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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A student leader at the University of Minnesota wants to change a policy that forces students to buy football season passes if they're interested in purchasing tickets to other sports.
The Student Senate on Thursday approved a resolution drafted by student senator Kyle Kroll, 23, that asks the administration to end the ticket bundling. The second-year law student from Pillager said it's unfair that Gopher Athletics is making students buy more tickets than they want or can afford.
"Students should have the freedom to choose what they want," Kroll said.
The university used to allow students to buy tickets for individual sports, Minnesota Public Radio News (http://bit.ly/1rGXlsG ) reported.
But the new bundling practice, which began this summer, is a way to reward the best U of M sports fans, according to Senior Associate Athletic Director Chris Werle. It wasn't a roundabout way to increase dropping football ticket sales, he said.
"If we do sell more football season tickets because this gives people more incentive to buy both," Werle said, "I'm really OK with that."
Students who purchased the football season pass this summer got first pick for men's hockey and baseball tickets. Hockey tickets sold out through the package sale, leaving nothing for students who hoped to buy them unbundled from football. Kroll was one of the students who waited because he refused to pay $175 for the hockey-football bundle.
"It's just disappointing," he said. "It was really fun to go to them (regularly) with my brother the last two years ... and I'll miss being part of the (hockey) community."
Students can still buy single-game standing room tickets for $15, but doing so for the season's nine home games would total about $35 more than last year's season pass price of $99.
Kroll's resolution, which calls for a review by the university's Board of Regents, was endorsed by the student Law Council last week. It also requests refunds for students who purchased unwanted football tickets.
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Information from: Minnesota Public Radio News, http://www.mprnews.org
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