[Yacht Rock]

I noticed this more than a week ago, but reserved ticket sales are way ahead for both UNT and Troy vs. ODU. Section 214 is already sold out, and there were quite a few seats available in the same section on ODU Saturday game day. Looks like 213 and 215 have less than 100 available. That's a good sign. Early forecasts look like we'll be fighting thunderstorms yet again though, getting tired of the weather.

I don’t know if LU does this but I’ve spent time working in designing ticketing software for large sports venues. My clients were larger venues like Staples Center in Los Angeles and Pepsi Center and Mike High Stadium in Denver and several other smaller venues and hundreds of movie theaters around the world. It’s not an uncommon practice to give the appearance of scarcity to an event in order to encourage more advance sales. When you are able to convince your customer that they must purchase in advance, you don’t have to worry about a same day decision and tickets at the door, which can be fickle depending on things like weather.

With that, it’s tough to gauge availability online sometimes.

If true, that borders on an unethical business practice.

Yeah, it bothers me too. I have no idea if they do it and I haven’t been involved in the sports side of ticketing software for 15-20 years.

I do know it’s a common practice still in other venues and practice isn’t without risk, especially if your event has reserved seating and isn’t General Admission.

[Purple Haize]

That’s been going on for as long as I can remember. It happens with just about every concert I’ve gone to.

[LUDad]

That’s been going on for as long as I can remember. It happens with just about every concert I’ve gone to.

I think the biggest problem are the professional scalpers that use software and bribes to gain access to many of the tickets to popular events before the regular single fan can purchase. They then make their profit by selling them on the secondary ticket market.

[Purple Haize]

That’s been going on for as long as I can remember. It happens with just about every concert I’ve gone to.

I think the biggest problem are the professional scalpers that use software and bribes to gain access to many of the tickets to popular events before the regular single fan can purchase. They then make their profit by selling them on the secondary ticket market.

I probably buy the majority of my tickets on the secondary market

[willflop]

I noticed this more than a week ago, but reserved ticket sales are way ahead for both UNT and Troy vs. ODU. Section 214 is already sold out, and there were quite a few seats available in the same section on ODU Saturday game day. Looks like 213 and 215 have less than 100 available. That's a good sign. Early forecasts look like we'll be fighting thunderstorms yet again though, getting tired of the weather.

I don’t know if LU does this but I’ve spent time working in designing ticketing software for large sports venues. My clients were larger venues like Staples Center in Los Angeles and Pepsi Center and Mike High Stadium in Denver and several other smaller venues and hundreds of movie theaters around the world. It’s not an uncommon practice to give the appearance of scarcity to an event in order to encourage more advance sales. When you are able to convince your customer that they must purchase in advance, you don’t have to worry about a same day decision and tickets at the door, which can be fickle depending on things like weather.

With that, it’s tough to gauge availability online sometimes.

I don't get that sense here. It's not them saying this in a marketing blurb, or just a vaugue yellow color on the map that's keyed to limited availability. You can see the exact seat numbers taken and open. Sure, they could make it look like certain seats are sold when they are not, but then I couldn't select and purchase those seats in advance, defeating the purpose.

[thepostman]

The wifi at the bill is fantastic. I was watching games on my phone at halftime during the ODU game and checking scores every chance I got.

The dependable speed of the wifi was one of the biggest things that impressed me about the renovations

After reading about all they put into that, I was eager to try it out at the game. I was actually very disappointed. I was still having difficulty sending photos over iMessage and text. Definitely couldn’t stream video. Is the improved access only on the student side? Or possibly that AT&T just doesn’t do as well there?

It you're connected to the wifi then it shouldn't matter what carrier you have. I spent time on both sides while there and it was great. Streaming HD video perfectly and sending/sharing photos. The speed was very consistant.

I also am an ATT customer. So I'm not sure what to tell you.

[Class of 20Something]

Well that’s the issue then. I was not logging into WiFi. I was under the impression that cell coverage was improved. Makes sense.

That's it! They added over 600 wifi access points to the stadium. Their goal was 25 down for everyone and they exceeded that.

[thepostman]

Yeah my cell service was awful but the wifi far exceeded my expectations.

[LUGrad2000]

Well that’s the issue then. I was not logging into WiFi. I was under the impression that cell coverage was improved. Makes sense.

Is it a public wifi? Or do I need to log in to LU, which I don't have?

[thepostman]

It is pubic wifi. You have to provide your personal email address first in order to access it.

