Students will experience ticketing changes at football games this year, including a standby line, which Student Body President Jay Dawkins said has been modified since its conception.
“We didn’t have any room for a standby line adjacent to the student entrance,” Dawkins, a senior in civil engineering, said.
Instead a standby line, for students who could not reserve tickets but still want to attend the game, will be stationed in the RBC Center.
“The RBC Center had space available indoors for 500 people…” he said. “There will be signs directing students to it and they will meet at the South Plaza starting 90 minutes prior to kickoff.”
Fifteen minutes after kickoff, event staff will release those students in the standby line with a numbered bracelet as they leave the RBC Center, he said.
The bracelet will act as the ticket for those in the standby line, he said.
According to students that have not entered the stadium by 15 minutes after kickoff that have tickets will have to enter the standby line – behind those who have already been waiting.
Daniel Brumfield, a junior in economics, said the standby line could be a risk if a student waited in line and still didn’t get a way into the game.
But for a big game like one against UNC-Chapel Hill, who the Wolfpack will not be playing at Carter-Finley Stadium this year, Brumfield said he would be willing to join a standby line if he needed a ticket.
Madison Sauls, a freshman in biology who said she would be going to as many games as possible this year, said the standby line was fair and would be a definite possibility for her if left without a ticket.
“If you have a ticket, you should get there by kickoff,” she said. “If anything, I think it’d be sooner [than 15 minutes] for the [standby] line to go.”
The standby line will continue to flow until the stadium reaches its capacity, Dawkins said, but it may not play a large role in games where tickets are easier to reserve.
“The only reason someone should have to use a standby line is if a game is completely sold out to students or they could not [get a ticket before] six hours before the game,” he said.
While the RBC Center is farther away from the football stadium than an adjacent standby line would be, Dawkins said it will be a safer place to house students, and will provide air conditioning and heating when necessary.
The standby system is meant to reward loyal ticket-holders but Dawkins said it should not penalize those students who cannot regularly attend too harshly.
“The end result is going to be a better game atmosphere that rewards the more loyal fans,” he said. “Although, we’ll be sure we don’t alienate any students that have emergency circumstances [that interfere with the game].”
Dick Christy, associate athletics director, and employees in the Athletic Ticketing Office helped make the new ticketing policies, Dawkins said.
