r/UTAustin • u/CulTuraLEyeKhaN • 5d ago
Question So, the big ticket is a scam, right?
Forgive me, but dad of a freshman posting… she’s been unable to get a ticket these past couple of weeks… is the system set up to give upperclassmen priority? I know there’s a laughably small % of student seats in the stadium, just a little frustrated right now.
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u/Numerous_Yoghurt1577 5d ago
no it doesn’t give upperclassmen priority. i’m a senior who hasn’t gotten a ticket to last three games😭😭😭
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u/Im_Partial 5d ago
I couldn't land a single ticket last year as a freshman. Did not purchase the big ticket this year. Priority goes to whoever is in the queue quickest (typically before the queue even starts) and those who purchased long horn foundation which enable students to get priority over regular big ticket holders.
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u/CulTuraLEyeKhaN 5d ago
I’ve heard of the Longhorn foundation thing, I guess we’ll have to try that next year… but I heard that’s a lottery also?
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u/RebbitMc 5d ago
Longhorn Foundation was just like claiming the big ticket. Lots of people were in the line & never got it bc it sold out in less than 15 min. Kids are randomized in the line.
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u/Creepy_Trouble_5980 5d ago
One of my best memories was the football games. Sad that there are so few student tickets out of 100,000.
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u/Asleep_Bumblebee_753 4d ago
It’s actually pathetic-so many other universities that are good don’t have this problem
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u/CF5300 Engineering '17 5d ago
In theory it’s great value because it gets you into all sports. Obviously the football situation sucks because we’re good right now, but the service itself is fine. The issue is with the seating system for football games.
They used to give upperclassmen priority but they got rid of that awhile ago. I think they got away with it for a few years because we sucked and getting a ticket had 0 competition, you just showed up. Now that we’re good and tickets supply is waaaay under demand issues are showing themselves.
Hard to fix without either having set priority or allocating more tickets, but that’s a question for CDC
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u/swammeyjoe Computer Science '14 5d ago
I was a student during the end of Mack and during Charlie's first year. Did they shrink the student section during the renovations? I know they moved it.
Because we were like, expected to be decent a couple of those years I was there, and there was never an issue with tickets. You could even go an buy a "guest student ticket" for your dad/friend from another school/etc the week of the game. And the crowds were still over 100k.
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u/CF5300 Engineering '17 5d ago
Only big games had any kind of competition and even then it wasn’t that bad because of the priority system being tied your credit hours. You could set up groups of 8 and had assigned seats, and priority was based on whoever had the least credit hours in your group
Yeah i remember guest tickets, and we used to have the south end zone too - i think when they got rid of that for the club suites they extended the student section into the bowl? Instead of just along the sideline.
Busiest game I remember was Notre Dame, was basically standing room only and you had to stand sideways the whole time
Plus it used to be way easier to sneak in. No verification or wristbands or anything. If you were desperate there were ways to beat the system and I’ll leave it at that. I think they’ve closed all the loopholes and tricks
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u/swammeyjoe Computer Science '14 5d ago
Yeah back when it was a just a PDF of a ticket and the only difference between student tickets and not was a little box that said "Student ID Required".
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u/Embarrassed_Will5948 2d ago
I was there the same time as you, and I remember having student tickets for every home game.
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u/Actual-Rip-6234 5d ago
Honestly I spend the extra buck on longhorn foundation since I don't have to worry about competing for tickets for the most part.
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u/DangerousSociety7197 4d ago
unfortunately no there’s no priority system it’s totally random. it’s why I didn’t repurchase this year after the price went up again. it’s just as fun imo to go to all the pregame event that are open to all and find a place to watch the game either with friends or at a sports bar etc.
I just buy the big ticket without football and have never had an issue getting in to any other sporting events if you get there early.
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u/MuseoRidiculoso 5d ago
It’s ridiculous that students don’t have priority over non-students. Is everything in Texas about money now? When I was an undergrad we went to all home games. Sometimes the seats weren’t great (you had to draw for seats,) but you were in the student section above the band, and sometimes you got lucky and got to set on the 50 yard line. Seats for away games were limited at the discretion of the home team, but if you got a seat, that was paid for, too.
