Controversy over tickets not done

The lottery may be over, but the madness is just beginning.

The controversy surrounding… The lottery may be over, but the madness is just beginning.

The controversy surrounding the distribution of student season tickets for the upcoming men’s basketball season continues to mount despite the passing of the deadline for students with winning wristbands to claim their tickets.

After nearly 5,000 students picked up wristbands Friday night, the athletics administration announced winning numbers as drawn randomly through a lottery at 10 a.m. Saturday. The winning numbers began with one and ended with 2812.

Additional numbers were added Monday morning – all of which fell between 3500 and 4047 – bringing the total number of winning wristbands to 1,069.

The reason for this action was not disclosed and associate athletics director Jim Earle failed to return phone calls on the issue.

Over the course of the last three days, 953 people stopped by the William Pitt Union ticket office to trade in wristbands for tickets – leaving 116 unclaimed.

Freshman Greg Zajaczkowski showed up at exactly 5 p.m. yesterday with his winning ticket and was turned away because the office was closed. But to Zajaczkowski, this was not a disappointment.

“I don’t really like basketball,” he said. “I got a wristband because I’m on the lacrosse team and we went to Michigan so we got to pick up wristbands early so I just went with the team.”

However, when the remaining tickets go on sale tomorrow morning, 47 will be available, using the original cutoff of 1,000 student season tickets. There will still be 500 tickets for each individual home game.

Earle stated last week that one of the reasons for going with the lottery system this year was to “try to minimize the number of students who buy tickets just to sell.” But this week, winning wristbands were a hot commodity on campus.

Students who had picked up wristbands with no intention of attending games posted fliers around campus offering their wristband to the highest bidder. Some Pitt fans were able to steal tickets away, paying $80 or $90 while others emptied their pockets for prices in the hundreds.

Shalin Ajay Shah, a freshman who picked up his tickets yesterday, was approached at a party with an offer of $220 for his wristband – but he refused to sell.

“It’s not about the money, it’s about the experience of a lifetime,” Shah said.

Shah’s roommate, Pedja Jurisic, also had a winning wristband – but made the mistake of wearing it in the shower, where the number rubbed off. After explaining his story to the woman at the ticket office, she told him to return tomorrow to see if anyone claimed the number.

As each student got in line to pick up tickets, he or she was approached by the Oakland Zoo, who set up a table in front of the ticket office and encouraged each student – regardless of whether they had won tickets – to sign up to be a member of the club. Members will receive a free Oakland Zoo T-shirt to wear at every home game.

Head zookeeper Matt Cohen spent the last three days counting every student who picked up tickets, persuading everyone to join the Zoo. He was also not shy about hiding his feelings for the woman in the ticket office, who kept feeding him false information.

“She makes me want to vomit,” Cohen exclaimed. “I’m going to vomit on her.”

The Zoo will also be present tonight as students line up outside the Union in hopes of being able to buy tickets tomorrow morning.

Athletics director Steve Pederson said last week that he felt “a lottery was fairer than having people camp out,” but that’s exactly what will be taking place overnight. Students are prepared to bring sleeping bags and camp outside until the Union opens at 7 a.m. – and then wait a bit longer for the ticket office to open.

The lottery, which has overall been unpopular with the student body, was the idea of the athletics administration, though it did consult Student Government Board President Kevin Washo Jr. about the idea.

Washo initially looked for three factors: that tickets were affordable, that every student would have the chance to go to games and that the athletics department did not cut back from the allotted 1,500 student season tickets.

Afterward, he realized that it might not be the fairest process, considering that some students would be unable to pick up a wristband Friday night and therefore be shut out completely.

“Tuition’s going up and people have to work on Fridays,” Washo said.

He then went back to the administration to voice his concerns – but to no avail.

“I talked, I pleaded, I tried the best I could,” Washo said. “My requests were denied.”

While acknowledging that there’s no perfect way to distribute tickets, Washo was the holder of a losing wristband – and therefore will be joining the students lining up before every game in an attempt to buy one of 500 individual tickets.

“I’m going to be in line waiting with a lot of other students for those 500,” Washo said.