Unavailability of UGA tickets frustrates students

Camping tents and sleeping bags filled Techwood Drive and Bobby Dodd Way the weekend before the UGA football game as students lined up to exchange their vouchers for tickets. But despite their best efforts, many of the campers went home empt-handed as the 8,000 tickets allotted to students sold out within 30 minutes.

"I've been here for six years and good or bad, there's 8,000 tickets for every game and 15,000 students at Tech, so unfortunately somebody is going to be left out. That's the process, and it happens at many schools around the country," said Scott McLaren, assistant Athletic Director of Ticketing and Sales for the Athletic Association.

The student football ticketing process allows student groups belonging to the 1st and Ten Student Program, which accounts for about 2,000 tickets, to turn in blocks of up to 250 vouchers the Friday before the game.

Other student groups such as SWARM, which claims about 780 tickets per game, can also turn in blocks of up to 250 vouchers on Monday. One thousand tickets are set aside for graduate students. What remains, typically about 2,200 tickets, can be obtained by undergraduate students.

"What occurred that Friday of the North Carolina game was that we had some groups starting to camp out....We got with the Institute and they agreed upon the process of issuing vouchers for them to keep that spot in line....A Student Government representative met them here [Saturday night], put them back in their order, and then everybody else was able to line up behind that last person....We didn't have anybody else even come back to try to get in line throughout Friday or Saturday," McLaren said. Some students who were unable to obtain a free ticket to the game tried to purchase one from other students who had secured one. A fifth-year student, who asked to remain anonymous, sold his ticket, which he received as a member of SWARM, for $80.

"I know why it's not a good thing...but in my head I didn't feel the harm of it. I guess I felt a little indifferent about it so I decided to make some money," he said.

He added that he was concerned with possible consequences and decided to post his ticket on Craigslist instead of Facebook because of the greater anonymity.

However, at least a dozen student ticket listings could be found in the Facebook Marketplace at some point during the week leading up to the game, typically for upwards of $50 per ticket.

Anu Parvatiyar, undergraduate student body president, warned students against reselling tickets.

"I want to remind students that not only will you be carried through the judicial process for reselling your tickets, but...by doing that, you're disrespecting the Tech students who have paid the Athletic Fee and can't get into the game," Parvatiyar said.

Students found to have resold tickets will go through the judicial process under The Office of Student Integrity, as the resale of student tickets is a violation of the Student Code of Conduct, and students received an email on Wednesday before the game from the office of the Dean of Students reminding them.

"We are looking on places like Facebook Marketplace, but...I don't want it to be like we're trying to turn you in for doing this. I have no problem with students giving tickets to boyfriends or girlfriends as long as every Tech student who wants a ticket gets a ticket, and that right now is not happening," Parvatiyar said.

As a result of possible student ticket resale, the Athletic Association increased security at the UGA game.

"We've always asked for the student ID, but for this game, we probably monitored even more and made an overemphasis to our gatekeepers," McLaren said.

Gatekeepers confiscated several student IDs, many of which were photocopies. McLaren said those student IDs were turned in to the office of the vice president of Student Affairs.

Problems with the student football ticketing process have resulted in the formation of the Ticket Task Force which will be lead by Erika Via, chief of staff for undergraduate student government. The Panhellenic Council, Athletic Association, BuzzCard Office and at-large students will also be represented.

"We realize that there are some flaws with the way our ticket distribution works. We moved to an online system for basketball three years ago... and we are looking at implementing something like that for football. This is all up in the air, but it will be addressed in the coming months by the Ticket Task Force. We're also looking at tying your BuzzCard to your actual ticket ... The idea is to protect the students who have paid the athletic fee," Parvatiyar said.

Recent changes have included a reduction in the size of blocks for student organizations from 300 to 250 vouchers.

This year there was also an increase in the number of student tickets per game from 7,500 to 8,000. However, McLaren expects that no additional increases are likely.