For the students that dedicate many of their nights during Spartan basketball season to firing up the team in the Izzone, their spirit does not end after the last home game — they follow MSU through until the end of March Madness.
Of the student section’s 3,000 members, 700 will travel to Indiana to cheer on the Spartans against Duke in the Final Four.
Izzone members received an email at 10 p.m. Sunday night, following MSU’s victory over Louisville, with instructions on how to purchase tickets the following morning starting at 9 a.m.
The NCAA uses the third-party vendor Flash Seats for championship student ticket purchases. A $40 ticket gets students into Lucas Oil Stadium for the matchup with Duke and the championship game if MSU advances.
Once the tickets went on sale Monday morning, it only took three minutes to sell out. Tickets were granted on a first come, first serve basis, ignoring seniority.
According to Izzone director Gregory Jackson, this was their fastest sellout in the last 10 years — in 2010, tickets sold out in five minutes.
The free-for-all method of distributing tickets paired with technical issues with Flash Seats has left some students disappointed.
Food industry management senior David Johnson started out in the upper bowl seating as a freshman and worked his way down to the lower bowl. “It would have been an amazing experience and a great end to an awesome five years of college,” Johnson said.
He made an account on Flash Seats Sunday night, woke up early, and waited until ticket sales opened. After struggling to log in to the website, the webpage displayed that there were no tickets available.
Joseph Banish, international relations sophomore, had the same issue.
“I haven’t missed a game in two years, so I don’t think my loyalty was rewarded,” he said.
The students who had issues signed up directly at Flashseats.com instead of following the link on the original email from the alumni association, Jackson explained.
He said the Izzone directors received several complaints via email and phone and some students came into the office to express their frustration.
“I’ve been a Spartan my whole life, but this recent incident puts a bad taste in my mouth since they just disregarded seniority in distributing Final Four tickets,” finance junior Matthew Wilkinson said. “But they made sure to set aside tickets for section leaders of the Izzone so they did not have to go through the process.”
It would be been an incredible opportunity to go to the Final Four to see MSU play — a once-in-a-lifetime chance, he said.
