This year N.C . State has a new ticketing system for football and basketball games. Student Government sings its praises, touting it as the “most comprehensive and student friendly” ticket system out of any of the others they have encountered. Personally, I completely agree with the choice to switch our ticketing system, for it has some great new features that the previous ticketing system did not include.
One of the changes that will benefit everyone is an increase in the number of student tickets available for events at Carter-Finley Stadium and the RBC Center. According to the Student Government announcement, students now hold 10,000 of the available 57,583 seats at Carter-Finley and 4,500 of the 19,700 seats at the RBC Center. The benefit to students is easy to see: an increase in student seating means an increase in the amount of students that can attend each game.
My favorite change in the ticketing system is the RBC Center’s adoption of general admission for the student seating. This means that when you receive a ticket to a basketball game, you will no longer be assigned a seat. Instead, like football games, the seats will be first-come-first-serve. To me, this is fairer than assigned seating. Being rewarded for showing up early makes more sense, especially with the new reward system.
With the new reward system each student begins the season with set point total based on class: seniors have nine, juniors seven, sophomores five, freshman three. The new reward system then allots bonus points for attending events and arriving early. The more points you earn the higher loyalty level you can achieve. The best thing about this is that loyalty points associated with each level (Level 1=1, Level 2=2, etc.) carry over to that sport’s next season.
Student Government gives the example: “So a rising senior who achieved the third level in football would start his/her senior football season with 12 points.” This is because the senior starts out with nine points and has gained an additional three through reaching the third loyalty level in the previous season.
As a huge N.C . State sports fan, this system is perfect for people like me. We get rewarded for loving the Wolfpack and that’s the way it should be. The first 25% of tickets are awarded based solely on loyalty so all those die-hard fans like me will still get to go to the games. The remaining 75% of tickets are based on a weighted lottery.
Another great facet of the new ticketing system is the no-show policy. Basically, if you get a ticket to the game and don’t go, you get punished. Depending on how many no-shows you accumulate, the policy could cause you to lose all student ticketing privileges. This may seem a bit harsh, but it makes sense. If you can’t show up, then you don’t deserve to get a ticket because you could be taking it away from someone who can show up.
The last part of the new policy, no more group seating, is causing the most outrage but is a welcomed change. With the group system, sometimes freshman got tickets to high profile games when seniors did not. This is a flaw in the system, seniors have been at school the longest, put in the most work, and been fans the longest. They have earned their high loyalty points and their right to seats.
Each change in the new ticketing system will be highly beneficial to the N.C . State and, hopefully, will stay for years to come.