Starting this year, students will be able to transfer season football tickets to other students.
Associate athletics director for development Dan O’Dowd said the new policy is intended to keep the student section as full as possible during home games.
“We wanted to offer students more flexibility if they were unable to attend a game and allow students to utilize unused tickets,” O’Dowd said.
To transfer tickets, students can log onto their Ole Miss Athletics Foundation Member account and select the ‘transfer’ option. To proceed to transfer, select an event and enter the recipients’ name, e-mail and phone number. The receiving student must accept the transfer and complete the finalizations sent to them via e-mail within 48 hours to have the ticket successfully loaded onto their ID. This transfer process is free through the athletics department.
“If the students are paying each other for the tickets, that would be a private negotiation that does not involve athletics,” Wesley Owen, assistant athletics director, said.
The new policy permits tickets to be only transferred between university student IDs, and only one ticket is allowed on each ID per game.
On game days, all student season ticket holders will be required to enter the Vaught-Hemingway Stadium through gates 28 through 30 to proceed to the student section.
Student tickets sold out before the primary sale date. Originally, student tickets were to go on sale on August 15, but were available for purchase before August 1 with a mandatory $25 membership fee to the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation’s Rebels25 program.
Sophomore marketing major Alexis York is one of many students unable to purchase season tickets this year due to the quick sellout.
“Tickets should be sold on a specific date that everyone has to abide by,” York said. “They shouldn’t tell everyone one date and then allow people to pay their way around it.”
All donations received from the Rebels25 program are used to assist the Department of Athletics in supporting 400 students competing in varsity sports who represent Ole Miss in the NCAA competition.
This year, more season tickets have been sold than ever before.
“With the expansion next year, we hope for that number to be even larger,” O’Dowd said.
Upon the completion of the expansion of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in 2016, the seating capacity will be over 64,000, which is an increase of over 4,000 seats. The student section will be moved to the north end zone and will seat 10,000 people.
“We do believe that the stadium will continue to be sold out. The demand is at an all-time high and we plan to continue the momentum,” O’Dowd said. “We expect our fans to cheer as loud as possible to support the Rebels.”
