2008 Woodie Awards
Students wait for tickets to Saturday's season opener
New workers, unprepared students create long lines for Arkansas State tickets
By: Chelsea Lankes
Issue date: 8/26/08 Section: News
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Though the lines are normally lengthy in the beginning of football season, Marco Silva, a student assistant manager of ticketing said a combination of new student workers and unprepared students added to the wait.
"We had a lot of new student workers, a lot of young student workers that are new to the system, still learning the ropes but the majority was people not taking care of their ticket options, not registering, not taking care of things before hand," said Silva, a junior civil engineering major.
There was a backup in the office, because workers had to help people register for new sports options that could have been done online, Silva said.
"I feel sometimes the students don't realize the resources they have, people are unsure of what they can and can't do as far as ticket pull goes," Silva said.
Silva said that students often place blame on the 12th Man Foundation for unclear ticket-pull rules - but, in reality, it's their own fault.
"…I don't think students realize that the policies that are put in place for the ticket pull aren't decided on by the 12th Man Foundation, he said, "They are decided on by the student body and governed by the student government."
When compared to seasons before, the long lines are typical.
"As far as first days go in comparison to previous years, and previous football seasons, I think it went about the same," Silva said. "The first day is always the longest."
Ryan Skelton, junior sports management major and student assistant manager of ticketing, said though the lines were long due to the renewal and retrieval of sports passes and group pull, it was no surprise.
"It's always kind of bad, but it's expected," Skelton said. "A big thing was group pull because the first game all the Fish Camps come together, so the group line was crazy today, too, because we had to accommodate all the Fish Camps, but that line goes down a lot over the year."
The majority of the overflow is located at the help window, said the vice president and division manager of ticketing, Carole Dollins.
"There are primarily two reasons why students are in that line, they have lost their sports card from last year and need to replace it," Dollins said.
Another factor in that can make ticket pull a long wait is the number of windows open. Due to shift changes and the number of students working at the ticket counters, the process can go from smooth to resulting adding minutes to the wait. However, as the staff can predict the crowd will be larger, they schedule workers appropriately.
Though the option to renew and change options for student sports passes has been available online, some students still prefer to wait in the lines to take care of changes in person.
"We typically get all the freshman at student conferences in the summer and I'm sure that there are some that don't know or that have forgotten," Dollins said. "We've had this system in place this will be the third year where they can do it online."
SPORTS PASSES ONLINE
Carole Dollins, the vice president and division manager of ticketing, says that many students wait in line to add their sports option. That need not be the case, she said. Students can log onto http://mysportspass.tamu.edu/ if they already have their card.
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