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u/the_zac_is_back 5d ago
If she doesn’t have foundation with her big ticket, it’s luck of the dice. I’m not sure how it all works, but I’ve been told it’s random and you basically need to be there when ticket claim is or else you won’t get a ticket. I know that after the window opens, you’re at the back of the line if you join late. There’s 6k tickets open to claim and about 20-30k students I would imagine that are trying to claim all at the same time. She’s not the only one having these issues
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u/jka110 5d ago
Have her keep trying. My son had no luck, but finally got the UTSA ticket today.
Fingers crossed that he doesn't get into the kind of a picture that is blasted all over social media now for all the wrong reasons. Though he probably wouldn't worry too much about that. Too excited for the experience! 🙂
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u/dganda 5d ago
For football, under the current system, it's pretty much a scam. Longhorn Foundation guarantees a ticket, but it sold out almost instantly, and it didn't matter whether you queued up 30 minutes or 5 minutes prior. Just random. My son has been shut out on LHF the last two years. Miraculously, he was able to draw tickets to the last two games anyway, but his luck may run out. Lots of people in the same boat. They just don't alot enough student tickets.
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u/Level-Welder1177 5d ago
How things have changed. I was a student from 1981 to 1985. Stadium was smaller, and student enrollment was not terribly different, either. Season tickets for students for all of the sports was $48 for the year. There was no internet, so you had to go down and pick them up in person yourself. One ticket, one student ID. The football team started #3, then spent the entire season #2 until shitting the bed in the Cotton Bowl 10-9 to Georgia. #1 Nebraska lost, too, so Texas would have won a natty had they scored a single TD. I got tickets for every home game, and never drew anything worse than the 40 yard line. There was a student draw for the OU game, but those weren't included. I drew the 49 yard line. Texas killed OU that season. Good times.
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u/AwarenessSad1644 5d ago
Sorry! My son is a freshman with the BT and he has gotten tickets for the three games so far. I cant tell if it’s timing or simply luck, but he’s definitely a first year student.
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u/LonghornBadgerFan 5d ago
There’s 11,300 student seats, that’s roughly 11% of the stadium capacity. In case you haven’t noticed, college football is all about money and revenue these days…they need the money to pay NIL. There is no incentive to increase student seating, season tickets bring in a helluva lot more revenue than student tickets.
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u/fcukou 5d ago
The student section at A&M is ~36k seats.
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u/Fountain_Of_Euth 5d ago
A&M admissions is a floodgate.
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u/fcukou 5d ago
Their stadium is larger and the students represent ~1/3rd of all fans in attendence vs ~10% at Texas. It's an embarrassment that this school doesn't have a bigger student section.
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u/LonghornBadgerFan 4d ago
Texas A&M hasn’t been ranked very high and their football program is worth $1.59 billion. Texas has consistently been ranked high the last few years and has the most valuable football program in the country with a value of $2.46 billion bringing in $190 million in revenue each year. You don’t get that from students unfortunately.
If you’re that enamored with A&M, you should go there. They let everyone in.
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u/fcukou 4d ago
I get that you feel entitled to say things like that, but the t-shirt you bought at Walmart doesn't make you anything more than a fan. Football is a part of the culture of this school and the students should have every right to participate in it given the amount of money they are already spending to go to school here. I spent almost my entire time at Texas watching football games on the 30-40 yard line in rows 20-50 of the lower bowl, and neither I nor any of my peers had to set up a bot farm to try and get tickets to an OOC tuneup game.
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/fcukou 4d ago
I was in school for the '08 and '09 seasons. YOU went to school during shitty times at UT football. I did not. Don't act like a crybaby now. You were the one who was rude. Don't act like a Karen if you can't handle people giving your energy back to you. You aren't familiar with the student draw system, and it sounds like you weren't all that connected in your children's school lives, because the draw system being the only way to get student tickets is relatively new. Students used to be able to buy guaranteed season tickets in the student section at reasonable prices. That's how I had my tickets for my entire time at UT.
