I was mad when I missed out on Girl Talk tickets the day after they went on sale. Ditto that for B.J. Novak. So when I heard that Flight of the Conchords was coming, I vowed that I WOULD get tickets.
But upon arrival at Norris at 8:45 a.m. on Monday, the morning of the sale, nearly two hours before the tickets were set be available, I found myself roughly 270th in line. I was livid.
To begin, a few points. First, A&O Productions receives a large portion of funding from the Student Activities Fee, the largest of any group. In fact, $73,245 for Fall Quarter according to an article in The Daily in November.
Second, every student pays the $44 per quarter Student Activities Fee. Now, while I furiously counted the people in front of me to see if I would be in group lucky enough to get one of nearly 1,000 tickets, A&O made an announcement. "Would you please raise you hand if you plan on buying the maximum limit of four tickets."
All roughly 269 hands in front of me shot up. Now maybe I have too little faith in my fellow man, but I fail to believe those people all need four tickets for them and their friends. At least a few probably felt opportunity nipping at their elbows and moved to scalp.
I think that it is absurd for anyone to arrive at Norris to buy tickets two hours in advance of sale and be turned away. I think it is absurd that this system is interfering with schoolwork, as at least two people in my earshot, including my roommate, were skipping class to be in line because they wanted tickets so badly. I think it is absurd that A&O is spending some of my $44 dollars to give tickets to 250 people in line ahead of me so that they can scalp those tickets back to me and take another of my $40 away.
I feel a bit like a man backing a con artist so that he may, in turn, be better equipped to rob me. I know it sounds a lot like sour grapes, but I honestly tried to get tickets this time. I didn't assume I could get them whenever I pleased as I had with BJ Novak and Girl Talk. I showed up early and was still denied. This is a student event, and it shouldn't be just for the first 250 students in line.
2008 Woodie Awards
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Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Steve
posted 2/26/08 @ 11:17 AM CST
Thank you Taylor for writing this. Dead on.
Any student scalping tickets should be banned from purchasing tickets to any future A&O events. If A&O wants to charge more per ticket to finance bigger acts, then that is up to them. (Continued…)
a bigger problem
posted 2/26/08 @ 11:35 AM CST
The problem is far worse than the A&O ticket limit. A&O sets their limits with two goals in mind, to sell out and to get as many people tickets as possible. (Continued…)
So true...
posted 2/27/08 @ 11:40 AM CST
It really is so incredibly frustrating that it's damn near impossible to get tickets. I hate that I'm paying for OTHER people to enjoy these concerts!!
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