H.A.A. Alters Football Ticket System; Work Begun on 35 New Tennis Courts

Football tickets for next fall will be distributed on an application basis rather than with the H.A.A. activities booklet, William J. Bingham '16, Director of Athletics, announced yesterday, in a move designed to forestall recurrence of long pre-game ticket lines and the accompanying "unfair" epithets hurled by dissatisfied undergraduates.

Under the new system, single-seat tickets will be handed out with the booklet for only the first two home games--against Boston University and Western Maryland. Thereafter, starting with the Holy Cross game, tickets will be awarded upon submittance of a specified coupon within the booklet plus an application if the coupon-holder wants two seats together.

Sit with Anybody

Instead of committing himself to a single seat for the entire season, as heretofore, Bingham stated, the booklet-owner will be able to secure seats with whomever he desires, with better results than last year. This procedure will eliminate the necessity of returning tickets and the resulting, haphazard re-distribution.

In addition, seats will be conferred on the undergraduate according to his class. Last year, a lottery among the Houses determined who would have the choice seats.

Unlike the Yale game scramble last November when many students found themselves without any seat whatsoever, the new system guarantees at least two tickets to every member of the University for all home games.

Procedure Outlined

The procedure, as outlined by Bingham, is as follows:

An H.A.A.-booklet purchaser pays $15 for single admittance to all Harvard home athletic contests. With the booklet, he receives two single tickets, located according to his class, for the Boston University and Western Maryland games in the Stadium. In the booklet, he has a coupon for each of the remaining home games. At least two weeks before the game, he must submit the coupon at the H.A.A. ticket office--in the basement of the Union--for either a single ticket or a pair. Four days after the application deadline, the H.A.A. will announce whether or not there are more seats available, at which time, applications will be accepted for additional tickets besides the original single or double.

Bingham added that the best section of seats allocated to members of the University will be given to single-seat applicants. Students asking for two seats together will be then assigned according to class, with all men in classes previous to '48 considered as Seniors. Graduate schools will be placed after the undergraduates, as customary.

Another feature, planned by Bingham, will give members of the University first crack at tickets turned in late. Ticket-holders will be able to redeem their tickets until 5 o'clock on the Thursday, preceding the game. The H.A.A. will hold those tickets until noon on Friday for University students.

"Last year, we assigned seats by Houses, all in one act, because we thought that students would want to sit with their friends in the Houses," Bingham explained yesterday. "After the first few weeks here, most students found other spectator-companions and would turn in their singles for doubles, which were in a much poorer location.

"Often, we had trouble getting the returned singles together and many good seats would go to outsiders or remain unpurchased. The new system is much more flexible, assuring students the best seats in the Stadium, regardless of whether they go by themselves or bring someone."H.A.A. Director Bingham expects his projected ticket system to eliminate from the University scene such trying situations as this, when, five days before the Yale game last fall, students walted for as long as an hour and a half in frosty weather to make out applications.