Perception Is Not Reality

Image courtesy of Oregon State Athletics

For years, I’ve been hearing about the Beaver Bias (shoutout The Payton Years!). Most of the time, I try to figure out if it’s really a thing, or if there’s some other reason and it’s mostly my fandom coming through. An announcer talking about the other team (say for instance when the Beavs played Oklahoma St. in the second round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament a few years ago) isn’t always because Brendan Haywood hates the Beavers. It’s because CBS recognizes (correctly) that a majority of the people tuning into that game are doing so because of Cade Cunningham. Likewise I always cringe when people say stuff like “the refs/conference/etc just wanted to screw the Beavers over.” Why? Why would the conference want to do that? Why would a judge want to give Jade Carey a 9.95 if she deserved a 10? Who does that benefit? 

Every once in a while though, something does reek of a bias against the Beavs, and this week’s reporting by OregonLive seems like a clear example of that.

It started with a story about OSU raising ticket prices at Reser. The headline reads in part “...but will fans come given hefty season ticket price tag?” 

First off, it’s not “hefty.” It’s more than it used to be, but it’s not hefty. The article says that the cheapest season ticket on the new sideline will go for $900. It makes no mention of the season tickets available in the Valley View sections for $99, in the South End Zone for $155 (minimum of four), seats on the lower level of the East Side for $400, or other options below the $900 price tag. 

It also questions whether fans will come. I could refer you to several different studies that have shown new stadiums increase attendance, or that OSU is hardly the first school or team to increase prices following a stadium upgrade. Heck, the article even quotes a fan as saying her tickets have remained the same price for ELEVEN seasons. Name one other thing in your life you’re paying the same amount for today that you were a decade ago. If anything, I could argue OSU has been giving people a discount on Pac-12 football over the years.

That says nothing of the prices at other Pac-12 schools. Our tickets are now comparable to Oregon (no tickets between the 10-yard-lines for under $1000), Washington (cheapest sideline seats are in the end zones for $870). Colorado doesn’t even have a pricing map up for 2023 yet, but I’m sure they’re not offering “PRIME” seating for $500 this year (see what I did there?)

So we aren’t charging more than our peers, we will have one of the nicest venues for watching football in the country, the team will certainly be nationally ranked heading into the season….what am I missing here? 

Oh yes……”NIGHT GAMES.” Ken Goe, another OregonLive reporter, tweeted out “Prices are steep for a steady diet of (very) late games, as if OSU is the ONLY school playing night games. 

My very unofficial opinion is that “very late” equates to a 7:30pm start or later. Here’s the total home games by Pac-12 school for 7:30pm local kicks last season:

Arizona State - 3

Washington - 3

USC - 3

UCLA - 3 

Arizona - 2

Oregon - 2

Stanford - 2

Utah - 2

California - 1

Colorado - 1

Oregon State - 1

Washington State - 1

Oh would you look at that? OSU played FEWER late home starts than EVERY OTHER PAC-12 SCHOOL, tied with three other teams that I would guess most people would assume got MORE late starts than everyone else. Perception is not reality.

If that’s not enough, a second story also popped up on OregonLive today, saying Oregon State has “banned” the practice of spectators leaving and re-entering Reser Stadium at halftime. Again, this is not a case of OSU doing something out of the ordinary. If anything, it had permitted the policy to go on far longer than most other institutions. Washington State and Colorado seem to be the only schools still allowing re-entry, and it is “discouraged” according to literature from the Cougs. 

Also, didn’t everyone know about this new re-entry policy thing a few months ago? Why is OregonLive dragging it up now, on the same day they decide to call serious attention to an increase in ticket prices (that again, anyone with common sense could’ve seen coming)? They also put both these stories behind their paywall, knowing full well they’d probably get a bunch of angry Beaver fans to shell out a few bucks to read about how they might be getting screwed by the university. 

Look, I get it. Paying more for anything sucks. Not being able to run out to your car at halftime of the game to pound a few cold ones with the boys sucks. But Beaver Nation can’t have it both ways. We can’t bristle every time someone calls us “little brother” or “small time” or “just an agricultural school” and then act small time or like an Ag school. Your school is not trying to screw you over. They’re trying to provide a comparable or better experience to us as fans as every other Pac-12 school. That’s what we want right?