A sensible way to sell basketball tickets

This year, student tickets for Pitt basketball games will be much more likely to end up in… This year, student tickets for Pitt basketball games will be much more likely to end up in the hands of genuine fans, and with less hassle than last year. The new system is similar to the one used at Athletics Director Jeff Long’s former workplace, University of Oklahoma.

On Wednesday, students can log on to www.pittsburghpanthers.com, then enter their Pitt e-mails, the numbers from their valid Pitt Ids, and credit card numbers – let’s hope the Web site can handle the heavy traffic without crashing, though. The first 1,400 to do so are guaranteed to get tickets.

Tickets can then be picked up at the Petersen Events Center upon successful swiping of a guaranteed student’s ID However, rather than giving students the entire season’s tickets at once, the box office will give students tickets for the next few games during a set pick-up time, which is a window of a couple specific days. The later a student picks up the tickets, the farther his or her seating section will be from the floor.

If the student doesn’t pick the tickets up, those tickets go into the pool that students can access for single games. If, after two days, those tickets haven’t been purchased, they then go on sale to the general public.

Using student ID numbers will allow for loyalty rewards – those who consistently buy tickets can receive incentives or better guarantees in the future.

These precautions will prevent students with dumb luck from winding up with season tickets while die-hard fans are left in the cold, and will practically ensure rear ends in seats. Reselling the tickets is a great idea for two reasons. Rather than simply being forfeited, unused student tickets will be up for grabs, giving fans who didn’t manage to get guaranteed seating a shot at supporting their team. It also means the University can double-dip, gaining more money on resold, forfeited student seats. It may not be much, but it’s a safe bet the money will come in handy at some point.

In addition to the reselling possibilities, the price for season tickets has gone up from $20 to $35. Such an increase isn’t prohibitive by any means – $35 for 22 home games is a bargain, to put it mildly – but it will likely deter the type of fan who’d buy a seat and miss games for any little thing.

Kudos to Jeff Long for bringing a sane, streamlined system to replace the mess that student ticketing once was.