Ticket Center
“We can’t change the building,” Medley said.
Boggs, sister of freshman guard Ben Boggs, said that based on her experiences as a high school basketball player as well as conversations with the men’s and women’s teams at Tech, student attendance at games is crucial.
“More students really make the game,” she said. “(Men’s basketball head coach Seth) Greenberg is a proponent of packing the stadium with students. Alumni are great and they support the program, but students are the key.”
DiGiacomo said many students are not utilizing the stand-by pass system as effectively as he would like.
“If we see 30 or 50 empty seats, we let students in,” he said. “(Stand-by seating) is in place and it’s been in place.”
Smith said stand-by seating works for students who truly want to attend games.
“If they were a true, avid fan, they would use it,” he said. “We’ve let people in at every game.”
Smith said nearly every two or four years, there is a push from the student body to change the current system. However, he said, he has heard nearly every proposal because of the amount of time that he has worked in athletics.
Smith feels that although no solution is every perfect for every student, the current lottery works well for the majority.
“We treat our students as good as we treat our highest donors,” he said.
He also said many other schools in the ACC look to Tech as an example of a lottery system that generally works.
Smith said that the SGA has not recently contacted the athletics department to discuss possibly changing the current system.
Carroll, however, said he is trying to work toward a better solution.
“The entire student body should work on ways to work with the SGA to figure out an optimal solution,” Carroll said.
DiGiacomo said that although there is currently not a strong push within the athletics department to change the way students receive tickets through the lottery, there is always a possibility for change.
“They’re always willing to tweak it,” he said.
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A version of this article appeared in the Mar 3 issue of the Collegiate Times.
Leave a comment 15 Comments Write a letter to the editor
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Our lottery sucks. I am a senior and I have gotten less than 10 tickets my entire time at VT for basketball... I am so sick and tired of hearing about freshmen getting season tickets too - I have never gotten those either and it's pretty ludicrous. Priority should be given to upperclassmen and people who go to other sporting events because they clearly care more about vt athletics and upperclassmen have less games they can even go to before they graduate!
Stand-by is nice when you're a freshman and live close, but when you can't park anywhere and it's 5 degrees outside, it's not reasonable. Real fans want to watch the game no matter what, so they wouldn't miss the first-half standing out in the cold on washington street...
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you wouldn't miss the first half, you might miss 5 minutes. If you really want to get in, there is a way. If you really care, you can find a way in. I firmly believe that. Hustle around to get tickets, its every man for themselves in this world of getting tickets. That is why I try to help out as many friends as I can. Priority can not just be given to upper class men, because who says a senior is a better more knowledgeable fan than a freshman? It probably is true, but who wants tickets to go to a Senior girl, who only attends games because her brother is on the team? Who hasnt attended games in the past because it didnt fit a social schedule.
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The point is that if you don't get in, you miss a lot by the time you get home to watch (up to an hour if you took the bus on a weekend, 10-30 minutes depending on where you can park/live.) Even walking downtown takes 5-10 minutes from Cassell.
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Do you know anyone who has not made it in the stadium via "Stand By" line, other than the (was it Clemson game?) where they announced days before that ALL STUDENTS could make it in FREE. That game had appeal to everyone, as a social event, guys and especially girls who wouldnt normally go, wanted to go. So as I stated before, do you know anyone who has not made it in the stadium via "Stand By" line other than that one game? The stand by line is not fully utilized...until it is, things will not change.
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Real fans don't let 5 degree tempatures stop them. If it were 5 degrees in Lane Stadium, you would still walk and attend? If you are truly an avid fan you do what ever is possible to make a game which is why Ive used the stand-by pass every chance ive been given the opportunity.
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Tickets should be based on seniority. I'm a senior, and I've only gotten one ticket in the lottery all year. This sucks, because I am graduating. Freshmen, you have 3 more years, you don't deserve tickets now IMO.
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Problem with standby:
If I do get in, I've missed the first 5+ minutes.
If I don't get in, I've missed the first 10-15 minutes by the time I get home, longer if I took the bus.
The risk is not worth it to an avid fan who does not want to miss a minute of the action TV or live. Although this may not be an issue yet, if Standby does get popular, it will be.
