Student Government Passes Proposal to Expand Big Ticket Section at DKR

By Kevin Myers

Reporting Texas

Outside Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium Austin, Texas on Oct. 7, 2024. (Kevin Myers/Reporting Texas TV)

AUSTIN, Texas — Negotiations to expand the Big Ticket section at Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium began after Student Government at the University of Texas passed a bill calling for an expansion of the Big Ticket section on October 1. 

The student government bill came against the backdrop of the Longhorns’ first season in the SEC, which had brought a surge in demand for tickets. The demand has placed new strain on the Big Ticket program, with many students frustrated at the ticket claiming process and what they have described as an overcrowded Big Ticket section. 

In response, Student Government passed AR-5 that calls on Texas Athletics to expand the Big Ticket section. The bill called for switching team benches, expanding the Big Ticket section around the north end zone, and making empty alumni seats available to Big Ticket holders.

“There’s two students in that one seat,” said Alexandria Finch, a Big Ticket holder. “We’re packed in like sardines.”

A UT Spokesperson said there was overcrowding when Texas Athletics sold tickets for a second Big Ticket section, but those ticket holders entered the original Big Ticket section instead. The spokesperson said the overcrowding only occurred at the first two home games, and Texas Athletics stopped selling the second section in response.

Emma Daniell, Student Government Representative for the College of Liberal Arts, proposed the bill to expand the Big Ticket section. She said the problems students have experienced this fall have been going on for years.

“Right now, you have a lot of people continuously buying the big ticket, and there’s no transparency on how many have been sold,” she said.

Daniell said there are more students who would like to attend games than the current Big Ticket section’s roughly 12,000 seats can hold. She said the size of the expansion will depend on obtaining sales figures from Texas Athletics. She also said that the UT’s student section is smaller that of similar-sized schools.

A UT spokesperson said Texas Athletics has not, and will not oversell the Big Ticket section, as some students have speculated.

Professor James Dalthorp said Texas has a different sports culture than other schools, which makes it difficult to compare student sections. Dalthorp is professor of practice at the Stan Richards School of Advertising and PR and specializes in the business of sports.

“There’s a confidence that we have here at Texas,” he said. “We don’t have a tradition in place that has big, massive sections, cheering sections other than the Longhorn Band.” 

Professor Dalthorp said that maintaining an active student section is important to university athletics and can even tilt the outcome of a game. However, he says that expanding the Big Ticket section and taking seats away from alumni and other season ticket holders would be difficult.

“You pass those seats down from one generation to the next,” he said. “I just don’t personally see how that’s feasible or possible.”

As for Finch, she said she’ll continue to attend Texas Football, but that she’d like to see a change.

“As years go on a lot more people will buy the big ticket,” she said. “I feel as though UT Athletics will just gain a lot more backlash.”