Graduating chemistry Ph.D. students were among the many who were disappointed when they didn’t win the ticket lottery.

Due to a technical glitch with the online ticket lottery notification system, all students who entered the lottery, including those who won tickets, received an email saying they would not receive tickets, said Caitlin Goforth, president of the Carolina Athletic Association.

The UNC Ticket Office accidentally charged more than 70 students to enter the ticket lottery for the Nov. 30 basketball game against the University of Wisconsin.

In an effort to increase student attendance at men’s basketball games, the Carolina Athletic Association and the UNC Ticket Office released a set of changes to the policy in an email to students Friday.

The days of signing up for an entire month’s worth of basketball tickets are over.
Instead of signing up during the last 10 days of a month for the following month’s games, students will sign up for each game individually next year under the new ticket policy. Students will have a 72-hour window, beginning 10 days before each game, to sign up. “I think it will put more responsibility on the students to register during that 72 hours,” said Caitlin Goforth, president of the Carolina Athletic Association.

By the time incoming freshmen step foot on campus for orientation, any changes to the basketball ticket policy should be set in stone. But students hoping for big changes to the ticket policy are likely to be disappointed. Caitlin Goforth, president of the Carolina Athletic Association, said her objective is to set up next year’s policy early so that the CAA can better communicate with students “My goal is to get this policy fast tracked so that we have it done by C-TOPS,” Goforth said.

Looking to address chronically low student turnout at home basketball games, members of the faculty athletics committee raised the possibility Tuesday of a merit and punishment system for next year.

Citing chronically low student attendance, the athletic department has reduced the number of student tickets by 34 percent from last year. Though rate of attendance has been low for decades, athletic department officials said they decided to reduce the amount of student tickets after particularly poor attendance last year. The office distributes an average of 2,798 tickets per game this year.

This year, only one candidate for the Carolina Athletic Association presidency, Caitlin Goforth, has entered the race. Without opposition, she said she is without a firm idea of what next year’s ticket policy might be.

This season, UNC basketball fans will have a new way to buy and sell tickets. StubHub, the world’s largest ticket marketplace, announced its partnership with UNC on Monday. Basketball fans interested in buying and selling tickets can access UNC’s ticket office’s website, which will connect them to StubHub.

The 2010-11 men’s basketball ticket policy comes as a welcome change from last year’s unpopular one-ticket distribution. The Carolina Athletic Association conducted an online survey to see what policy was most popular with the student body. This process was the right decision by the CAA. An election was also a campaign promise by CAA President Brandon Finch that he laudably delivered on.

Two tickets per person and fewer phases are all part of this year’s new basketball ticket policy. Results from an online survey conducted last month by the Carolina Athletic Association indicated that the two-ticket-per-student general admission policy has student support. It won by 1,140 votes.

Within 24 hours, more than 2,000 students have voiced their opinions on the future of the student ticketing policy for men’s basketball games. On Monday, the Carolina Athletic Association launched an online survey to gauge the student body’s opinion.

Other ways to get tickets

“Turn it Back” policy:

Students who decide not to go to a game can return their tickets to the CAA by e-mailing them to ReturnUNCTickets@gmail.com.

Students will now receive only one basketball ticket through the ticket lottery system instead of two, a change announced by the Carolina Athletic Association on Thursday.

The change will go into effect for the 2009-10 men’s basketball season. All other aspects of the ticket distribution policy will remain the same.

The new student ticket distribution policy was rolled out Friday, with changes including general admission for students and phased-in entrance times for men's basketball games.

Student Congress passed a resolution Tuesday night condemning the new online ticket policy, specifically criticizing a lack of student input regarding the policy change.

Football games against ACC rivals N.C. State and Virginia Tech will provide a trial run for UNC's Web-based student-ticket system, campus officials said this week.

Student Congress voted to limit the number of men’s basketball ticket allotted to the Carolina Athletic Association during its meeting Tuesday night.

Athletic association members only will have 86 tickets reserved per home game next year, compared to 138 reserved seats last season and the 90 the group was aiming to obtain for the coming season.

When next year’s basketball season rolls around, students could be printing tickets to the big game from their laptops.

And while their ability to get tickets still might hinge on a lottery, they could forget about baby-blue bracelets or getting Krispy Kreme doughnuts before daybreak on a frosty Saturday morning.