More money for nuthin’
A recent article suggested that UVA’s attendance should have rebounded within the first few months under a new coach and that fans are aloof for not showing up in larger numbers after the team has shown some level of respectability [“London rallies Hoos for diminished crowds,” UVA News, November 9]. In so doing, it misses the message that fans are sending entirely. A few years ago, UVA raised the threshold levels for donations that provided access to the same tickets and parking spaces people had held for years. They did so expecting the team to be good and the economy to be sound; both expectations turned out to be way, way wrong. Is it aloof not to be held hostage by a university that strong-arms its fans to make ever-larger contributions to its athletic foundation just to be eligible for season tickets?
Jim Cudahy
Charlottesville
No free seats
Please note the number of former fans who refused to renew football (and basketball) season tickets because of the ticket and seating policies introduced three or four years ago by the Director of Athletics and the head of the Virginia Athletics Foundation. These apply to Scott Stadium and JPJ. I can vouch for several faculty members who rarely missed home football or basektball games since the late 1960s and early 1970s (my customer number is 85) through the introduction of the new policies, but who refused to accede to the new policies. Personally, I have refused offers of free seating for three home football games this fall and did the same for basketball games last winter. I continue to hold season baseball tickets but will drop those as well if the same policies are introduced for Davenport Field.
R. G. Dimberg
Charlottesville
Shine a little light
Thank you for publishing Will Goldsmith’s piece on the electoral defeat of Rep. Tom Perriello [“Losing the Fifth,” November 9]. It was illuminating, if discouraging for its realistic portrait of Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District.
Gary Westmoreland
Charlottesville