(Tljp Satlg (Ear Heel
Columnist Puzzles Over Duke Fans in Blue Heaven
As the Duke University basket
ball game approaches us on
Sunday, much will be written
and said in the media about the great
rivalry that we share on the basketball
court with the pricks from Durham.
Dickie V. will loudly proclaim to any
one who’ll listen that the UNC-Dook
batde “is the best in America ba-by;”
Billy Packer will undoubtedly heap
praise on the Dookies while briefly
mentioning that the Tar Heels will too
play in the game, and coundess DTH
writers will rely on bashing Dook to
get 850 words (guilty as charged).
In fact, in my four years at Carolina
and a lifetime as a Tar Heel fan before
that, I’ve probably read or heard thou
sands of such pieces on the rivalry. But
despite all the information that’s out
there on UNC vs. UNJ at Durham,
there has always been one thing that
I’ve never seen answered. If the hate
between us and Dook is so intense,
then how in the hell are there Carolina
students that are, gasp, undercover
Dookies?
I know, it seems too horrid to imag
Scalping Duke Tickets Takes
Them From Deserving Fans
Scalping sports tickets is probably
one of the easiest ways for
Carolina students to make money.
We get the tickets for free, and we
sell ’em for a fortune. Tickets go up on
e-Bay, and they get sold over the
phone and e-mail.
It can be a pretty profitable venture.
Especially for Duke University vs.
UNC tickets.
I heard a story last week in which a
couple of graduate students in a one
year graduate program sold their sev
enth-row tickets for SSOO each.
As the story goes, they went shop
ping, out to eat and uptown on their
profits.
This probably happens all the time
but it still makes me sick.
I could be sitting in those seats, but
instead I will once again cheer on
Carolina from home.
While I am a strong advocate of the
senior distribution policy for Duke
tickets, there are several “other” types
of students who should not be allowed
in this elite, one-time distribution.
Students in one-year graduate pro
grams and students in their last year of
a graduate program are allowed the
•Ime “senior” status for this one game,
and it’s not fair.
Lots of these graduate students get
these tickets and just turn around and
Vote Songer for CAA President
For Changes in Organization
Michael Songer eats puppies.
Yep, and then he lies about it.
And that’s before he stabs Tee
Pruitt with the lights out, abolishes
Olympic sports and ruins the Carolina
Athletic Association. Keep dishonest
puppy eaters out of the CAA!
Look, don’t believe the hype!
Songer knows changes need to be
made in the CAA and he has the expe
rience to make them.
Tired of wondering if the Duke tick
et distribution was rigged so that you
didn’t have a fair shot at tickets to the
biggest game of your life? Songer
promises to hold the drawing for the
winning ticket distribution number live
in the Pit next year, not holed away in
a secret room. As The Daily Tar Heel
Editor Matt Dees said in a column last
week, “The bottom line is that some
thing stinks.”
Songer will
ensure that any
interested person
can come to the
Pit and watch the
number get
picked right in
front of their own
eyes.
Tired of wait
ing in line for four
“Songer will give all students
an equal chance to get
basketball tickets, regardless of
the organizations, jobs, classes
or other activities they devote
their time to. ”
hours on Saturday morning only to not
get tickets or to need a telescope to see
the court? Songer will institute a stag
gered ticket distribution - you will
know when to show up at the Smith
Center ahead of time and will get your
ticket in less than one hour.
Tired of being 450th in line and not
getting lower-level seats? Next year,
Songer promises to distribute 300
more lower level tickets for every
game. How? Songer has repeatedly
promised not to take the pile of lower
level seats given to the CAA president.
His opponent has never pledged not to
ine, but these sick souls do exist.
There are actually people trolling
around the Southern part of heaven,
watching games in the house Dean
built and walking the same hallowed
grounds that Billy Cunningham and
Charlie Scott once did, who are ...
excuse me while I lose my Chick-Fil-A
... Dook fans. These aren’t the
demented people who pull for Dook
“when they’re playing anyone else
besides Carolina.” Oh no, they’re far
more troubled than that. These fellow
Carolina students are certifiable Wojo
loving, Krzyzewski-adoring, Cameron
Crazies who think Shane Battier is
actually taking a charge when he’s
flopping under the basket
They’ve rooted for Mark Alarie
over Joe Wolf, Johnny Dawkins over
Kenny Smith, and Jeff Capel over
Jason; they’re full-fledged Dookies.
