Boston College Athletics
DeFilippo Discusses Basketball Student Ticket Sales
September 29, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Sept. 29, 2005
An open letter from Boston College Director of Athletics Gene DeFilippo:
Dear Friends,
As you may know, the BC Athletics Ticket Office put student season men's basketball and ice hockey tickets on sale and sold our entire allotment of basketball tickets, accounting for approximately 25% of all available seats in Conte Forum, on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. As various accounts of last night's events have begun to unfold, we felt it was important to share some information with you.
This past spring and summer, as we began preparations to transition into the Atlantic Coast Conference, we made the decision to change our method of student basketball season ticket sales out of fairness to students who wished to attend our games and to our team, which deserves the best home-court advantage possible. For the past several years, approximately 1,200 student season tickets were purchased in advance but never picked up, even after repeated efforts to contact the purchasers. This left many students who wished to attend our games out in the cold and resulted in empty seats in Conte Forum on many occasions. The system was broken, and we needed to fix it. Although we realized there was no perfect method of student ticket distribution, we consulted with student leaders on our campus and representatives from our sister institutions in order to devise what we felt was the best possible plan. Our goal was to devise a fair and equitable system.
Throughout this entire process, we have tried our best to communicate effectively with our students. When we encountered an unexpected snafu with our online ticketing system, we devised a new plan and immediately met with representatives from The Heights to explain the situation. We undertook an aggressive communications effort to inform our students of the new ticket distribution procedure. Last week, we emailed all students to inform them of the plan. On Wednesday afternoon, we sent another email reiterating the fact that the tickets would be sold on a first-come, first-served basis beginning Thursday morning. We also informed the students that the Conte Forum concourses would be open throughout the night. We had BC Police and Athletics Department personnel on hand to ensure an orderly process, and we provided pizza to the students.
By 1 p.m. Wednesday, lines had started to form. Late in the evening, the line stretched around the Conte Forum concourse and outside to Robsham Theater. As tickets were being sold on a first-come, first-served basis, we made the decision (around midnight) to open the ticket windows when the number of students in line exceeded the number of available tickets. At this point, it would not have mattered if we opened the windows at 12 midnight or noon the next day. Rather than forcing students to wait all night, thus jeopardizing study and class time on Thursday, our Athletics Department staff and campus security officials worked through the night to ensure an orderly and safe process.
We realize some students who were unable to purchase tickets are disappointed, and we are sorry for their disappointment. We are grateful for the unprecedented level of support and enthusiasm our students have shown for our men's basketball team this season and for the orderly manner in which they undertook the sales process last night.
Sincerely,
Gene DeFilippo, Director of Athletics
