Popejoy Hall Requests
Requested 2012: $150,000.00
Received 2012: $93,388.64
Requested 2013: $150,067.50
The amount of student fees Popejoy Hall receives could determine how many shows students can attend for half price next year.
Tom Tkach, director at Popejoy Hall, said the organization uses student fees to give students the chance to buy two tickets for every show at 50 percent off the listed price.
“The funding that we receive from SFRB is to support the discounted students’ tickets both for subscription and regular tickets,” Tkach said.
Preston Jones, a junior majoring in music education at UNM, said students should always be given discounted prices regardless of how much funding Popejoy receives.
Jones, who said he attends about six events each year, said raising student ticket prices would be unfair.
“I feel like being a student at UNM, that’s being degrading to us,” he said. “We put a lot of money into this school and a lot of effort wanting to see a show that is presented to us for half the price.”
In 2012, Popejoy Hall is bringing in five traveling Broadway shows and 20 Ovation shows.
The 1,985 seat hall currently offers an unlimited number of discounted student tickets for Ovation shows. For traveling Broadway shows, UNM students receive no discount.
Tkach said in the past when Popejoy did not receive the full amount it requested from SFRB, it had money set aside to help subsidize the cost of student tickets.
“In the past have we have had over $30,000 in additional subsidies so students can continue to attend events at Popejoy still,” he said.
Jones said he is pleased Popejoy still wants to help out the students by subsidizing the tickets.
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“It’s good for them to keep their word and have the community and students come in and watch shows for a cheaper price,” he said. “It still shows me that they are trying to do their fair share of the job.”
Tkach said if the organization does not receive the full amount it requested from SFRB, it intends to continue offering student tickets at the discounted price.
“We wouldn’t raise prices,” he said. “We have subsidized students in the past out of our own pocket.”
Tkach said he is unsure how much money will be set aside next year to help subsidize student tickets.
“It depends on what they (SFRB) decide to do,” Tkach said. “I don’t know what will happen this year with the funding. We will have look at that once we hear back from SFRB.”
Tkach said regardless of how much money the organization receives, it won’t affect how many shows Popejoy will bring to Albuquerque.
“Our program won’t change substantially because we are really providing for a room scale that is well thought out by the public,” Tkach said. “Students will still attend regardless of what happens with the funding.”
SFRB deliberations Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012, 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Roberts Room in Scholes Hall Open to the public.