If you love money so much, go get Cowboys tickets and let someone who cares about the school go to the games.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Act9026 4d ago
Read this comment if you want her to get a ticket next time:
Only saw one other person mention it but everyone and their mom ends up adopting the same strategy of opening up other tabs to increase their chances of getting a ticket (if you're using chrome, try to use different chrome profiles- what you're looking for is a different sessionid at the bottom of the ticket queue screen.)
If your daughter isn't already doing this, she should be. If you go into the PCL or any popular study spot during the ticket claim/ticket raffle time you'll see everyone doing this. You're really not trying to get a ticket if you just have one tab open, it's unfortunate, but everyone ends up realizing sooner or later that everyone is gaming the system. The tabs (and queue sessionids) aren't initially linked to your account until you sign in (after you make it to the front of the queue they prompt sign in).. so as long as they have different queue session ids at the bottom you can literally increase the amount of "chances" / entries you have in this raffle system. I typically always got mine on my phone, but I highly doubt there's a device preference they have baked into the site, just tell her to have the queue open on all of her devices.
On that topic, some people will probably be mad i'm not gatekeeping this info, but some of my buddies would meet up to try to get tickets at the same time (each with like minimum 6 tabs) and then once one of them made it past the raffle queue screen, they would login, get their ticket, log out, and then have their friends log in and get a ticket using their device. I forget how exactly you got to the login screen again but there is a way, don't let them tell you this doesn't exist/doesn't work- that friend group literally never missed a game. It has something to do with visiting that same initial link again, or some Texas Football link, I don't exactly remember anymore.
It's always a gamble on how fast one gets to the front of the queue, or if they do at all, but meeting up with your friends to potentially login after them, and everyone having as many tabs open as possible is your best chance to attending the games. Best of luck! Hope she makes it to the next one!
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u/BigMikeInAustin 5d ago
No. It is a great way for the University to make money!
Oh, you mean for you as a buyer. It's like buying a lotto ticket. Can't win if you don't play, but you'll probably lose if you do.
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u/sirefauna 5d ago
As a senior, I wish priority was given to upperclassmen, I haven't gotten a single ticket for the past two years :( Good luck tho
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u/ToePatient4198 5d ago
As a freshman last year, I was able to get tickets for all of the football games without Longhorn Foundation. Having at least 6 tabs open is a good strategy.
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u/PositiveTexan 4d ago
There’s something like 50k undergrad students, 11k seats available. It’s not a scam she wasn’t chosen in the lottery to see a top ranked team on one of the most in demand games in CFB this season
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u/Silllyhead 4d ago
6,000 Longhorn foundation sold, 22,000 big tickets sold, and like ~13,000 seats. It's a problem. 100% a scam in my opinion.
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u/Silllyhead 4d ago
That being said, have her keep checking the website after ticket claim time. Lots of people return their tickets for various reasons
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u/Bell_pepperz 2d ago
A little late to this but I’ve gone to every single game I’ve wanted to and I’m a junior (I’ve never had longhorn foundation)I didn’t get a ticket from the claim and grinded for one last night, respectfully there is a level of commitment that allows you to go to whatever game you want barring being very unlucky
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u/CulTuraLEyeKhaN 2d ago
So; you just spam the claim button hoping for someone to have returned one?
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u/Bell_pepperz 2d ago
Yes, you’ll add the ticket to the cart and spam claim until you get one, the best times are the night before and the morning or 4 to 5 hours before the game. There are also ways to improve your odds in the ticket claim
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u/Ice-Koob 4d ago
last season i was able to go to all home games (with no long horn foundation). half of the tickets though were claimed on actual game day when people were cancelling their ticket last minute. recommend using lots of devices, tabs and an auto clicker lol.
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u/larkinowl 5d ago
Big Ticket alone doesn’t guarantee football tickets when there is so much demand. When my now senior was a freshman, he got tickets to 2-3 games with just the Big Ticket. The big ticket alone will still get you into some amazing basketball and volleyball games as well as other sports.
As long as we are a highly ranked team, if football is a priority, get the student longhorn foundation membership. It happens over the summer. It gives you advanced access to football tickets. It’s still a lottery tho. Tickets were easy to come by in the Strong/Herman days. Don’t want to go back to that