Marquette Athletics will roll out additional Marquette Basketball student section tickets on Thursday, after what was supposed to be a routine email inquiring a final sale of the remaining student section tickets did not make it to the inboxes of some students last Tuesday.
Barstool Marquette posted on X, last Tuesday slamming Marquette Athletics for the issue.
“Terrible job by @muathletics today. The promised link to buy tickets was only sent out to a portion of the student body. A shame that seniors will miss watching their last season.” The post read.
However, Marquette Athletics said that an “IT security issue involving campus IT and Ticketmaster” was responsible for the email not sending to every student.
“I think what we are hearing from both ends is that it was something to do with a firewall security issue,” Brian Morgan, associate director of athletics for marketing and ticketing, said.
Because of this issue, on Thursday at 9 a.m., Marquette Athletics will expand their inventory and roll out another sale of tickets which will be sent to the same group of students who did not originally receive the email last Tuesday.
The number of additional inventory has not yet been released to the Marquette Wire.
“The inventory will be very limited, but still a chance for students who experienced the issue to get their hands on some tickets, Morgan said, Monday afternoon.
Now, more student section tickets than usual will be in the hands of Marquette students, leading some to question how, logistically, those with the additional student section tickets will be able to secure a seat for sell out games like National Marquette Day.
“Now what I am kind of thinking is that if I get a season ticket (Thursday) and I go to the games, am I going to be kicking someone out?” Izzy Hagenbuch, senior in the College of Education, said.
Marquette Athletics says no. With the surplus of tickets, if the student sections become full, they said student section tickets will then become valid for access to the standing room only area in the Fiserv Forum. Athletics plans to communicate this with the Fiserv Forum to ensure there are no issues or confusions.
Fiserv Forum classifies standing room only tickets as “Wherever fans can find space within the arena that aren’t seats are free for fans with these tickets to watch,”
On the gallery level of the Fiserv Forum, there are drink rails that are specifically placed for fans to stand and watch various games. The Panorama Club, which is located on the highest level of the stadium, giving fans a birds eye view of the arena is also classified as a standing room.
The initiative now gives a number of students the chance to secure student season tickets for the upcoming season.
Per routine, Marquette Athletics released a portion of their season tickets last May for returning students. They then released the remaining inventory of season tickets in the fall for first-year students and anyone else who had not purchased tickets the previous spring. The Tuesday sale was a small amount of tickets the office had left after the spring and fall sales had already sold out.
Morgan said that even with the email issue, those tickets in particular sold out in ten minutes last Tuesday.
“With Shaka and the excitement that the team has built throughout the last two years, support from the students has been high,” Morgan said.
Hagenbuch said she was counting on last Tuesday’s final sale for her to secure her tickets for the season.
“I was honestly not even expecting them to send an email saying they had more tickets. So, when I got that email, I thought I would try to do it again and then on Tuesday. I was refreshing my email from 9 to 9:30 and then I was like ‘oh ok I guess this isn’t working,'” Hagenbuch said.
On Wednesday Sept. 6, Morgan said that the athletics staff had been working with Campus IT to not only resolve the technical issue, but to also make it up to those students who didn’t receive the original email.
“We have been able to find a way to send emails to all students on those lists a different way through campus IT,” Morgan said in an email to the Marquette Wire last Thursday.
The expanded inventory of student section tickets will exclusively go on sale to the group of students who did not receive the email last Tuesday.
This story was written by TJ Dysart. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @tjjdysart