Change HokieShare: Great idea, dissapointing execution.
-Why do you have to find someone to share with? Give the option for the ticket to just go back into the lottery or resell it. Just get the ticket in someone's hand who can see the game.
-Encourage it! For example, give extra hokie club points to alumni who pass their ticket back to students.
-Why does it cost money to use? $4 dollars for a computer to process the ticket that has already been paid for onto an email address? If I'm wrong and there is a legitimate reason for the fee, keep it; the first two points are more important.
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"Give the option for the ticket to just go back into the lottery or resell it. Just get the ticket in someone's hand who can see the game."
This is a great idea. I have season tickets, and because of other extracurricular commitments I haven't been able to make it to all of the games. I try my hardest to make sure someone gets my ticket, though, and this would make that process MUCH easier. It's easy enough to put a check box or something designating which tickets someone will use on a website for season ticket holders, just like they do for the lottery.
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What is SGA's email? I assume it is sga@vt.edu.
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The Clemson game should be a huge indication of the need for change to the current system. The line for students to get in free with their IDs extended blocks down Washington Street from the Cassell doors. Students WANT to go to games, if access to them is available, and that game proved it.
Another thing that's really discouraging to me as a season ticket holder is to go to a game, see the student section packed, and then look out into the rest of the maybe half-full stands. It's not fair to the TONS of students that want to just come to a game to hear there's no room for them, when in reality there is. I think that's the biggest problem, regular season ticket holders that buy them just for Duke and Carolina and other "key" ACC matchups, and don't show up to anything else. Do a standby line for these seats, just like for the Clemson game.
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A 250-word limit? Not nearly enough for what I have to say about this.
If students are that serious about wanting to go to a game, they'll do anything in their power to go, most times short of paying exorbitant amounts to a ticket scalper (which I've done, let's be honest here). Just make it possible for them to go! It's not fair that the students of this university can't even go support their sports teams because their attendance isn't valued as much as the attendance of the donors. I think the biggest change needs to not be in the system itself, but in the perspectives of Jim Weaver and everyone else that works in the athletic department. You can't honestly expect me to believe that regular season tickets are sold out every season like they are for football (which is very obvious to anyone that sets foot inside Lane Stadium, there's not an empty seat in the place). Figure out some way to give the empty seats throughout Cassell to the students. And if the donors have a problem with that, tell them to show up to a game for once.
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I applaud the enthusiasm of the students, but you guys are coming from a purely emotional stand, which is great, but just not realistic. The majority of donors and Hokie Club members are 2+ hours away from Blacksburg, they arent going to make every game. Cassell has no club or luxury suite seats to offset lost ticket revenue by "giving away" seats. Season tix this year are $400+... the $78 for student tix would be a huge loss as well to offer more of those. This is the cold hard truth of big time college athletics... you need to the revenue to be successful and build the facilities.. especially since all the money for athelitic facilities has to come thru private money, no state money is used. It appears that a stand-by system is going to be your best bet or looks like nothing at all. You have to make that call... miss 5-10 mins of the game and get inside, or stay put at home not be part of the atmosphere. You will have to trust me on this one as an alumni now, but you will look back when you have graduated and see this conversation again (unless we have a new arena) and see and appreciate thru a whole different set of eyes!! Stay passionate and keep trying to figure it out though!!
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Yes, public season tickets are about $400 more then the the student cost. I would not be against a increase in the student season tickets. I would not be against paying the 470 if i could get ok money for the games i cannot attend. Maybe it is time to raise the price of the student season tickets.
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My primary concern was and still is the people that signed up for the lottery just to sell the ticket. I have never once sold a student ticket nor have I sold a season ticket higher than face value. A loyalty program seems like a great idea to help stop people from signing up for the Miami game for football or the Duke/UNC game for basketball only to turn around and sell it. And I would love to see a system of punishment for people who do sell FREE tickets that they have done NOTHING to earn.
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Im a Junior since my freshman year I've had season tickets. ive done this buy signing up for the lotto and having friends who could care less about basketball sign up for me. that system has worked for me
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