May 14, 2010
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The first of many dominoes officially falls Friday for staff of the UI Athletics Department and, specifically, the staff of the UI Athletics Ticket Office.
Pam Finke, the UI’s director of ticket operations, and her full-time and part-time staff, have the distinction of being the first to be moved – albeit temporarily – out of award-winning Carver-Hawkeye Arena so that the construction of new space and the renovation of existing space for the home of the vast majority of staff of the UI Athletics Department can proceed on a schedule that has the multi-million dollar revitalization completed by next August – a mere 15 months into the future.
For all intents and purposes, the UI Athletics Ticket Office will be closed on Friday although current UI students interested in purchasing their season tickets for next year’s football and men’s basketball season will be able to place their orders online.
Finke and her staff will spend the day making the game-day ticket office at historic Kinnick Stadium their new home away from home.
“It’s just a day, but it will be a busy and hectic one,” said Finke. “We’ll be open for business online, but the majority of the staff be busy putting things together at Kinnick. Monday, however, it’s business as usual in the new day with the location at the west entrance of Carver being the place for walk-up business to occur.”
“Normal” beginning Monday comes with one significant exception: Fans needing to visit with her will need to call ahead so that she can arrange to meet them at a to-be-determined location at Kinnick.
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For all intents and purposes, the UI Athletics Ticket Office will be closed on Friday although current UI students interested in purchasing their season tickets for next year’s football and men’s basketball season will be able to place their orders online.
Finke and her staff will spend the day making the game-day ticket office at historic Kinnick Stadium their new home away from home. |
“You do what you have to do,” Finke said, noting that the Athletic Ticket Office staff is the first of many that will be relocated so that the much-needed improvements to Carver-Hawkeye Arena can be completed and completed on time.
Next week, administrative staff located on the third floor of the Arena will be shuffled, with some moving a couple feet, others moving a couple yards, and still others moving to the Gerdin Athletics Learning Center.
In June, members of the department’s sports information and new media units will move to the Paul W. Brechler Press Box where they’ll face the challenge of working during the week before breaking down their workspace on Fridays prior to the seven home football games next fall.
In November after the final home football game of the season – Iowa versus Ohio State on Nov. 20 – the rest of the residents of Carver-Hawkeye move to either the Brechler Press Box or, in the case of nation’s No. 1 wrestling program, the UI Field House.
“It’s an inconvenience, for certain, but it’s also the price of progress,” said Finke.