Early Monday afternoon, tickets for the DePauw side of the 118th Monon Bell Classic at DePauw University sold out.
"It's great to sell out and great to sell out quickly," Athletic Director Page Cotton said. "It's the main event in the fall and is what our students look for from a social standpoint. It generates a lot of excitement and enthusiasm from our alumni base as well."
Out of the 8,100 capacity for the stadium, 3,800 gold tickets began were distributed last Monday to students and faculty at no cost. On Wednesday, tickets began to be sold online to anyone for seats on the DePauw side.
"We wish we had more tickets to sell," Cotton said. "But we have to make sure from a liability standpoint that we don't sell more tickets than we have enough room for."
A new feature developed by Assistant to the Vice President for Student Life Jeanne Menzel and the IT staff this year was the automatic closure of the ticket sales website when the tickets sold out.
"We've gone through a transition from dealing with all the tickets in the athletic department to moving to an online purchase system," Cotton said. "The way that the computer program is set up is it keeps track of the number of tickets sold so if it sells out, it says it has sold out."
Tickets were only free to students on Monday and Tuesday of last week. The rest of the tickets were given to both of the football teams, alumni who will be in attendance at the alumni brunch before the game and to Wabash College.
"The one thing that we do that I think is a really good thing is that we provide two days for students on campus and faculty to get their free tickets," Cotton said. "If they don't do that they get thrown into the system like anyone else."
Blackstock Stadium is already being fitted for the Monon Classic which will take place on Nov. 12. The Tiger football team still has one game against Albion College at home on Saturday before it begins its preparation to face Wabash.