After participating in a new pre-registration program, nearly 45,000 Penn State students are eligible to participate in this year's student football ticket sale -- the first time that officials from the athletic department will be able to gauge ticket demand before the sale begins.
Last June, tickets sold out in 59 minutes during an online sale. This year, students were required to pre-register for the sale online at ticketmaster.com between May 27 and May 30. Students who completed the pre-registration are eligible to participate in this year's sale, which will begin Monday for seniors. Juniors will buy tickets Tuesday, sophomores Wednesday, freshman Thursday, and graduate students Friday.
21,500 student tickets will be allocated for the sale, said Greg Myford, associate athletic director of marketing and communication.
"For the first time, we really have a true indication of where the real demand for tickets lies, which is obviously a benefit in evaluating what, if any, refinements will be made to the ticket process in future years," Myford said.
Myford said one of the only problems the athletic department faced during the pre-registration process was that some students studying abroad during the spring semester had not received e-mails sent to Penn State students explaining the new process this year.
"Fortunately, a lot of the students were aware of the changes in the process and were aware of the dates," he said. "We didn't have any that fell in the category of not knowing [about the new process] -- it was more a question of what sale they were pre-registered for."
The athletic department sent out emails Wednesday night informing students which day they were registered to buy tickets, which depends on the number of credits the student has completed by the end of the spring semester.
Though some students' current transcripts do not reflect all the credits they had earned by the spring semester, students who are eligible to receive tickets from another class's sale can trade their tickets in once their credits transfer.
Students who did not pre-register cannot participate in next week's sale.
"Someone who simply missed the deadline because they ... weren't paying attention -- there's very little we can do for them," Myford said.
Several students have created Facebook events to remind fellow students of the upcoming ticket sales.
"Last year I completely forgot to try and get tickets, and I was pretty upset about it," said Chris Bickel (junior-public relations), the creator of the event "Penn State Student Football Tickets -- JUNIORS." Currently, the event has 1,620 members attending.
Bickel said he thinks this year's new system is more efficient than last year's.
"I actually think it will be a little bit better," he said. "With everything separated, it'll just go a lot quicker."
Myford said this year's ticket sales process reflects better communication between students and the athletic department.
"The one thing we feel strongly about and what we've received very positive feedback on is the change to the sale advance communication," he said. "We feel we've done what we can to best prepare students."
