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UW suspends ticket lottery
UW Athletic Communications
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The 2004-05 men's basketball student ticket lottery was suspended Friday afternoon after University of Wisconsin athletic department officials learned that 625 students who submitted electronic applications were not included in the selection process.
A town-hall style meeting, which will allow students and athletic department officials to discuss new developments with the ticketing process, will be held today at 4:30 p.m. in the Kohl Center. Students are to enter at Gate B.
"Students are welcome to attend [the meeting to share] ideas to resolve the situation," associate athletic director Steve Malchow said.
In an e-mail sent Friday afternoon to students who signed up for the lottery, department officials said they only learned about the unrecorded orders after several students inquired.
This marks the second obstacle in a week the basketball ticketing process has faced.
Friday morning, before the ticketing process was suspended, UW Athletics released a statement where athletic officials apologized for a problem in confirmation e-mails, which were to be sent simultaneously to more than 3,000 lottery participants informing them whether or not they received tickets.
The problem was caused by a "campus technology breakdown that stalled a number of confirmation e-mails," the release said. The release did not mention the missed applications.
"From a customer relations standpoint, these problems have created an inconvenience for some of our students … [and] some students … may have lost confidence in the overall lottery system," the release said.
The lottery process was "successfully completed as planned," according to the release.
UW senior Dan Ginsberg, who was supposed to be guaranteed tickets, was one of the students who had his application lost.
Ginsberg said the only sensible solution to the problem is to hold a completely new lottery.
"I can't think of anything else they would do," Ginsberg said. "The problem is there are so many people whose [applications were] lost."
UW junior Adam White received an e-mail Friday that told him he was one of the students picked to receive tickets.
"I think the only fair thing is to redo the lottery," White said, although a new lottery would risk his chances of retaining his tickets.
Ginsberg said he has mixed feelings towards how the athletic department has handled the situation.
"My main complaint is it took them too long to realize they had a problem. I was originally accused of lying — they defected blame from themselves at first," he said, adding that since Friday, however, the department's reaction has been appropriate for the situation.
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I understand that the 625 students feel cheated by the fact that their applications were not submitted into the lottery. I think it needs to be noted, however, that the reason for their absence was a mistake filling out the order form. I wish there was a completely fair way to sort this matter out, however, as a student who received tickets, I do not feel it just to jeopardize my tickets simply because 625 people cannot follow directions.
You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. I was on the site trying to get tickets the day it was supposed to be ready, and it wasn’t ready in time. The system was so messed up that it was not in complete working order until one of the final days of the lottery. That’s not my fault. New lottery.
As a student who recieved tickets I feel that it would be unfair to hold a completely new lottery. I agree that those who were not entered in the lottery should get a chance, but not with a new lottery. Those who were already picked to recieve tickets in the lottery should be put into another lottery with those who were not entered for a chance at tickets. It would not be right though to put all those who already were denied tickets in for another shot.
Move the student section to the first 6 rows around the court and add more seats… problem solved and bigger home court advantage
According to the ticket office, the people who did not get entered in the lottery forgot to change the 0 to a 1 in the quantity section. Although it was an honest mistake, it was their mistake and not one of the ticket office. It sucks, but don’t punish people who did it right.
Why even have an option of signing up for zero tickets? That’s stupid, and shouldn’t have even been on the form. If 625 people did it wrong, then there was a flaw in the form, not the people who filled it out.
First, know that according to the lottery, I am supposed to recieve tickets. 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 what the ticket office wanted. Second, the students 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. There were no directions to follow and the system was confusing.
Just because you like the outcome of the lottery does not mean that it was fair. The only just action is a new lottery. The intentions of the 625 students were clear.
For those of you who are complaining that you didn’t get tickets that you were “guaranteed” and are pointing your fingers everywhere except for at yourself I have a question. If you got tickets for each of the past 3 seasons, how did you mess up this time? From my recollection, every past season you’ve had to change a 0 to a 1 in order to get your tickets, but somehow, 625 of you couldn’t figure that out this year. Everybody messes up. This time it happened to be you. Now you just need to deal with the consequences.
Ashlee Simpson gets caught lip synching on SNL and her first reaction is to blame her band.
Six hundred twenty five individuals incorrectly fill out a form and blame the form for their failure.
Administrators create a form which 15% of it’s applicants fill out incorrectly yet they still recieve a confirmation email notifying them of their entrance into the lottery.
It seems we have a responsibility deficit here in America. Each of these parties werre responsible in some ways for the situation they find themselves in now, but no matter what happens to your ticket, thank God Joe Simpson is not your father.