Student Ticket Service

Football at the University of Alabama is a big deal. People come from all over the country just to tailgate on the Quad. They enjoy freshly grilled burgers and ice cold beer as they sit out under tents in the crisp autumn air. There is no better feeling than being surrounded by ninety-three thousand people at Bryant-Denny stadium, all passionately united in cheering on the Crimson Tide. Of these ninety three thousand seats in Bryant-Denny stadium, only fifteen thousand are allotted to students. It is the job of the Student Ticket Service to set up an organized method to distribute these tickets. While the Student Ticket Service does allow students to conveniently purchase tickets online and at low prices, it still experiences multiple shortcomings.

The Student Ticket Service offers ticket packages that are very affordable for students. Packets that include the entire season are available for less than fifty dollars. However, because there are nearly thirty thousand enrolled students and only fifteen thousand student seats, many students are left to buy from other sources at highly inflated prices.
So what is the problem with college students making some extra money off their football tickets? Due to limited seating, only a portion of the student body is able to purchase tickets before they run out. This ratio of seats to students leaves a massive number of kids without the full, firsthand experience of college football. Those that are unable to get tickets online or pay for the inflated ticket prices have no way of getting into a football game.

The accessibility of the Student Ticket Services is made easy through a simple online process. A student must first go online and register a form of payment before tickets go on sale to speed up the process when the morning sales begin. The directions take you step by step through the process. The directions include information on how to handle certain situations such as what to do if you no longer want the ticket, or what to do if you are unable to go to the game on the day of the game. It also includes the Ticket Service Number for anything that cannot be handled online. Tickets normally become available between seven and eight in the morning, and they are quickly sold out within the hour, if not sooner. The students must be on the website, pass through the virtual waiting room, and then use their identification information to have the package sent to their Action Card (student ID) account.

This type of online system can be very convenient for students. Since many students are without the transportation and free time to get somewhere and stand in line for hours on end, having a simple online transaction makes it easy to purchase from anywhere there is an internet connection. Tickets are sold on a first come first serve basis, and all have an equal opportunity to make a purchase. Because of the early time of the sale, students can get the task taken care of first thing in the morning, before class or work. On the other hand, since one is unable to see the “line” of people ahead, one may wait for quite some time without success. In the spring of 2009, I was online for two hours, but could not get through the virtual waiting room before tickets sold out. Also, the Student Ticket Service has no method of offering seniors seniority over the juniors and sophomores. This results in some seniors not being able to spend their last year going to home football games, while some sophomores are going to all of the games. Another disadvantage is that having the sale of tickets start so early presents the obstacle of waking up on time. Most college students are not up by seven o’clock if they do not have an early class, and many find it somewhat difficult to rise with the sun. There have been dozens of incidents where students have slept through ticket sales for one reason or another.

The Student Ticket Service selling student football tickets at the University of Alabama online makes for a convenient alternative to a ticket booth. However, selling tickets in this way often creates problems such as the inability to access the website and the unfair issuing of tickets without regard to class rank. The bottom line is, even after pre-registering your payment method, waking up on time, successfully accessing the website, and waiting patiently in a virtual room, luck is still the determining factor in who will get tickets and who will not. Good luck next year!