Ticketing official apologizes to students for Kentucky game

Despite hundreds of students being turned away from Saturday’s Kentucky game, the UNC Ticket Office decided to randomize the ticket distribution without a lottery because officials didn’t think enough students would show up.

Assistant Director of Ticket Operations Tim Sabo said the tickets were randomly distributed to prevent students from camping out the night before.

“The randomization kind of prevents that from happening because there’s no reason to get there super early,” he said.

“Obviously on Saturday the randomization process did not go very well. Looking back, that wasn’t executed very well.”

Since Saturday’s game, many have taken to Twitter and Facebook to voice their displeasure with the UNC Ticket Office. Sabo said he has received about 15 complaints from students.

Freshman Keegan McBride said he arrived at the Dean Smith Center at 2:20 p.m. with his friends. He said the back of the line was sent home by security officers a few hours later and the rest of the students were given wristbands.

He said when he was less than 50 feet from Entrance C, he was told by an officer that no more student tickets would be given out.

McBride said at this point the crowd began to riot out of frustration.

“You don’t make everyone stand out there in the rain for two and a half hours,” he said. “It just seemed like there was a lack of organization and a lack of concern for everyone out there.”

McBride said he hopes the ticket office now understands the popularity of UNC-UK rivalry.

“In the future, if they know that Carolina and Kentucky are playing the day after exams end… you’re going to have thousands of students that want to go,” he said.

In addition, many out-of-state students stayed in Chapel Hill a few extra days with the hope of attending the game.

Sophomore Corey Breaux elected to extend his housing contract by two days and drive to his home in Florida instead of fly.

He said he arrived 45 minutes before tickets were supposed to be randomized and was promptly turned away by security officers, who suggested he purchase a ticket.

“Even though I was turned away, I was still out long enough to be soaked by the rain, and ended up watching the game elsewhere,” he said.

Breaux said the policy did not take into account the diversity of student needs.

“I understand that there are only so many tickets, but I feel it is unacceptable to leave that much uncertainty, especially since a lot of students are not from the Triangle area and have to make significant travel plans in order to attend games like this,” he said.

Sabo said the decision to randomize was made after looking at data that showed low attendance during games scheduled over winter break. In addition, the upper bowl was not allocated for student seating.

“If students are out of town we don’t hold as many tickets, because we need to maximize attendance,” he said.“It’s an inexact science.”

North Carolina and Kentucky have met 14 times since 2000, seven of which were in the Dean Smith Center. Saturday’s game was the first time during that period that the two have played in Chapel Hill over winter break.

A lottery system was used when UNC hosted Kentucky in December 2010, and Sabo said many ticket winners did not show up.

“The Kentucky crowd wasn’t great last time — and it was during school,” Sabo said. “So we were kind of on the fence and we decided not to do it.”

Carolina Athletic Association President Allison Hill said the group was notified as soon as the ticket office made its decision.

“When we discussed this earlier in the semester we thought everything was going to be fine.” she said.

Sabo said the ticket office meets with the Carolina Athletic Association prior to the beginning of each basketball season in order to determine which games will be popular enough to require a lottery.

“We know that Kentucky’s a big game. We also take into account what a lottery means,” he said.

Hill, who is also an intern in the athletic department, said she thought the communication about ticket randomization was better this time than it was at last year’s game against Florida State.

“We decided that with line randomization, that we were going to communicate it better if we were going to do it,” she said. CAA notified students of the randomization on Dec. 9.

Hill also said she did not think being an intern in the office prevented her from communicating students’ concerns.

Andrew Tugman, ticketing chairman for the CAA, said a lottery system would have been more organized.

“CAA’s voice was not heard and that also means students’ voices weren’t heard, and that’s something that will be changed in the immediate future,” Tugman said.

Sabo said students who were turned away will not be compensated.

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to do anything there. There’s always situations where students have the potential to be turned away,” he said.

Sabo said the ticket office will work more closely with CAA in the future to determine which games are the most popular and will require a lottery. In an email to student Alex Gottschalk, who emailed Sabo about his concerns with the ticketing process, Sabo apologized.

“On behalf of the athletic department, I apologize that you were not able to attend the Kentucky game, and if you like, I am happy to discuss it with you individually,” he said.

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