There are 10,000 football tickets reserved for students each game, so why is it so hard to get one?

“I haven’t gotten a football ticket for the last three games … and I’m in Student Wolfpack Club,” said Jacqui Desmangles, a second-year studying business administration. 

Desmangles said he is a part of Student Wolfpack Club where students pay $30 to be in the club to receive benefits like premium seating for football games. 

Another student, Kerry Synowiez, a fourth-year studying philosophy and history, said the ticket lottery is to blame for the difficulties. He said getting tickets and passes has gotten really competitive.

“Overall, there have been a few technical issues, but a lot of the time, I just don’t get the tickets because of the [lottery],” Synowiez said.

Colin Hargis, senior associate athletics director for marketing and ticket services, explained the process of getting student tickets to football games. 

“So what happens every week — the week leading into the game — there’s an online request process for students,” Hargis said. “They can request a ticket during a 48-hour period. Then after the period of assuming the demand exceeds the supply, we run a weighted lottery.”

Hargis said the weight is dependent upon a student’s year and how many loyalty points they have. 

“So every student has points based on their accounts at the start of the year, and it starts out with your class rank [year],” Hargis said. “So freshman, sophomore, junior or senior. Then depending on that, you can gain additional points for scanning into games.”

According to Sara Simpson, a third-year studying agriculture and life sciences and athletic director for Student Government, 10,000 tickets are available for the student section each game, but they don’t all go into the lottery system.

“So there are up to 10,000 tickets allotted for the student section,” Simpson said. “600 of those are for the band, then you have 779 for the Student Wolfpack Club and then there’s about 9,000 through the online student ticketing distribution.”

Simpson said the tickets set aside for the Student Wolfpack Club have a different request period than general student tickets and knowing when that is might make it easier for the students involved in the club.

Simpson also said students who are trying to get the general admission tickets should try building up their loyalty points.

“To increase your chances of getting a ticket, just be able to get more loyalty points by going to loyalty point events or non-revenue sports like volleyball or baseball,” Simpson said. 

Simpson explained how the loyalty point system works. 

“The top 25% of students with the highest loyalty points who requested a ticket automatically get one, and the last 75% are run through the lottery,” Simpson said.

Simpson also said students who get tickets should be sure to actually go to the game.

“If you do get a ticket, make sure you go to the game or return your ticket if you can’t go because you will lose points,” Simpson said. 

Simpson said students who went to a game and still lost points, can contact student government athletics to make an appeal. 

“There has been an increase in people that have gone to the game but have ended up with a deduction of points, and if it does happen, they can email [sgathletics@ncsu.edu] with their appeal, their student ID number and a picture of them at the game with the timestamp,” Simpson said.

Hargis said he believes games might be selling out quicker this year because demand for tickets has gone up.

“Fortunately, being the [then] number 10 team in the country, most of our games are selling out, so there’s a lot of demand all the way across the board,” Hargis said.

Hargis said his team works closely with Student Government to make the experience for students as enjoyable as possible. 

“From my time here over the years, we have had a student athletic director and that’s really interesting because not a lot of places have that type of collaboration within student government,” Hargis said.

Hargis said having a strong relationship with Student Government has helped the athletics department build a closer relationship with the students by allowing them to have a say in how things work. He said he is grateful NC State Athletics is able to support students in this way. 

“Our fanbase is one of the best in the country, but it really does start with our students,” Hargis said.

Students can get seats by either utilizing the ticketing website or by using the GoPack mobile app.