Updated April 15 at 11:51 p.m.
Tickets to see rapper Ludacris on April 24 sold out within 40 minutes of going on sale at the Norris Box Office’s Web site on Wednesday.
Users began to see “sold out” messages on the site within a few minutes after the tickets went on sale at 10 a.m.
According to A&O Productions Promotions and Public Relations Co-Chair Barry McCardel, some transactions did not go through, so some tickets went back on sale after being held online for about 15 minutes. He said tickets did not officially sell out until 10:39 a.m, and by that point A&O had sold over 1000 tickets.
If possible, McCardel said, A&O plans to sell an additional number of tickets at a later date. The group is working on a number of factors such as risk management to get a finalized capacity of Patten Gymnasium for the event. “We’re always working to get as many tickets out to the community as we can,” he said.
He noted that more information will be released on A&O’s Web site.
This is the second time A&O Productions has made use of online ticketing, after using it to sell Demetri Martin tickets, which also sold out within an hour. According to McCardel, the online ticketing system has been met with a positive response. “The vast majority of students seem to have a great experience with it,” the Communication sophomore said. “They’re able to buy tickets to shows like this from dorm rooms.” He added that if students have encountered legitimate ticketing errors, they should contact the Norris Box Office.
“We’re always thrilled when we’re able to book a show like this, but just as disappointed when students can’t get tickets,” he said, noting tickets probably would have sold out quickly whether they were sold physically or online. He said A&O has plans to continue to use the online system for future events.
But many students were not only disappointed when Ludacris concert tickets sold out within minutes, but were left frustrated with the online ticketing.
“At 10:03 I logged on to the A&O site to buy the tickets and then it was taking a very long time,” said SESP freshman Ally Supowitz, a first-time user of the site. “By the time it connected me, it was 10:05 and they had sold out and I refreshed it several times and I still did not have tickets.”
Despite not being able to get a ticket, Supowitz is hopeful that A&O releases more tickets. According to its Web site as of Wednesday evening, A&O is “working to secure a limited number of additional tickets to go on sale at a later date.”
McCormick freshman Sam Schwartz, also a first time user, was able to purchase one ticket out of the two that A&O allots per WildCARD.
“I kept refreshing the page from like, 10:10 to 10:20 with hopes that the tickets would become available,” Schwartz said. “So sometime around 10:21, 10:22, it said that there were tickets available so I ran through the process and it would only let me check out one ticket.”
However, out of the approximately 10 people with Schwartz, he said only about four people ended up successfully purchasing tickets. The site was frustratingly slow and A&O should have expanded its server in preparation for the high traffic, Schwartz said.
“A lot of people are dissatisfied with how it worked out,” Schwartz said.