The scary thing is that you can’t even
spot out these narcs. They wear the
same khakis and Carolina blue oxfords
we do, they get hammered at the same
ban we do, and some even have the
gall to dance on top of overturned cars
■
KATE HARTIG
EDITORIAL WRITER
sell them; they couldn’t care less about
the team or this very special game.
They see it as an easy way to make
money.
This offends me. There are a lot of
students, like myself, who do care
about actually being inside the Smith
Center for that annual rival face-off.
It’s a shame that so many tickets fall
into undeserving hands.
Many of these graduate students
didn’t do their undergraduate years
here and might not realize just how
special this game is to many students.
And if some of those students did do
their undergraduate work here, it’s also
unfair to give them a second opportu
nity to go to the game over a student
who hasn’t gone at all.
While it is understandable that the
Carolina Athletic Association wants to
give graduate students a chance to
catch this game too, (graduate students
are people too,) they shouldn’t be
allowed the “senior” status for distribu
tion, giving up some of the best seats to
a bunch of scalper strangers. There is a
large number of seniors who will be
sitting in the “nosebleed” section,
■
TIFFANY BLACK
AND
DEVYN SPENCE
POINT OF VIEW
hoard all these tickets from students.
Through his experience in the CAA
Cabinet, Songer has also seen that
some positions in CAA are entirely
unnecessary. Instead of sticking his
friends in these cushy positions so they
can get CAA basketball tickets, Songer
will eliminate the spots and return the
tickets to the student body.
Tired of a special interest group that
makes up 2 percent of UNC students
(Carolina Fever) getting about 14 per
cent of the lower-level tickets to every
game? Songer will
give all students
an equal chance to
get basketball tick
ets, regardless of
the organizations,
jobs, classes or
other activities
they devote their
time to. That
means the 170
Fever tickets will
be given out at distribution on
Saturdays. Tired of the only memo
rable event of Homecoming Week
coming when Outkast’s microphones
screw up? Songer has already made
contacts with several promoters and is
working to bring a big-time event to
UNC for Homecoming next fall.
It’s no accident that Songer was
endorsed by the DTH and die Black
Student Movement am/Jason Capel
and soccer All-American Jena Kluegel.
Songer is standing up to a powerful
special interest group (Carolina Fever)
to do what is best for the entire student
Viewpoints
■
AMOL NAIK
EDITORIAL WRITER
to celebrate beating Dook like you do.
(Y’all are on your own on that one.)
They wear Carolina hats, date
Carolina girls and wear Carolina class
rings but still somehow manage to,
gulp, root for Mike Dunleavy. It’s a
truly inexplicable phenomenon.
I’ll never forget the first time I met a
fellow Tar Heel student who was a
Dook sympathizer; it was at C-TOPS
before my freshman year. I had just
gotten out of the one program I actual
ly attended during the three days of C
TOPS when I tried to make small talk
with someone I thought would be a fel
low Carolina fan for the next four
when they could be sitting in the
lower-level seats that some graduate
students have sold off.
At the Duke distribution a couple of
weekends back, there were fewer than
100 tickets left for undergraduates.
And it’s justified for the majority of
tickets to go to seniors, but in the
future, graduate students should be
mixed in with the undergraduate distri
bution. Seniors should be sitting in the
best seats and shouldn’t have to share
this one-time privilege with graduate
students. Make it a real “senior” distri
bution.
Scalping tickets is a big part of
sports; there is no doubt that it isn’t
nice to pick up a ticket outside of a
venue. But the Duke game is not just
any other game; it’s sacred to many
students. So, for those scalper students
selling off those tickets, check yourself
and stop being so self-serving. Either
go to the game and cheer on Carolina,
or give them to someone who will.
Kate Hartig is a junior American
Studies and English major from Norfolk,
Va. E-mail her at Hartigk@aol.com with
comments or tickets to Sunday's game.
