Officials suggest $5 charge for tickets
Despite the wave of student complaints about the numerous, recurring problems with USC’s ticket distribution method, only about 25 students trekked to the Russell House Ballroom Tuesday evening to discuss ways reform the system.
Over 3,500 students responded to a ticketing survey conducted by USC last month. Many of the issues or suggestions they listed were problems with lost loyalty points and the prospects of assigned seating, using the CarolinaCard for stadium access, using the point system for other athletic events besides football and scrapping the use of wristbands or stamps. All of the ideas were hot topics Tuesday.
Student Ticketing Coordinator Adrienne White proposed switching from TicketReturn, the current online student ticket distribution service, to Ticketmaster, the current service USC Athletics and many other ticket sellers use. White also proposed charging students $5 per game for tickets.
“The Ticket Marketplace gives students the opportunity to sell their tickets or transfer their tickets with other students just in case you cannot go,” White said.
It also enables the use of the CarolinaCard.
“You guys mentioned that you want to use the ID card,” White said. “Ticketmaster allows that.”
Lance Grantham, director of ticketing for Athletics, said that his preference would be scanning the CarolinaCard for access to athletic events.
“I think it would be the fairest and most reasonable way to get students in a timely manner,” Grantham said. “If you guys can point out a downside of having the CarolinaCard, please share.”
The point system was also held in debate. One student said it should based on class and credit hours rather than a student‘s attendance record of games.
But second-year biomedical engineering student John Clegg said the nice thing the point system does is it rewards people who are loyal Gamecock fans that come to lots of games and lots of different sports. Currently, 10 percent of a student’s points roll over to the next season.
“If the Gamecocks play in the SEC championship, per se, the fact that I attended 15 basketball games and 15 baseball games last year have some weight rather than someone, a junior or senior, who hasn’t attended a baseball, basketball or football game during their entire time at USC.”
Students disagreed on paying $5 for each game. Some proposed changing how tickets should be distributed.
“You should actually have to get a physical ticket,” said Brenton Chapski, a second-year anthropology student. “I don’t think that printing off something that could be replicated is acceptable.”
Only a few students voiced their opinions in the quiet ballroom. But White wasn’t surprised by the low turnout of students. She said she would be happy if 20 or 25 people come.
“I just figured at five, maybe people would be out of class or on their way home and would stop by,” she said. “This room was set up for 200 people so we got at least an eighth of that. I was pleased with the number of people.”
Students will still have plenty of opportunities to express their views on ticketing next semester. USC officials just wanted to get students’ feedback on some of the “preliminary information,” Student services director Anna Edwards said.
“None of this is set in stone. We’ll go back to the drawing board,” Edwards said.
When students return to school for the spring semester, officials will have other forums in January and February.
“By February we will probably be ready to reach the conclusion and begin rolling out what the next process is going to look like,” Edwards added.