This will surprise no one but nevertheless it is still ridiculous. The geniuses at Morgan Center will be charging UCLA students to check out "the Pauley Opening Madness" on November 2^nd:

Tickets to the event are $5 for students and can be purchased at the UCLA Central Ticket Office or online here: http://bit.ly/pauleystudentspotlight.

This is an event for students, put on by students. The funds generated through ticket sales will be used by the Recreation Department and student organizations to fund the costs of the festival, event production, and event night operations.

Where do we begin on what is wrong with this nonsense? UCLA has not been able to gin up any enthusiasm among the students or the general fan base about Ben Howland's atrocious to mediocre teams from last four years. The attendance figures have been terrible. They were not all that great even during Final-4 years when the athletic department failed to leverage the excitement around the "Ben Ball warriors" and fill up Pauley on regular basis.

We don't know of any real outreach the athletic department does with our general student body to get them educated about our athletic tradition and get them excited (no, Guerrero riding the student bus with some student intern doesn't count).

Opening of the renovated Pauley would have been the perfect opportunity to open up the gym to the entire student body and get them fired up for the new season. Nope, instead Guerrero's clueless athletic department will take the tacky route of sticking a $5 fee which is not even going to some charity.

We have a heard a lot of garbage propaganda about how the $140 million project was under budget. You'd think UCLA could afford to invite the students to partake in the festivities without having to stick them with that silly fee. They still don't have the common sense that charging students for this kind of event is bad business for the long term.

GO BRUINS.