Feel free to come join her at
Goodfellows to watch the game with a
bunch of other students who don’t have
tickets.
body. He has received several death
threats, dozens of late-night prank
phone calls and about 30 truly hateful
e-mails. And that’s not to mention hav
ing his name dragged through the mud
in the slanderous and inaccurate e-mail
sent to more than 5,000 students the
night before the first CAA election.
The e-mail was so slanderous and
illegal that the Board of Elections took
the bold step of calling for an entirely
new election.
Still don’t think that Songer wants to
change the CAA? Consider this: The
current president, vice president and
former vice president of CAA are all
supporting Songer’s opponent. Is the
CAA establishment terrified of Songer
because he will institute a truly honest
ticket distribution system and stop the
free flow of tickets among the clique of
CAA Cabinet members?
As current members of the CAA
Cabinet, we have seen how poorly the
CAA represents students and the
changes that need to be made. We
never believed that anyone would
have the courage to take on the system
and propose the changes that Songer is
fighting for. Due to the threatening
calls he receives from people who
oppose his candidacy, Songer is barely
able to sleep at night, but the entire
student body should sleep better with
Songer as CAA president. We sincere
ly ask you to take 30 seconds tomor
row to vote for a better and fairer CAA
by voting for Michael Songer. Just
watch your puppies.
CAA Press Secretary Tiffany Black
is a junior journalism and mass
communication major. Beach her
at tmblack@email.unc.edu. CAA
Homecoming Chairwoman Devyn
Spence is a senior international
studies major. Send questions and
comments to dspence@email.unc.edu.
years. I was commenting on how I
thought it was pretty cool that even the
fire engines in Chapel Hill were
Carolina blue, when the Dookie told
me that she hated the very sight of our
shade of blue. She said she had always
been a Dook fan and always would be,
no matter where she went to school.
After coming back to consciousness,
I wondered if this could really be true.
Are there really Dookies in Chapel
Thrilla?
Sadly, over the years I’ve come to
find that there are Dookies all around
us and have even developed close
friendships with some of these twisted
folks. Surprisingly, aside from the fact
that they feel that naming your court
after your head coach is more than a
cheap way to satisfy his ego (Ladies
and gentlemen, the Pete Gaudette 35-
second shot clock!), they’re usually
good people. That’s why its so bewil
dering that they voluntarily subject
themselves to watching Coach K and
his merry band of ex-point guard
washouts constandy berate the refs.
At first I tried to blame the confused
i®|) . BwmßbK *
Chaney Would Make CAA
More Efficient as Its President
TV eid Chaney should be the next
Carolina Athletic Association
X Xpresident. Reid has the drive to
be a terrific CAA president, which is
clearly seen in his innovative ideas for
CAA. If Reid is elected president, he
will bring anew face to the office. This
will allow new views to be expressed,
rather than relying on what has
worked in the past.
While many plans in place right
now are first-rate, there are several
alterations that can make the organiza
tion much better. Reid’s platform
reflects innovations that will make sure
CAA works better and more efficient
ly'
The most obvious of these changes
is Reid’s two-part method for bracelet
distribution. Rather than having stu
dents make their way to the Smith
Center on Tuesday through Thursday
of distribution
week, Reid’s plan
will have bracelets
available for stu
dents from 9 a.m.
to 5 p.m. in the Pit
from Monday to
Thursday of that
week. By doing
this, he will allow
more students to
get bracelets if
they want them.
“Reid’s plan would allow for
more students to obtain riser
seats by giving riser tickets out
a single game at a time ... This
would allow different sets of
students to have riser seats. ”
Clearly, this allows greater accessi
bility for UNC students and will
increase fan support throughout the
season.
The second part of his two-part bas
ketball distribution plan works just as
well. Cheating will be eliminated by
using a master list of students from the
Registrar’s Office.
When students arrive to get a
bracelet, they will show their UNC
ONE Card to the person distributing
bracelets. Upon doing this, they will
have their names marked off the list,
which will not allow them to obtain
another bracelet.
This will also allow us to reveal the
bracelet number before Saturday
morning. While this will provide more
work for those in CAA, the overall out
come will be in the best interests of the
entire student body.
