Deadline to order season football tickets approaches

Exponent file photo A group of Purdue fans in the student section at the 2001 Rose Bowl make their presence known. Students have two more weeks to order season tickets for the fall.

By Keith Thomas
Editor in Chief

Students who are hoping to enjoy the convenience of ordering football season tickets on their Purdue fee statement have only two more weeks to do so.

The system of ordering tickets and including the price as a part of general tuition and fees on a student's bill, which has a July 6 deadline, was done differently this year.

In years past, students had to manually check a box on the fee statement and re-figure the total owed to Purdue, then send the payment.

This year, however, students were able to order their football season tickets on Purdue's SSINFO, which is a student service that students use a personal login to obtain things such as grades and class schedules. After students ordered their tickets, the price would show up on their fee statement when they received it in the mail.

"I would think it would be much easier to order this way," said Glen Tompkins, senior associate athletic director. "My understanding is that (students) could do it from here, from home — as long as they had access to the Internet, they could do it. So, I would certainly think that would be an easier way of doing it."

According to ticket office manager George Ade, if students miss this deadline, they would have to order their season tickets the conventional way — in person at the ticket window or over the phone. The manual fee statement option that the athletic department used for several years will not be available.

"As of last week, only 153 students had used SSINFO (to order tickets), so still a long way to go, but there's still time," said Ade. "Hopefully the students take advantage of it."

Basic student season tickets cost $72. Another option, Ade said, is known as the Platinum Card, which provides tickets for all sports including men's basketball. Ade said more than 1,000 students utilized this option last year. This year, even with the Platinum Card, students will still be put into the consolidated and relocated student section. A similar package, excluding men's basketball is known as the Gold Card and costs $90.

Purdue faculty and staff season tickets cost $154 and general public season tickets cost $192.

FIGHTIN' FOR IRISH TICKETS

Single game football tickets went on sale last week for all Purdue home games except the Sept. 15 contest with instate rival Notre Dame.

The primary reason that single game tickets for the annual game versus the Irish aren't on sale yet is because of the students.

"We're protecting student season ticket sales up until Aug. 27, which basically takes students through their first week of class," Ade said. "If we have Notre Dame tickets available after that time, then we would open up the sale to anyone."

One group of people, however, is eligible to purchase Notre Dame single game tickets already.

"Single game tickets for Notre Dame can be ordered by John Purdue Club members," said Ade. "That's the only group right now."

Tompkins said that this is just one of the benefits of being a member of the John Purdue Club.

"We have to use whatever inventory we have to try to encourage voluntary contributions to the athletic department," said Tompkins. "The John Purdue Club funds all of our athletic scholarships, both instate and out-of-state.

"They ought to then get some advantage over just a regular season ticket holder."

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

With more than three months until Purdue's first game, tickets for three of Purdue's road games are already sold out.

Purdue's first game of the season, a Sept. 2 contest at Cincinnati, is sold out, but Ade said there is still an option available for fans who want to make the drive.

"Our allotment at Cincinnati is sold out; however, people can call Cincinnati directly and order tickets from their ticket office," said Ade.

Purdue's Oct. 13 contest at Michigan is also sold out.

Michigan and Cincinnati were sold out by May 15.

Despite Michigan having the largest capacity in college football — more than 110,000 fans fit in the "Big House" — Wolverine officials allotted only 2,000 tickets for Boilermaker fans.

"They have such a huge waiting list, they're so restrictive with how many tickets they give out," said Ade.

Michigan, as well as all Big Ten Conference football teams, is required to allot 1,500 tickets for the fans of visiting teams.

Cincinnati allotted 3,500 tickets and Ohio State sent 4,000 tickets for Purdue purchasing.

Tickets for the Nov. 10 game at Ohio State, with the exception of John Purdue Club members, is sold out.

Ade said Purdue's last game of the regular season — the Nov. 24 game at Indiana — still has many tickets left, as does the Sept. 29 contest at Minnesota. Tickets for the Old Oaken Bucket game against the Hoosiers are $32 and tickets for the matchup with the Golden Gophers in Minneapolis are $29.50.

Deadline to order season football tickets approaches

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