Update: Both Spring Weekend concerts were sold out to the capacity of Meehan Auditorium by 12:16 a.m. Tuesday, Matt Garza '11 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Garza is the Brown Student Agencies' vice president for marketing and promotions.
Though the new online ticketing system for Spring Weekend was met with mixed reviews from students, organizers are pleased with sales thus far, a representative from Brown Student Agency said yesterday.
Matt Garza '11, who designed the ticketing Web site with Erik Nazarenko '11, said that while he has received some e-mail complaints about the service, the general response from the student body has been positive.
Tickets for the Fri., April 17 and Sat., April 18 concerts were made available exclusively to Brown students at 8:00 a.m. Monday. There were 1,000 logins within the first minute of the site opening, Garza said, and at press time, fewer than 200 of the 3,000 available tickets remained for each performance.
Garza said the site - market.brownstudentagencies.com - provided a "much more effective way" for students to obtain tickets than the conventional box office system.
"No one had to wake up early to get in line or miss class," he said, adding, "Students didn't have to leave their dorm rooms. They were able to use their credit cards, and it was a much easier experience."
Most of the complaints Garza received were about the limited number of ticket packages for both Friday and Saturday's shows. The packages sold for $25, while separate tickets cost $15 each. Many students wanted to purchase packages to save $5, Garza said, but by 8:04 a.m. they had sold out.
Garza said there has always been a limit on the number of discounted packages sold, and that this year "several hundred" packages were available.
While the number of packages offered was reduced "slightly" from last year, the extra money earned by Brown Concert Agency from individual sales will go toward providing discounted tickets to students with demonstrated financial need, Garza said.
When Lizette Chaparro '12 tried purchasing tickets at 8:00 this morning, she received a message that read "Web site could not be found." After "multiple" attempts at refreshing the page, Chaparro discovered that the packages were sold out. She ended up buying two individual tickets - one for her and one for a friend - for Saturday afternoon's concert.
"The Web site lagged a little," she wrote in an e-mail to The Herald, before adding "I guess it is Spring Weekend, after all."
Anthony Urena '12 also woke up early to purchase tickets, but found that it took "forever" to authenticate his login and "even longer" to reach the checkout page, he wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
"I set out to buy a package, but due to the long loading times and the Web site's request of personal information, the package was sold out," he wrote.
Urena added that he was scared that separate tickets would sell out just as quickly, and ended up buying $15 tickets for both Friday and Saturday's performances.
Despite the rush, Garza said there were "no technical difficulties" with the Web site, and the problems students had logging on were most likely the result of the crowded Brown network - not that the ticket site couldn't handle the traffic.
Garza also said that though the time stamp on receipts read an hour earlier than the transactions actually took place, the site was not active at 7:00 a.m. as some students are questioning.
The site is not on an automatic timer, he said, adding, "We were in complete control. I physically clicked (to open sales) at 8:00 a.m."
Even with the sporadic complaints and student concerns, organizers were nonetheless pleased with the system.
"We're still very excited that students were able to do this online," Garza said.
And students saw the bright side of the situation too.
Urena wrote that despite the difficulties he encountered with the Web site, "It sure beats waiting on long lines in thisterrible weather."
