This year, the annual Senior Giants game faced challenges in selling enough tickets. Denise Uhl, Director of Student Life at NDB, sat down with The Catalyst before the game to explain how these issues came up, and how they were addressed.

The Catalyst (TC): Why do you think that the ticket sales issues came up?

Denise Uhl (DU): “This was tricky this year. I don’t know, and the seniors would know best. But what we do, and have always done, is purchase the tickets through the Giants organization in the spring. In years past, they would sell out right away and we’d have a waitlist going and so that’s why it used to be you could only reserve a ticket if you pay right away. So this year was different, and then we had a ton of extra tickets, and since we buy them in advance, we had $800 that I knew we could not let go to waste.”

TC: What was the solution to avoid wasting the tickets?

DU: “I suggested asking the juniors if they wanted to buy tickets to help offset the ticket costs. I told the senior class that they had the end of the week to ask to buy a ticket before I opened it up to the juniors, since I didn’t want any senior who wanted to go to not have the opportunity to. Once that deadline passed, we opened it up to the juniors, and they were super enthusiastic about going!”

TC: How did this solution work out?

DU: “Well, the juniors came back to me and said that some seniors were making them feel like it was for seniors and that juniors shouldn’t go since it’s traditionally a senior event. So I wanted the seniors to understand that it was not a sister class thing, it was about the fact that we weren’t going to let $800 go to waste. So I told them that having the Gators go would really be helping them out, but that if they didn’t want them to go, then the money would have to come out of the senior budget so it wouldn’t be wasted.”

TC: How did the seniors respond to that?

DU: “They were frustrated that I was trying to charge them for the tickets, but I wanted it to be clear that it was a financial situation, I wasn’t trying to be the bad guy, but that’s a lot of money to go to waste. So I suggested selling them for ten dollars instead of twenty, and I offered to write a check out of my own bank account to offset the cost of discounting the tickets. We just really wanted to make sure that the tickets did not go to waste.”

TC: Did that solution work out?

DU: “The seniors got it then. They realized that it really was a financial concern, and with the ten dollar tickets, they wanted to make it happen, and they really came together. They were extremely gracious in opening it up to the juniors and saying, “We really could use your help, we would love for you to go with us.” They also opened it up to faculty and staff, and they said, “For ten dollars, the Titans love the faculty and staff, go buy tickets.””

TC: Were the seniors able to sell all the tickets?

DU: “They did it, they did pull it off. I think they sold all of them except maybe like four or five, and that’s awesome. Even though it started out problematic, the Titans really turned it into a community night at the Giants, so I love that. I want this year to be known for the Titans, the Titans opened it up for an NDB community night, which is awesome.”