Jay Jacobs Emails Students

 Auburn Athletic Director Jay Jacobs responded to the unusually high request for student admission to home basketball games. After turning away hundreds of students at the Auburn Arena Wednesday night, which was the SEC home opener against LSU, the students voiced their opinions via social media. It seems that message was heard loud and clear.

 The following is an email sent from Jay Jacobs to the Auburn students, courtesy of War Blogle.

Dear Auburn students,

I am pleased to announce changes to our student admission policies for men’s basketball games. I instructed our staff to make the changes this morning based on your input following last night’s home opener against LSU.

Thank you for the feedback you provided through social media. It was instructive and helpful in our efforts to allow as many students as possible to support our basketball team.

We will continue to admit the first 1,500 students free of charge for all home games. We are now making an additional 500 free drink rail tickets available to students for the upcoming game against Kentucky, which we expect to be a sellout.

On a game-by-game basis moving forward, we will admit all students free of charge until the arena is filled to capacity. We will no longer charge $5 to students for admission after the student section fills up. This was a policy we put in place before the 2010 season as an incentive for students to show up early and support the team. Until last night, it worked well and did exactly what we intended it to do.

It is important to remember that prior to opening Auburn Arena, only the first 500 students were admitted free of charge at men’s basketball games. After hiring Coach Barbee, we changed our policy to admit the first 1,500 students free of charge. That change was made to enhance the atmosphere at Auburn Arena and increase student attendance.

I hope this new change makes it clear that student support at basketball games is of the utmost importance to our team and to me personally. We designed Auburn Arena to put you as close to the floor as possible. A student-only entrance and student concessions were added to make your gameday experience as good as it can possibly be.

I want to thank the 2,000 students who helped create a great atmosphere for last night’s win over LSU. As the games get bigger, I would encourage you to become a member of The Jungle, the official student section of Auburn basketball, so you can get into the arena 15 minutes prior to the gates opening. You can join The Jungle by visiting www.auburntigers.com/jungle/.

Thanks again for your support. Let’s keep Auburn Arena rockin’ the rest of the year. War Eagle!

Jay Jacobs

Director of Athletics