Football games are the biggest sporting events held at Ole Miss, and throughout the summer, students anticipate filling out Vaught-Hemingway Stadium to cheer on the Rebels. However, the process of obtaining student seats is difficult for some students. With both demand and student enrollment rising, tickets are harder than ever to come by.
Student Seats, an independent third-party platform, is one way to solve this problem. Student Seats saw this high demand and uncertainty around ticket acquisition as an opportunity to make a big connection and contribution to the University of Mississippi.
The undergraduate student population at the university is over 21,000 students, but the university allots around 12,000 student tickets annually through a randomized queue just before the fall semester begins. Some students are able to capitalize on this opportunity.
“Thankfully, my experience has been good, and I have gotten tickets every year,” Sawyer Staggs, a senior psychology and political science double major from Birmingham, Ala., said.
Despite the excitement, the student section can only hold so many people. The insufficient number of tickets allotted leaves many students empty-handed.
“I’d gotten lucky my freshman and sophomore year, but junior year came and I didn’t get as lucky,” Sam Luckritz, a junior business management major from Centennial, Co., said. “It’s really annoying not having tickets this year.”
Without receiving tickets through the queue, students are forced to seek alternative methods to obtain game tickets.
“I’ve had to go through my buddies, and luckily, my brother got tickets, so I’m taking his ticket to this game (LSU). It’s really just going through other people and having to spend extra money,” Luckritz said.
The extra money and trust it takes to acquire tickets from other people is a problem that Ole Miss students are currently battling, with ticket scalping and scamming being an increased threat.
Through Student Seats, students can exchange tickets free of any selling fees and with only minimal buyer’s fees.
“Our mission at Student Seats is to ensure that every college student can take part in the core college experience of going to a football game, and also having money for the after party,” co-founder of Student Seats Jared Waller said in an interview with The Daily Mississippian.
To achieve this affordable ticket exchange system, Waller and his team implemented lowering price incentives. Tickets on this platform are listed from lowest to highest prices, incentivizing sellers to list tickets as cheaply as possible.
Student Seats is available for use from its website studentseats.com, as well as a downloadable app for both IOS and Android. The app is also safe and secure for students.
“It’s verified students only. Verified student emails can sign up,” Waller said. “If we find out you’re being sketchy, the app will ban you. You can’t come back because you need another student email.”
