Record number of unclaimed student tickets opens up flood in on-demand phase
USC officials will make an additional 2,000 upper-deck tickets available for any student who requested a seat but didn’t get one during the request period.
Those tickets can be picked up with a CarolinaCard at 4 p.m. outside Gate 18 of Williams-Brice Stadium. The tickets are first-come, first-served.
All told, USC has now offered more than 13,000 tickets for Saturday’s season opener. News of the additional 2,000 tickets came Thursday afternoon after a crush of students toppled USC’s student ticketing system Thursday around midnight, leaving the thousands who didn’t initially receive tickets frustrated during the beginning hours of the on-demand phase.
For those who eventually fought through server issues early Thursday, there was a reward. Almost 3,000 students — or more than 25 percent of those who were granted tickets for Saturday’s game — chose to not claim their tickets or forgot to do so. That allowed about 3,000 students who initially didn’t receive a ticket to snap one up by Thursday morning.
According to Anna Edwards, director of Student Services at USC, the 2,972 tickets that went unclaimed set record number in the 4-year history of the online ticketing system. For bigger games like Georgia and Alabama, unclaimed tickets are typically under 1,000.
More than 11,000 students were awarded tickets after a lottery drawing Monday night. But those students then had to sign on to USC’s ticketing site and claim their tickets. Tickets that went unclaimed were up for grabs again Thursday at midnight, instigating the onslaught of requests.
“I don’t know how we can be more clear on the two-day claim period,” Edwards said. “Any opportunity we’ve had to talk to students, we’ve taken.”
Edwards said USC might consider additional emails or a YouTube video to remind students to claim tickets. She said new students were told about the ticket system during orientation, Welcome Week, University 101 and articles in The Daily Gamecock.
“I don’t know if students think if they get that email, that guarantees their ticket,” Edwards said. “Maybe some don’t know they actually have to go in and claim their ticket.”
Edwards said students who haven’t received tickets should continuously check the TicketReturn website. Students who cancel tickets could make others available.