BY CASSIDEY KAVATHAS, MANAGING EDITOR
After a year without Bonnies basketball in the Reilly Center, action is back in full swing, although with restrictions. On Dec. 21, in accordance with New York State’s mask-or-vaccinate policy for public spaces, St. Bonaventure University has required fans age 5 and older to be vaccinated for COVID-19 to attend men’s and women’s basketball games.
“When the state issued its vaccinate-or-mask mandate in December for all public spaces, our COVID Task Force discussed the two options and felt that in the best interest of public health, a vaccine mandate made the most sense,” said Tom Missel, the chief communications officer at the university. “Plus, a vaccine mandate was easier to enforce than a mask mandate.”
Feedback from the switch to a vaccine mandate over a mask mandate has been both positive and negative according Seth Johnson, assistant athletics director for licensing and fan engagement.
“You have extremes on either side where people are hardcore, I’m not getting it and people are ecstatic that we imposed the mandate. There’s a lot of gray area in the middle,” said Kathy Parmentier, ticket office manager. “Unfortunately, the way the state put it, it’s a hard line. You either have it or you don’t, there’s not an in between. So we had to turn a lot of people away which always sucks.”
Many students are disappointed in the decision to institute a vaccine mandate.
“It’s contrary to Bonaventure values if they claim to be accepting of everyone. But I think it was something they had to do if Bonas was going to have in-person attendance for basketball games at all,” said Paige Miller, a senior finance major, who no longer attends basketball games because of the vaccination mandate.
Another student shares a similar opinion regarding the mandate.
“Unfortunately, I am vaccinated. But I still think it’s BS you [unvaccinated individuals] can’t attend the games,” said James Rumschlag, sophomore history major “The basketball programs here are a key part to this school and it’s community. It’s a great way for people to come together and forget about the week or day.”
Parmentier emphasized the difficulty university officials face in making decisions with universal appeal.
“I don’t think it’s more one way or the other people will find things to complain about. So you can’t please everyone. And no matter what you do people will find something to complain about,” said Parmentier.
After the vaccine mandate was implemented, 176 season tickets were returned by fans. That is a decrease of season ticket holders since the start of this basketball season from 2,786 to 2,656. While less than 200 season tickets were returned, Parmentier feels that this drop in season tickets can be attributed to more than the vaccine mandate.
“We took a little downturn and lost a couple games. Besides the vaccine mandate, people lost their faith in us,” said Parmentier. “We didn’t play for over a month and then they didn’t want to buy a ticket because they weren’t sure if we were going to have a game or not. I think they lost a lot of trust and there was nothing anybody could have really done about that.”
Parmentier also noted that many season ticket returns had connections with families attending basketball games together.
“One of the biggest factors is family. We impose the same mandate that other arenas have which is that children five and over have to be vaccinated,” said Parmentier. “I know that a lot of parents aren’t comfortable making that decision yet. So, they would return the whole family’s tickets because they can’t bring their children.”
The ticket office isn’t accepting any more season ticket returns but Parmentier has seen other fans buy returned season ticket seats for upcoming games.
“We did have a couple of people swing in after they found out certain seats were returned and bought the season seats for the rest of the season just because better seats were available,” said Parmerntier.
The university is hopeful that ticket sales will return to normal after the complexities of COVID-19 are resolved. The ticket office has not calculated the amount of money they lost from returned season tickets.
kavathcj20@bonaventure.edu
