The irony. The absolute irony.
At the same time as the 25th anniversary and memorial service of the 1999 Bonfire tragedy, ambulances were called, people got into physical altercations and students stood in rising waters in what will go down in history as the infamous ticket pull disaster for the 2024 Texas vs. Texas A&M football game.
You literally can’t make this stuff up, not something as foul as this. No order, no security, no proper communication — nothing at all.
It felt like war.
While fingers can be pointed in many directions, I think it’s best we start with our thumbs pointing behind us.
Earlier this semester, a new rule was put into place that students couldn’t camp out until 6 a.m. on Sunday prior to a ticket pull day, hoping to ensure the university and students were “complying with fire code and other university rules.”
“We are excited that we are able to continue the tradition of ticket pull, while also ensuring the safety of our students,” Vice President of Student Affairs Joe E. Ramirez said in a press release accompanying the rule change.
How’s that looking now? Did you really think students wouldn’t start standing outside ticket windows before that time, especially for a game like this? An event with more at stake than one can comprehend?
To the Division of Student Affairs — people who are supposed to be involved in students’ lives and activities — shouldn’t you have tried to think how students think, that maybe this might’ve been a more chaotic ticket pull than before? But sure, let’s assume that students will slowly trickle in to stand in line for the biggest college football game this year.
People started lining up before the New Mexico State game, which started at 6:45 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 16. Sure, tents didn’t start getting pitched until around the enforced 6 a.m. start. But for many people who started lining up beforehand, there was no place for their tents, so they resorted to standing or sitting on the ground or a chair.
Did authorities at any time while the crowds were forming wonder, “Maybe we should set up some sort of lines or barricades that could help create some order?” If they did, it was already too late.
As the crowds increased from Saturday night, Sunday and into early Monday morning, we were all packed in together like ants in a colony. Nowhere to move, people had to step over others in order to get in and out of the crowd to switch out with others, use the bathroom or get food and water. I think homeless camps are run better than this.
Then it got to the actual ticket pull.
While my “shift” ended at 6 a.m. Monday, from what I could see from the other people pulling and various TikTok videos, it somehow got worse. People weren’t able to breathe because of being so closely packed together, which caused some people to faint. Rain waters rose, and people couldn’t move. It was a literal battle, a fight against the environment for our survival.
And through all of this, the best thing enforcement could do was tell people to leave because of a lightning strike? Was the number of people unsafely and densely packed together for 30-plus hours not worth enforcement of authority? Did we need to be stacking Veos in trees or be publicly intoxicated for them to start doing something?
Nothing about that scene was safe, and something could’ve been done to ensure safer protocols were in place that didn’t endanger students’ health. How many more people have to faint or be injured while standing in these crowded conditions?
And it didn’t help that actually getting the tickets took forever.
People shouldn’t be able to pull 500 tickets. It doesn’t matter if you’re in an organization or Greek life. Lines barely moved for the first hour because multiple groups of 100-plus were pulling tickets.
This is where I suggest that we should have an online system, but I do acknowledge the disadvantages of this. Systems crashing — like during Aggie Ring sign-up times — is a real possibility, especially for the number of people our university has. Being one of the largest schools in the country is going to have these challenges, and questions can be asked if we have the digital infrastructure to support an idea like this.
But would y’all rather have a system that crashes or people dying? Because death was a definite possibility given the conditions students were in.
And to the people who say, “Why can’t you just wait until lines calmed down so you could pull your ticket?” Tickets for seats were sold out by 9 a.m. Tuesday. That means many juniors, sophomores and freshmen only got standing-room-only tickets. Maybe an option should be given to look on from the roof of Rudder Tower to watch the game?
To the 12th Man Foundation and any higher ups who have control of this situation: shame on you.
Tradition is everything at A&M. We pride ourselves on preserving it, something that others mock us for. Ticket pulls are a part of our tradition, and I do believe that we should take a close look at what should be done moving forward. While I think our pride is a necessary part of our identity, it shouldn’t come at the expense of student safety.
