IU athletics turns to Ticketmaster

The athletics department will offer tickets online beginning with the 2004 football season after recently switching its ticketing software to Ticketmaster.\nIU has switched its system over to a program known as Archtix from the Ticketmaster company. The new system, while it will offer nothing new to students this year, should act as a stepping stone toward a more Web-based process of obtaining season tickets for football and basketball.\n"Right now it makes no change," said IU Ticket Manager Mike Roberts. "We hope to have the full implement of the system in place within a year and have students be able to go online and get tickets."\nThe office's existing software was going to be discontinued, and that prompted the ticket office to begin looking at sources for its new system, Roberts said. With few options available, the decision was made to switch its system to Archtix and build off of that.\n"Basically, right now, they are just using our equipment and software to sell their tickets," said Janeen Woelfer of Ticketmaster in Bloomington. "They are using things like our printers. They can build accounts and set up a building manifest for the football stadium."\nThe new system also helps to handle accounting and other aspects of customer service. While the exact price difference for the new system was not given, Roberts said the department's aim is to keep service fees under the new system in line with those that already exist.\nIn addition to students being able to purchase season tickets entirely online, another goal is to get to the point where students' tickets can be sent via e-mail. They would be able to purchase their tickets online, even with a group, and also be able to receive those tickets in their e-mail as opposed to picking them up from the ticket office.\n"I like the idea of not having to go out to the office to buy the tickets and again to pick them up," freshman Chase Weigt said. "I know we weren't able to get our entire group together this year because we couldn't all make it to the ticket office together."\nDespite the fact that tickets will be more available over the Internet, students should not worry about losing seats. The allotment of 7,800 student seats at basketball games, set up by the athletics department several years ago, will not be altered under the new system. The online aspect of the new software should work more like other schools' system to benefit those simply looking for a ticket to one game.\n"At (the University of Illinois), students who want season tickets have to come to the box office and show ID," said Chris Rogers of the U of I ticket office. "The general public can get a single ticket online at fightingillini.com."\nShort term, however, students shouldn't see too much change in the way they receive or buy their tickets. The ticket office simply hopes the switch to Ticketmaster will help make things easier in the future.\n"The student basketball sale is complete," Roberts said. "We aim to have the online ticket sales ready for football season next year."\n-- Contact staff writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.