Duke jilts former WLEX anchor on Champions Classic tickets. BBN comes to rescue.
Former WLEX-18 anchor and Kentucky fan Kristen Nicole tried to buy tickets for Kentucky’s Nov. 6 game against Duke and thought she secured them, but the Blue Devils had other priorities. She took to Twitter on Friday to voice her disappointment.
“Reason #65336778 to despise @DukeMBB,” she posted. “They promised the tickets I paid for THREE weeks before the game. 11 days before tipoff, I get this. Now prices have skyrocketed. Cool. And it was a Chicago address. Smh.”
Nicole, known in Lexington as Kristen Pflum and now anchoring in Chicago for Fox 32, heard about Duke opening its Champions Classic ticket availability before UK and went right to the site to buy tickets for herself, her husband and father-in-law, she told the Herald-Leader. She wanted to act fast because she knew the seats for the season opener in Indianapolis would sell out quickly.
“The email I received (from the Duke site) states that tickets will be filled by priority,” she said. “We assumed that to mean we might be in the rafters, but we’d have a seat. Nowhere does it say “this is a ticket request” and you may not receive a ticket. That’s the most infuriating part.”
The rejection email indicates Duke’s version of its season ticket holder priority (Iron Dukes) was used to fill orders rather than first come, first serve. She doesn’t think Duke researched her as a secret UK fan — given her name change and Chicago address. Other ticket buyers got similar emails Friday, according to reports.
“The day I logged on to buy tickets, there was a wait list. It had a spinning wheel for a minute or so then said, ‘Congratulations you’ve found tickets!’ and it gave me 8:00 to complete the transaction,” Nicole said. “Nowhere in this process was I led to believe I wouldn’t receive the tickets I paid for. But here I am, 11 days before tip-off with some really disappointing news I have to give my husband and father-in-law.”
When she made her purchase, she said the confirmation email stated she would get her tickets three weeks before the game. They didn’t and the rejection email came just 11 days before tip-off. After-market tickets start at $140 each for the rafters. The cheapest lower level seats start at $282.
Nicole is an Indiana native and DePauw University graduate, but her almost 11 years in Lexington at WLEX converted her into a member of the Big Blue Nation.
“I drank the blue Kool-Aid early,” she says on her Fox32Chicago.com bio. “I’m a forever member of the BBN.”
And those connections have paid off, apparently. After her tweet someone responded.
“Well as you know, BBN is a big family and someone tweeted me offering his pair at face value! My husband will be thrilled,” she said.