[Yacht Rock]

I noticed this more than a week ago, but reserved ticket sales are way ahead for both UNT and Troy vs. ODU. Section 214 is already sold out, and there were quite a few seats available in the same section on ODU Saturday game day. Looks like 213 and 215 have less than 100 available. That's a good sign. Early forecasts look like we'll be fighting thunderstorms yet again though, getting tired of the weather.

I don’t know if LU does this but I’ve spent time working in designing ticketing software for large sports venues. My clients were larger venues like Staples Center in Los Angeles and Pepsi Center and Mike High Stadium in Denver and several other smaller venues and hundreds of movie theaters around the world. It’s not an uncommon practice to give the appearance of scarcity to an event in order to encourage more advance sales. When you are able to convince your customer that they must purchase in advance, you don’t have to worry about a same day decision and tickets at the door, which can be fickle depending on things like weather.

With that, it’s tough to gauge availability online sometimes.

I don't get that sense here. It's not them saying this in a marketing blurb, or just a vaugue yellow color on the map that's keyed to limited availability. You can see the exact seat numbers taken and open. Sure, they could make it look like certain seats are sold when they are not, but then I couldn't select and purchase those seats in advance, defeating the purpose.

Typically when a venue does this, if they do, they would have other seats available. Sometimes they do it to demonstrate scarcity or to push people toward one area of a venue. They might push people toward the center, toward the front, toward the back, etc by temporary showing certain seats as being unavailable.

Like I said, I'm not saying this is happening, but it is fairly common in the event industry and when we were developing software for venues, it was a major request, to have the ability to do this from a marketing standpoint.

Also, I'll add, that yeah, this isn't without risk. If you are interested in a very, very specific seat and that seat is not available due to it being held by the venue, it would be frustrating. However, this type of behavior would also help explain why some people on this board reached out to the box office and were told that there weren't any seats available in a specific section and then someone else reached out later and found out there were seats available in that section.

[thepostman]

Well it certainly appears that the student side of the stadium will be full yet again. I don't see a ton of difference in sales on the Baptist side of the stadium.

Hopefully the weather is nice so it doesn't scare of walk up sales. This North Texas team is an up and coming team and may have enough excitement surrounding them to get a few more locals than typically attend games.

We shall see I guess.

[willflop]

Typically when a venue does this, if they do, they would have other seats available. Sometimes they do it to demonstrate scarcity or to push people toward one area of a venue. They might push people toward the center, toward the front, toward the back, etc by temporary showing certain seats as being unavailable.

Like I said, I'm not saying this is happening, but it is fairly common in the event industry and when we were developing software for venues, it was a major request, to have the ability to do this from a marketing standpoint.

Also, I'll add, that yeah, this isn't without risk. If you are interested in a very, very specific seat and that seat is not available due to it being held by the venue, it would be frustrating. However, this type of behavior would also help explain why some people on this board reached out to the box office and were told that there weren't any seats available in a specific section and then someone else reached out later and found out there were seats available in that section.

That makes sense. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they were doing this now that I think about. I thought the seats available changed between just recently and when i looked the other day, but I attributed it to my memory (which it may still be).

As far as the ethics of it, I guess they could take it too far. But, I don't have a problem with the idea that they are trying to distribute seats in different areas to make it look full, with the added benefit of extra seat room.

[Class of 20Something]

I do think they are blocking out the top 10 or so rows in order to push sections to be more full towards the bottom. I think they are also blocking off chunks for walk up sales. 105 isn't available online, but I am sure it would be available to walk up on game day.

[TH Spangler]

Seat map shows only 300 seat left on east side. 1000's on the Carter side.

[willflop]

Typically when a venue does this, if they do, they would have other seats available. Sometimes they do it to demonstrate scarcity or to push people toward one area of a venue. They might push people toward the center, toward the front, toward the back, etc by temporary showing certain seats as being unavailable.

Like I said, I'm not saying this is happening, but it is fairly common in the event industry and when we were developing software for venues, it was a major request, to have the ability to do this from a marketing standpoint.

Also, I'll add, that yeah, this isn't without risk. If you are interested in a very, very specific seat and that seat is not available due to it being held by the venue, it would be frustrating. However, this type of behavior would also help explain why some people on this board reached out to the box office and were told that there weren't any seats available in a specific section and then someone else reached out later and found out there were seats available in that section.

That makes sense. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they were doing this now that I think about. I thought the seats available changed between just recently and when i looked the other day, but I attributed it to my memory (which it may still be).

As far as the ethics of it, I guess they could take it too far. But, I don't have a problem with the idea that they are trying to distribute seats in different areas to make it look full, with the added benefit of extra seat room.

So I just confirmed, there are now around 50 new seats in 214 that were previously greyed out as sold. So, we can't use their map to gauge anything accurately.