Student tickets only available at game
Students trying to ensure themselves a spot at the BYU and Utah basketball games this week by getting tickets should plan on showing up to the games early.
To ensure that at sold-out games every seat in the stadium is filled, the Utah State ticket office has stopped issuing tickets to students before games.
“What we found out in the last six years was that a lot of students were picking up tickets for games, especially the high demand games, whether they were planning on going or not,” USU ticket manager Clark Livsey said. “Then they didn’t show up.
“The problem that created was we were sold out of tickets, but there was actually more space inside the [Romney] stadium to allow more students to come in.”
In 1998, the current card reader system was installed at both the Spectrum and Romney Field. Prior to that, the students had to show their cards to get into games.
When the electronic system was installed, students could only get in through one gate at the Spectrum or stadium.
To allow students to get through all the gates, the ticket office started handing out free tickets to students with their student IDs before the games.
Eventually, this practice evolved to students going and getting tickets the week before a big game to ensure they could get in, no matter how late they showed up to the game.
Livsey said the practice wasn’t a problem. The problem came when students would get tickets before the game and then not come.
For the football game against the University of Utah, 6,400 tickets were issued to students before the game.
However, Livsey said only 5,500 were redeemed and many other students were turned away. It was a sold-out crowd, but not a filled-up stadium – something Livsey said he wanted to prevent.
He said situations like the Utah game also happened last season with a couple basketball games toward the end of the season.
“We have to assume that everybody that has a ticket is going to come to the game,” he said. “As far as the capacity of the stadium goes, we have to stay in the limits of that. That’s why we’ve decided … to not pass out tickets in advance.”
For those worried about not getting a seat, Livsey he said he suggests getting to the games early and waiting in line.
However, he said in the past they haven’t had to start turning students away until well into the first half.
“I think a lot of students think we’re out to get them and we’re really not,” Livsey said. “This is just trying to solve a problem and we’re sympathetic to all the different needs of the students, but we obviously can’t please everybody.
“With everything we do, there is going to be a certain number of people who will be disenfranchised, I guess, and we’re just trying to make it best for the majority of the students.”
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu