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'We'll Get it Fixed': Texas A&M President Mark Welsh Speaks on 'Disappointing' Ticket Pull

The Texas A&M Aggies have two weeks until their most anticipated game of the season against the Texas Longhorns, and the excitement created quite a stir on campus, though not in a good way.

Matt Guzman

General Mark A. Welsh III, President of Texas A&M University, makes his way out after he addressed the Senate Higher Education Subcommittee at the State Capitol on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024.
General Mark A. Welsh III, President of Texas A&M University, makes his way out after he addressed the Senate Higher Education Subcommittee at the State Capitol on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. / Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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Multiple EMS units were called to Kyle Field following the conclusion of the Texas A&M Aggies' home contest against New Mexico State after several fans reported "ill feelings."

The reason? A sea of students was camped outside waiting to pull tickets for the most coveted game of the season against the Texas Longhorns — too early and too rowdy.

“This is my responsibility," Texas A&M Aggies president Mark A. Welsh III, speaking on the matter, said, "to make sure we don’t let that happen again and we will not.

“There was enough bad behavior to go around this last week and there were some very un-Aggie things happening out there."

Some of the actions in question involved an apparent 2 a.m. line storming, hundreds of tickets going at a time to several organizations and a few instances where students needed medical attention.

“I missed the big, big rush,” Texas A&M student Libby Peterson told KBTX. “Apparently, it got pretty nasty. But we’ve been seeing the medics show up ... there (were) people (yelling): ‘We need a medic!’”

Per university policy, camping and line gathering for ticket pull cannot begin until 6 a.m. on the Sunday of game week — a rule that was changed prior to the first game of the Aggies' first year under Mike Elko — but with students lining up immediately following last Saturday's game, that rule fell to the wayside.

"There were people not respecting others," Welsh said. "There were people who were bending the rules ... taking advantage of the situation. None of that is acceptable here, and that part was surprising and disappointing, quite frankly.”

Currently, the lowest ticket price, according to StubHub, is set at $624. For students with the sports pass, it's virtually free, though this time around it seemed the time cost was much higher than usual and correlated with the excitement level for the renewed rivlary.

Unfortunately, that extra attention didn't manifest in a positive manner.

“There’s been a lot of work done this year to try and make it safer, which is why this was really surprising, but that buck stops here,” Welsh said. “We’ll get it fixed.”

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Matt Guzman
MATT GUZMAN

Matt Guzman is a sports journalist and storyteller from Austin, Texas. He serves as a credentialed reporter and site manager for San Antonio Spurs On SI and a staff writer for multiple collegiate sites in the same network. In the world of professional sports, he is a firm believer that athletes are people, too, and intends to tell stories of players and teams’ true, behind-the-scenes character that otherwise would not be seen through strong narrative writing, hooking ledes and passionate words.

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