No more scalping

For almost all of us, school being back in session means one thing: football season.

And this season we have the added benefit of not having to wait in line at the Coliseum to pick up our tickets – well, for home games at least. Our tickets, instead, will be loaded onto our student ID cards ensuring they will never be lost.

Should you misplace your card, you can pay $5 to get a new one, complete with tickets.

And now there are roughly 1,000 more tickets added to the potluck – because football players, cheerleaders and band members are no longer able to buy tickets with the rest of us.

The University’s Athletic Association made these changes to prevent students from scalping tickets. Under the new system, if students are unable or unwilling to attend a game, they can either add their extra ticket to a pool – where it will be distributed to other students at no cost – or let it go to waste.

And we may have to cut tailgating short. The lower-level seats are now dished out on a first-come, first-serve basis. In order to secure one of those coveted seats we need to be wearing a wristband, which will be distributed to the first fans who arrive to claim them. Anyone caught without a band will be removed from the section.

And students’ football tickets have been stolen in the past. Now ticketless fans will be vying for our student IDs. It would be a good idea to keep an eye on those, and be careful not to lose them downtown on Friday night – card services isn’t open on Saturdays.

While these changes will undoubtedly lower the rate of student scalping – unless some students decide to rent out their IDs – they seem to be detracting a lot from our beloved Saturdays in Athens.

The majority of us crowd into the lower sections with the band to feel like a part of the action. Now, if we don’t cut tailgating short, we will be relegated to the nosebleed sections.

On the upside, some ticketless students will get into games for free via the new lottery. And diehard fans who are willing to camp out by the Sanford gates – but not outside Stegeman – will finally have access to the best seats.

The Red & Black editorial staff is wary of this new system. We think it’s a good way to streamline the ticket process, and it has proven successful at other schools. But it may take some time before all the kinks are worked out.

- Megan Otto for the editorial board.