It took just 30 minutes for Penn State men’s hockey student tickets to sell out this year. Does this say more about the students’ passion or the lack of tickets allocated for students?

It’s no secret Penn State student tickets are hard to acquire for any sport.

The notorious football ticket lottery system rewards over 21,200 students each season. As for hockey, however, only about 1,000 tickets are reserved for students to wait in the Ticketmaster line.

Many students took to social media to air their grievances about their connectivity issues while in the digital queue. Some students reported that they were kicked from their spot in line entirely and couldn’t get tickets.

We know Beaver Stadium and Pegula Ice Arena are vastly different in size, but Beaver holds about 3.1% more student ticket seats (19.8% vs. 16.6%) than Pegula does.

As Hockey Valley gains more buzz every year, student demand for tickets is higher than ever.

The solution? Sell more student tickets.

Penn State reported an average attendance of 6,342 last season, but that doesn’t tell the full story of what Pegula looks like on gameday. The student section is jam-packed, including the aisles, while general seating is a bit more spotty.

Whether it is adding another section, adding more standing room in other places, or something else, more student season tickets would benefit everyone. Not to mention, more guaranteed ticket sales wouldn’t hurt an athletic department facing over half a billion dollars in Beaver Stadium debt.

These solutions can grow the Roar Zone, allowing more fans to experience the atmosphere that makes Pegula so special. For regular fans, it will bring spectators closer together, adding to the classic hockey “packed barn” feel.

At a university where athletics matter to so many students, the chance to experience a full hockey season in Pegula is something less than 2% of University Park’s student population gets each season.

Growing that number would be beneficial for everyone involved. This is not a call for arena renovations, but rather a suggestion to expand one of the most electric student sections in all of college hockey.

We’ll see how packed Pegula gets when the Nittany Lions open the season on October 16 at 7 p.m. against Quinnipiac.