About 1,000 student tickets for the Dec. 31 Ball State-Indiana University home men's basketball game remain up for grabs despite a number of students camping out for a seat at the game last week.
Joe Carr, athletic ticket manager, said since tickets went on sale at 8 a.m. Saturday, the box office has gave out about 1,400 of the 2,500 tickets available to students. Initially, the box office gave out about 1,000 tickets and then a few hundred more were given out after Saturday.
Carr said he was surprised that more students have not requested tickets, and that the students who camped out may have given other students a false idea that enough tickets would not be available.
"I think that scared a lot of students away," Carr said about the student campers. "We were hoping (the tickets) would all be gone by now."
Tyler Oatess, a student who waited three days outside for tickets to the game, said the lack of a student-ticket sell out was "amazing." But Oatess said he did not regret waiting in line for his ticket.
"We got front row," Oatess said. "All those people that were behind us (in line) would have sat in front of us (at the game)."
Although the tickets have not gone as fast as Carr expected, the Ball State-IU game has created a larger student draw than most home men's basketball games. Usually, Carr said, between 600 and 1,200 student tickets are given out.
But games during winter break suffer from students being away from campus.
"Students have plans or a lot of them live too far away to drive back for a game," Carr said.
Only about 200 students usually attend games during winter break, Carr said. In the past few years, Ball State has had two games scheduled during the university's winter break. This year, the Ball State-I.U. game is the only one scheduled.
General-admission tickets go on sale to the public on Dec. 2. Students will still be able to get free tickets with student identification at that time, but Carr said he expects tickets will go quickly.
"We'll give out (student tickets) as long as they're available," Carr said. "At some point, I imagine we'll sell out."
The last student camp out for men's basketball tickets was during the 1995-96 season when the team hosted the Michigan Wolverines, Carr said. In that contest, the Cardinals fell to Michigan by a score of 80-52.
Carr said he hopes students get the rest of the tickets allotted to them.
"Students make the game -- they make it exciting," Carr said. "It's not quite as lively without them."
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