Eight hundred students were shocked Monday when they received standing-room-only passes for this Saturday’s season opener against Michigan. University of Alabama Athletics sold 1,600 student tickets to Saturday’s Michigan game, but only the first 800 students to pick up the tickets will have seats in Dallas’ Cowboys Stadium.
Doug Walker, associate athletics director for media relations, was unable to comment at press time as to when UA became aware they had oversold physical seats, but he said UA was allotted 25,800 tickets to distribute. Student tickets make up 6.1 percent of that total.
Though students were informed of the situation in an email Friday, some said it was vague or confusing.
Gracie Renfroe, a senior majoring in communicative disorders, said she read the email Friday. Her roommate had work at 8 a.m., so they couldn’t arrive on time, but she didn’t understand at the time that it would cost her a ticket.
“The email the athletics department sent out recently about ticket sales was very vague,” Renfroe said. “I 100 percent think that they should have re-allocated tickets according to seniority. I think when they saw that the number of tickets available didn’t equal the number they had originally distributed, they should have made an hour cutoff for physical seat tickets just like every other game and given everyone that fell below that hour cutoff standing-room-only tickets.”
Renfroe, who was planning to attend the game with her father and friends, is now searching for someone to take over their hotel reservations rather than lose hundreds of dollars.
Jake Powell, a senior majoring in political science, and his friends just missed the cutoff to get a seat. He purchased a ticket to the game back in May and assumed that he would be able to walk up and collect it.
“They told us that there are no more tickets for you guys. We only have standing-room-only, spirit passes if you like,” Powell said.
Powell’s situation was not rare, as he was near the middle of the line. After all the seats were sold out, the next 800 in line were given the option to be in the standing-room-only section.
Miles Hutcherson, a senior majoring in computer science, could not attend the 2009 or 2011 national championship games per credit hour limits set by UA.
He thought that he would be able to go to Dallas because of his class standing.
“Once the ticket office found out only 800 people would get physical seats, why not divide up the hours again?” Hutcherson wrote in an emailed statement. “Everyone above 80 hours gets seats, the rest get standing room; this is not rocket science,”
Hutcherson also wrote that he hoped that in future ticket sales, the University and the SGA work out a better plan that is more fair to older students who have spent more time on campus.
“I also hope you find a way to compensate the students who waited multiple hours in line, only to be cut off, with more than a $15 bill credit to their student account, especially considering you promised them a seat, which they won’t get,” Hutcherson wrote.
Seth Nelson, a business graduate student, said the process of picking up tickets at 8 a.m. on a Monday was unfair to students with class at that time.
“The vaguely-worded email, if understood the way they meant it to be, encouraged students to skip class 4 days [into the school year],” Nelson said.
Nelson also said that he felt bad for the students who worked at the ticketing office Monday morning, as they had to explain the situation to students rather than athletic department officials.
Despite the frustration, Walker said Monday’s process was no different than for other away games in recent years.
“Students received an email that told them whether they were in the ticket pool for away game tickets,” Walker said. “The number of students who received away game tickets has always depended on how many tickets we received for the game, and how many students indicated they wanted tickets.”
Walker explained that it has always been a first-come, first-serve distribution process in the week prior to each road game.
“Specifically for the Michigan game, we sent an email to students on Friday with the details of the distribution process, including how many $50 tickets were available and why, and the alternative option – the $35 spirit pass tickets, which the athletics department negotiated with Cowboys representatives so more students could attend,” Walker said. “Students that received spirit pass tickets will receive a refund reflecting the difference in price.”
