It would have been a great college prank, but Iowa The sports department was destroyed.
of Illinois Student spirit group ‘Orange Crush’ has ordered 200 tickets for a men’s basketball game at Carver Hawkeye Arena. Saturday The state of Iowa canceled Wednesday after it was discovered that the person who bought the tickets falsely claimed they belonged to the Boys and Girls Club in Champaign.
The State of Iowa refunded $5,400 and donated 200 tickets to the Boys and Girls Club of Cedar Rapids.
The Iowa Athletics tweeted that when they contacted the Champaign Boys and Girls Club about the order, it was clear the club did not purchase the tickets.
“After contacting the individuals who originally ordered the tickets, they admitted that they had mistakenly ordered the tickets under the nonprofit,” the statement said.
That person was Kilton Roman, senior vice president of Illinois for Illini Pride, the umbrella organization of Orange Crush.
Rauman said on Thursday that the group regularly uses temporary identities to buy tickets for their annual road trips to opponents’ arenas. The reason, he said, is that orders from groups cheering on visitors and heckling the home team will be rejected.
on a trip last year Purduehe said, he had successfully purchased 50 tickets for a group of “Boy Scouts”.
“I’ve had Orange Krush orders rejected in the past, and this is completely understandable,” says Rauman. “I don’t think our sports department wants to sell to his group of 200 kids in his crew at Purdue University.”
Laumann said he called Iowa in September to order discounted group tickets for the “Boys and Girls Club.” The purchase he completed in October, and the tickets arrived at the Illinois Athletic Department’s mailing address, which is home to the Illinois Pride’s headquarters.
“I was shocked that it worked,” he said.
Well it worked until Wednesday. At that time, Iowa informed Mr. Rauman that the barcode on the ticket had not been scanned and a refund had been issued. Iowa declined to comment beyond the statement.
In retrospect, the Champaign mailing address attached to the bulk of the ticket orders should have made Iowa suspect by this week. He said he lost a dollar.
“Obviously it didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to,” Laumann said. “There was no malice behind it.”
Reported by Associated Press.
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