NEWS
New ticket lottery off to bumpy start
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Also by Chris Werner:
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- Whitewater mourns over student's death (September 22, 2004)
- The changing face of UW System leadership (September 1, 2004)
- Crossing the line (April 29, 2004)
- La Crosse student died of alcohol, drowning (April 30, 2004)
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by Chris Werner
Friday, October 22, 2004
Dan Ginsburg is a die-hard fan of the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team.
He’s traveled to away games. He hasn’t missed a home game in the last four seasons. And he’s even camped out for more than five weeks to grab the best seats in the Kohl Center.
But the days of sitting in the front rows at the Badger basketball games could be over for the UW senior.
Ginsburg was one of many UW students affected Thursday by complications in a newly-launched lottery ticket system.
According to Steve Malchow, associate athletic director of the UW Athletic Department, the university sent out a mass e-mail Thursday to alert students whether they received tickets for the upcoming season. The e-mail also included information regarding when students could begin waiting in line, which was 9 a.m. Thursday.
But not all who were supposed to receive the notification did, Ginsburg said. Some students got the e-mail earlier than others, while some were not notified at all.
When Ginsburg had not heard from the department late Thursday, he contacted the ticket office. Much to his surprise, the office claimed they had no records to confirm he ordered tickets.
“It’s frustrating just because I’ve been a fan from the beginning,” Ginsburg said. “I’ve followed this team from the day I got here.”
The Athletic Department did not give students advance notice of whether they had won tickets through the lottery process, according to Ginsburg.
UW senior Amy Tully also did not receive a confirmatory e-mail from the Athletic Department Thursday.
She contacted the ticket office about her ticket status, an inquiry that was greeted with a “not-so-friendly” response, she said. The e-mail confirmed that she had tickets, but offered no additional information.
Both Ginsburg and Tully said they heard from multiple people Thursday who experienced similar complications.
They said they were disappointed they will not get the front-row seats they’ve held in the past as a result of the mix-up.
“There’s a line growing [outside the Kohl Center] … and a very unknown number of people who don’t know this is going on,” Tully said.
She said it’s unfair those unaffected by the glitch were the first in line, and thus will receive the best seats.
Malchow said Thursday night he was not aware of the complications, but said that “3,000 e-mails cannot go out at the same time.”
The number of ticket requests exceeded the total available spots, he added.
Malchow could not offer any information about how the Athletic Department will handle the situation.
Anonymous (October 22, 2004 @ 6:29am):
In their quest to end "unfair advantages" by implementing the lottery and rules for waiting in line the athletic department has now given an different unfair advantage to those who happened to get the e-mail. It's almost 24 hours now since the alledged e-mails went out and nobody in my group has heard a thing meanwhile there are already people waiting in line. If our orders got "lost" also the ATO better be prepared to make ammends. This is completely unacceptable and no way to run a business. It's just horrible that this guy who has gone to such lengths to support the team might not even get in now. How many others are in that same boat?
Anonymous (October 22, 2004 @ 8:43am):
The lottery, successful or not is not an answer to the problem. The real answer is to give students access to more tickets. Right now students only get 20% of available allocated tickets. Don't forget the band takes up seats in the front rows of the student section. This takes away for the number of available allocated tickets. A winning team relies on their fans to provide support. At schools like Illinois students sit around the front of the entire court. At Wisconsin students are relegated all the way up to the nose bleed seats. Students need to tell the Athletic Department that they are important to Badger Basketball success. Clearly since more students want to be a part of that success they should get the opportunity.
Anonymous (October 22, 2004 @ 9:34am):
I think the band should be made up with fewer people. You don't need all those people plus former band members who get to come. A pep band is just that you don't need 50 people for the pep band.
Anonymous (October 22, 2004 @ 9:35am):
True, but the Atheltic Dept. is much more concerned with pleasing the people who give large donations. If they thought they could get away with it they would lower the number of tickets sold to students because then they could charge more. It's inexcusable that they shoved students into level 3 of the Kohl Center.
Anonymous (October 22, 2004 @ 9:39am):
The band would be just as effective playing in level 2. They don't need to be right up front. For many games their seats are half empty and then for the most important conference games they are full. Meanwhile other students who would love to be there are kept out.
Last season the band played the same few songs over and over and over. How about some variety??? They have all kinds of songs at Hockey games. What's up with that?
Anonymous (October 22, 2004 @ 10:22am):
Are you all kidding me? Life isn't fair, get over it. Just because you wait days or weeks in line for tickets doesn't mean you are the greatest Badger fan alive. It just means you're a Poly Sci major and can miss classes. Maybe tickets should be given out based on GPA and degree. Then, those of us majoring in engineering could get the front row tickets and still get to class.
