http://www.vindy.com/news/2016/dec/24/demand-for-tickets-catches-ysu-off-guard/
I don't buy the e-ticket excuse. You would turn down a risk-free loan of tickets until 26 December because JMU would buy our seats? Some might try, but like us, most want to sit with their side. You could limit them to PC members, students, alumni association members, and season ticket holders....and effectively screen out any JMU fans. Also, you could require ticket purchasers (outside of those groups mentioned) pick them up at the YSU ticket office.
Also, this article does not address why did the SID lie about the dates?
Penguin Nation .. I introduced my self earlier on different thread. Im an ISU Redbird fan. I don't know your posting history and battles with moderator, but you are right on with your concerns over YSU handling of ticket allotment. Per my other post, in our 2014 run, our Admin initially screwed up but recovered nicely and we wound up using our full allotment.
Your Admin was completely unprepared for the ticket buying .. either too lazy/uninformed. But it is obvious they didn't want any risk of getting stuck with any tickets after losing money with earlier playoff bids .. except now we're talking about the National Championship. Possibly they were given directive to not lose any more money .. but that wouldn't explain lying to your fan base or being too lazy to read the actual rules, which are now clear to most people.
By the way, the blow up for ISU was over AD Strollo's comment below from article you linked. ISU initially bought entire allotment but was not prepare to screen or impose reservation priority system .. so a bunch of Bison fans got wind of this and started buying our tickets from us. Our fan board went ballistic and our Admin quickly recovered by imposing a priority reservation system that required buyers to reserve only, and then all reservations would be subjected to a priority points system based on their affiliation/contributions to ISU.
“If we chose the electronic option then anyone could’ve bought those and we could’ve had James Madison fans buy our tickets and sit in our section,” Strollo said. “We wanted to protect our tickets and make sure our people were getting tickets in our sections. - See more at:
http://www.vindy.com/news/2016/dec/24/demand-for-tickets-catches-ysu-off-guard/#sthash.PBZqkiOv.dpufSo in 2014, ISU effectively blocked anyone unaffiliated with ISU from having their ticket reservation fulfilled. Someone tell AD Strollo, they could have set uo reservation system with priority points .. we did it in a matter of days after realizing Bison were trying to buy our tickets from us in droves.
That said, the idea that YSU wouldn't sell more than 1,000 tickets for a championship game is pretty ludicrous given your history and fan base. ISU has very similar issue with our fan base .. pretty fair weather group in general. In 2014 run, we drew just 5650 for our 1st round playoff against UNI .. MVFC co-champs, 5th seed, big rival UNI, decent December weather, though students were gone for break .. and we drew just 5650, of which at least 700 were UNI. So we drew less than 5k for game in our back yard. For the championship, we sold our entire 3,300 allotment and probably had close to another 700 throughout the stadium .. so we got 4k to Frisco after getting just 5k BloNo in 1st round. YSU would no doubt have done similar and likely better.
Now given how unprepared your Sports Admin was, imagine if Bison had won their semi .. they would have scooped everything, outside of the 1,000 YSU bought .. everything, especially considering the end zones are under construction. There would have been zero tickets available. Bison normally get 17-19k of the 21k capacity in Frisco. This year, I believe capacity will be closer to 16k or so with end zone construction. Imagine that scenario with just 1,000 tickets in hand for YSU, when offered 4,000.
As it happens, fortunately for YSU fans (and your Sports Admin Dept), JMU won and there will be tickets freeing up at reasonable prices closer to game week .. though less due to construction. But that does not change the fact that your Admin was woefully unprepared and/or uninformed, and then lied to your fans on several fronts.