It used to be that people could just show up to a Harvard men’s basketball game. Now the market for tickets is as competitive as the summer job market.
Take this weekend: both of the Crimson’s games in New York have sold out—a Friday night contest at Columbia, and Saturday night’s game at Cornell, the first of two highly touted match-ups against the league’s two-time defending champions.
The Cornell game looked to be a attraction early on because the two are arguably the best and certainly the most visible teams in the Ivy League, with both having challenged top Division I programs so far this season, including Cornell’s 5-point loss to Kansas.
Columbia, meanwhile, has recent history with the Crimson, having beaten Harvard last season at home on a last-second jumper by current senior Kevin Bulger. Lions fans seem to be rushing to Levien Gym in hopes of seeing similar action. Harvard has emerged victorious only once in its last six trips to Levien Gym.
But it’s not just New York that’s going crazy for the Crimson. Tickets for Harvard’s home contests against the Killer P’s—Penn and Princeton—went up for sale today at 3 pm and are disappearing quickly.
According to senior running back Cheng Ho, who has been in contact with the Athletic Department, the 400 tickets allotted for undergraduate students have all been taken for the Princeton game, and the tickets for Penn are going fast.
Whether in the Big Apple, Ithaca, or Cambridge, Harvard basketball seems to be, for the time being, the biggest show in town.