I had a couple folks text me reports that the students were moved from the normal courtside location, to upper level seats. i understand students were not back to campus, but if those who camped out were shuffled upstairs… that would be a pretty lame move. i hope we didn’t trip over our own feet again.
I heard the police ushered some out of the building. Sounds like ticket office screwed up, sold 3 game holiday packages and some of those were in student section.
We did. I received an email in early December from Florida Basketball Ticket Office titled Be A Rowdy Reptile. It included the UNF, Stetson and Tennessee game for a very reasonable price. I purchased the Tennessee tickets and the tickets sold out quickly for that promotion. Upon arriving at the game last night, there was a huge line in which the students who had returned from break were waiting to get in. All the gates had long lines and it took us nearly 30 minutes to get in. Either the students were not notified that their tickets were sold for the game last night or they didn’t check their email, but there was a lot of confusion concerning this. There were reports that the police had to be involved. Either way, somebody screwed up.
That’s one way to get students to not come back. Make them miss a once in a college career opportunity to see the Gators beat a #1. Who is paying the people that make these decisions?
I sat in the Rowdy section last night. Bought the tickets for me and my son as a Christmas present back in early December. Was assigned seats, section 15. The police did escort a few rows of students out, but after a few minutes, then did make their way back down to the seats they were in. Definitely could have been handled better.
Sheesh… I’m amazed that we continue to eat our balls on these type of things. Games like this are huge opportunities… Opportunities to increase fan and student enthusiasm. Can’t screw it up.
I did my usual "show up 5 mins before tip-off" and was greeted with lines wrapped around the building. In 20+ years of going to games as an ACR, I can't remember ever seeing anything like that. A friend texted me a pic of their seats, and I was like, wait...that's the student section. That's when I pieced together they'd sold those seats since the students weren't here "on paper". Kind of a strange situation, but regardless, the energy level in the building was on point.
Received the email on December 5th; it was also advertised at the Virginia basketball game the night before. There were still Tennessee tickets available for purchase on December 10th when we bought ours. I don't know the total amount that were sold, but I was really surprised at how long tickets were available for. And while I appreciated the opportunity, I don't think it should have been available. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
Yeah, selling some Rowdy tix was a fine idea for UNF and Stetson but no way they should have been sold for the UT game. That said, I would have bought them in a heartbeat.
Did they sell the entire RR section, or were you "sitting" along with students? Were the seats assigned? I always thought those were general admission spots, but maybe it's diff now with the renovation.
So stupid. When I was home in South Fla over the holiday there were UF students talking about how they were definitely going back to Gainesville early for the Tennessee game. They really dropped the ball on this.
I can see why they sold those ticket packages, but consideration and prioritization should have been given to the students who wanted to attend the UT game.
There should also be separate lines for people that have to bring bags for some reason. I get some of the reasons, but you can go two hours without lipstick.
They had a small section of students only in front of the band. There were a few here and there in the rest of the Rowdy Reptile section, but it was overwhelmingly older adults. It’s first come first serve general admission for the students. From what I heard a lot of them had been standing in line since early that morning.
Yep CTG referenced seeing them in line while arriving for a 2pm shoot around and had a good “feeling” about the anticipated energy in the building for the game. The talk around town today was the terrible logistics of getting the game and miserable line times with the restricted amount of gates open. Logistical fail.
Does anyone know how the student tix work these days? It used to be that a certain number who showed up could sit in the RR section - unassigned seats and I think they were free. I played in basketball band, so never really attended as a student.
Granted it feels like a lifetime ago but I went to UF from 04-12 (shout out twodaparty who was a Rowdy back around then as well). Some pretty good years in there and I was a "Rowdy Reptile" for all of them. Never once were my tickets sold winter break or otherwise. Not sure where they got the idea but seems pretty dumb. If I was a student now and we were playing UT I sure as heck would come back in town early for it.
