If you’ve ever been to a basketball game on a Tuesday night, or any other night besides the Langley and possibly the Madison games, you probably noticed how the people in attendance are almost entirely parents.

The question is, why don’t any students go to the basketball games? Is it because the teams aren’t good, the students are too busy with homework, or perhaps, students don’t want to pay 5 dollars to see their friends play basketball.

Now this can probably be asked for any of the major sports, not just basketball, but because it is still basketball season, this is our example. I recently went to Yorktown High School, which is in Arlington, not Fairfax County, and saw that students, when presenting a school I.D, pay a reduced entrance fee. Why is this not also the case in Fairfax County?

As seen by the increase in entrance fees at district and regional events, Fairfax County has the ability to charge differentiated rates for entrance; this shows that Fairfax County is a monopoly when it comes to high school sporting events. And it is known that a Monopoly can charge different rates for the same product depending on a variable. This variable is student or parent.

It makes no sense that students of the school should not be allowed to get into games at reduced cost or even for free. Fairfax County has the ability to do so, but for some reason has elected to charge students and parents the same high rate for entrance to sporting events.

Fairfax County should transfer to a new system for sporting events were parents and visitors pay 5 dollars but students of the host school only pay 2 dollars when presenting a valid school I.D.

Not only will this increase the number of students that attend the sporting events, it can increase team morale and swing the tide of any given game in favor of the home team. Students should not be charged artificially high rates to see their friends play sports and cheer them on.

The school will not lose any revenue regardless. On nights were no students attend, parents will pay the 5 dollar entrance fee just like always. While on game nights where students do go, the increase in attendance due to the decrease in cost of entrance will offset the loss of revenue from decreasing the entrance fee for students. So the school breaks even economically but increases the innumerable benefit to the teams by having a more intense and enthusiastic atmosphere for them to compete in.