Since the recent changes to the student football ticketing system, many Clemson students have expressed concerns about the ticketing process on social media. The Tiger reached out to CUSG’s Chair of Athletics, Banner Brock, about the issue via email. Here’s what he told us.
The Tiger (TT) : Have you heard from any students about their opinions on the new system?
Banner Brock (BB): Yes. Some students got season tickets — [they were] very happy. Some students got some tickets that didn’t get a single ticket in past years — [they were] very happy. Some students got less tickets from the lottery than they were expecting — [they were] not happy. People like that you can transfer tickets, and they like the penalty for skipping games.
TT: Are there plans to make adjustments to the system mid-season like last year?
BB: We don’t ‘plan’ on adjusting anything at the money. [sic] Otherwise, we would have already made that change. However, we will monitor the situation on game day distribution to see if changes are needed there.
TT: According to our math, there are 5,100 tickets available through the lottery system, but according to the lottery explanation on the Clemson Athletics website, it is only 4,750 tickets. Where do the extra 350 tickets go?
BB: These “extra” tickets are given to special student groups through other processes (student athletes, IPTAY student advisory board, Central Spirit, [etc.]).
TT: Why were these changes made to the student ticketing system?
BB: 1. Our attendance in past years has been abysmal. We want to fill the Hill and reach near 100 percent capacity. If we do that, we can advocate for more student tickets in the future.
2. Give students more control.
3. Enable transferability so tickets don’t go unused.
4. Penalize students for skipping games — these tickets are in HIGH DEMAND.
5. Allocate tickets at the beginning of the year so that students know well in advance whether they have a ticket for a specific game. For example, USC is during Thanksgiving Break and it would be unfair for students to not know their plans up until the last minute.
6. Students asked for change.
TT: Do you have any statistics on the totally number of people who requested season and lottery tickets and how many tickets these students were distributed?
BB: Yes, I’ll provide some highlights. Students tended to get about 60 percent of the tickets they requested. What these numbers do not show, is that upperclassmen received more tickets on average BUT also received more lower deck and Hill tickets. Freshmen received a lower number of tickets on average and also received more upper deck tickets than other grades.
