Collegiate Times

"While many students may look at the new tickets and see it as a negative, according to Tech, the new ticket system was made so that the students would have a much more enjoyable experience at the game." What was the argument in support for this new system being enjoyable? "It will probably make getting into the games faster since you all you have to do is swipe a card rather than rip off a ticket stub," said junior accounting major Ian Bokelar." How's that? The movement is the same; move your hand from left to right through a card scanner or move your hand from left to right to rip off a stub. In addition, how will this promote accountability other than preventing students selling their tickets? How will a student sell his seat if he/she has no actual ticket to sell?

Hey thanks tech for shorting us once again. Some people may not be able to make some games, however now with a student ID number on the ticket, you've ruined the ability to have the students fill their seat with a friend. How about giving the students advance notice that this is how the tickets would be "arranged" this year? And I don't think the ticket "ripping" is holding up the lines, it the pervs feeling people up hoping to find a couple airplane bottle. You wanna speed up the lines, "sell booze inside." Also, does it occour to you that Tech can "resell" student basketball tickets to the general public if they aren't claimed and make a double profit? It's time you stop treating students like little children and allow them to make their own choices with distributing or selling student tickets. Also, if I happen to lose my only plastic card with my student ID on it, you better dan well believe I'm getting it replaced!!

This new change will only speed up students getting into the game. The other 40,000 people will still have to have their paper ticket stub torn off. Now that we are given a card it removes the possibility of getting any of the money that we spend per game for the tickets if we can't attend. Coach Beamer likes it when the stands are filled. Now come Fall Break weekend, it will be the lowest attendance since the early years of Tech Football.

Does anyone remember the days that they had to scan student id's to get into the game and how long that took? Once they got rid of scanning id's the lines moved so much faster. I think this is just going back to the old days!

Worst idea ever! Think about the UVa game that is always over Thanksgiving weekend. Not all the students come back for the game but the tickets always seem to find their way to another fan. Now all those seats will be empty! Plus it makes it a lot harder for students who didn't get season tickets to attend a game as the supply of tickets is greatly reduced and simple economics tells us that when supply is reduced, the price for other tickets will go up. So in the end who loses? Students, fans and the football team whom expect to see a packed house. Who benefits? The ticket scalpers!

This is such a terrible idea. HORRIBLE! Tickets are hard enough to come by for students; give us a break. Does the administration really thing that this is the best use of our funds – paying much more money on these plastic cards rather than a simple paper ticket? What a major inconvenience! Last time I checked this was a public university and I think we as students should have somehow been consulted in this matter. And no, I do not think that some “plastic card” is a better souvenir than the usual paper ticket – give me a break! That’s part of the fun, collecting all the ticket stubs from each game you attended! Years down the road, I don’t want to whip out my ‘ol Tech scrapbook with my kids and show them a piece of plastic for the entire season – c’mon! I’m sure once the student body fully gets wind of this, it will be over. I give it one season.

This is dumb. It has potential, but will probably turn out to be a nightmare. I can see it now... so many students are going to lose their (awesome souvenir ) plastic card and then they're screwed. Furthermore, yeah what about the games you cannot go to? I remember I couldn't go to a thurs night game once so I sold my ticket to my neighbor for $10. So now my ticket would totally be wasted? And I agree how is this to speed things up? It's just like swiping a ticket.

The only benefit i could see to this is if they change all the sports games to having a student's ID scanned. Then some system could be set up to give insentives to students who go to more games/sporting events (like better seats). Otherwise, this just sucks.

To post below: they have this @ NC State for basketball at least. You lose out when you don't go to sporting events and gain when you go. So your seats are based on how many sporting events you go to.

any college age person who thinks they will lose something that is shaped like a credit card, with importance ranked high like a credit card should be ruled incompetent and kicked out of school. If you need your mom to hold your hand and wipe your ass, why are you in higher education? learn some responsibility and dont lose the card! i agree that it may be a downgrade in sentiment from an individual game ticket though.

Seriously, get over yourself mr. independent below. People lose stuff, it happens... even adults! People lose things that are much more important... keys, credit cards, debit cards. Not to mention someone could STEAL IT! Going to blame that on them too?

As for the people saying that scanning will slow things down, there was going to be scanning anyway! They tested it out during the basketball season, and were planning on putting the scanners into full effect for the football games as well. This will keep those random people out of your seat at the games. You might have a place to stand without having some drunk guy, who doesn't have a ticket, falling all over you and puking on your shirt. You can argue about the sentiment all you want, but i don't know a single person who actually saves ticket stubs. It sounds like a good idea to begin with, but you always end up losing the stubs anyway. The card will also be much more durable and will hold up to the elements, and general hell, of college living. Keep up with your ticket, find a safe place to put it and only bring it out when you are heading out to the football games. I'm sure if the ticket is stolen, a police report could be filed to get the ticket replaced. As for losing it, if you lose $100 out of your wallet, are you going to the bank to demand they give you that $100 back because YOU lost it? Take some responsibility and own up for your actions

Ok, let's flash back to Oct. 24, 2007. We were on the eve of the biggest home football game of the season with the #2 team in the country coming to our doorstep. All I heard about was people complaining about how students were selling their tickets at outrageous rates. This method makes it harder for those students to sell their ticket, at much inflated rates, because they run the risk of not getting their ticket back. Also, nowhere in this article did it say that the student ID # was linked to the ticket, they are simply making sure that you are a student getting in on a student ticket.

