UF students turned away before the gate notice

GAINESVILLE – Florida’s basketball game Tuesday against Tennessee is the program’s biggest home game in years.

Therefore it is a difficult ticket.

For some students it was a little too difficult.

UFPD officers dispatched crowds of students from Gate 3 of the O’Connell Center and directed others out of the student area before tipping off volunteers.

The Gators’ ticket booth advertised $35 tickets for fans in the student section. Normally, the lower seats between sections 7 and 15 in the O’Connell Center are reserved for students.

However, UF students do not return for the spring semester until Jan. 13, so the box office has decided to sell tickets for the Tennessee, North Florida and Stetson games in the student section. According to a UF spokesperson, 900 student tickets were allocated for Tuesday’s game.

Freshman Lucas Garcia said he was not informed of this. The business student waited outside the O’Connell Center for 45 minutes before being told by UFPD that no more students would be allowed in.

“I feel a little misled,” Garcia said. “If they had put that in the email, it would have encouraged me to show up earlier.”

Some students showed up early. Senior Angel Cannon arrived at the O’Connell Center on Tuesday around 5 p.m. He has never had any problems getting in. Like Garcia, Cannon was not told that the number of student tickets for the game would be limited.

Cannon called the situation “absolutely frustrating.”

“This is first and foremost a university. It should be about prioritizing students over everyone else because we are the ones going to the games. We’re the ones paying the tuition,” Cannon said.

He continued, noting that the “Rowdy Reptiles” are usually the most boisterous fans in the audience.

“If you want to win home games, you have to have a loud crowd, and if you don’t have any students in the student section, why even call it the student section?” Cannon wondered.

The business major and accounting minor called the game the “highlight of his week” and said he returned to Gainesville a few days early for the showdown.

“I had just gotten back from a trip and when I was free, I thought, ‘I get to be back at university and really enjoy my last year as a student,'” Cannon said.

At approximately 7 p.m., the UFPD installed barricades in front of Gate 3 and refused to allow new students in line. An announcement said only the next 100 students would be allowed entry.

Two minutes later, police told the crowd that there were no more student tickets.

Garcia assumed there were only 50 students ahead of him in line when police announced 100 more would be let in. The freshman believes he was deceived in this too.

He believes more gates should be opened for students to shorten queues.

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UF students turned away before the gate notice

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