Ticket claims for BYU football and men’s basketball sell out in minutes. But while students scramble for the big two, other seats on campus sit empty.
The ROC pass covers every regular-season home game on campus. From volleyball to softball, the pass grants entry to all BYU sports.
For the ROC, the stats are interesting. Football and men’s basketball have a 100% ticket claim rate. But for women’s basketball, attendance drops to just 12% of available seats.
One BYU junior and ROC pass holder, Miles Reidhead, said he's had good experiences with women's basketball because of the ease of finding seats compared with men's games.
"I think you have to show up 2 hours early if I want to get even like a nosebleed seat at the other games. And I think we walked in like 15 minutes before and there weren't a lot of people, so we got a pretty close seat," Reedhead said.
BYU Athletics fan experience coordinator, Cameron Call, said proximity is the biggest advantage of attending women's games.
"If you come to a women’s game, you could basically almost guarantee yourself to be in one of the first three rows. You’re way more involved in a lot of the stuff that we do," Call said.
And the closer view comes with free food and raffles.
”Most games you could probably expect to either get a giveaway or food a lot of the time, and sometimes they're even on the same day. For women's basketball, it's a little bit more frequent," Call said. "20 to 25% is probably pretty common to be doing pizza or Cane’s or Chick-fil-A or Taco Bell, and that’s totally free. Whenever we advertise it for students, it’s always free."
For some, the social vibe is the main draw.
"All the students' sections are super hype, especially volleyball and soccer. It's super fun. You just go hang out, watch the sports and we have such a good team, so it's super awesome," BYU student and ROC pass holder, Liam Henrickson, said.
Call said the goal is to create core memories without the ticket claim stress.
"You can bring your whole friend group of a dozen of you, and you can all sit together without any problems. You get that front row experience without the ticket claim stress," Call said.
The games are accessible, the food is free and the seats are open. Having a ROC pass might just earn a front row seat and dinner.