Ticket confusion continues Friday

When Steve Blahovec arrived at the William Pitt Union at 7 a.m. Friday, he figured he was in… When Steve Blahovec arrived at the William Pitt Union at 7 a.m. Friday, he figured he was in luck. There was no one camped out on the porch, there were two people in front of the ticket office and the 97 remaining student season tickets for basketball were going on sale in two hours.

He had no idea that there were officially more than 100 people in front of him.

Then, as the crowd from the Lower Lounge of the Union emptied into the lobby, bleary-eyed and clutching pillows, they saw about 10 people waiting in front of the ticket window. Many were not pleased.

The last battle in the basketball ticket war was about to be waged between a tired mob of screaming campers and a small group of confused early-risers.

Blahovec said he had heard tickets were going on sale, first come, first serve, at 9 a.m. in the Union, and hadn’t found out about the camping in, the wristbands and the already-established line until after he was standing in front of the ticket window.

“If I had known that I could have stayed inside, I would have been here yesterday afternoon,” he said. “They should have issued a statement saying they were gonna do that. The athletics department screwed up.”

By 8 a.m., the screaming had subsided and tempers cooled to a point of resignation.

Jon Wietholter had the first wristband. It was his posterboard list, originally designed to ensure his place as the first to camp out on the Union porch, that began Thursday night’s administrative improvisation.

He had arrived at 1 p.m. Thursday, prepared to stay out in the cold overnight for tickets. After speaking to an administrator, whose name he did not know, on a speakerphone later that afternoon, he said he was told to continue keeping track of people who came for tickets. According to Wietholter, he was also told the group of people on the porch would be moved inside to the Lower Lounge.

That sign, with the original list, which read, “Line For Tix Starts Here,” was moved to the lobby with the rest of Wietholter’s overnight supplies. It sat in front of Wietholter, silently echoing the sentiments of the 100 wristband-bearing people behind him.

Still, Wietholter said he felt sympathy for the 10 people left in line ahead of him.

“I know where they’re coming from,” he said. “If I was in their shoes, I’d probably feel the same way.”

Sophomore Jeff Bennett, another camper, said the process still made sense to him.

“My whole theory is: it was first come, first serve. We were here at 1 [p.m. Thursday], and we were prepared to camp out all night,” he said.

But Junior Lindy Grone, who arrived at the Union at 6 a.m. Friday, said she felt the point was that the 100 people behind her hadn’t camped out.

“If they spent 12 hours in 30-degree weather, I would have said ‘fine,'” she said. “Nothing was advertised about people being able to stay at the Union … If that’s how it was gonna be, they should have told everyone that.”

According to WPU manager Chris Chergi, the decision to move people inside was made early Thursday afternoon when the growing group of people on the porch gave her concerns about both the inclement weather and the blocking of the porch.

In an attempt to “organize the chaos that could have come out of the lineup,” she said she arranged the speakerphone call, which she said was with Jason Heggemeyer, director of sales and ticketing.

Chergi said, after clearing a room and moving people inside, signs were posted on every door to the Union that the line for basketball tickets was in the Lower Lounge.

When asked about students who said they did not see the signs, she said, “they look but they don’t see sometimes.”

Chergi said it was also her decision to request Pitt police in the Union lobby, although she said there was no extra security.

“They would be around to make a presence in case there was a problem,” she said, but added, “everybody was very nice and very patient.”

It was those police who, at about 8:50 a.m., asked the group of 10 people at the front of the line to move, which they did as applause and cheers came from the mass of people behind Wietholter.

Grone, Blahovec and the others were all given wristbands numbered in the 7140s, well behind the number 7097 that marked the last person who would get tickets.

“A wristband means nothing to me,” Blahovec said. “They said they were handing them out once, why are they handing them out again?”

Blahovec referred to the Pitt Men’s Basketball Student Ticket Plan pamphlet, which reads: “Make sure you make plans to join us for Midnight Madness, as this will be the only chance you have at getting your prenumbered wristband.”

Blahovec said the officer who asked him to move did not give a specific reason for removing them.

“They had no reason, they just said ‘refer to the athletics department,’ who knows nothing,” he said.

Some in line, such as junior Dave Hofman, had little sympathy for Blahovec and company.

“Ignorance isn’t an excuse,” Hofman said.

But Blahovec said he didn’t feel like ignorance of the overnight line was his fault.

“For the Pitt-Penn State game, people lined up here in the morning two years ago,” he said. “There wasn’t a problem then, but there’s a problem now. I’ll tell you why, because [athletics director] Steve Pederson sucks.”

“It might not be his fault,” Blahovec added, “but he’s the athletics director, he has a say.”

Blahovec and several of his displaced companions left the Union, saying they were going up to Pederson’s office.

Pederson was out of his office Friday. Neither he, Heggemeyer nor anyone else in the athletics department could be reached for comment this weekend.