Electronic tickets to curb lines, scalping

Looks like I can't buy my tickets from the south campus Asians anymore.



Students planning on purchasing home tickets for the upcoming football season will no longer have to stand in line at Stegeman Coliseum.

The Athletic Association Board of Directors approved the proposal for the use of electronic ticketing Wednesday. The new ticketing system will begin in Fall 2009.

"This is a step forward, but it may require additional tweaking, but I think it will help," University President Michael Adams said at the meeting.

"I was really bothered by this [old ticketing system] because I haven't talked to a student who hasn't said they've been affected by this," said Andrew Rasmussen, Student Government Association representative for the board who presented the proposal. "When I pressed my concerns about this at the last meeting, the members of the Athletic Association board encouraged me to pursue this course of action."

According to the proposal, paper tickets for home games will no longer be used. Students' UGA MyID cards will be scanned upon entering the stadium. There will no longer be assigned seating and certain areas - the west end zone, northeast lower level and some parts of the 300-level - will be general student admission at a first-come, first-serve basis.

"Students will be more easily able to sit with friends. They can walk together and sit with friends," Rasmussen said.

The proposed system eliminates some past problems with football ticketing, such as the long lines and scalping.

"The electronic format for ticketing will remove the hassle of standing in line," Rasmussen said. "Students will still have to wait [in line at Stegeman Coliseum] for away tickets."

To target potential scalping, a donating system was proposed as an "add-on feature" as the electronic ticketing system develops. The system will allow students who cannot attend a game to place their ticket status in a donation fund for students who have been wait-listed.

"The ticket donation system allows students to go online and send tickets to a pool for wait-listed students who want to go to a game," Rasmussen said. "This makes it so that the maximum number of students go to games. The major benefit will be eliminating the secondary market."

"There's no real way to scalp tickets. If you trust someone to give them your tickets that's a different story," said Connor McCarthy, Student Government Association president. "People [may use other students' IDs] on their own. That would be something the Athletic Association deals with. SGA doesn't plan to facilitate."

The new system will not solve all the concerns with split-ticket packaging. The student ticketing allocation is based on annual demand, but student athletes and band members will no longer be eligible to apply for additional home game student packages in the new electronic process, McCarthy said.

SGA has worked with the board since September when complaints were made about split-ticket packages, McCarthy said.
"We've been working on this the second we found out that freshmen and sophomores got half of a season package," he said.
Unlike most University facilities, the stadium will not use hand scanners.

"When you think about it, most venues and sporting events will scan your tickets," McCarthy said. "Just like at concerts, they'll scan your ticket. That's where the idea came from."

Also at the board meeting, University Athletic Director Damon Evans said the Athletic Department will donate $6 million to the University's academic goals over the next three years, at a rate of $2 million a year.

The Athletic Department is one of the auxiliary services that will donate revenue to support the University's academic causes, which is one of the goals Adams addressed in his State of the University speech in January.

"The philosophy of the Athletic Department is support the academic endeavors of the institution," Evans said. "This is coming off of the $2 million donated at $500,000 per year for four years," which ended this year.

"The bulk of that will be used for faculty support like travel, library support and supplies," Adams said. "It will not be used to hire new faculty because this is one-time money. It will help in support areas."

The board also approved a plan to move forward with the Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall expansion and a $3 million plan to renovate Spec-Towns Track during the course of 10 years. According to the proposal