The Facts: The Wolfpack plays its first regular-season basketball game Thursday. Despite persistent complaints about the ticket-distribution system, little to no change has occurred.
Our Opinion: The ticketing system should have been addressed and fixed after the South Carolina game at the start of the season. Despite the pitifully long delay, it must be changed quickly before basketball seasons revs up.
In the days leading up to N.C. State’s unimpressive football performance against South Carolina at the start of the season, many faithful Wolfpack fans were up in arms over the ticketing system.
Seniors and juniors who had been to every football game while they were at the University could not fathom how such a large number of freshmen won admission to the game while they were left to watch the game from home. Some students complained that the expansion in group sizes during the off-season had allowed many freshmen into the game under an older student’s group leader ID.
Students cried foul and Student Government ensured students they would attempt to remedy the problems, with some of Student Government’s leaders mentioning the importance of addressing it before the highly anticipated Pittsburgh game.
The Pittsburgh game has come and gone, so have the games against Duke and Maryland and the request period for Clemson, yet no changes have materialized and loyal fans are left in the same ticketing conundrum. As basketball season approaches, what changes can fans expect in ticket distribution?
The idea of averaging the loyalty points of all the members within a group seems to have gone nowhere and any changes appear to have stalled.
This is a two-month-old problem — changes should already be in place, but certainly should be out of the discussion phase by now.
Students deserve a revamped system that rewards every student for his or her individual loyalty, not just that of the group leader — a system that will not enable 98 freshmen to sit courtside for their first basketball game against UNC-Chapel Hill because they all joined the group of a senior who has been 45 minutes early to every game.
The system must be amended before the start of ACC basketball play, that much is clear. But it is inexcusable for changes to come so slowly on an issue that influences students’ college experience.
Thursday is the first regular-season basketball game of the season — change needs to come quickly.