Tickets to the annual Panda Game, which will return to TD Place on Oct. 2 after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sold out on Tuesday after a final set of 100 tickets were released.
With a reduced stadium capacity of 15,000, around half of which will be Carleton students, fans scrambled for tickets when they were first made available on Sept. 15. The first batch of tickets sold out within an hour before two additional batches at the same price were released in the following days.
Sheryl Hunt, assistant director of marketing and brand strategy for Carleton Athletics, explained the strategy for Panda ticket sales moved ahead differently than previous years as a result of COVID-19 restrictions.
“We put tickets on hold for [internal stakeholders, such as football season pass holders] for 48 hours but elected to go live with the balance of the unheld tickets to the public,” Hunt said in an email. “In a typical year, we would go out to our internal groups first, allowing them one to two weeks to take their seats and then go out to the public.”
As a number of tickets remained unclaimed by stakeholders, Carleton released those tickets in the additional batches.
While Hunt said it’s unclear if this year’s initial ticket sellout time set a record—tickets sold out in 10 days in 2019 and fewer tickets were on sale this year as a result of COVID-19—students expressed awe at how fast they sold.
Amy Spilg, a first-year communications and media studies student, said she was disappointed when she heard the first set of tickets were sold out before she had a chance to purchase any. She ended up purchasing tickets when the second batch was released.
“Panda is a pretty big event, I think. And with everything else being online and not really having a frosh and everything, I want to go to as many of the events as I can,” Spilg said. “Luckily, there was the extra sale [of] tickets on the Friday and that was quite chaotic to get.”
Panda Game is the biggest sporting event of the year for University of Ottawa and Carleton students. After the halt of varsity games as a result of the pandemic, Spilg said she understands why tickets sold out as quickly as they did.
“[It’s] one of the first big events back with the school, so everyone wants to go to it,” Spilg said.
Tianna Williams, a third-year criminology student, said while she didn’t care about attending herself, she understands the hype around the event, especially for new students.
“In first year, people around me were going and asking me if I wanted to go, so this year, I didn’t really have much of that,” Williams said. “I think the reason that [tickets] went so quick is probably because we’re kind of coming back to normalness from the wave of COVID, so people are kind of just excited to get out and do stuff.”
Some students have taken to scalping tickets at a markup on social media, an approach taken by many over the years. In 2019, some tickets were sold at three times the original price, and in 2016, one student was selling his ticket for $130 above the original price.
With the fast ticket sales, anticipation for the big game is also building amongst the Ravens football team, according to Michael Lightbody, an offensive lineman for Carleton.
“It’s one of the biggest games in Canada every year, so everyone’s really excited,” Lightbody said.
This year will mark Lightbody’s first Panda Game and he said walking onto the field is “probably going to be one of the most insane experiences.”
“Everyone’s really pumped up,” he said. “We have to do a lot of training, but we’re ready for it.”
Featured image from file.
