About 120 students took up ASUA’s offer to refund Zona Zoo sports passes in the wake of dissatisfaction over entrance to Arizona Stadium for the first home football game Sept. 8.
Hundreds of Zona Zoo members were denied admission at the game against NAU, resulting in a police officer using a Taser on one student, while two others were arrested.
ASUA granted students a two-week period to fully refund their passes, which ended Friday. The opportunity came about after heated students claimed to be unfamiliar with the Zona Zoo policy, which states admission to the Arizona Stadium student section is not guaranteed and limited to the first 10,000 in attendance.
“”We just wanted to make sure that any student that thought they were misled or not fully informed had a chance to get their money back,”” said James Francis, UA assistant director of athletics, marketing and ticket sales.
Refund requests, available to all of Zona Zoo’s approximately 11,500 members, were e-mailed to catsinfo@arizona.edu.
Processing time varies, depending on how the passes were purchased, according to an e-mail sent to Zona Zoo members.
Students will be contacted within seven to 10 business days for confirmation of a received and processed request.
Refunds via Bursar accounts and credit card payments take an additional 14 days, according to the e-mail.
This year, Arizona Athletics began offering the all-inclusive “”Red”” pass for $95, and the $60 “”Blue”” pass allowed admission to all sporting events with the exception of men’s basketball games.
The financial impact of the refunds is irrelevant, Francis said, because the Zona Zoo loses revenue as a program by offering seats with high market value to students.
ASUA president Tommy Bruce said he believes the refund opportunity is positive in the sense of fully educating students of the program’s policy.
“”The first game gave us a real opportunity to focus on what the potential problems are with the policy,”” Bruce said. “”We don’t want to make any students feel like they were cheated.””
Additional measures to ease congestion prior to kickoff included more CatCard swiping machines and personnel at entrances at the Sept. 15 New Mexico game.
This year, Zona Zoo became the Pacific 10 Conference’s largest student section.
“”The Zona Zoo section is incredible, and over the past few years it’s proven it’s one of the best in the country,”” Francis said. “”I really think we’ll continue to have a strong, spirited section.””
