Once again, I’ve failed to acquire my football ticket for Saturday, this time for what promises to be one of the great NCAA football matchups of this season. This is through no fault of my own, but is due to the inadequacy of the online ticketing system.
I am told by the University: get your ticket by going to www.goducks.com at 6 p.m. on Sunday. Therefore, isn’t it reasonable to believe that if I navigate my way to www.goducks.com at 6 p.m. on Sunday, I will get a ticket for the game?
It is a common misconception that football tickets are free. In fact, the price of your football tickets is part of the incidental fee that we all pay as part of our tuition. Don’t enjoy football? That’s fine. You still get to pay for the tickets.
If you actually decide you want to go to the game, you must log on to the school’s athletics Web site at a pre-determined ticket release time. Sounds easy, right? It’s not. Thousands of other students are also trying to get their tickets. The university would surely not be so shortsighted as to operate this Web site with a server inadequate to handle this massive influx of students, right?
I jest.
The server is unfit, in need of a substantial upgrade, and fails to direct students to the correct area; “connection interrupted” and “404” messages are common. On this particular Sunday, I was at the ticket request Web site at 5:45 p.m. The tickets were released at 6 p.m., and it is now 6:42 p.m.
I have just now arrived at the area where I am ostensibly able to request my student ticket, however it has been claimed half an hour prior to this time by somebody who is probably under the impression that Masoli is a kind of pasta.
So, my suggestion is to upgrade the GoDucks.com server? No. Back in the good old days, the method of ticket procurement was to actually leave your residence and physically go down to Autzen or the EMU on the Monday preceding Saturday’s game. You got there earlier, you had a better chance of getting a ticket. Simple as that.
I have heard arguments in favor of the online ticketing system. First, I’ve heard that online ticketing is the “future” and “other schools have been doing it for years.” Neither one of these statements qualifies as an incentive. Second, the University saves money by doing it paperless.
I’m going to hammer this point in a little more because it’s just that important: You and I are the students who pay for these tickets. Myself and what I assume to be a significant portion of the student body are willing to pay for the printing costs, the bantam employee compensation required, and any other associated costs of a traditional ticketing system.
Distributed across the student body, these costs are insignificant and a clear majority of students I have spoken with are in favor of paying these costs if it means never having to deal with the shoddy online ticketing system again. Third, students were missing class in order to stand in line for tickets. How about releasing the tickets on a day where students don’t have class instead of breaking a long-standing and enjoyable tradition?
All things considered, I and many of my fellow students believe that the traditional ticketing system is far superior to the online ticketing system. I move for a revert to the traditional system. Let the students decide. I suggest that a poll (similar to that of ASUO elections) be placed on each student’s DuckWeb, with the majority deciding the future of the ticketing system.
[email protected]