However, one of our greatest traditions was disrespected: Reveille. People were actually stepping on her memorial because there wasn’t enough space to stand when it was time to pull tickets. This could’ve been avoided with better planning. But instead, the lack of it led to the disrespect of our First Lady, and you are to blame. If that’s not a wake-up call, I don’t know what is.
You had two years to figure out how this game was going to go down, and it just feels like there’s going to be more disaster at the actual game if precaution isn’t taken — because there certainly isn’t any right now.
Tradition is supposed to be upheld. But not like this.
I have to applaud the students who camped out. We embraced the collective struggle and made the best of the situation. That is, except for the idiots who rushed to the front of the line at 2 a.m. Monday to try and get better spots — which I have to say is incredibly disrespectful, not only because those people got there before you but also because you took advantage of them leaving to go to the Bonfire memorial service.
Nevertheless, what I saw was largely an embodiment of the Aggie Spirit.
The Spirit of Aggieland is strong, very strong. We should be proud that we go to a university with people who genuinely want to see our team beat the hell outta Texas. The excitement is there. But it shouldn’t compromise student safety.
Thankfully, no one died. But we can’t wait until someone does for changes to be made.
So what should be done?
End in-person ticket pulls and move to an online ticketing system
This might be the most popular option right now — and for good reason.
We should’ve done this a long time ago. It didn’t need to come to this, but here we are. Texas A&M-Galveston already has an online system, and it’s time we do too.
While having an online system can be tricky, here’s an idea that can help increase the likeliness of online ticketing systems working at a university as big as ours:
Have a merit system that encourages people to go to other sporting events to get points that will give them a better chance to get higher on the waiting queue for football ticket pulling. This will alleviate some possibility of systems crashing and encourage students to attend other sporting events.
Limit the amount of passes you can actually pull
No one should be pulling more than 100 tickets at one time. It’s incredulous that there hasn’t been a system set up separate from regular students pulling tickets for big organizations like fraternities or student leadership organizations.
Capping the number of passes pulled at one time can allow for a smoother flow of service when distributing tickets. For bigger groups, it needs to be in a separate system that is done at a separate time so it doesn’t coincide with regular people and disallows them from getting their tickets.
No guest passes redeemed until a later date
The fault in tickets running out was that big groups were not only pulling for student passes, but a lot of them had guest passes attached to them. Guest passes shouldn’t be a priority; students should be. Those need to come after every class group has pulled.
What we don’t need is burnt orange in the crowd of maroon because someone gave their guest pass to their friend in Austin or people resold their guest ticket for over $400. That’s some t-sip behavior.
No line skipping
People had to be taken to the emergency room because others tried to rush the line and skip. People were hurt. Ensuring better barriers are present and clearer lines are formed will disallow people from skipping lines and have a better flow of traffic when it comes time to pull tickets.
Reinstating the campout policy
I truly believe that the removal of the tradition of camping out weeks before led to this outcome. Having a longer period of time that allows for people to camp out removes the possibility of everyone doing it at the same time, like how it happened against Texas.
The intention for removing the prolonged camping out time was to ensure safety and prevent fire hazards, but nothing could be more of a risk to the safety of the students than what we experienced.
Now, I am not some revolutionary who can single-handedly fix the ticket pulling system. I’m merely a spokesperson of what I’ve seen online, what people have recounted to me and what I’ve experienced myself. But this collective of experiences are ones that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Something must be done so it doesn’t happen again.
President Welsh has taken responsibility for this ticket pull fiasco. While I appreciate this gesture, the ball shouldn’t stop rolling there. He gives no concrete details on steps they want to take to ensure safety during ticket pulls and doesn’t mention a move towards an online system. It’s not enough to only accept blame. Fundamental changes need to take place to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
Take into consideration these ideas as well as others that are being communicated by students in the real world and on online forums. Y’all were not there to experience what we had to experience; you got your photo opportunity and dipped. Listen to what we have to say and make an informed decision.
Have we witnessed the last in-person ticket pull that this university has ever seen? Maybe so, maybe not. But what is guaranteed is that it will never be the same.
It’s in your hands now. Do the right thing, the one that is in the best interest of us Aggies.
Joshua Abraham is a kinesiology junior and opinion writer for The Battalion.
