Tickets for Ohio Football games are now only a mouse click away.
Anyone who wants to purchase a ticket to see a football game played at home in Peden Stadium can go online to www.ohiobobcats.com instead of making a phone call or traveling to the ticket office in person, said Shelley Binegar, director of ticket operations for Ohio Athletics.
"Fans are no longer limited to purchasing tickets between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday," Binegar said. "They have access 24/7 now."
Online tickets will be offered for the same price as tickets purchased other ways, but will include a processing fee of 10 percent of the price of the tickets bought or $1.50, whichever is greater, Binegar said.
Regular season tickets can be purchased online, but Phillips Club, Tower Club and Faculty/Staff tickets require special seat donations. People who want these seats still need to make contact with the box office in order to purchase them, Binegar said.
The new system will end up saving the university money because of the way season tickets are bought. In addition to the online system, season ticket holders will receive a season ticket card, which looks and feels like a credit card, instead of a full sheet of tickets. The costs of printing the full sheets of tickets, which Binegar said cost the university close to $10,000 each year, will no longer be necessary.
Binegar also said the ticket office wanted to sell tickets via the Internet for a while, but was unable to do so because of a lack of technology. The office recently upgraded to software with the proper ticket-selling capability.
"People in general are becoming more and more comfortable purchasing things on the Internet," Binegar said. "We are simply keeping up with the times and trying to meet our customers' needs."
To date, 37 tickets have been sold online. Binegar said she thinks attendance at home games will be about the same, with exceptions of weekends like Homecoming and Parents Weekend.
"We have the potential for some sell out games with Minnesota, Western Michigan and Central Florida," she said.
As the year progresses, tickets for all other Ohio sports events, including men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball and any post-season tournament games Ohio sponsors will be available online.
Binegar said she is optimistic about the new online ticket-purchasing system and thinks it will help Ohio sports in the long run.
"This system in general is going to allow the Athletic Department greater contact with our fans," she said. "It has bulk e-mail capabilities, which is great when things like games times change. The online sales feature specifically is going to help us reach more people.
17 Archives
Katie Gill
