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.
Other students can pick up these tickets by going to the Student Union information desk the day before any ticketed home basketball game at 5:15 p.m. Tickets will be distributed on a first come, first served basis.
Standby line:
Students not selected to receive a ticket in the lottery can line up outside Koury Natatorium 90 minutes before tip-off to fill empty seats.
Students will be given a bracelet on a first come, first served basis.
Students with bracelets can line up 30 minutes before tip-off by their numbers.
Freshman Rachel LaBianca was not planning on going to any basketball games this year when she found out about the new ticket distribution policy.
“I figured it would just be stressful, and I don’t really have time to figure out who has the same tickets as everyone else,” she said.
A change in the ticket policy that gives each student one ticket instead of two has not yet proven to fill more seats — numbers are roughly the same as in past years.
But Carolina Athletic Association officials have said that is because students are not aware of the resources available.
And because the standby line and “Turn it Back” program to return unused tickets haven’t been widely used, students have resorted to their own methods for obtaining tickets.
CAA President John Russell said students should be able to sit with their friends using the resources available to them, but they have to take advantage of them.
“People have told me that I’m ruining their college experience with the new policy,” he said. “But I feel like people are using the ticket policy as a crutch.”
Under the new policy, students have a greater chance of winning a ticket through the lottery.
“The goal is to fill the stadium, not to prevent students from going to the game,” said Associate Athletic Director Clint Gwaltney.
Students have blamed the ticket policy for the poor attendance at Sunday’s game versus Valparaiso — where only 24 percent of student tickets were used — but Russell said that claim is unfair. He attributed it to a variety of factors, including the game’s time and a problem with campus printing services.
“If the old policy was working, we would’ve kept it. But it wasn’t. There were a huge amount of tickets unused,” he said.
The CAA developed a program in which students could turn in tickets they weren’t going to use during football season and is carrying the program over into basketball season.
Russell said about 400 students turned in tickets through the Turn it Back program to redistribute for the Sunday’s game, but only about 20 students claimed tickets.
Students have also formed Facebook groups as a simpler method of locating unused tickets.
Sophomore Kyle Olson started a group so people could find friends to sit with who also received tickets. It has now turned into a ticket exchange group with more than 2,400 members.
“I think that a lot of the Carolina spirit is engendered by an atmosphere of having friends with you, rather than sitting with strangers,” said sophomore Ryan Bolick.
LaBianca said Facebook groups have changed her gloomy outlook on the new policy.
She won the lottery for Sunday’s game against Valparaiso but knew she couldn’t attend. She posted an offer for her ticket on Facebook in exchange for a ticket to the N.C. Central game and received an offer for a phase 1 ticket within two hours.
“Now I know it will really work out, and it is really not that difficult,” she said.
But Olson said he thinks this early success might just be because the early games are less popular.
“The first real test will be when we start playing ACC teams in January,” he said.
Russell said there are no plans to alter the policy, but they would not be able to accurately evaluate it until at least eight games into the season anyway.
Student attendance has always been a problem, Gwaltney said — even during last year’s national championship season.
“Only 85 percent of tickets were used during last year’s match against Kentucky. That means out of the 10,000 people who signed up for tickets, almost 900 student seats were unused,” he said.
Out of the past 34 games, students who stood in the standby line have only been turned away twice, Russell said — last season’s games against Duke and Evansville, when Tyler Hansbrough broke Phil Ford’s scoring record.
“Anyone can go to the majority of games if they take full advantage of Turn It Back and the standby line,” Russell said. “But we’re putting it on the students to get their tickets. All they have to do is put forth the initiative and show up.”
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