At recent football games at Eugene’s Autzen Stadium, the University of Oregon Ducks have competed against new Big Ten conference opponents: the Michigan State Spartans, Ohio State Buckeyes and Illinois Fighting Illini. 

Oregon entered the Big Ten conference on Aug. 2, and through this, students began facing competitive battles to claim tickets to attend high-demand games. During the Ohio State game, Autzen broke attendance records, bringing in 60,129 fans, well above the 54,000-seat capacity inside the stadium. 

In interviews with the Daily Emerald, students said they were confronted with various problems when trying to attend football games this season. Some were unable to find seats, receive student section wristbands required for entry and some even found themselves struggling to get tickets altogether. They said they were left frustrated, raising concerns about accessibility to student-section seats and tickets. 

All the while, UO Athletics oversold student-section football tickets by 2,000 tickets and left students without wristbands required for student section entry. 

Student-section ticket demand exceeds supply

UO students can attend football games, as well as women’s and men’s basketball games by purchasing a Ducks Sports Pass, which costs $150 this year – an increase from the previous $125 cost of previous years. The Duck Sports Pass gives students priority access to claim tickets for the entire season. 

The number of passes distributed are limited, and does not guarantee tickets to a game but rather gives students “priority to access” to the student ticket claim process. 

To claim student-section football tickets with the Ducks Sports Pass, eligible students must enter the ticket claim the Sunday before the game. They are then put into a waiting room, where they are entered in a ticket claim queue. Wait times can range from a few minutes to multiple hours, depending on the popularity of the game. 

If there are leftover unclaimed tickets, the remaining student tickets will be sold to non-sports pass holders. 

According to Senior Associate Athletic Director of Communications Jimmy Stanton, the UO Department of Athletics sold 10,000 Ducks Sports Passes for the 2024-2025 school year. 

Stanton revealed that due to student section capacity, only 8,000 football tickets can be distributed each game, leaving potentially up to 2,000 sport pass holders out of tickets. 

Stanton verified that all 8,000 available tickets were distributed for the Ohio State and Michigan State games and that 500 students who had claimed tickets did not use them — with a no-show rate of approximately 7.5%. 

In an email statement to the Emerald, Stanton said that there are additional standing room only tickets outside of the student section given to sports pass holders should tickets sell out. Stanton said there were an additional 500 standing room tickets for students at the Michigan State game and 200 at Ohio State.

According to Stanton, the extra 2,000 sports passes sold over capacity factors in an estimated 20% “no-show” rate expected among students for each game. 

In popular games such as Ohio State, where the no-show rate was lower, this policy could potentially leave up to 2,000 students who paid for the Duck Sports Pass for the 2024-2025 school year without a fair chance to claim a ticket.

In the email, Stanton pointed to the terms of purchase of the Ducks Sports Pass which states, “Duck Sports Pass gives purchasers the priority access to claim student tickets, but does not guarantee inventory will always be available for every game.”

Students face frustration to find available seats and wristbands

“Sometimes it’s really crazy. The Ohio State game was insane. I was in the waiting room for like five hours. It was really bad. I ended up getting a ticket so it was fine. Usually it’s really easy,” UO Junior Alyssa Petty said. 

Petty went on to say her friends lined up half an hour before the stadium opened up for the Ohio State game. 

Petty also said the last two times she went to the games, UO event management ran out of the wristbands — a requirement for every student to wear in order to enter the stadium and find a seat at the student-section. If students do not wear wristbands handed by event management, they cannot enter the student section. 

“They changed all of our student tickets to standing room tickets. They just run out of wristbands because they oversell it.”

If students do not receive wristbands from event management at student-section gates, they are not allowed to enter the student section, compromising their experience to watch or attend the game. 

This leaves some students, like Petty, unable to enter the student section, regardless of whether they were able to successfully claim a student section ticket or not. 

Senior Kate McCabe shared similar concerns regarding football games. 

“Honestly, previous years have been better. Getting into the student section has been very difficult,” said McCabe. “I know at one point they ran out of student wristbands. Even if you had the right ticket, you weren’t given a wristband. Once you get in, there’s not really a spot to go because it’s full.” 

McCabe said she left the Ohio State and Michigan State games after not receiving a wristband for entry to the stadium. 

Football wristband distribution fails to meet demand

For the Ohio State and Michigan State games, 7,500 wristbands were distributed even though 8,000 student tickets were available. 

When asked on why the university oversold sports passes, Stanton did not respond to an interview request with the Emerald, stating in an email, “The Duck Sports Pass gives UO students priority access to claiming football, women’s basketball, or men’s basketball tickets and is not specific to one sport. For football, students must claim tickets online the Sunday before each event.” 

Students look to reselling game tickets

Cole Stevenson, a third year student, said he buys football tickets through the fellow students who resell tickets on social media app Snapchat. 

Some students buy Duck Sports Passes for the sole purpose of reselling tickets at high prices instead of going to the game. 

“My class, and the classes below me will post. There’s also people that get student passes and immediately sell tickets. That’s a large part of me buying tickets,” Stevenson said. “For the Ohio State game …  It [ticket prices] was around $300 to $400. For last week’s game [against Illinois], it was like $100.” 

ASUO Senate votes to end student athletic funding 

Stanton also stated that tickets used to be “free for students, but the ASUO changed that longstanding program in 2021 and stopped funding this program and benefit for students.”

The Associated Students of the University of Oregon’s, UO’s student government, Senate President Taliek Lopez-DuBoff confirmed ASUO’s decision to end the funding for students.

In 2021, ASUO Senate made a unanimous decision to use the funds from student athletic benefits and relocate them to create a Basic Needs Program for students. 

Lopez-DuBoff said, “ASUO leadership saw the incredible importance in creating a basic needs center, and so when trying to come up with ways to fund it, they decided what had to go was the buying tickets for student football games.”

He stated that re-enstating the longstanding program is unlikely. 

“The surplus now is certainly large… but right now, we just don’t have the capacity. That’s not at the forefront of our minds right now. I can’t really speak to that.”

 Senior Campus News Reporter Riley Fox and Investigative Reporter McKenzee Manlupig contributed to the reporting of this story.