New Website Allows Texas Football Season-Ticket Holders To Upgrade Seats

All Univ. of Texas football season-ticket holders beginning this morning have the "opportunity to log on to a website, see what seats remain open all over Royal-Memorial Stadium and weigh the cost of upgrading" for the '15 season, according to Brian Davis of the AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN. Under the Ticket Relocation & Upgrade Experience, or TRUE system, top-tier donors "get first crack at seeing what seats are open in their section." Other season-ticket holders "gain access in 15-minute intervals depending on where they rank on the donor list that once reached as high as 18,375." Fans can "see computer-generated sight lines from almost every seat in the house and the full price breakdowns." UT men's AD Steve Patterson said, "It's completely transparent. There's no smoke-filled room." The website was designed by Ballena Technologies, Inc. and features an "instructional video lasting nearly five minutes." The system is "intuitive, though, and tech-savvy fans should glide right through." Several pro sports teams including the Cubs, Cowboys and Celtics "use similar systems." UT earlier this month began contacting season-ticket holders via e-mail with "information about their priority access time." Fans could "begin playing around on the site last week to learn its features." All season-ticket holders now can also "view an overhead map of the UT campus and select their preferred parking lot." Meanwhile, the UT ticket office "has sold almost 46,000 football season tickets" for the '15 season with "several weeks remaining before the June 10 deadline." The school last year "sold 53,785 season tickets" ( AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 5/24 ).