ABC-7 Listens: 02.06.16

diocese it’s u-tep charging the diocese to use the sun bowl. rick cabrera shares a viewer’s concern in abc-7 listens. tickets for the “two nations, one faith” event are still on sale at local churches, the u-tep ticket center and through ticketmaster. just last week in this segment a viewer took exception with the diocese charging for the event. as the diocese explained it — at a minimum — need to recoup the cost for renting the sun bowl. which brings us to ray. “it is very depressing to fin out that everywhere you go, the tickets to see the pope are free, but utep is charging people to go in and see him on a big screen? is this right? “when is utep going to give back to the community? utep doesn’t need the money. it’s time they do something for the citizens of el paso. i took ray’s concern to u-tep. in a statement officials there told me … “the utep office of special events is treating this event as they would any other large-scale event at the sun bowl. “as a stat institution, we are required to treat everyone fairly and cannot make exceptions. “the sun bowl and the university’s parking facilities are state property. “the university canno allow use of this property without proper remuneration. “we value our relationship with the diocese and look forward to a successful event.” the next obvious question is … exactly how much is the diocese being charged for use of sun bowl? we asked both the diocese and u-tep … but were told they could not give us that information. rick cabrera. abc-7 listens. we have filed an open records request with utep in hopes of finding out the cost to the diocese for use of the sun bowl.