Letters: Penn State football ticketing transition an ‘unnecessary mess’; Arts facility would address growing need

PSU football ticketing transition an ‘unnecessary mess’

The transition to mobile ticketing for PSU football games is an unmitigated disaster and will show itself to be a greater one on game day. One matter is the fact that the mobile ticketing process discriminates against people with a lesser skill set, people of a certain age, and people of lesser means who do not have a smartphone.

The new system also reduces the quality of the game day experience. One cannot easily swap tickets with friends at a tailgate so they can sit together. If one has extra tickets, it is now nearly impossible to give them to friends or sell them on game day. The result will be many empty seats that would typically have been occupied.

The instructions given online for mobile ticketing have provided more questions than answers for many. I have tried calling the ticket office with some questions (why I cannot transfer one of my three parking tickets to someone else) and the average wait time is more than an hour. Does Penn State care about their biggest supporters?

Any cost savings from not printing tickets will be more than offset by the frustration of football loyalists and donors who are likely to give up some or all of their tickets due to the reduced quality of the experience. The Athletic Director should resign for creating such an unnecessary mess.

Arts facility would address growing need

In the performing arts Americans thrive both on stage and in the audience. It’s in our DNA.

In February 2020, the NEA released an extensive report on the arts comparing rates of arts attendance and arts participation in dance, music and theater, among other areas. It was found that in the 12 months prior to the survey 24% of American adults participated in dance including ballet and various styles and 15% attended live dance performances. There were 42% of adults attending live music performances including jazz, classical and other styles and 30% created music. In the area of theater 24% attended a live play or musical.

Centre County is home to one of the fastest growing communities of performing artists in the commonwealth. There are hundreds of professional and talented volunteer performers in our area, dedicated to the arts they produce and to the audiences they serve. The problem is we fall short in having affordable facilities available, in having necessities like an orchestra pit, a stage of sufficient size, fly space for sets, appropriate audience seating and an ambiance and acoustic that will present performers in the best light.

With a grant from the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, the board of the Nittany Performing Arts Centre is consulting with Wilson Butler Architects to address these challenges and to create a facility that will be accessible to performers and audience alike, serving as a venue and performing arts incubator for our community. Please visit www.nittanypac.org for more information.

Unfair scheduling hurts students and more

I’m writing in to express my opinion on the scheduling of the Grange Fair this year. The Grange committee should have considered the students in the area when scheduling the fair dates, because most of the schools in the central Pennsylvania area start before the fair ends. This is especially unfair to these students, as they have waited two years to enjoy the fair again, only for it to be cut short for them. Also, it is economically harmful to the fair, as they are losing out on a sizable piece of their attendance demographic for half of the fair. In conclusion, this scheduling choice by the Grange Fair is detrimental to the fair economically and the student community of central Pennsylvania.

Penn State poised to become COVID epicenter

Penn State became the epicenter for child abuse with Sandusky. Now Penn State is poised once again to become the epicenter of COVID infections in central Pennsylvania (including delta and future variants) because they’re allowing students to come to campus from all over the world without being vaccinated. Why?