compare
this year to last year
because there are not as
many seats in Michigan
State's stadium," said a
ticket re-seller who did
not wish to be identified.
"It was a good ticket sea-
son last year."
Renovations that added
about 5,000 new seats to
Michigan Stadium have
not affected the resale of
because the size of the
makes the addition a small
of the seating.
The proximity of the two
rivals has always put the t
high demand.
Ticket sellers said factors
weather also can affect ticke
"The market is going tof
depending on whether it rai
sunny," a ticket re-seller sai
The resale of tickets isa
meanor, and violators can b

ed, arrested and have their tickets
confiscated as evidence.
ve a los- Several ticket scalpers said they
tickets are cautious when buying tickets
Michigan because of an incident that occurred
nanding two years ago when about 150 coun-
rs. terfeit tickets were sold for the
ed since Michigan-Ohio State game.
aid $900 Of the half-dozen scalpers who do
d line in business outside the Michigan
noon. Union every day during football sea-
nvolved son, the most successful ticket sell-
Fans said ers are the students, one ticket re-
seller said.
1A"The students sell
their tickets for more
- . money than we (sell)
them for," he said.
Department of
Public Safety
spokesperson Beth Hall
said fans who purchase
c ' tickets illegally are taking
a risk.
"We're warning fans that
the only way to ensure tick-
- ets are real is to buy them
through the ticket office,"
Hall said.
Hall said the amount of
f tickets activity involving ticket resale has
stadium been relatively low this year, and no
fraction tickets or arrests have been made
involving ticket scalping.
Big Ten "We are anticipating increased
ickets in activity for the MSU game," Hall
said. "Enforcement teams will be
such as looking out for counterfeit and
et prices. stolen tickets."
fluctuate DPS officers will be on the look-
ns or it's out for scalpers across the
d. University campus. They'll concen-
a misde- trate particularly on the stadium
e ticket- See FOOTBALL, Page 7A

WARREN ZINN/Daily
Diasoke Dol, a graduate student In the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, works on a drill press last night at the
Student Woodshop located behind the Student Activities Building. Use of the woodshop Is open to all students for a small fee
and brief training session.


INTON'S BA'
Republicans resist
pressure to end probe

Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON - Unbowed by
public opinion mounting against
them, House Republican leaders
rejected yesterday any kind of a deal
that would preclude full considera-
tion of impeachment of President
Clinton and said a compromise for a
lighter punishment would be unjus-
tified.
"For anybody to talk about doing any-
thing until we finish the investigative
process simply puts the cart before the
horse," declared House Speaker Newt
Gingrich (R-Ga.).
In a meeting earlier in the day,
House Democrats had pushed for a 30-

Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) had
demanded that independent counsel
Kenneth Starr turn over more files that
could contain evidence helpful to the
president.
But Republicans, who are hoping
that Starr will give them evidence of
other Clinton misdeeds, do not want
to limit the time available for full-
scale impeachment proceedings.
Any additional evidence against
Clinton likely would be related to
Starr's five-year investigation of the
Whitewater land deal and other mat-
ters.
GOP leaders also are responding to
pressure from their party's base -

Speaker
looks at
Clinton
scandal
By Paul Berg
For the Daily
As President Clinton's legal and
political crises continue to be the
focus of news programs and publi-
cations nationwide, questions
about media coverage and indepen-
dent counsel Kenneth Starr's
motives have started to arise.
At a public meeting held by the
University's Students for Social
Equality last night at the Michigan
League, Martin McLaughlin, a
staff writer for the World Socialist
Website, posed questions and
answers to a group of about 15
spectators.
"We propose to investigate the
investigators," Mc Laughlin said.
"I find that the Starr report is the

AP PHOTO
President Clinton joins House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) in applause after
South African President Nelson Mandela was presented the Congressional Gold
Medal on Capitol Hill yesterday.

other Republican lawmakers believe
they must bring Democrats into the
impeachment process, realizing that it
can only move forward with bipartisan

showing increased support for Clinton
and high disapproval ratings for
Republicans, made their strongest case
yet for something short of an open-
endd mneahment nrcss