Many changes have been introduced to Ohio State this year because of the switch to semesters, however, football ticketing won’t follow the trend.
Brett Scarbrough, OSU’s ticket director, said the earliest time for students to order their football tickets will remain June 3 and, as has been the case in previous years, will be done by student ranking.
“Our plan is to leave the ordering date that we have used over the past couple years because the students are used to that time frame and we have had adjustments for three to four years, so we want a period of not changing anything,” Scarbrough said. “We want students to get comfortable with the dates already set in place.”
The OSU Athletic Department will be communicating the specific date and time for ordering “somewhere between late April and early May,” he said.
Scarbrough said “basically the biggest semester change was in how the packages would be offered, which already took place last year.”
There are two packages offered; the Big Ten package, which offers only tickets to home games against Big Ten opponents, or a package for tickets to every home game. With the semester switch, OSU students are in class during all of the games.
Facing rising operating costs of athletic facilities on campus, the OSU Board of Trustees voted earlier this semester to increase the price of student tickets by $2 to $34 per game and the public football price by $9 per game. The Board can opt to “designate up to two home football games as ‘premier games’ pricing tickets between $79 and a maximum of $125 and $150 per game for the public, or a maximum $175 for a single game.
For the 2013 football season, athletic director Gene Smith said the Sept. 28 contest against Wisconsin will be the only Premier Game, and will be priced at $110 for the public.
Smith said OSU decided on only one Premier Game next season, at a price lower than the maximum, in order to ease into the new pricing model.
Student package prices for the 2013 football season were not available Monday, however for the 2012 season, the package consisting of tickets for all eight home games cost $272. Students who bought tickets in Block “O” paid $292 for the full-season package. The Big Ten package, cost $136 for regular student seating, and seats in Block “O” cost $156 for the season.
Jake Bradley, the elect-director of Block “O” football operations and a third-year in public affairs and geography, said he is happy about die-hard Buckeye fans being able to go to every game.
“I very much like it. I think it offers students great options,” he said.
The Block “O” president Stephanie Poeppelman, a second-year in accounting, said getting the stadium excited is mostly based on the presence of Block “O” North.
Block “O” North and South are present during the Big Ten games whereas only Block “O” South is present for non-Big Ten games.
“Block ‘O’ South has to be that much more excited,” when Block “O” North is not present, Poeppelman said. “But we will still be able to get all the students excited because at least one of our sections will be at every game.”
OSU is scheduled to start the season at home Aug. 31 against the Buffalo Bulls in Columbus. The start time has not been announced.