Ohio State Basketball ticketholders are complaining after finding out that an important game was missing from their season tickets, a match the team omitted on purpose.

The Buckeyes’ game at the St. John Arena was not included in the full-season ticket package this year. A handful of fans were confused about why this game had to be purchased with an additional fee by request. One season ticket holder, Matthew Fletcher, told The Dispatch that when he called the ticket office, he was told that since 30 percent of last year’s season ticket holders didn’t attend the game, the office decided to make this year’s game a separate purchase.

Ohio State’s associate director for premium seating, Justin Doyle, told The Dispatch that this game is a part of the team’s “ongoing effort to create the best possible atmosphere for the game.”

“We thought to ourselves what we’ll do is instead of forcing people who didn’t want to go to that game – because obviously there’s some people that didn’t want to go to that game – we’ll just not include it in the season ticket package,” Doyle said. “We gave them that option.”

Last year, the game brought in a sellout crowd of 13,276 people, featuring retro jerseys, scoreboard graphics, and pregame music. Dolye said that at the time, the empty seats weren’t noticeable since they were spread out around the arena, but 3,000 were available to the general public. This time around, Doyle hopes that they’ll be able to sell as many seats as possible by making the “best experience for the student-athletes” while also letting those that truly want the seats the opportunity to attend.

When Fletcher complained about the unclear email sent to season ticket holders, he was issued tickets to the game free of charge. Doyle told The Dispatch that Fletcher wasn’t alone either – multiple ticket holders had a similar reaction. However, while there was an error in marketing, the team still stands by their decision.

The game is set to take place tonight against Kent State at the arena. The program called the arena home from 1956 to 1998, and since the end of the season, they’ve played at the stadium six times, winning each game.