UTA students, faculty and staff had three options on Thursday to purchase tickets to see hip-hop artist Drake: go online, go to the Texas Hall box office or call the box office.
According to some students, that variety of processes didn’t work.
Public relations senior Candace Brown waited in the virtual waiting room for an hour before she could purchase her tickets. She said tickets for the March 2 concert sold at the Texas Hall box office weren’t showing up online fast enough.
“When we would click seats and try to reserve it, it would say, ‘This seat is already reserved,’ ” she said. “It was a good effort, but it wasn’t a very smart effort. It was very frustrating.”
Brown said to prevent any confusion for the next College Park Center concert, there should only be one option to purchase tickets.
“You could do it all online where it’s keeping up with who’s buying what tickets. That way, you won’t be clicking and thinking you’re getting a seat when you’re not, something to make the thing more accurate,” she said. “Or, [sell them] all in the box office and stand in line like you would in the old days. They need to do it one way or the other. Both of them together is not going to work, ever.”
Bridget Lewis, senior media relations officer , said the event was a success because tickets sold out in just more than three hours. She said she wasn’t aware of any plans to change the ticket-sales process for the next concert.
“We’re always going to re-evaluate and reassess things, but, to my knowledge, I don’t even know that this is something that they are looking at right now,” Lewis said.
Alumni weren’t told they could buy tickets to the concert, which alumna Anna Mercado said she disagreed with. She said alumni, like her, have made donations to the university after graduating and should be allowed to attend university events like this.
“We spent all our money there for our education,” she said. “It’s at least something they can allow us to do.”
While Mercado said the Drake concert should have been available to more people, but the event shouldn’t have been open to the public.
“It’s good that they kept it to the students, the faculty and staff, but they should’ve opened it to UTA alumni,” she said. “At least we have pride in our school and take care of it instead of total strangers who aren’t alumni who wouldn’t care for the facility like we would.”
http://www.theshorthorn.com/index.ph...e-ticket-sales
Rush and buy your tickets before it gets sold out
