Lines starting at the Associated Student Body (ASB) room and reaching the school’s gate, filled with students eager to buy their tickets, on Oct. 19, Bonita Vista High (BVH) sold out of homecoming tickets. On Oct. 17, BVH students received an email stating, “we have had an amazing turnout for our Homecoming Dance. As of today, we have less than 100 tickets left to sell! If you are interested in attending the Homecoming Dance, please stop by the ASB office to buy your ticket as soon as possible. Once we reach capacity, we will no longer be selling tickets.”

This is the first time BVH has ever sold out of homecoming tickets according to ASB president and senior Jalieah Ruiz. One of the main reasons they sold out was the limited capacity of this year’s venue, The Prado. Homecoming coordinators did not expect this many tickets to be bought, based on the attendance levels in previous years. 

“With the Prado, it was just as much as you could get [for capacity] and even though we even sold out once already, we tried to talk to them [people in charge of the Prado], trying to get more space in the venue. So we really did as much as we could,” Ruiz said.

After the sell out, the BVH faculty sent an email to all BVH students stating, “after working with our venue earlier this week to open up additional space and increase capacity to accommodate all students wanting to purchase tickets for the Homecoming Dance, we have unfortunately reached the maximum capacity for this event space. While the venue was booked to a capacity taking into account the number of tickets sold in previous years, we had an unexpected turnout of students buying tickets this year. Our sincerest apologies.”

The attempt to increase the capacity was not enough to solve the problem due to the maximum capacity already being met. It was also stated by ASB Finance Commissioner and senior Noah Cabrillo that “ASB and Task Force are all working to try and expand capacity and trying to get as many people in there as possible.” This is to show that BVH Task Force took into account the number of tickets sold in previous years and they didn’t expect as many students to want to attend. 

“This is a much smaller venue compared to the Midway. The Midway is gigantic and this year’s venue is a lot smaller. You can only hold 900 people, which is maybe two high school classes,” Cabrillo said.

This year’s venue was not able to accommodate the amount of the student body that bought tickets and ended up selling out before the price could rise to $80. ASB Spirit Commissioner and junior Alexis Acosta predicts that this is because of COVID-19 and returning back to normality after the pandemic. 

“I think that this is like the first year that’s pretty normal since COVID. The past years have been affected by COVID heavily. And even last year, even though we’re in person, a lot of things got pushed back, so this year is different,” Acosta said.

When the ASB selects a price to set for the homecoming tickets, they analyze their sales from last year and try to accommodate the amount of people that they expect to go. However, it is difficult to do this because the previous year, Task Force had to compare the attendees of homecoming when BVH was still under serious protocols due to COVID-19.

“I was surprised that they sold out. The venue is definitely smaller compared to the Midway because it was an outdoor venue last time due to COVID and everything. I just think that they didn’t expect as many attendants or attendees because [of] the lasting impacts of COVID,” Ruiz said.

Although the tickets did sell out for the venue’s first capacity, ASB and Task Force did try to exceed capacity and expand the guidelines as much as possible, but there was still no way to let the rest of the students buy tickets. 

“The capacity for the Prado was about 600 and we sold about l000 tickets, so we definitely  pushed the limits farther. They tried their best I think to push it, and we want to make money so we tried to push that as much as we could. But I don’t think they can push it anymore especially since there’s like 2000 students who go [to BVH] so only half of the school is going and it’s officially sold out,” Ruiz said.

When it comes to deciding on a fair price for the tickets, it goes up by five dollars every week and originally ASB was going to start to sell the tickets before school went on fall break but ended up waiting until after. 

“I usually suggest people just buy them in the first week. This year was a little bit more difficult to do so with the permission slips. Then you get it signed, and then just come back within that week and get it for the cheapest price,” Cabrillo said.

On the last days of selling tickets, ASB had lines filled with students–outside the ASB room–rushing to buy tickets with limited space in the venue.  

“There were huge influxes of kids coming in on those last few days [of selling tickets] to try and secure their tickets. Frustration ensues when the bell rings and we’re not able to sell during lunch, so you know you have to cut off the line. That’s usually where a lot of problems are faced at the end of selling [tickets],” Cabrillo said.

Since the sell out of the tickets happened so fast, Cabrillo thinks that students should keep in mind that this might happen again and it’s best to buy their tickets as soon as possible to ensure that the tickets don’t sell out before they are able to buy one.

“Seeing how high demand was this year, they know that next year might be even faster because people will go sooner,” Acosta said.

Selling out of tickets in the second week made it visible that it is important to buy your tickets as soon as they can and not procrastinate according to Ruiz. This should also be a reminder to purchase your guest ticket in a timely manner and as soon as possible.

“I apologize and it literally sucks. I can’t even get my guest in, like I wasn’t able to get a guest ticket,” Ruiz said. “So I feel for everyone who can’t go, especially all of the seniors who didn’t buy their tickets since it’s our last year. I would encourage you not to procrastinate next year if you are an underclassmen.”