It was 7:10 a.m., and political science senior David Tidwell was struggling to buy his OU-Texas ticket after the tickets went on sale at 7 a.m. Tuesday
Luckily for Tidwell, slower ticket sales made it possible for him to buy the ticket, even after experiencing technical difficulties.
Tidwell said he woke up at 6:45 a.m. to prepare to buy the tickets, but could not buy tickets as quickly as he had hoped after sales went live.
Tidwell called the OU Athletics Ticket Office to see if they could help with the problem, but the ticket office couldn’t find any problems with the website and told Tidwell his Internet may be causing the problem, likely because he was living in student residential housing.
Even though the Internet-purchase option was not working for Tidwell, the ticket office would not allow him to purchase tickets over the phone.
Many OU student football fans like Tidwell woke up Tuesday morning to get their hands on some of the 5,400 designated OU student tickets for the OU-Texas game, also known as the Red River Rivalry. Tickets became available at 7 a.m. for online purchasers who hold season tickets, and the ticket office opened its doors at 10 a.m. for students not wishing to purchase their tickets online.
The tickets were sold on a first-come, first-serve basis, said Kenny Mossman, athletic department spokesman.
Tickets sold slower this year than in 2009, when the ticket office sold out of tickets in about 30 minutes. In 2008, tickets were on sale for about two and a half hours before selling out.
Most of this year’s tickets were sold online, Mossman said. When the ticket offices opened for walk-up sales options, Mossman said he didn’t see anyone ready to purchase tickets.
By 10:30 a.m., after both options were available to students, about 4,000 of the 5,400 tickets had been sold.
Tidwell was one of the 4,000 who were able to buy a ticket during that time. He said he quickly switched to using his cell phone’s 3G network, hoping for better results.
“I was having all these issues. I don’t know if it was the Internet or the website or if it was my Internet in my apartment,” Tidwell said. “I messed around with that for about 10 minutes, then I tried to use my phone, so I turned the Wi-Fi off on my phone and just used the 3G network, and then I was able to buy it.”
Some students didn’t have any problems buying tickets.
Aviation management senior Andres Charry had marked his calendar a week in advance to ensure his spot at the big rivalry game.
“I woke up at 6:50 a.m. and I made sure my computer was connected to the network with the Ethernet connection,” Charry said. “I didn’t rely on the Wi-Fi and pretty much logged onto SoonerSports.com and went through all the log-in stuff, and stayed there for five minutes constantly refreshing till I got to the 7 o’clock mark.
“I was pretty sure I got the first ticket available.”
Charry said he actually knew a few people who were already selling their ticket because they cannot go because of work or prior family engagements.
The highest price so far was $142, not too far off from the school’s $110 face value, Charry said.
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jkuehn 8 months, 2 weeks ago
Why does this article not list the times for last year? The sales went into the afternoon. Is that because it makes the entire story moot?
angelato 8 months, 2 weeks ago
about 8 paragraphs down
"Tickets sold slower this year than in 2009, when the ticket office sold out of tickets in about 30 minutes. In 2008, tickets were on sale for about two and a half hours before selling out."
thenewmattbruenig 8 months, 2 weeks ago
Yeah but what about 2010? When did the ticket office finally sell out of tickets this year? Are they still available? You leave a lot of unanswered questions that if you did answer this would maybe be a decent article.
Also, Im sure interviewing your boyfriend gives you a lot of credibility but were there other students with issues? Was this an isolated event or did website problems cause the slow sales?