As the new associate athletics director for External Affairs, Bill Jones contends that his office is not planning any major changes. But Jones, in charge of overseeing the ticket office and maintaining IMG contracts and merchandise, said he is working on making football ticket sales a lot smoother for the next school year.
“We had a lot of complaints from what happened last year when football tickets went on sale,” Jones said. “We just want to make it better for all who purchase tickets.”

In April, students were frustrated and confused as they tried to purchase tickets through Ticketmaster, only to find that the system was crashing.
There were complaints about Ticketmaster in general, Jones said, but he wants students to know that the OSU ticketing office has used third-party vendors for more than 30 years. He said that Ticketmaster really is effective.
“When tickets go on sale for concert events, 50,000 people can purchase tickets at the same time, and the system never crashes,” he said.
Jones also said that 10 a.m. proved to be an inconvenient time for many. He said students complained that they were either in class, at work, or trying to sleep, and he hopes that this year they can find a better time.
Jones said he has met with staff and student groups in order to find the perfect time for sales, but would not reveal the current ideas.
“We are still in the process of figuring everything out,” he said.
He did, however, mention that tickets might be sold to students alphabetically or by class rank.

Rumors were also circulating that tickets might be more expensive than past years. Jones said this rumor has no merit.
“I have no idea where this is coming from, but as of now, we have definitely not discussed increasing any prices for tickets,” Jones said. “I’m not saying that it’s not a possibility, but we have not talked about it for now.”
Jones also said there was no error on the part of Ticketmaster or OSU when some medical students were unable to purchase tickets in April.
“That was because of the Med Center server,” Jones said. “They have something like high-tech spam blockers, and it was actually the OSU IT department that sent out e-mails to everyone, not my office.”
Although the time and date have not yet been revealed, Jones said the sales will be easier this time around.
“We evaluate our process every year, so hopefully we come up with an effective system.”