Congress allots CAA tickets

Student Congress voted to limit the number of men’s basketball ticket allotted to the Carolina Athletic Association during its meeting Tuesday night.

Athletic association members only will have 86 tickets reserved per home game next year, compared to 138 reserved seats last season and the 90 the group was aiming to obtain for the coming season.

Yet the allotment was greater than many in the CAA and Congress had anticipated.

The Rules and Judiciary Committee approved Sunday night an amendment to the Student Code that would allot 50 tickets to the athletic association.

Congress voted unanimously Tuesday to attach an addendum to the bill that increased the ticket allotment to 86.

Congress chose the number because it would afford the 43 CAA cabinet members with two tickets each next year.

CAA officials initially requested that Congress limit the ticket number to 90.

CAA President Justin Johnson said the additional four tickets would have benefited the organization.

If membership in the group increases in future years, CAA leaders would be forced to return to Congress to seek more tickets, Johnson said.

“In the long run, my people wouldn’t have had to come back.”

Four extra tickets also would have provided the CAA with room for recruitment, Johnson said.

Johnson defended athletic association members’ request for seating at games by stressing that CAA members who are organizing ticket distribution cannot obtain tickets in the manner that other students do.

The legislation also assures that Congress’ decision won’t affect the number of tickets given to members of Carolina Fever — currently 200.

The decision to regulate CAA’s ticket distribution follows yearlong scrutiny of the organization by student government and the student body.

Most recently, CAA officials were accused of dipping too deeply into the till and reserving inordinate amount of tickets for themselves.

The debate peaked when a Congress representative took CAA leaders to the Student Supreme Court over the ticket cap.

Tuesday, representatives of the University’s athletic community appeared before Congress to defend CAA, claiming that much has been done of late to remove the tarnish from the organization’s name.

“I think there has been a lot of control that has been reeled in that was not there the past year,” said Clint Gwaltney, assistant athletic director for the Smith Center and ticket operations.

Gwaltney, with whom student officials have been working to discuss the overall ticket distribution method and a separate plan for students with spouses, supported the CAA’s claim to 90 tickets.

Congress also passed Tuesday legislation granting the organization $4,000 for programming.

While some Congress members debated the possibility of limiting the $4,000 to booking fee purposes for the Homecoming concert, the bill passed with no attachments of this nature.

“If we had to pull all that money toward a booking fee, we’d have to look for a lot more money from other groups,” Johnson said.

 

Contact the University Editor at udesk@email.unc.edu.