After a weeklong fight for tickets for the highly anticipated Feb. 23 Men’s Basketball game at Madison Square Garden vs. UConn, St. John’s University students have voiced frustration due to lack of ticketing. 

On Monday, Feb. 18, students gathered outside the Carnesecca Ticket Office to purchase tickets for the student sections — 20 rows of seats in both sections two and eight at The Garden. After approximately one-third of the line was served, students were notified that the tickets were “sold out.” 

Students were frustrated at tickets being sold out within minutes, despite only limited tickets being sold. 

Senior Mason Wood expressed his disappointment at not being able to secure a ticket:

“It is their most anticipated game in recent memory and they have made tickets inaccessible for the students that have supported them through their lowest lows.”

Students often have difficulty figuring out when exactly the tickets for each game go on sale, which creates even more frustration surrounding the ticketing process.

“Concession workers explained that although they had repeatedly said that Tuesday would be the first day of sales, a majority of tickets were given away the previous Friday,” senior Aldo Torres said.

With such high demand and little to no knowledge surrounding sale times, students are provided a small window to purchase their tickets. 

On Feb. 19, students received an email from Red Storm Sports that stated “a very limited amount of student tickets” were left for purchase on Feb. 20 starting at 9 a.m. Again, tickets sold out within approximately 25 minutes.

Junior Laura Fierro described her failure to get tickets:

“I got here at 8:30 and the line was pretty long. They should say we have this amount of tickets and give out that number,” she said. “I feel bad for everyone behind us since we had some hope. But for the people behind us, it was pointless. There should be a little more structure.”

Adding that many students were “cutting” the line, Fierro emphasized the need for structure to limit the chaos that led to Public Safety having to perform crowd control and telling students to “disperse.”

Many students remained after the news of the tickets selling out to express frustration and even enter a verbal altercation with the ticket sellers. 

Senior Katie McCarty waited 45 minutes with the knowledge that there was “a very limited number” of tickets. 

“We just saw the fight happening since they said there were 45 tickets and 34 people got tickets,” she said. 

Students expressed frustration at the ticket booth workers once they realized they were unable to receive a ticket despite the number that was expected to be sold. Expressing anger at waiting for no reason, this verbal altercation concerned the entire process of the ticket sales.

Law student Alfred Polizzotto was one of the few to be successful:

“I got there around 8:15 and the line was probably around 25 people. The line got much longer around 8:45 and stretched to the back grass. I was able to get a ticket at 9:15, but they sold out 10 minutes later.” 

When asked how students can guarantee tickets when waiting before the office even opens is not enough, Ed Kull, vice president and athletic director, said in a statement to The Torch:

“We encourage all students to purchase season tickets at the beginning of the year to guarantee their seat. Student tickets are not a revenue generator for Athletics; the price maintains a value perspective on the ticket compared to being free and perceiving no value.”

He continued by addressing the conflicts with purchasing tickets for the UConn game. 

“Additionally, we released more seats for Sunday’s game for students beginning at 9 a.m. on Thursday and urge students to purchase their tickets for the Seton Hall game on March 1. Our students make a profound impact as our sixth man, and we need as many as possible to support our men’s basketball program as we head into March.” 

The statement concluded by expressing the excitement surrounding the “increased interest of our student body in attending games,” adding that “our students are pivotal to our success and are the backbone of creating a lively atmosphere at Madison Square Garden.”

Questions surrounding any changes to the ticket distribution process or the reasoning behind selling these limited tickets in increments were not answered.

Tickets for the March 1 game at Madison Square Garden are currently being sold. More information for the ticket office can be found here.