University students took to Twitter to voice their opinions regarding the student ticketing system before the Auburn vs. Vanderbilt football game when Leah Simms, junior in early childhood education, posted a photo of a seemingly sparse student section just minutes before kickoff.
Simms said she works in the executive suites every game and hasn’t been able to watch from the student section this year.
“I have been able to look down from above and see my fellow students experience it,” Simms said. “But I think with the new ticket policy, there are many reasons that there aren’t as many people in the stands this year.”
Work obligations, academic duties and quality time with visiting fans have contributed to the lack of attendance in the student section, Simms said.
“Whether they find a ticket or guest pass or not, students’ friends will still come down for the weekend,” Simms said. “If those visitors don’t have a ticket to the game, their hosts won’t skip being with them to go to the game.”
Simms said the additional charges for guest passes may also deter students from attending football games and sitting in the student section.
“I have heard from many people that they feel as if they already give enough money to the University to have to pay an extra fee for their friends to enjoy it for one Saturday,” Simms said. “This leads people to not even attempt to get one of those few guest passes.”
Simms said the positive feedback from the photo she tweeted was mostly from students and alumni who share frustrations with the ticketing changes.
“I have actually never been on twitter as often as I have been this past week,” Simms said. “I was excited to see the amount of people responding through either sharing my tweet or responding. Now realizing the actual impact of it, people are starting to speak up more about it and they’re angry, as they have the right to be.”
There wasn’t much negative feedback from her tweet, Simms said.
“The little that I did get, I tried to respond appropriately and speak for the entire student body with my answers to them,” Simms said. “I definitely feel like they had something to do with the decision made, considering that at least one of them is an employee of Auburn University.”
Simms said she carefully considered her options and consulted friends before responding to negative feedback and feels the result was a good representation of the student body.
“They want to blame the students for our lack of support, when we would give it all if we had the ability and time to,” Simms said. “When the first negative response occurred, I did take a second before responding.”
Though she believes block seating is a great SGA accomplishment, Simms said she believes there’s room for improvement where the new ticketing policy is concerned.
“I think block seating is great as it is,” Simms said. “I like that it is just a small portion of the student section so other students can find great seats in other areas of our section in the stadium. With regards to the student ticket policy that was implemented this year, I definitely feel like all of that should be removed.”
Simms said she believes the ticket policy from years past worked well.
“Many know the saying, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’” Simms said. “I feel like that saying comes into play with previous ticketing system.”
Simms said she’s happy her tweet gave other students and alumni to voice their concerns about the new ticketing policy as well.
“I feel like the visual was great to include as people could actually see what was happening and have that perspective of someone looking down from above and how an outsider will view our students,” Simms said. “I am very happy that it reached such a wide audience. I am a little disappointed in the feedback from SGA, however.”
Simms said she’s not received any response from SGA representatives regarding her tweet.
“I am aware of their need to look unbiased and also supportive of their own decision, but they claim to be the voice of Auburn students and that they are ‘serving and promoting the individual student,’” Simms said. “I don’t feel like they are listening to the students. In seeing the tweet, I don’t expect them to make a public comment about it, at least not yet, but I expected at least half an email with questions or some sort of response.”
Having spoken with friends and fellow students, Simms said she feels she’s not alone in her frustrations.
“They claim to listen/read all feedback given to them and give some sort of response that ensures the students that they care and the concerns will be discussed, but I have not seen or heard anything from SGA about the negative comments that they have ever received about the new student ticketing policy,” Simms said. “I’ve heard multiple comments from students that SGA isn’t listening to the students and I am feeling the same way.”
Wyatt Boyd, sophomore in mechanical engineering, took to his twitter account to comment in agreement with Simm’s earlier message.
Boyd said his experience with ticketing and the student section this year haven’t been in line with what he’s come to expect from the University.
“I have been unable to get friends tickets to get into games due to the pricing of the guest pass for the game,” Boyd said. “Last year, there was no issue. This year, it’s near impossible and I feel that most students that have friends come down for a weekend say, ‘why bother going to the game?’”
Boyd said it should be “common sense” for Auburn students not to sell tickets to a rival fan base.
“I think they [SGA] can improve this system by not charging for a guest pass,” Boyd said. “The guest pass penalizes us for wanting to bring more people to the game, which is what they want right? To fill the student section?”
Though he does not like the current ticketing policy, Boyd said he is hopeful SGA will take students’ suggestions to heart.
“The SGA, after noticing the turnouts this year, is hopefully doing everything they can to fix this broken system,” Boyd said. “It sounds like a good idea on paper to restrict access to only Auburn students, however once it plays out in reality it’s an embarrassment to the school and to the football team.”
Hunter Gibson, SGA executive vice president of programs, said SGA is currently working on analyzing their incoming feedback.
“As always, SGA is seeking feedback from students about the game day experience,” Gibson said. “This is for the entire student section, not just block seating.”
With the football season coming to a close soon, Gibson said SGA is still gathering feedback.
“We are continuing to analyze feedback from students, studying how other SEC schools are tackling some of the same issues and meeting with the Athletic Department to determine options that may be available,” Gibson said.
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