Did student tickets sell out?

[LionJim]

Maryland does something like that (all their sports tickets are free for students, albeit with mandatory student fees covering the costs) so you might be thinking of that.

As a graduate student I would go to the UMd mathematics library and study until just before game time. Parking my car in the adjacent lot as if it were any old weekend morning, nobody directing traffic. Then studying until game time, then I’d walk to the stadium and get a ticket (can’t remember if I paid anything for it) and take in the game, leave at halftime. Similar thing when I was at Tennessee.

 

[Erial_Lion]

Everyone wants to complain but it's not really a significant issue. Yes, some tickets are purchased for resale. But they have to be purchased by a student and sold to a student (or at least you aren't supposed to be able to get into the student section without an ID) so how would you suggest policing that? Do they have to complete some sort of a quiz on general PSU football knowledge before they can buy so they can prove themselves worthy of purchasing?

Personally, I would go to a system of rewarding those that attended games the prior season. Anyone that attended all 7 games (themselves) are tier A, 6 games is tier B, 5 games is tier C...4 games is tier D...anyone that didn't get tickets (including freshmen) is tier E...if you bought tickets and attended 3 or fewer games, you're tier F. Do the lottery, and sell them by tier until you hit the sellout, and do a lottery in that tier to see who gets the seats.

It helps encourage attendance, gives priority to those that care enough to go to the games and not sell/eat their tickets, etc.

 

[SleepyLion]

Personally, I would go to a system of rewarding those that attended games the prior season. Anyone that attended all 7 games (themselves) are tier A, 6 games is tier B, 5 games is tier C...4 games is tier D...anyone that didn't get tickets (including freshmen) is tier E...if you bought tickets and attended 3 or fewer games, you're tier F. Do the lottery, and sell them by tier until you hit the sellout, and do a lottery in that tier to see who gets the seats.

It helps encourage attendance, gives priority to those that care enough to go to the games and not sell/eat their tickets, etc.

I like your idea...
To add to it or something to think about as an examples would a student who lost the lottery the previous year but bought aftermarket tickets be moved into a higher tier. I think that could be worked into the formula.

Additionally, there is something to be said for someone who gives a ticket to someone else that has never had the experience before. I gave a ticket to a foreign student once. I'd hate to be penalized for that.

 

[Erial_Lion]

I like your idea...
To add to it or something to think about as an examples would a student who lost the lottery the previous year but bought aftermarket tickets be moved into a higher tier. I think that could be worked into the formula.

Good point...you'd need to do something to account for those that lost out on tickets the prior season.

I'd also look to move to a more "staggered" pricing per game to cap resale at...tickets were 246 this season. I'd go to a method where the most you can sell the biggest game/whiteout game is 60, most you can sell an average game for is 40, most you can sell the bad non-conf games for is 20...where they all add up to something around 246 overall. Basically give no inventive at all for buying tickets to simply try and resell them, while still trying to allow students to get something back that's reasonable if they do need to miss/sell a game.

 

[Wilbury]

Good point...you'd need to do something to account for those that lost out on tickets the prior season.

I'd also look to move to a more "staggered" pricing per game to cap resale at...tickets were 246 this season. I'd go to a method where the most you can sell the biggest game/whiteout game is 60, most you can sell an average game for is 40, most you can sell the bad non-conf games for is 20...where they all add up to something around 246 overall. Basically give no inventive at all for buying tickets to simply try and resell them, while still trying to allow students to get something back that's reasonable if they do need to miss/sell a game.

These are all extremely complicated ideas to try to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

 

[PSUFTG]

These are all extremely complicated ideas to try to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

Basically true, IMO

But even more to the point: The "problem" is one that the folks in charge are not only unconcerned with - but that they actually WANT, as they use it to increase their revenue.
(FWIW: They could solve the "problem" being deliberated in this thread in about 2 minutes, if they wanted to)

That was all considered and desired and a large part (maybe the only significant part) of the decision to go "e-ticket" a few years back - and it has become even a more desired feature as the years have gone on.
And there is a LOT there that folks - aside from maybe a few anyway - don't know about. Some of it that should be VERY disconcerting to folks if they did know (talking about things other than the stuff mentioned thus far in this thread)

 

[Erial_Lion]

These are all extremely complicated ideas to try to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

As long as die hard fans are missing out on tickets due to the luck of the draw, I'd say that a problem definitely exists. And if you can help solving it by driving up attendance for the "lesser" games, then it's an added bonus.

 

[PSUinSTL]

My son is going to be a freshman at Utah this year. They do lottery but give preference to those who have more points. You get points by attending athletic events including football. Every sport besides fb is free for students. The more points you have the more times your id is entered into the lottery.

they also have system to prevent resale. The student has to claim ticket on Monday of game week. If they claim it they can’t resell it. If they can’t attend they don’t claim it. And it goes to another student. If you claim a ticket and don’t attend more than once you lose option to claim for rest of season.