I am writing in regards to the Izzone ticket disbursement for the 2005 Men's Final Four in St. Louis. I was a member of the 2004-05 Izzone student section as a season ticket holder.

I received an e-mail early morning Monday from the Student Alumni Foundation in regards to available Final Four tickets for Izzone members. The e-mail stated that 600 tickets would be made available to Izzone members, for the price of $133, and that they would go on sale Monday, from 6:30 p.m. until 9 p.m. at the Student Alumni Foundation office located in the Union. It continued that the tickets would be made available on a first-come, first-served basis. In order to assure that I would be able to get a ticket for myself, I arrived at the Union at 2:30 a.m. the day the tickets were to go on sale. Many other students were waiting as well, and a line formed throughout the night.

At 7 a.m., the Union opened and the line was moved into the third floor, where the Student Alumni Foundation office is located.

At about 8:30 a.m., Izzone directors issued numbered, ordered wristbands to those waiting in line. We were told that the purpose of this was to maintain the current line, as it would be moved back outside. Here we stood for hours, waiting for 6:30 p.m.

At 12:45 p.m., we were given a handout by Izzone directors informing us that the MSU Athletic Ticket Office would be handling all Final Four ticket sales, and that requests were to be placed online. Also, the ticket price had increased to $140.

All those individuals who had waited (including me and my friend) for hours upon hours were extremely angry. I personally lost ten plus hours of my time, sat through a cold night, and missed multiple classes for absolutely nothing. The Izzone directors told us to direct our dissatisfaction to the Jenison Field House athletic office.

After applying for the tickets online, I proceeded to Jenison Field House to try to speak to someone about the situation. They stated that the mistake was that of the Student Alumni Foundation, and that there was nothing they could do. I don't know who is at fault, but I would hope someone would step up and accept responsibility for this major mishap.

Kevin Wiedelman
general management sophomore