PIA Ticketing Clarified

On Tuesday afternoon, Penn State sent an email to those who have placed season ticket deposits updating some frequently asked questions concerning the process. The main body of the email is below, but among the highlights:

• Seat selection for the inaugural season at Pegula Ice Arena will begin on July 16th (previously, the process' opening date had been given as "expected June 2013").
• Selection order will be determined by Nittany Lion Club point totals and by history as a PSU hockey season ticket holder. That latter criterion is obviously welcome news in this corner, as it gives long-time Icers ticket holders who may not have been NLC donors some unspecified measure of priority. Once each buyer's selection comes up - subsequent emails will communicate specific dates to those who have deposits in - the purchase will be made through the PIA Virtual Venue.
• A $25 per seat deposit is required to participate in the selection and the deadline for submitting a deposit is May 24th at 5:00 p.m. (previously, May 24th had been given as a soft deadline, that no longer appears to be the case).
• NLC membership is not required to purchase "End Zone" seats, which include those in the main bowl wrapping the end of the ice opposite the student section, ending roughly at the faceoff dots in that zone. All seats, however, must be supported by a minimum donation of $50 - unless the buyer is already donating that amount or more to the NLC annually.
• Ticketing procedures for the women's team are still TBA, possibly because they are still TBD. Obviously, the same also goes for single-game men's tickets as well as any partial plans that may be offered.

Through other recent releases, we also know that fewer than 1,000 of the seats set aside for season ticket sales remain available. Joe Battista was recently quoted as saying that 3,000 tickets have been claimed via deposit. With those numbers in mind, it's probably fair to break down the PIA's 6,000 seats as roughly 3,000-4,000 season ticket holders (depending on the final number sold, of course), 1,000 students, and 1,000-2,000 tickets available for single game sales (with that number plus the number of season tickets equaling 5,000).

Student tickets, by the way, will go on sale in September.