(I have sources that I’m going to continue to integrate and pictures as well).

Need Title Ideas

Imagine this. You wake up at the crack of dawn, log onto four separate devices, wait in an endless queue, and still get completely barred from tickets. Many Penn State football fans do not have to imagine this. Penn State is known for it’s passionate football fans and incomparable student section. Every year, thousands of Penn State students compete at seven in the morning to get their hands on season tickets, and not all are lucky. The current system of all-or-nothing luck allows for some students to get completely denied from obtaining student tickets and forces them to search third party websites and spend hundreds more dollars to get access to this opportunity. In order to solve the problem of student ticket sales barring certain students entirely, Penn State should adopt a lottery ticket system for their football games. Having a lottery for each game would allow students to only compete for games they want to attend, and would allow for a more fair distribution of tickets instead of completely shutting out certain students. To show that this policy should be adopted, I will first emphasize the causes of these ticket inequalities, then the effects it can have on barred students, and finally discussing how a new policy would benefit all stakeholders.

As it stands, ticket sales are divided by grade, with a certain allocation of tickets to seniors, then juniors, etc. These ticket sales happen at 7am during the summer, where students eagerly join the Ticketmaster queue just to be told they are in spot 2000+ in line. If their Wi-Fi glitches for a second, they are out of luck. After 20 minutes, it is all done and they either have tickets to the entire season of football games, or have nothing. 

Causes of the problem

Technology Access

Being able to buy student tickets is reliant on students to have access to electronic devices at home. Many people have discovered that having multiple devices enter the queue at the same time increases the chance that they will obtain tickets, but this creates an inequality for students who cannot afford these additional devices. Likewise, good connection is necessary for this ordeal as any glitch, slow internet, or required reload will put someone back at the end of the queue, no matter how far up they made it. There are many areas in the United States that do not have adequate internet access, and this inequality then makes it more difficult for them to get football tickets.

All or Nothing

As previously stated, the current system allows students to get all or nothing, no matter how many games they are planning to attend or want to attend. Many students who get season tickets only intend to go to bigger games like the season opener, White Out, and games against Ohio State or Michigan, and end up not using the others. Others do not get student tickets despite wanting to attend every game. Others do not have any interest in going to the football games and are lucky enough to get season tickets only to resell them for profit. Tickets are also available to graduate students and branch campuses, and while this is an excellent way to connect the community, it does not make sense for those students to have tickets when they likely will not be traveling several hours to see the game every Saturday.

Effects

Wasted tickets

Those who purchase tickets without the intent of going to every game often waste tickets that could have gone to other students. It is unfair that some students who actually want to go to the games cannot, while students who have the tickets do not go to the games. While it is unrealistic to require those with student tickets to go to all games, attending less than half of the games leaves the majority of one’s tickets to waste and is a punch in the face to those who would have attended. Even when people cannot go to the games, they refuse to give them away and insist on reselling them.

Ridiculous Resale

The resale market for football tickets is ridiculous. Getting the season tickets only costs $246, but people will resell their tickets for that price or more for a single game. Despite season tickets being sold for about $35 a game, even the least popular games have tickets sold that are $50+. Some students will purposely buy the cheaper resale tickets just to resell them themselves and make a profit. These steep prices make student tickets inaccessible to students who do not have the funds to pay, even if they may have been able to afford the season ticket package. There are also plenty of scams that occur involving resale, as people prey on students simply trying to gain a positive experience. Massive amounts of students rely on resold tickets because of the flawed ticket system and yet Penn State has not acknowledged this problem at all, continuing to allow their students to get scammed and gouged. 

Lost Experiences

Being in the Penn State student section is one of the most unique experiences that the university has to offer, and yet their ticket sales system prohibits some students from it. Those who are not able to obtain tickets are constantly left out and have to witness their friends and peers have fun without them. Because of the all or nothing format, they have to experience this for the entire season; three straight months of having to leave after the tailgates while their friends make their way to Gate A. Though they can attempt to get tickets, the steep prices and chance of scam makes it unreliable. No student should have to face this frustration, and the school needs to do a better job prioritizing its students. 

Solution

Ticket Lottery

The system that Penn State should adopt is a ticket lottery, in which students, ten days prior to each home game, have 24 hours to enter in a lottery to win tickets for each individual game. They will be entered into a pool based on their grade where they will be randomly selected. The grade pooling allows a certain amount of tickets to go to seniors, juniors, etc similar to what we have now. This way, with more seats still available to seniors, for example, they have a higher chance of getting tickets.The next day, they will be informed if they have tickets or not and will be sent them with a charge to their Bursar account. There will also be a list of backups picked in case students forfeit their tickets last minute. Every student’s name will be entered only once, so it is still based on luck and is fair for everyone. The distribution of ticket sales will represent the demand for them, and students will be almost guaranteed to be able to attend at least one game. Though they may continue to be barred from popular games like White Out due to high demand, they will have a much higher chance of being able to go to several games a season as opposed to none. Because the lottery will take place at school over a full 24 hours, internet and technology access is no longer a barrier to students who cannot afford it. Having the lottery take place close to each game allows for students to better know their availability on that day, while still giving them a full ten days in advance to know if they got tickets or not. This also makes more sense for people on branch campuses, who can enter for tickets based on when they plan to travel. Each game will only cost $35 dollars, and will only need to be paid if the student is selected for that game. This allows for more students to be included in the football experience that they deserve.

Diminishing Resale

Tickets obtained from the lottery would not have the ability to be transferred, and students could only enter once. As previously explained, students can forfeit their tickets at the last minute for a refund of the $35, but will not be able to directly send tickets to someone else. This diminishes the possibility that students will buy tickets just to sell them again for profit and ensures that tickets continue to be affordable and equal for everyone.

Outside Success

Lottery systems have worked for major college sports teams all around the country, including at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and BIG 10 schools like Purdue and Notre Dame. Sports are popular at many of these universities, and the policy that they have adopted has clearly been successful for them. Other schools like UNC have even extended this policy to involve loyalty points that give certain students an advantage in the lottery, but it is seemingly more effective to have the only difference be based on grade level. 

Conclusion

To conclude, football is an integral part of the Penn State experience and the all-or-nothing current system prevents students from having this opportunity. Depending on fast internet and basic luck to get either all or nothing creates inequalities among students, amplified by the ridiculous resale prices and wasted tickets. In order to give all Penn State students the experience they deserve, Penn State should adopt a ticket lottery system, a system change, that promotes a more convenient method of buying tickets, a more equal distribution of tickets, and the prevention of stealing opportunities from others for profit. It is time for Penn State to make a change to this issue and allow the number one student section in the nation thrive.