Student section season passes to be passed out in lottery
The massive overhaul of USC’s athletic ticketing system will officially commence today, starting with ticket requests for this weekend’s spring football game.
At a 10 a.m. Russell House Ballroom press conference, Student Body President Kenny Tracy will outline the following changes to the football ticketing process:
— Season passes will be doled out in a lottery and transferred onto students’ CarolinaCards before the fall semester.
— If they are unable to attend a game, students may drop their tickets onto a “donation page” for others without passes to request in a weekly lottery similar to the old system.
— Those who have tickets but don’t attend a game will lose privileges for the rest of the season, as they did last year.
— Citing a lack of flexibility and efficiency, Student Life has decided to switch its student ticketing system from TicketReturn to Ticketmaster, once the university’s contract with the former ends June 30.
After the conference, an email will be sent to all students who are eligible to enter the lottery for a season pass account. The email will include step-by-step instructions of how to request and upload tickets onto students' CarolinaCards. Registration for the lottery for 2012 season passes will be open from April 16 until July 10th to allow incoming freshman to enter once they have registered for classes at orientation.
Students are encouraged to attend the Garnet & Black spring game Saturday, where they will receive two loyalty points and have an opportunity to use the new system. Instructions for the game and account information will be included in the email to students today.
The overhaul has been in the making since September, when several frustrated students voiced complaints to the ticketing office about the shortage of wristbands that resulted from other students forging tickets and sneaking non-students into the student section. Student Ticketing Coordinator Adrienne White said students losing their printed tickets and problems operating separate scanners were also major issues.
Decisions and input for the overhaul were discussed at a series of three sparsely-attended forums hosted by the Office of Student Ticketing in February. White and Student Government representatives tried to predict the impact of the impending changes, such as issues with transferring tickets onto CarolinaCards and equity of the season pass request system.
“This is very much a collaborative effort within Student Life,” White said. “So far, everyone I’ve talked to is on board and most students are hyped about having tickets on the CarolinaCard. I haven’t gotten any negative reactions yet.”
White will spend this afternoon on the Russell House Patio to answer students’ questions and help market the new system from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“It’s a big change, so we’re trying to do a triple whammy with the forum, the email and the Greene Street fair to get all the information out to students,” White said.
Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Jerry Brewer hopes that students are paying enough attention to give their input.
“If there are any comments on it, now’s the time to do it,” Brewer said. “It will also require integrity from the students. We can have whatever system we want, but it will only if students want it to work.”