The first ticket distribution of the 2006 football season is over, but not without a few computer glitches and confused students.
According to Senior Class President Adam Whitehouse, the main issue with the first distribution was the guest tickets lacked the appropriate design.
“It was a glitch in the system — technically the top of the ticket still said ‘guest ticket.’ But we caught it the same day it happened and everybody had time to reprint their tickets,” he said.
He indicated that he fielded concerns from students the morning after distribution and notified the Athletics Department immediately.
Dick Christy, assistant athletics director of external operations, said the server for the ticketing system changed during the off-season, which is why the guest tickets didn’t print properly.
“The guest ticket format was not switched over, so we sent the correct formatting to them and they fixed it in a couple hours,” he said.
Christy indicated that the system is now on the Ticket Return server in Winston-Salem, N.C., who is the developer of the ticketing software.
“We have 24-hour service and security now,” he said. “Having the server hosted by Ticket Response means there will be people immersed in that software supporting it.”
Whitehouse explained that the server location was changed to fix various problems with the ticketing system during its inaugural year.
“We were on an N.C. State server and now we are on a Ticket Return server that has never crashed in its history,” he said. “That was one of the main problems last year and people were getting penalized for two games they attended, so that problem is now fixed.”
Another issue with the system is a lack of compatibility with Mozilla Firefox. Whitehouse said this was due to Firefox securities and firewalls.
“Firefox is being worked on, but the reason it is not working is that security and firewalls within Mozilla are conflicting with Ticket Return software,” Whitehouse said.
Christy noted that the compatibility problem is not specific to Ticket Return’s software, but other ticketing systems the University uses as well.
Aesthetic concerns have also surfaced regarding the design amendments of Ticket Return.
Whitehouse related the concerns back to the server change.
“The interface was changed because of the new server and system. We are now using a more stable server less prone to crash,” he said. “The main problem was when I got 500 e-mails in four days because people had been wrongly penalized a point for a game they did attend. The server change will fix this problem.”
He did note that the point system, claim periods, appeal periods and penalties are still the same.
Students noticed an improvement in some of the options provided on the updated interface.
“I like how there are now links to useful resources,” Jameson Collier, senior in textile engineering, said. “It makes the Web site more concise, reducing the need to click link after link to get to a certain page.”
He did say the blue background on the left side of the interface is out of place.
“I’m not sure why they chose a blue background for the left frame — unless they wanted to match the blue in the Ticket Return logo,” Collier said. “Black would have been a better choice of color to go along with the N.C. State colors.”
There will also be some minor changes at Carter-Finley Stadium this year, such as getting into the game.
Whitehouse and Christy both emphasized a new line system where there will be one centralized entrance leading into four student gates.
“This way we can queue students at one entrance and evenly disperse them into all gates, which should help students get into the game quicker,” Christy said.
Collier indicated that he is skeptical of the new line structure.
“The funnel entrance is going to bottleneck fast, especially about 20 minutes before kickoff,” he said. “Even though we like to see that big sea of red, it would be much better to get that sea of red into the stands by the time the game starts.”
Whitehouse stated a general rule of thumb he said students should adhere to: “The student entrances open 90 minutes before the game and unless you arrive at least 45 minutes before the game, you are not guaranteed to be in before kick-off.”
Another preventative measure that the Athletics Department is taking this year is a back-up system for the hand-held ticket scanners.
Christy said there is a contingency plan in place for connectivity and it has been tested twice. He also said it will be tested two more times before the game Saturday.
Lee Hyde, senior in political science and former chair of the online ticket task force, has helped the student ticketing process substantially this season, according to Whitehouse.
“A concern that I have heard is that students had the ability to get 10 guest tickets for this game,” Hyde said. “That has been addressed and it won’t happen again.”
Tuesday, a student on The Wolf Web, a message board popular with students and alumni, claimed the ticketing Web site allotted him 28 tickets.
Whitehouse acknowledged the claim, and said the Athletics Department is looking into several reports of students getting upwards of 20 tickets. But Christy stated in an e-mail Wednesday night that “We have run a report of each account; no student has more than one student [ticket] and 10 guests.”
Collier expressed his concern by stating that if a student can get more than the allowable amount of tickets, he prefers the old ticketing system, which consisted of lining up at Reynolds Coliseum.
Overall, Whitehouse said he believes student ticketing will be successful this year.
“We have a positive outlook on student tickets this year but we still need the students to communicate and keep us informed of problems and complications with the system via e-mail at senate_campus@ncsu.edu,” he said.