The Ohio State men’s basketball tickets sold out in less than five minutes, leaving 105 students with hopes of still getting tickets on a wait list.
The student ticket packages went on sale October 18 at 6 p.m., and all 2,400 were sold out in about five minutes, according to a university spokesperson.
The Schottenstein Center has a capacity of roughly 19,000 when set up for basketball games.
The package cost $123 and includes nine home games throughout the year including games against No. 5 Michigan on Jan. 13 and No. 1 Indiana on Feb. 10.
Brett Scarbrough, assistant athletic director, said that the tickets sold quicker this year than last year due to the new online process. In 2011, the student tickets sold out in less than an hour.
“The tickets sold out more quickly this year than last year, much due to the fact that the new process this year of selling the packages on Ticketmaster’s website allows for more transactions to be handled efficiently than the previous system,” Scarbrough said in an email.
However, some students think the system still isn’t the best.
Tainesha Owens, a second-year in exploration, was waitlisted for her tickets and ended up not purchasing them. Said she thinks it’s ridiculous how fast they sold out and there should be some kind of organization to give more people an opportunity to get tickets.
“I think they need to find a balance to make it better for everyone,” Owens said. “To be sold out in five minutes doesn’t give everyone an opportunity to even buy them. What if you are at work or in class?”
Owens, who bought tickets last year but decided not to this year, said although she doesn’t really have time this year to go to the games, she felt last year it was hectic just trying to buy them.
“I was on, but they sold out, so I had to go onto the wait list and the seats weren’t that great, so it wasn’t really worth it,” Owens said.
Bailey Wallace, a second-year in art history, said although she had no interest in buying the tickets she had friends who did and dealt with problems along the way.
Wallace said she thinks there should be a stagger system similar to how football tickets are sold, so more students have a chance and it’s not a free-for-all.
Scarbrough said if students are still interested in trying to get tickets, they can contact the ticket office in order to get instructions on how to get placed onto the wait list. There currently is a wait list for the season ticket packages and the Kansas game on Dec. 22.
Some students still believe the number of tickets actually being sold isn’t enough for a university of OSU’s size.
“I feel like we have so many people that it’s kind of unrealistic,” Wallace said.
Paloma Arroyo, a second-year in political science, has purchased basketball tickets the past two years and also said there should be a greater number of tickets offered to students.
“I think they should offer more. Other schools seem to have larger student sections than we do,” Arroyo said. “Basketball is getting bigger here, especially after last year.”
Scarbrough said just like every year, the athletic department will evaluate the actual student attendance at games this year to determine whether they need to adjust ticket amounts in the future.
The Buckeyes, who are ranked No. 4 on the Associated Press preseason top 25 poll, are set to play an exhibition game at home Tuesday against Walsh at 7 p.m. OSU opens its regular season Nov. 9 against Marquette.