San Diego State University is changing its men’s basketball student ticket distribution process for the upcoming 2017-18 season.
Starting on Oct. 26, the entire system will be run through online through Ticketmaster.
The university will be announcing the change no later than Wednesday, Oct. 25, Executive Associate Athletic Director of External Relations Steve Schnall said.
Schnall said the change is part of an effort to make the process easier for students, who in the past have had to wait in lines outside Viejas Arena to pickup tickets.
“A lot of schools are going this direction,” Schnall said. “It’s two-fold: We want to make sure those who pick up tickets actually want to attend, and we want whoever is picking up tickets to have a simpler process.”
Each student wishing to get tickets will be required to set up an account on Ticketmaster. That is where students will claim their tickets, keep them and have them scanned for entrance into games.
Ticketmaster will not charge a fee for tickets claimed by verified SDSU students with Ticketmaster accounts.
Schnall said the online system should streamline the student ticket pickup process.
“You theoretically could have 2500 people online at once and not have to wait in line at all,” Schnall said.
The tickets will not be transferrable between students as each individual ticket will be registered to the student who claimed it.
Schnell said the university is trying to combat the instances of students selling their claimed tickets secondhand, especially to non-students.
“We want 2,500 students at every game,” Schnall said.
Another piece of the protocol is a three-strike system meant to keep students accountable, Schnall said.
If a student claims their ticket online and doesn’t attend the game, that student will have to wait until tickets go on sale the next day to the general public to collect theirs.
If they pick up and do not attend a second time, they will have to wait for general admission for all home games that season.
If they commit a third offense, the university can suspend the student’s right to claim tickets.
Schnell said that the university will consider adopting the process for football games in the future, but will review how it works during the men’s basketball season.
Tickets for the first exhibition game vs. University of California, San Diego, on Nov. 2, will be available the morning of Oct. 26.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 4:42 p.m. on Oct. 23 to correct Steve Schnall’s name, which was misspelled, and to add that the process will be completely free for all SDSU students.
