For some UF students, the road to the Southeastern Conference Championship Game in Atlanta ran through the Midway Islands on Monday night.
Students who were unwilling to list their country of residence in U.S. territories or beyond on Ticketmaster were unable to buy tickets to the UF-Alabama showdown on Dec. 6.
When the clock struck 6 p.m., some UF students were able to enter the site, apply for a ticket and put in their UFID numbers, which served as their password for the site. After retyping a security word on the next screen, they were prompted to provide their billing information.
It was at this point that the Midway, Wake and Johnston Atoll islands became part of West Gainesville - far West, as the U.S. territories are located in the Pacific Ocean.
Jason Goldstein, a UF philosophy senior, said the U.S. was not an option as his home country, and the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands was the "least random" choice.
At this point, other ticket-seekers became confused and didn't think to put another international location. As a result, they timed out of their session and lost their tickets.
David Medoff, a UF engineering junior, said he and a friend became willing residents of an obscure U.S. territory to get their seats, but there was an additional $2.50 charge on their billing summary that Ticketmaster called an "international will call fee."
Medoff said when he called Ticketmaster customer service, an agent told him the country selection had been a problem all night.
"We explained the situation, and they changed our country to the U.S. and wiped out the $2.50 fee," Medoff said.
A customer service agent said while Ticketmaster couldn't help students who did not file an order, it would be able to change the billing country and lift the fee if an order was successful, as it did for Medoff.
Another potential pitfall in the Ticketmaster process was the security word itself.
Medoff said the two people who got tickets out of his group were asked to retype simple words such as "cases." The two who didn't get tickets were asked to retype more complicated words such as "$3.50 houses."
Medoff said he doesn't think applying for tickets on the new online ticket system is better than waiting on the old phone system.
"Students don't have a chance to even blink before the tickets are gone in this situation," he said.
