Students start early in Petty ticket quest
By Bill DeYoung
Gainesville Sun - October 1, 1993
Tickets for the Nov. 4 concert go on sale today
University of Florida students began lining up early -- as early as Wednesday -- for tickets to see hometown hero Tom Petty at his O'Connell Center concert, but there was no guarantee that good seats in line would translate into good seats at the show.
Tickets for the Nov. 4 concert go on sale at 10 a.m. today at all statewide TicketMaster outlets. Student tickets are $20.50, which is $4 less than tickets for the general public.
The discounted student tickets are available only at the UF Box Office, in the Reitz Union, which is the only TicketMaster outlet in Gainesville that does not use a lottery system.
With a lottery, the outlet distributes numbers to the people in line, and you're let in to buy tickets based on your number. So getting there early doesn't necessarily mean you'll get a better seat. This method was designed to discouraged hopeful ticket buyers from camping out overnight.
The other TicketMaster outlets in the city are Turtle's, both Spec's, and Tracks in the Oaks Mall Plaza.
Turtle's will begin distributing lottery numbers at 8:45 a.m., Tracks at 9 and the Spec's stores around 9:30.
Every TicketMaster outlet in Florida will begin vending the tickets at precisely 10 a.m. so that every ticket buyer will have an equal chance at good seats, depending on how quickly the outlet can access the main TicketMaster computer.
Students are limited to four tickets per student ID card (they're permitted to bring two cards). There is no limit on tickets for the public.
More than 9,200 reserved seats are being made available for the concert, which will be broadcast worldwide by Westwood One Radio.