Students will no longer receive a guest ticket when purchasing their student tickets for SDSU men’s basketball games because of last season’s issues with ticket scalping, according to Viejas Arena officials.
“Camping out” for tickets will also be banned and will be strictly enforced to prevent additional problems that occurred last season.
“There will only be one student ticket per student,” Viejas Arena Ticket Office Manager June Barreras said. “There will be no more guest tickets.”
Currently, students may pick up one additional ticket with their Red ID card as a “guest ticket,” which officials say is meant for students to invite a guest with. However, the Aztec’s 2010 season caused some students to abuse the policy by selling those tickets.
According to Viejas Arena Director John Kolek, students selling their guest tickets on sites such as Craigslist and eBay at an inflated price became very noticeable.
An additional step that will be taken to enforce the new policy is that Red IDs will be swiped to ensure each student only gets one ticket.
Another important facet of the new policy is that students can pick up tickets for several games in advance. This change will be implemented today, and students have been able to purchase tickets for the upcoming basketball season as of 7:30 a.m. this morning. Tickets for the first five games of the season are now available.
Viejas Arena executives made the announcement of the change to the current policy during the Associated Students’ meeting last Wednesday.
“SDSU is in a transitioning phase where we’re becoming a premiere school for athletics,” Associated Students Vice President of Finance Rob O’Keefe said. “I think SDSU Athletics and students can work together on this. We have 30,000 students, but only about 3,000 student tickets and everyone wants one.”
O’Keefe also said many other schools with a high demand for tickets already have a limit on student tickets, often capping it at one.
According to Kolek, campus police will enforce the new ban against student campouts for tickets. Last year, as the demand for tickets increased dramatically when the Aztecs’ record continued to improve, students began to camp overnight near the Viejas Arena ticket booth. These students prompted the change.
When the changes were announced during the A.S. meeting, several members immediately voiced concern, though Kolek said they knew a change was coming.
Some council members were surprised by this because of the number of students who want their free tickets for the upcoming season. Viejas officials said decisions on how tickets will be distributed are still being discussed, but the arena staff plans to moderate the line during the early mornings before ticket sales open at 7:30 a.m.
It is still unclear how officials will regulate unofficial lines that may form prior to the opening of the box office, but preventing students from doing this will be up to public safety. Kolek said the punishment for violating this new policy is another decision to be made by the university police department.
“The change was made because of concern by the university, SDSU Athletics and others,” Kolek said. “There were a lot of factors in the decision.”
