Some students waiting in line Wednesday to find their seats for Saturday’s Syracuse Men’s Basketball game against Villanova expressed discontent and confusion because of the raffle system that was suddenly implemented by Otto’s Army and the Carrier Dome.

The Carrier Dome Box Office sent an e-mail Feb.15 alerting students with season tickets about the guidelines to get on the list of students who line up prior to the game in order to ensure courtside seating. The e-mail did not say anything about a raffle process.

Nephtaly Rivera, a sophomore broadcast journalism major, said he received the Feb. 15 e-mail but did not receive information about the lottery. Other students said members of Otto’s Army sent information about the lottery via Facebook messaging during the weekend. But not all season ticket holders are in the Otto’s Army Facebook group, Rivera said.

Students began to line up outside Gate C just after 5 p.m. Wednesday. They were instructed by members of Otto’s Army to place their name into a bag. At 6 p.m., members of Otto’s Army began to pull random names from that bag. Once a student’s name was called, he or she would take a card with his or her name on it to another line and receive an official seating assignment.

‘I’m sure the guy who was picked first is not pissed at all. But some of us in the front were, generally, pretty upset,’ Rivera said.

Some students were claiming spots that weren’t theirs, said Billy Palumbo, a senior psychology major. Palumbo said Otto’s Army put the process into motion too late.

‘They were calling names around the corner, and then anyone could literally walk in and get in line up there, even if it wasn’t your name,’ he said. ‘We were a little bit disappointed, and we think Otto’s Army isn’t organized very well.’

Other students said they received e-mails about the lottery, but based on the Facebook messages and e-mails, it was not run like they expected.

‘To be fair, there were a lot of e-mails that said how it was going to be a lottery, but they just didn’t perform the lottery according to the plan,’ said C.J. Robitsek, a sophomore mechanical engineering major.

Robitsek said there were a lot of names left in the bag, but not many people were waiting by the end of the process. He said this was evidence that students were getting around the system by taking other students’ names.

‘I’m pretty mad because I was first on that line,’ said Katelyn Newsham, a sophomore civil engineering major. ‘And I was called almost last.’

Newsham said seating should be based on how much students ‘want it.’ She said it was easy to cheat because students could just put in more than one name.

‘I didn’t cheat the system, and now I’m back here,’ she said.

Trenton Gaucher, the president of Otto’s Army and a senior in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, said the raffle process was the only way Otto’s Army and the Carrier Dome could give everybody an equal opportunity for seating. Even staff members of Otto’s Army had the same chance as everyone else, he said.

‘This is just how we had to do it for this game. It’s not like students are going to have a bad seat,’ Gaucher said. ‘If you were in the lottery, you’re still going to have a good seat.’

Safety was the main issue, he said. With the expected attendance at more than 30,000, it would be easy for the scene to become chaotic once the doors opened for the game.

‘We maintain the list from game to game because we don’t want students doing a free-for-all footrace once they get into the game,’ he said.

Dan Lyons, the public relations officer for Otto’s Army and a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said his organization contacted SU Athletics and Carrier Dome management about how to handle seating at the game after realizing how big the Saturday game would be.

‘It turned into a necessity because of how many people they were going to have out here, and they didn’t want hundreds of kids sleeping outside because it’s supposed to be a bad weather week,’ he said.

Gaucher said he wouldn’t change the process if he had to do it again and may use it again in the near future. He also talked about implementing a point system that would give students who attended more games the best seating. The process was not without regret, though.

‘I felt really bad pulling the last card and knowing who that person was,’ he said.

wfmcmill@syr.edu

Published on February 24, 2010 at 12:00 pm