The University of Connecticut’s basketball season ticket holders re-selected seats this past summer in the wake of renovations to Gampel Pavilion and the PeoplesBank Arena.
Last fall, UConn Athletics announced renovations to the PeoplesBank Arena, the lower-level seating structure and the lower bowl of Gampel Pavilion resulting in modifications to the structure of the seats.
The renovations, which are expected to be finished before the 2025-2026 basketball season, resulted in season ticket holders having to go through a re-selection process which occurred from May 19 through June 17. Fans were given a selection time based on their priority point ranking.
Around 5,000 season ticket holder accounts who previously had season tickets went through the process, according to William Peterson, UConn’s assistant athletic director of communications.
Peterson stated that the process went “pretty smoothly,” and that the Athletics Ticket Office
was able to work out any problems fans had.
Fans reported the process was relativity easy online but also said that they were unable to get the same or similar seats they had in previous years.
Andrew Taylor, a UConn alum who went through the re-selection process, said in an email that he did not get his old seats as they were already chosen. His new seats are three sections over from the seat he had previously.
“I am in a worse section angle-wise (instead of being on the sideline, I am more in the corner/on the baseline). I believe I still am on the aisle but higher up. The price is still the same as well,” Taylor wrote.
Fans online also expressed disappointment in not getting their old seats after donating more money to UConn Athletics to better their chances of getting an earlier seat selection time and, in turn, their old seats back.
According to former reporting by The Daily Campus, selection times were based on how many priority points a ticket holder had. Priority points are based off how much money a ticket holder has donated.
Fans like Taylor said they were disappointed in this process.
“I still view it strictly as a fundraising effort under the guise of arena construction — I would have had a different opinion if they were honest about it, which I do not believe they were,” Taylor wrote. “I understand they needed to restructure seating around, but I believe they could have done it in a more fair way or by impacting the minimum amount of fans.”
Peterson said he understands fans’ frustrations, but that UConn Athletics did the best they could to make sure it was a good experience for fans.
“I think we did our best to try to work with everybody as best we could,” Peterson said. “We understand in some cases it’s frustrating for folks that they couldn’t get the seat that they wanted, but I think we have to look at it from the overall fan experience. This was just something that was necessary for us to do at this time in order for us to keep making the facility better and to keep our program operating at the highest level.”
According to Peterson, season tickets are now sold out for men’s basketball home games.
More information on the basketball season ticket process can be found on the UConn Athletics website.