Several students expressed outrage Wednesday after learning season ticket packages for home football games had sold out, saying the University of Wisconsin never notified them about the sale.

After going on sale Saturday morning, all 10,500 of the student season ticket packages sold out by Tuesday afternoon.

However, dozens of students told The Badger Herald they never received an e-mail from the UW Athletic Department notifying them that the tickets went on sale.

UW senior Joe Olson, who is returning for another year at UW, said he was outraged when the tickets were gone before he knew they were even on sale.

"I've talked to a number of people, including the director at the athletic ticket office," Olson said. "Their answer is if you didn't remember or didn't read the sidewalk chalk, it is your fault and basically called me ignorant."

UW junior Julie Foote said neither she nor any of her roommates received the notification e-mail sent out by the Athletic Department April 18.

"I called them, and they said it might be in my junk folder, but there's nothing there," Foote said. "I wasn't exposed to any of their other advertising, so I rely on the e-mail."

Athletic Department officials said they were unable to confirm if there were any breakdowns in its e-mail system.

Justin Doherty, director of Athletic Communications, said the ticket office fielded calls from upset students Wednesday and released a list of marketing tactics outside of the e-mails UW used to notify students of the sale.

"We understand the students' disappointment with not being able to purchase football tickets," Doherty said. "However, we don't rely only on e-mail for notifying students for our sales."

In addition to the e-mails, Doherty said UW ran seven newspaper advertisements, had signs in the Athletic Department display cases in Memorial Union and Union South, and posted information on UWBadgers.com in early March.

He added Bret Bielema twice promoted the upcoming season at campus fraternities and sororities and said the university had a three-week campus chalking campaign, along with notices over the PA system at the spring football game last Saturday to notify students of the sale.

UW sophomore Anne Kaar, who also missed out on buying tickets, said the alternative advertisements were not effective without e-mail notification.

"I heard that they had done chalk," Kaar said. "I think that's crap if they think that's the way to get to students — the e-mail is the best way to get information to us."

Olson said he has already looked into challenging the three-day sale with a petition and has started gathering support on Facebook.com, suggesting a lottery system comparable to basketball and hockey.

"We're just trying to combine efforts [because] someone messed up," Olson said. "It's not the lack of ignorance on the part of 10,000 students."

Doherty was hesitant to speculate on further student ticket availabilities but said alternative purchasing options are available to students.

"There is going to be potential to find tickets," Doherty said. "Single game tickets may be available as well as leftovers from other schools."