And, by the way, the band is awesome. For all the work and practice they put in to support the UW, I think a few seats in the front row is just fine.
What a bunch of whinners!!!
Anonymous (October 22, 2004 @ 10:29am):
I think a certain engineering student is the real whiner here.
Nick Rieder (October 22, 2004 @ 11:00am):
The ticket process this year was a nightmare from the beginning. I can understand the frustration that many people have regarding how basketball tickets were distributed. I, like Dan Ginsburg, have been in the front of the student section for the past few years. If I remember correctly we waited 7 days as the first group my freshmen year (2001), 11 days in 2002, and 35 days last year. BASKETBALL TURN IN HAD GOTTEN OUT OF HAND. I applaud the actions that were taken of limiting each group to four tickets! Unfortunately The athletic departments secrecy on who had received tickets (late lottery date) and when the turn in date is, is completely unfair. My group is the FIRST group in line again this year. I still have not received an email. The only reason that we were able to get out there first is because my group made schedules out for when people were going to sit, had extra people to add if one of us four didn't get tickets, and checked almost daily at the Kohl Center to see if we could register to start waiting. A small article in Thursday's, Wisconsin State Journal, had tipped us off that we would receive notification yesterday by email. As I stated earlier, I'm still waiting for that email.
With regards to who received tickets and who did not - When I went to register my group I checked I.D's for a few of my other friends to see if they had received tickets. As of Thursday the Kohl Center had records printed on who had received tickts. Out of the 11 ID's I checked, 7 of us received tickets. The 4 who did NOT get tickets were all 4th or 5th year seniors. Yet, all 3 underclassmen received them. After talking to numerous people out in line the past 24 hours, this seems to be a common theme.
A suggestion to the Wisconsin Atheletic Department - Add more student tickets to the Kohl Center! You might lose some revenue, but the home court advantage that more students tickets would make, more than makes up for it.
~Senior Nick Rieder
Anonymous (October 22, 2004 @ 11:03am):
Hey I'm the political science major here!
Anonymous (October 22, 2004 @ 12:26pm):
Here is what I got:
10/22/2004 9:16:43 AM >>>
I have not received an email stating one way or the other if I have
tickets. If you could provide me with this information it would be
greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Matt
UW tickets
Matt,
I looked into your account, and saw that you had not even registered
for the men's basketball lottery. Therefore, you were not eligible to
receive tickets.
Thanks and GO BADGERS!
UW Ticket Office
"
Pretty sure I did buddy
Anonymous (October 22, 2004 @ 1:01pm):
IMPORTANT - If you registered for tickets and haven't received the e-mail, either check at the Kohl Center or contact them right away to make sure they even received your registration. Today, they said they'd been contact by at least 20 people whose registrations they had LOST. Make sure you have the e-mail confirmation and/or confirmation page that you got when you registered in late September so that you can prove that you registered!
Anonymous (October 22, 2004 @ 1:57pm):
Are they going to do anything for the people who's tickets orders they lost?
Anonymous (October 22, 2004 @ 4:34pm):
New news from the UW Badgers Website:
MADISON, Wis. - University of Wisconsin Division of Intercollegiate Athletics has suspended its 2004-05 men's basketball student ticket process.
Athletic Department officials learned late Friday afternoon that 625 electronic applications submitted by UW-Madison students were not recorded by the computer ticketing system. Department officials only learned of those unrecorded accounts when several students inquired about their orders.
Officials will meet this weekend to further review the situation. The Athletic Department will hold a news conference Monday (Oct. 25) afternoon (time and site to be announced) to share their plans for the student ticketing process.
The Department will not have additional comment until it completes its review.
Wisconsin Athletic Communications Steve Malchow
10/22/2004 4:06:42 PM
Anonymous (October 22, 2004 @ 11:26pm):
The registration was lost? Kind of... The people who filled out the forms for tickets filled them out wrong. Out of 3800 people who registered and were confirmed for tickets, 625 of them did not change the quanity from "0" to "1" !!! So you were confirmed to buy ZERO tickets... and weren't put in the lottery. Sounds like a mistake on the individual students parts... and only a small mistake by the UW Ticket office.
Anonymous (October 23, 2004 @ 9:45am):
Even if it was a mistake on the students part, it was a bad system. First, the form wasn't for purchasing "1" set of season tickets, it was to enter in the lottery. It was unclear. Second, they recieved a confirmation of their request to be in the lottery. The system failed again. If they had recieved no confirmation for the lottery (seeing that they weren't put in), they would have followed up to find out what happened. If it happened to 15% of the applicants, it was a bad system.