Sandy Smith? Is that you there defending this new approach? Anyhow, yes you can sell your "ticket" to other people, but then you have to give them the card rather than a single ticket? That's a valuable thing to loan to someone. That's really the only problem I see. It's going to create problems filling up the seats when people can't go and don't want to sell their ticket b/c they will have to loan the whole card.

Can you actually sell the 'ticket'?? It has the student ID number on it... that makes it seem like only that student can use it

Honestly, how frickin long do they think it takes to tear off a ticket stub? This is one of the main justifications for switching to a card; because swiping is so much faster? I had no idea it took a skilled technician to tear off a piece of paper. This is typical Virginia Tech administration. Let's take something that works perfectly fine and make it that much more complicated and spend more money on it. Here's a thought. Instead of fixing something that doesn't need fixing, how about fixing that horrendous group seating system where people in groups are constantly getting separated from each other. For an institute of higher learning, there sure are a lot of idiots around.

This will certainly be terrible for attendance. I know for sure there are 2 games that I can't go to but I also know that with this new ticket, no one else will be going in my place. It's truly an imcompetent decision made by Jim Weaver himself. The guy needs to retire before he ruins our entire football program.

Stick it in Jim Weaver's Ear!

As a now alum to VT, after graduating in May, I think this is just terrible. I feel sorry for the students, because they are the ones that have to deal with this now, not Jim Weaver....he could care less. Looking back on my years @ VT, I would've only loaned my 'season ticket card' to a select few people....many people will not get their card back from individuals, and they will just not sell it for a game...which means less people in the stands. Lane might be quiet for a couple games this year.

I think it is obvious that whoever made this decision did not think it necessary to consult with students, current or past. Way to go. I love it when other people make decisions for me and then I get screwed because of it. Stop spending money on things that don't need to change, and don't complain when the number of students in the stands is much lower than normal this year. Great idea guys.. not.

Why are the so-called decision makers such idiots to come with ideas like this? I go to baseball games all the time and I keep ALL my ticket stubs. it's my 2nd hobby next to baseball cards. I even have stubs from the 1980's ballgames. I even have a ticket stub from the 1975 Chicago-Beach Boys concert. How did tearing off a little piece of cardboard paper or scanning the ticket become such a problem in the first place? God forbid, the Orioles, Redskins or the Terps adopt this stupid idiotic idea.

Oh yes, can baseball card collectors image being handed a single plastic card to store hundreds or thousands of baseball cards on? I lose this one plastic card, I've lost my entire collection. Please VTech admin, act like this is a University, not a middle school or less.

This is just for students right? It doesn't apply to season ticket holders/hokie club?

Yep, only students receive this card.

Rack another dumbass move up for Weaver. Are you serious! If a student cant make it to the game, now he/she can't sell or give the ticket to another student to fill that sit, thus making the stadium less crowded and noisy. GREAT MOVE WEAVER! YOUr A ONE OF A KIND JACKASS

To the person below complaining about students selling tickets for ridiculous prices, they are selling for what people are willing to pay. Is there still a lottery for tickets for students not buying season tickets? Nothing is stopping them from selling their tickets at "outrageous" prices. I still don't see what was wrong with the paper tickets. I don't think the plastic card is going to make anything easier and I really don't like that students weren't consulted on this issue since they are the ones being effected by this. To the who said "This is typical Virginia Tech administration. Let's take something that works perfectly fine and make it that much more complicated and spend more money on it." I could not agree with you more.

Thank you. This is another great example of our pseudo-socialist administration trying to control everything we partake in. It's now going to be almost impossible for me to get my parents a ticket for a home game this year--something which I had told them wouldn't be a problem. Scalping tickets is the free market at work.. I hate that I never had a vote in this issue, and that the card is MANDATORY and not on any sort of optional trial basis.

I don't know if the law changed, but when I was in school it was perfectly legal to scalp tickets in Montgomery County. If Tech doesn't want tickets selling on the streets, they should lobby for the law to be changed instead of causing detriment to the very football team that makes them money.

Yes, it is perfectly legal to scalp tickets in Montgomery county. In an effort to insure the student ticket allotment goes to the students in the fairest manner, students are limited to selling their tickets at face value. To the person who was talking about getting their parents a ticket - they would not be able to get in on a student ticket anyway! You can still buy tickets from scalpers on the street. Why does it matter what format the tickets come in anyway? Aren't we essentially paying for admission to the game? I'd much rather have the tickets in this form than look on facebook and see somebody selling their UVA ticket for $200+! Am I the only person who is ok with this change?