Tar Heels’ distorted loyalties on sheer
ignorance. It’s understandable that
somebody could grow up in a Dook
household and thus cheer for Dook
until he or she came to college. I fig
ured while he or she might even root
for Dook for freshman year, surely
after four years on the Hill, this would
change. Well, here
it is four years
later, and that the
ory has gone the
way of the pet
rock. I see the
same ol’ Dookies,
and they still
think that, blah,
Grant Hill is bet
ter than Vince
“I’m So
“They wear Carolina hats, date
Carolina girls and wear
Carolina class ring? but still
somehow manage to root for,
gulp, Mike Dunleavy. It’s a
Naaaaaaaaaaasty” Carter.
So then I tried to reason that sheer
stupidity was why some Carolina stu
dents rooted for Dook. I knew it was a
reach, but I was starting to get desper
ate. As expected, that theory turned
out to make no sense, because I over
looked the fact that all the dummies
■
JON KANIPE
POINT OF VIEW
Reid is putting yet another twist on
ticket distribution that will increase the
chance students have of obtaining riser
tickets.
Currendy, riser tickets are given to
the same students for each of the
games in a distribution block. Reid’s
plan would allow for more students to
obtain riser seats by giving riser tickets
out a single game at a time during a
distribution.
For example, if the distribution
block was Wake Forest University, the
University of Maryland and the
University of Virginia, certain students
would get riser tickets for Wake, others
would obtain them for Maryland and
still others would
get them for
Virginia. This
would allow three
different sets of
students to have
riser seats and will
let more students
experience them.
Reid is a major
supporter of
Carolina Fever.
He feels that Fever provides a spirit
and intensity at Olympic sporting
events that many times would not oth
erwise be there.
In addition to Olympic sports, Fever
also plays a huge part in basketball and
football games. The enthusiasm that
Fever shows at these games encourages
other students to be just as loud.
Reid believes that Fever is a great
organization, and believes it deserves
to keep its basketball tickets.
In die past, there was a drop off in
Fever activities after basketball season,
but Fever now has rollover points.
This means that for sports members
to attend in the spring, points will
count for them in the next year, creat
ing a much more effective organiza
tion.
Realizing the importance of Olympic
sports, Reid has also developed a five
point integrated marketing plan for
Monday, February 26, 2001
around here were already pulling for
N.C. State University (ya’ll didn’t think
you’d get away unscathed did you?).
Alas, the mystery of why a UNC
student would ever pull for Dook
remains unsolved. But all is not lost, as
I saw the Dook fan from C-TOPS par
tying on Franklin Street after our win
in Durham. “How
come you’re out
here celebrating?”
I asked in an
excited drunken
stupor, thinking
she had switched
sides. “I thought
you were a Dook
fan.” “I am,” she
said, “except
when Carolina
winning means a huge party.”
Oh well, I guess some things never
change.
Amol Naik is a senior history major
from Lumberton. Beach him with ques
tions and comments at
amol@email.unc.edu.
Olympic sports. He will use the CAA
listserv, the sports ticker, the CAA and
Residence Hall Association newsletter,
the CAA Web site and continual Pit
events to make sure that students know
what is going on in Carolina athletics,
especially in Olympic sports.
Carolina’s Olympic sports are the
best in the nation. No other programs
continually show the same excellence.
But the support for these teams is lack
ing.
By increasing the presence of
Olympic sports, more students will
know about the games and will want to
attend. By making students more
aware, this in turn will undoubtedly
create much more support for these
great teams.
Reid is also planning the creation of
a student sports leadership council, so
that students can voice concerns about
anything sports-related - from those
who play club sports to those who use
the Student Recreation Center. A
forum for students to express their
opinions will provide more student
voices and ideas to be heard.
Clearly, Reid Chaney has great
plans for the CAA. If he is elected, his
presidency will create a more open
and student-oriented organization.
Reid’s fresh plans and ideas will cre
ate a better situation for students and
sports at UNC and a more efficient
CAA. On Tuesday, make the choice
that will benefit Carolina for years to
come. Vote Reid Chaney for CAA
president
Jon Kanipe is a junior political sci
ence major and Beid Chaney campaign
worker. Beach him with questions and
comments at sniper I l@email.unc.edu.
•PEN TOUL
Upr Mg Hid
welcomes reader submissions.
Their opinions do not
necessarily represent the
opinions or views of
the DTH or its editors.
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