If you price your product low enough, it's an easy sale. Thank goodness we have a student body willing to subsidize our ticket prices not only for athletics for all university related entertainment. I saw "Anything Goes" at Mem Aud last week and the ticket was less than $30. That same ticket the next night in Bowling Green, KY, was $60.
I know the student fee is one of your favorite axes to grind, Alan, but I see the fee as a good thing. It's part of the cost of a rich and fulfilling campus life. One can debate its size and how it's allocated, but without the fee, there would be no shows at Mem Aud at any price. There'd be no student-run media (Post, radio stations, TV, etc.). Many clubs would be gone. And to the delight of Dr. Vedder there'd be no athletics either.
The problem with looking at the fee like an economist is that a university is not a corporation. It's OK to have some expenses that don't turn a profit or benefit every single student.
If you started ruthlessly looking at every expense (which is happening at many schools) you'd soon be left with a campus devoid of a lot of the educational opportunities, vibrancy, diversity, and culture.