In recent years, the Oregon student section has come under criticism for failing to live up to what Don Essig still calls “the loudest student section in the country.” While many students still leave Autzen at the conclusion of “Shout,” others are struggling to get inside.

Alumni love to wax about the days of waiting in line for hours at Erb Memorial Union just to get their ticket into Autzen, a ritual that has long since been replaced with refreshing a web page on mobile devices.

These days, the biggest barrier to attending a football game is not the weather, the long walk to Autzen or even COVID-19 — it’s getting a ticket itself. For current students, obtaining tickets may somehow be even more difficult than waiting for hours on the EMU lawn.

Starting in 2021, student tickets are no longer free. What used to be a mandatory student ticket fee was replaced by a pay-per-game policy. Dr. Bill Harbaugh, an economics professor who worked with ASUO for over 10 years to help dismantle the mandatory fee, is still unsatisfied.
“At the last minute, the administration kind of pulled a fast one on us,” Harbaugh said. “Instead of creating a fee where people had to pay if they wanted tickets, they instead are taking the money from another university fund and giving it to the athletic department for the tickets.”

That fund, which comes from the university’s licensing fees, used to be split between academics and athletics. It now tips in favor of the athletic department.

“If that’s still going on, it seems like they’re hitting the students from both ways,” Harbaugh said. “First they’re charging you this $100, and there aren’t really enough of those available so students have to buy regular tickets too.”

Many students opted to pay $100 over the summer to receive a “Student Duck Sports Pass” for football and basketball games, which still requires students to claim their ticket during the Sunday window — albeit free of a fee.

“Even the people who are operating [the ticketing system] are still trying to figure out how to do so most effectively,” Oregon Pit Crew president Sam Tidrick-Schmidt said. “With any system you design, there’s gonna be flaws. I appreciate the acknowledgement I’ve received [from the athletic department]… but for a student who is just trying to attend a game, I more than sympathize and understand the frustration.”

For those who missed the deadline to buy the Sports Pass, tickets need to be purchased for each game individually. Non-Power-5-opponent football games are $10, conference games $20 and basketball games $5. These prices are not lowered in games that fail to sell out.
There is no doubt the fees previously paid by ASUO for tickets are funding relevant student resources. However, it does create another hurdle for students to attend games.
The non-physical tickets highlight the first major problem. A 2015 FishDuck blog post outlines the common frustrations of online ticketing: “Once the clock strikes, thousands of students will simultaneously try to claim a ticket as their own (most of whom are using the same UO Wi-Fi). Most people will end up getting stuck at the refreshing screen, screaming obscenities at their computer.”

For the average Oregon student, the process of claiming a football ticket goes something like this:

• Have an alarm set at 10:59 a.m. on the Sunday before a home football game.

• Open the Go Ducks Gameday App, navigate to the student ticket portal and log in with your username and password.

• Wait in a virtual line in the ticket portal.

• Pay $20 as you claim your ticket at checkout. (If you have the sports pass, this is where your purchase pays off.)

“Students just wish it was a little clearer,” Tidrick-Smith said. “A lot of them wish they could avoid that claiming process because it is hectic.”

The process leaves a ton of room for error. Have an internet issue? Phone not working properly? Busy during 11 a.m. on a Sunday? Good luck getting a student ticket.

“Economists hate rationing things out by queueing,” Harbaugh said. “It’s just a giant waste of [everyone’s] time… The athletic department likes it [because] having a long line for tickets is often a way of advertising that you’ve got a popular event.”

Of course, getting into the student section itself is also first-come, first-serve. Students who want to be near the front will need to arrive “a little bit before gates open,” according to Tidrick-Schmidt. Gates generally open two hours before kickoff.

For those who do get tickets and seats, Autzen is still a great experience. But there is work to be done in making sure each student gets in the building.