The UW-Madison Division of Intercollegiate Athletics announced Monday the students selected for the 2004-'05 UW-Madison men's basketball season tickets would not be charged.
Paciolan Inc., the software company handling ticketing for UW-Madison athletic events announced it will cover all costs for the 2,100 student tickets.
Steve Malchow, UW-Madison associate athletic director of communications, said Paciolan's choice benefits not only the students, but also the reputation of the company. Paciolan handles over 80 percent of ticketing for similar institutions, according to Malchow.
\We value our relationship with the company,"" he said. ""We have a five-year agreement with them, and we're certainly very happy to be partnered with a company that takes customer service as seriously as we do.""
Deputy Athletic Director Jamie Pollard said he agreed Paciolan made a wise decision, but stressed the company is bearing the cost of the tickets, not the Athletic Department.
""We've gotten some [complaints], but most people think it was the Athletic Department providing the complimentary tickets and it's not-it's the company that chose to do that,"" Pollard said. ""That's a pretty big expense for them to undertake.""
Malchow added the Athletic Department would make efforts in next year's process to give special treatment to those not selected in the second lottery.
""There's a group of students-and the number's 901-that were chosen in the first lottery and then were not chosen in the second lottery, and for those students obviously the Athletic Department and everyone involved felt really bad for them,"" Malchow said. ""What we do wish to do as a department is recommend strongly to Associated Students of Madison to strongly consider doing something special for those students come next year's lottery.""
Winners of the season ticket lottery were posted Monday morning at the Kohl Center, as well as distributed through e-mail to all applicants.
UW-Madison freshman Aaron Towne was among those chosen in both the first and second lotteries. Towne said receiving tickets was exciting, but free tickets were an unexpected bonus.
""I got really lucky so it worked out, but if I wouldn't have gotten them I would have been really disappointed,"" he said.
UW-Madison senior Chris Staum won the lottery initially, but did not win tickets in the final lottery. He said he was most upset at the lack of emphasis on fan dedication and that many of the winning tickets could have gone to scalpers.
""It was kind of a slap in the face,"" Staum said. ""I read the article on uwbadgers.com and they said they were doing this to honor their most die-hard fans ... when there's no way to determine who is the bigger fan by the winners and losers-it's a complete random draw.""
