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One of the side effects of Virginia Basketball’s meteoric rise over the past several years has been that tickets are getting harder to come by. This doesn’t just go for fans who at times have had to pay astronomical prices just to get a seat in the nose bleeds. It also means that students have had a harder and harder time getting a lower bowl ticket, much less a court side seat.
Hoo Crew, Student Council, and Virginia Athletics have revised the Sabre Points system to encourage students to attend home games across all sports throughout the season. In the past, students received points for attending select home non-revenue games. Here are the big changes for this year:
- Football games are now worth a whopping five points per home game.
- All other home sporting events are worth one point, with certain of them worth five points.
- The Sabre Points are used to determine the assignment of entry groups. Once tickets have been allocated, those with the most Sabre Points will be placed into the group that enters the earliest, and so on down the line.
- Points roll over! Well, some of them. Starting the end of this year, 20% of your Sabre Points will roll over to the following year.
The changes come after there was some scuttlebutt last year about points not carrying over, such that fourth years and first years had the same chances of getting into Group 1, despite dedicated fourth years having spent the better part of three years investing into the program.
“The biggest tip I have for students Hoo want the best chance to get basketball tickets,” said Dustin Jones, a fourth year and the president of Hoo Crew, “is to go to as many games as possible! Not only will you accumulate more points, but you will be able to enter JPJ at an earlier time to get better seats.”
There have already been a couple Sabre Point events. The next big five-pointer comes next Friday, September 2, as the field hockey team hosts Rutgers. Start collecting points early in the season, and cheer loudly!