Yes you are the only person that is ok with this change. Do you even go to the games?

Jim Weaver, Director of Athletics: weaverj@vt.edu

Yeah, you can buy tickets from scalpers on the street, but what about the game you can't go to and you want to sell your ticket for $15? You can't unless you trust that person with that card!! Agree.... down w/ Jim moron Weaver!

And starting next year, your season tickets include a handcuff so that you can't leave your seat and move around. Screw this change, it's seriously crap. As a recent grad, I was hoping to get student tickets to go watch games on the cheap. Reason? Because the season ticket methodology is biased towards older people. In case you're not familiar, you make donations to the Hokie Club and build up points based on the amount you contribute and the length of time that you're contributing over. Based on your point level, you can potentially get an offer made by the school to buy season tickets. In other words--you could be making donations of $200+ for a couple years before you're even eligible to buy legit season tickets. You want to win games? Get us young people in the stadium to get loud. The system is flawed and Jim Weaver can suck it. From the "stick it in" ban to this, I can only imagine what is next on his list of ways to screw over the students. I hope you read this Weaver so you know how much we're annoyed by you.

Hokie 08... you're somewhat lacking on your Hokie Club knowledge. My college roommate joined Hokie Club with her brother. They paid $500 each... that's $1000 and they were given a set of tickets each and the option to buy a set each for $300 something, which I bought with them. While this is not exactly "on the cheap" it isn't "making donations for a couple years before you're even eligible." This was their first year donating. And I don't think the athletic department is too concerned with getting you into games when they have many people that give anywhere from $1000 to $50,000+ a year.

The central issue here is scalping. I had heard that some universities were revoking ticket privileges from students who posted their student tickets online for sale above face value. Does anyone know if VT has taken measures like this? The reason that scalping should be handled differently with student tickets is because the university has an obligation to provide all students with an equal opportunity to attend games. This means offering student season tickets at a reasonable price. If scalping is allowed, an inequity is created among students. The ability to get cheap season tickets is a student privilege, and I have no problem with revoking the privileges of those who abuse the system. That said, I do agree that there must be a simpler way to do this that allows students to transfer tickets to others when they are unable to attend a game.

You know, if they were just honest about this whole thing I'd be a lot less upset. It's to stop scalping, and none of their other arguments make any sense. Keeping too many people out of the stands? How does this help that? Accoutability? No, they just get one extra person to blame. It's faster to swipe a card than to tear a stub? Are you retarded? The card system is just going to hurt attendance and inconvienience people that want to go to games, it doesn't help us at all. Yes, scalping student tickets for obscene amounts of money is morally shaky but this creates bigger problems than it solves, and the whole "It's for your own good" argument makes it even worse.

This won't actually stop people from sneaking others in, unless the card can only be scanned once per game. People can just as easily grab a few cards from their friends, leave the stadium and hand them to other mutual friends, just so they can steal seats of other people. I want to be able to get my ten bucks or whatever it is I paid per ticket if I can't make it to a game. I don't need to sell them for exorbitant amounts. They should have just enacted some rule against that and punished people selling tickets above face value. Even if they had VT Police out on the facebook marketplace punishing people who sell them above face value.... it'd be better than enacting this current system. At least there would be equal opportunity for everyone and we wouldn't have an empty stadium.

I love how we are supposed to just believe these ridiculous reasons on why they changed the tickets. To those of you who are in favor of the change and defending it, you are retarded. Here is why. The people who won the lottery and got their student tickets for free can still go and sell their tickets for unreasonable prices, but if you actually paid for your student ticket you’re screwed and can’t give it to someone if you wanted to. They are targeting the wrong people. If I paid for my student ticket, then I should be able to choose whether I wanted to give it away or get my 7 dollars (or whatever it’s worth). If I pay for my tickets, I am punished while the people who get them for free can still go out and sell them. I would also think that by having less student tickets available then it would cause a greater demand for them, enabling people to jack up the prices. You might as well just buy regular tickets then. Good job, mental midgets. They didn’t accomplish ANYTHING. It is insulting to our intelligence for them to even think for a second that we are stupid enough to believe they did this because scanning is faster than ripping. PLEASE….

Jamie, as I mentioned, getting season tickets for a reduced price is a privilege, not a right. If you want unrestricted tickets, do what the alumni do: pay full price. I do agree that there are flaws with this system, and that they are not being truthful about the reasons for implementing it, but your tirade is a bit much. In the end, you are only paying $7 a game for Hokies football, and that is a beautiful thing.

Hey Jamie, I know a lot of people who have brought the wrong ticket to a game or simply lost their tickets. Wouldn't it be nice to have just one card to worry about? Yea I'm sure you would say that you can just as easily lose the card, but I would much rather put the card in my wallet then having to worry about paper tickets.

Can we get a story on the dumba$$ Zach Luckett?! KICK HIM OFF FOR GOOD.

here's a question...will they be scanning just the credit card or the credit card and the student ID?