Aaron Singleton, Director of Media Relations for Winston-Salem State University, said the mistake was made by the university’s athletic director, Bill Hayes.
" As it turn out, the capacity of the C.E. Gaines Center is 2,300 or 2,395 with temporary seats, so that is approximately 700 fewer seats than tickets sold and you know our athletic director Bill Hayes, he just wanted to include as many people as possible and I just think in his enthusiasm he just overestimated the number of folks who could get into the facility."
Singleton said Winston-Salem State University is deeply sorry for the incident and the school is making changes to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.
He said several people were also admitted in to the game, who didn’t have tickets.
"We think it is possible that maybe more than 100 people who didn’t have tickets were somehow allowed in the game. We think some of them may have been friends and relatives of the players or some folks who might have gotten but didn’t use their ticket. We are not sure of the scenario," said Singleton.
When asked if any disciplinary action would be taken in the mishap, Singleton said it’s a personnel matter and the school couldn’t comment any further on that. WSSU will continue issuing refunds to ticket holders at the Anderson Center from 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. on Friday.
The university is still tallying the final cost of the refunds. Singleton said so far, the refunds have cost the school $30,000 dollars.
