2,000 extra upper deck seats available Thursday
Almost 13,300 students requested tickets to the first home game against Navy this Saturday, meaning more than a thousand likely won't get into Williams-Brice Stadium without paying.
Out of undergraduates, freshmen and repeat freshmen received the smallest portion of the 9,100 tickets awarded today, even though they requested the most.
Freshmen and repeat freshmen receive three loyalty points for the student lottery at the beginning of the year, and points increase students' chances for receiving tickets. According to numbers provided by Student Ticketing, 5,701 students with three points requested tickets and only 1,850 — or 32.45 percent — were awarded them.
Five disgruntled parents had called Student Ticketing Coordinator Adrienne White by 9:40 a.m. Tuesday, and two more called during an interview with The Daily Gamecock that morning. White said only one more parent had called by 5 p.m. that day.
"The parents' main concerns are that their students called them and said none of the freshmen got tickets, and I think [the freshmen] based that off asking everyone on their hallway, and if none of them got tickets they assume that none of the freshmen got tickets," White said.
White said Carolina's undefeated record and victory over Georgia had fostered high demand and that she had expected more students to request tickets.
There are 11,188 student seats available for home games, 9,100 in the lower deck and 2,088 in the upper deck. There are 10,000 seats in the lower deck, but around 800 are reserved for band members, student athletes and student ambassadors. White said 10,000 tickets had been awarded to students on Tuesday, but corrected the number Wednesday morning.
During the online ticket request period, which began Sunday at midnight and ended Monday at 11:59 p.m., Student Ticketing awarded 9,100 tickets to students to fill the lower deck based on ticket lottery points. The 9,100 winners will have until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday to claim or cancel their tickets.
As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, 6,101 of the 9,100 winners have claimed their tickets and 64 have canceled them.
The 4,178 students who weren't awarded tickets, along with those who did get tickets but forgot to claim them, will have a shot at the 2,088 seats in the upper deck and unclaimed lower deck seats during the on-demand period beginning at midnight Thursday.
Unlike the ticket request period, on-demand tickets will be distributed first come, first served rather than by lottery points.
If students still don't receive tickets then, they can purchase regular tickets at gamecocksonline.com for $40. As of Tuesday there are 6,700 tickets remaining, according to Athletics Spokesman Steve Fink.
The numbers provided by Student Ticketing convey that even one loyalty point can drastically increase a student's chance of getting a ticket.
Freshmen receive three loyalty points at the beginning of each year, sophomores get four, juniors and grad students get six and seniors get eight. While students with three points — freshmen and repeat freshmen—were awarded 1,850 tickets, students with four points, or most sophomores, were awarded 2,510 tickets. Students with six points, or mainly juniors and grad students, were awarded 2,631 tickets, and students with eight points, or primarily seniors, were awarded 1412 tickets.
All students with seven points or more who requested tickets were awarded them.
Students can accrue extra points as the semester progresses by attending games and special events. The extra point awarded for attending the Student Government Georgia tailgate will be added next week.
White urged students to show up an hour early to games to receive an extra point and to increase their chances for the next game.