BY CASSIDEY KAVATHAS, NEWS EDITOR
The return of basketball to the Reilly Center brought excitement among fans of Bonaventure basketball. However, for many St. Bonaventure University students, the mood was brought down due to the new system to claim men’s basketball tickets.
This year the university is trying a new system for students to claim tickets through the Bonnies Connect app. Students must claim a general admissions ticket starting 48 hours before tip-off. Students must also pick which section they would like to be seated. This new ticketing method allows for the ability to contact trace individuals should the need arise.
When the time came this Sunday to claim tickets, many students experienced issues with the app and claiming tickets, leaving many without a seat at the home opener.
“I was luckily able to get a sideline ticket, but I didn’t know until a few hours later because the app crashed,” said Nate Cole, a junior political science major. “It was incredibly frustrating getting the tickets and what makes it even more frustrating is that the ticket system used to be so easy and simple.”
The Bonnies Connect App also allows students to claim more than one ticket even though the university suggests students do not do so.
“Some students likely had up to five tickets after they opened up the additional sections, while others were left with none because their app didn’t work,” said Josh Metz, a senior finance major. “While it’d be nice to have the app run smoothly and quickly, I’d rather know that I have a fair shot at a ticket than have to be worrying about other people getting multiple and having to scramble to find someone to send me one of their extras.
Students also believe that the app was not built to handle the heavy traffic brought on by claiming tickets at certain times.
“I’m not sure if they didn’t anticipate that much volume on the app at once or if they just thought the app would be able to handle it. Whatever the reason, it just seems like it was a big oversight by the people who implemented it,” said Metz. “I think doing it through some sort of third-party app that was proven to be able to handle heavy traffic would’ve been a better move to avoid that problem.”
According to an email from the university sent to all students, “After investigating the matter, the Bonnies Connect App worked as it was designed to. Although the app likely was delayed at times due to the heavy usage, 850 total seats were successfully claimed.”
“The system that is currently in place is a good start but due to the technical difficulties and issues many students experienced, I think some work needs to be done on the SBU Connect app,” said Brianna Slingerland, a freshman criminology major. “We are ranked 23rd in the nation and the students want to come out and support so we should be doing everything in our power to get as many Bonnies in the RC as we can.”
Due to New York state regulations, under 5,000 fans can be in attendance for the school to continue not to require vaccinations to attend. Tuesday’s game had 4,617 fans in attendance with over 1,000 being students. Originally, only 850 tickets were offered to students but due to demand the university offered an additional 230 tickets located in the upper red seat section – this included 130 tickets for seniors only.
“I get that this is a part of the protocol but there are most definitely going to be more games where student demand for tickets is much higher than 850 much like this first one,” said Metz. “Given the fact that tickets to every game are included in our tuition, I would think that there would have to be enough student tickets available for every student to have the ability to get one if they wanted to.”
At 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, 650 tickets for the sideline and both endzones sold out within seven minutes. At 7:30 p.m., additional overflow seating of 200 tickets in the red seats became available and sold out within four minutes.
“We’ve got seniors who haven’t been to a game since their sophomore year and freshmen and sophomores that have never experienced a game day at the RC. To make students in those groups, or any student really, sit up in the reds for this game just seems wrong,” said Metz. “Hopefully someone will realize this and open up the student section so that we can all sit together rather than be spread out across the whole arena. It really takes away from the idea of “The Wolfpack” if that’s how it’s going to be all year.”
While the app may have its early hiccups, students are hopeful that administrators can fix the problem quickly.
“I trust that those in charge will do the right thing here and get this system worked out as quickly as possible,” said Metz. “This is going to be a great year for Bonnies basketball and I know that no one wants it ruined by a flawed ticket claiming system.”
kavathcj20@bonaventure.edu
