After hours of waiting and technical difficulties, UW-Madison announced Monday that undergraduate student football tickets have sold out for the 25th consecutive season.
This announcement did not come without confusion from thousands of Badger fans. About an hour after undergraduate student tickets had sold out, it appeared that UW-Madison issued a statement from its official Facebook page claiming all ticket orders had been voided due to a server error.
“This morning, our servers encountered an error due to the overwhelming number of students and fans attempting to purchase season tickets for 2017 Badger Football games,” the post read. “We regret to inform you that due to this system failure, all ticket orders have been automatically voided.”
Although news of the post—spread through a Snapchat screenshot—seemed to come from the official university account, university officials say they did not post the message.
Nate Moll, social media specialist for UW-Madison, said the statement did not originate from the UW-Madison Facebook page and that all transactions completed Monday are final.
“All tickets that were sold Monday morning will be honored,” Moll said. “Any claims that suggest otherwise did not originate from the UW-Madison Facebook page.”
The UW-Madison Athletic Department has since issued a statement acknowledging the inconvenience of the ticket sales process, saying they are working to improve this system in the future.
Statement from the #Badgers on today's undergraduate student season ticket sale: pic.twitter.com/02F9IbMXyI
— Wisconsin Badgers (@UWBadgers) June 12, 2017
“Today’s ticket sales process did not move as quickly as desired and did not meet our expectations,” the statement says. “We are actively working with our ticket software provider on ways to improve future on sale efforts.”
