Athletics offering NCAA tickets with purchase of select group of basketball season tickets

BY MOISEKAPENDA BOWER
Special to the Rice News

Rice Athletics Director Chris Del Conte needs only to take a few dozen well-timed paces from his office at Tudor Fieldhouse to witness firsthand the strides coach Ben Braun is orchestrating in men’s basketball.

One passing glance at a Braun-led practice session reveals the fruits of his recruiting labor, and with an increase in the number of skilled players comes the hope that the Owls are advancing toward their goal of participating in the NCAA Tournament, something Rice hasn’t done since 1970. Del Conte believes with unwavering conviction that Braun is steering the program in the right direction, but he also understands that the casual college basketball fan views Rice with a twinge of skepticism.

Thus, Del Conte has opted to link purchases of season tickets for lower-bowl, chair-back seats at Tudor Fieldhouse for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons to opportunities for purchasing tickets from the Rice allotment for the 2010 NCAA Houston Regional and 2011 NCAA Final Four, both of which will be held at Reliant Stadium. Those select seats at Tudor Fieldhouse can be secured for $1,300 each, $1,000 of which is tax-deductible. Tickets for the 2010 Houston Regional are priced at $190 apiece and are located in sections 105-108 and 125-128.

”If you’re a sports fan, regardless of whether you’re a Rice fan, the product is getting better,” Del Conte said of a program that will blend highly regarded freshmen Tamir Jackson and Arsalan Kazemi to an experienced core that showed improvement during the second half of the 2008-09 season. ”But there also is a significant value to those seats.

”When I decided to charge $1,300 per seat, it became apparent that I needed to have more value added until I had the product match the price. We were very fortunate to have an NCAA Regional and Final Four coming in, and being a host school, you are able to have opportunities to purchase tickets. And I wanted to make sure that those opportunities were given to those donors who bought those lower-bowl seats.”

Rice co-hosted the 2008 Houston Regional at Reliant Stadium with the University of Houston, and the Conference USA rivals will share in the responsibility of hosting the upcoming NCAA Tournament contests. Having access to prime seats for such a spectacle is a rare treat for basketball fans, and it comes in addition to an underrated game experience at Tudor Fieldhouse for prospective season ticket holders.

Lower-bowl, chair-back season ticket holders will receive personalized reserved parking for every game and access to the Trauber Hospitality Suite for complimentary food and beverages 90 minutes prior to tip-off and at halftime. That exclusive access also allows for pregame interaction and briefing with a member of the men’s coaching staff.

The Owls will host 16 games this season, including tilts against perennial national power and former Southwest Conference rival Texas, four-time defending Conference USA champion Memphis and archrival Houston. Native Houstonian Josh Pastner succeeded John Calipari at Memphis during the offseason, and he subsequently named former Rice letter-winner and basketball coach Willis Wilson as one of his assistants.

Rice will open the season hosting the Rice Basketball Challenge presented by Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites Medical Center. The three-day, six-game extravaganza will feature Houston Baptist University, South Alabama and Sacramento State, and it will provide a first glance at the Owls’ revamped roster.

Braun generated national attention with his second class of signees, and the general consensus is the Owls will begin their ascension this season.

”Ben has put together a phenomenal recruiting class, and he’s backing it up with another good recruiting class,” Del Conte said. ”We are going to be young, but with that youth and inexperience comes vibrancy.”

— MoiseKapenda Bower is assistant director for sports information for Athletics.