To quote those awful movietickets.com commercials, “To buy a ticket, just click it.” Unfortunately, this practice didn’t work very well for the Ohio State athletics ticketing office.
In a move that shows the inepitude of the office, tickets for the first two home football games were emailed to students. Most did not have the option of simply walking to the ticket office at the Schottenstein Center and picking up their printed tickets; they were forced to rely on their own technology.
This came as a major dilemma for students without reliable access to a printer. Some were forced to email their tickets to other students and run the risk of having them copied.
But it turns out that this risk was not a very important one, however. Many students that we have talked to have had different experiences getting into the games, which is in itself an indictment of the ticketing policies for the first two games.
Students were told that for admittance they must possess an active BuckID and present it when showing their ticket. Both would be scanned and the student would be allowed into the game.
In theory, this is a sound procedure. It should prevent touts from copying tickets and reselling them for profit and ensure that only students use student tickets.
Of course, this only works when the procedure is followed and the tickets are actually scanned. And for many students at these games, this was not the case. Many passed through the gates of the stadium by simply waving their ticket at the scanners.
Why were these new security measures implemented and then promptly ignored? The fuss created over the new regulations was so great that news outlets across the state were picking up on the story and warning people about non-students trying to get into games with student tickets. But when it actually came down to game time, all these new measures were promptly thrown out the window. Students could have copied their ticket 80 times and allowed 80 people to get into the game at some of the entrances.
Students were not given the option of sitting in the seating groups they had arranged for the regular season games. Instead, students were allowed to purchase two tickets with their name on them. Those tickets could only be used by other students. In some cases students were denied access because the name on their BuckID did not match the name on the ticket.
What has been so wrong with the ticketing systems in the past that so many things had to be changed?
The ticketing office has a system that has severe flaws that must be dealt with before next season. If they are concerned with students selling their extra tickets, don’t give them the option of buying two. If all tickets are going to be scanned when presented at the game, enforce it. Ohio State students take their football tickets seriously.
