Of the 15,000 Fiesta Bowl tickets allotted to Notre Dame, 2,500 of those will be made available to Notre Dame students and 100 to Saint Mary's seniors, the ticket office announced Monday.
According to Director of Ticket Operations Josh Berlo and an e-mail to all students, the ticket office is holding a lottery to give students the opportunity to buy tickets for the Jan. 2 BCS bowl game against Ohio State, Notre Dame's first BCS game in five years. Students are allowed to bring one ID to Gate 10 of the Joyce Center on Wednesday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. to get a raffle ticket. If their number is in the range of numbers chosen, they have the opportunity to buy two tickets on Thursday.
Saint Mary's seniors will have the opportunity to purchase tickets from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Student Activities Office. Seniors may bring one other senior ID with her to buy the tickets. Any leftover tickets will be available to the rest of the Saint Mary's student body on Dec. 12, according to an e-mail sent to Saint Mary's students.
Berlo said this year's student ticket allotment is more than that of the Gator Bowl in 2003 and more than the Fiesta Bowl in 2000, as the ticket office is expecting higher student demand. But at the same time, Berlo said his office cannot predict what exactly the demand will be and if the 2,500 tickets available to students will be enough or too much.
"It's tough to say [what the demand is going to be]," Berlo said. "All of our indicators of demand - student and non-student - are very high at this point. With higher demand, we increase the number of tickets available to students."
Berlo said the rest of the 15,000 tickets allotted to Notre Dame, a number he said was a standard bowl allotment, goes to alumni, the athletic department, the team, University administrators, parents of students, Monogram Club members and benefactors.
He also said the University is trying to obtain more tickets for students. If this endeavor is successful, students could hear as early as Dec. 14, according to the email.
"We're attempting to procure additional tickets for the bowl from various sources," Berlo said. "If we're able to do that, we would go ahead and e-mail out additional winning lottery numbers."
Should students win the lottery, they are able to purchase tickets on Thursday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. for $85 each, payable in cash or check only. Students are allowed to bring four different winning IDs on Thursday of people with whom they want their tickets. Berlo said the lottery system was implemented to make things easier for students.
"In order to minimize the amount of time students are waiting in line, we elected to go with a lottery system," he said.
According to Ohio State's Web site, their ticket allotment will be distributed through a lottery, but students and faculty will not obtain their tickets until they arrive at the Fiesta Bowl. There, they present a claim voucher that states they have a ticket and their student or faculty ID, according to the release. Should they win the lottery, Ohio State students have the opportunity to purchase one ticket.
The Fiesta Bowl will be played in Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz., capacity of 73,379, according to Arizona State. Sun Devil Stadium is the home of the NFL's Arizona Cardinals and the Arizona State football team.
