SOUTH CAROLINA
The South Carolina Gamecocks wanted to do something nice for community groups and military personnel this weekend for their makeup game against Akron, offering them free tickets.
However, that plan fell off the rails when tickets were made available to everyone for free, not just those groups.
That led to the South Carolina athletics department issuing a statement asking for fans to respect the intention to only issue free tickets to those specific groups (via WISTV.com):
The Athletics Department, In an effort to increase attendance and give our football team a more memorable experience in their final home game of the season, sent a link for complimentary upper deck tickets to various community groups and military personnel intended for their use only. The Athletics Department hopes that our fans respect the intention of the offer of complimentary tickets to community groups and the military. Tickets are on sale at the Gamecock Athletics Ticket Office.
Naturally, though, rival Clemson fans were quick to pounce on the free tickets, scooping them up and then tweeting about how they aren’t going to use them:
@RayTannerSC thanks to your ticket mishap this is what is happened. Congrats your athletic department gave away free tickets to Clemson fans who of course won't use them. Just purchased them to make a joke out of your athletic department. @ClemsonTom pic.twitter.com/r2ExwQpDGJ
— Matt Barber (@dixiefriedsport) November 30, 2018
What a mess for South Carolina. Hopefully this doesn’t affect fan attendance against Akron on Saturday afternoon.
Realistically how many people plan to attend this game? Stadium holds around 90K. How many show up: 40k-50k? Anyone who wants to attend can probably check CL or just show up tot he stadium and get tickets for free or next to nothing.
Yeah I’d be pretty surprised if this actually ends up being a problem.
Not the point. The ticket page clearly states the Tix are free for “Community Outreach” programs and they have announced many times that Military members are included. South Carolina was trying to honor those individuals but leave it up to clemnecks to show exactly what they’re made of.
Well, not everyone can be as upstanding and respectful as a USC fan
Any clemson fan doing this to make the SC athletic department look bad should really look in the mirror. Anyone using this as an excuse is simply a a-hole.
Not sure who to make fun of. USC for the screw up or the Clemson fan who purchased free tickets. Matt Barber text states he purchased tickets to spite SC. TFK may be right but the but Clemson fans doing this are classless.