To the Editor,

In his October 23 letter to the editor (A Plea … for Reduced Price Children’s Tickets to Princeton University Games”), Clark Reed states that he was surprised that reduced price children’s tickets were not available for purchase at a recent Princeton football game. While advance purchase youth tickets are available for other sports, youth tickets have not been available for football games since the opening of the current stadium in 1998. However, as part of a multi-year effort to harmonize pricing for the few sports events where tickets are required, Princeton Athletics plans to institute an advance purchase youth ticket price of $6 for the 2014 football season.

Princeton’s student athletes are appreciative of the many community members who come to cheer them on at their various competitions. We offer 38 varsity sports here at Princeton, and in the past year held 232 regular season games, of which 179 were free and required no tickets. Our student athletes are competing at the highest levels of their sport, as evidenced by the 13 Ieague titles and 4 NCAA championships earned in the last year.

Mr. Reed incorrectly states that Princeton University pays no property taxes. In fact, Princeton University is the largest taxpayer in Princeton paying more than $9.5 million in property taxes in 2013 in addition to a $2.475 million voluntary contribution to Princeton.

Kristin S. Appelget

Director, Community and Regional Affairs

Princeton University