High school basketball fans frustrated over tourney tickets

March 12, 2011

a potentially dangerous situation tonight at the pit. a couple thousand people were trying to get tickets to a pretty much sold out girls high school championship basketball game when things turned a little nasty. joe vigil is live at the pit with what happened. people came all the way from gallup and farmington for the big girls championship game tonight only to be turned away at the ticket office behind me... leading to some scary moments for fans. desperate to see the kirtland gallup championship game a couple thousand people who didn't buy tickets in advance tried to get in. but the game was pretty much sold out-- frustrating fans. "i'm very disappointed to come all the way up here and say there's no seat." "pretty bummed out." this is is what frustrated some fans. empty seats in what they were told was a sold out game. a lot of people bought all-day or tournament passes for today's high school games. and new mexico activities association officials say they can't sell those tickets because they're spoken for. but when the game prior to kirtland and gallup let out officials saw that some seats opened up so they decided to sell about 300 seats to a couple thousand eagar fans. "when the ticket window opened there was a mad dash to ticket window and people were pressed up a against the glass and it became a dangerous situation for some of those individuals who were close to the beginning of the line." so ticket sales were cut off. "but when people's safety is placed in jeopardy we have to make decisions to ensure they are safe." but people refused to leave hoping the ticket office would open again. it didn't. some people watched the game from outside the pit. and others who were inside the lobby watched the game on this monitor. nmaa officials s ay they're sorry for what happened and may re-evaluate things for next year. by the way gallup beat kirtland 60 to 46. the state