The last generation of UMass students was blessed with concerts that people still talk about today when bands such as the Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Dave Matthews Band played in our home arena.

Who would have thought with enormous budget cuts and new fountains in the campus pond that UMass would finally deliver a concert that had the potential to be raved about for years to come?

On Oct. 25, 2009 the Jigga Man himself, Jay-Z will take over the Mullins Center. He will be touring colleges and famous arenas across North America promoting the release of his new album, “The Blueprint 3,” which will be available in stores on September 11.

Tickets to the show, like the album, also go on sale to the general public this Friday at the Mullins Center Box Office, LiveNation.com, Ticketmaster.com or by calling Ticketmaster at 800-745-3000.

No need to camp out though. Due to the anticipated high demand, Ticketmaster will institute its “random number distribution.” The order in which the public can purchase tickets in person will be random. At 11a.m., numbered tickets will be handed out to each person who arrives until approximately 11:40a.m.

The box office will officially open at noon, and a random number will be called. Whoever has the lucky ticket will be the first in line. Don’t arrive too early though, because all people in front of them will move to the back of the line.

The ticket prices range from $75 floor seats to $25 student seats. According to Mullins Center Director of Marketing, Scott Sasenbury, Livenation released a password via Facebook that allowed “students” to go online and purchase the discounted tickets in a student presale.

Shortly thereafter, all $25 tickets sold out. Yes, that means there are no more student priced tickets.

Of course, who is to say that it was all students that used the password? This all together completely eradicated the student I.D. verification process. While it may have prevented chaos at the physical box office, it opened the doors to ticket “reselling” agencies, a.k.a. legal scalpers, to buy cheap tickets with a high resell value.

There are already over one hundred tickets for sale on stubhub.com alone selling for as much as $556 a piece.

Sophomore Business major Dave Dennehy thinks that the online password is “bogus.” He was planning on buying the tickets Friday in person, but now isn’t even going to try. “I would have definitely spent $25, but not $50. Especially since I know that I could have gotten two tickets for that price.”

Other students tend to agree with Dennehy. “I can’t believe they would let people pay student prices without showing student I.D.,” said Junior Maddy Lasky. “Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose?” 

Die-hard Jay-Z fans can still buy tickets on Friday, but make sure you deposit your paychecks first. The cheapest seats that are still available through Ticketmaster and Livenation are $50.

Sasenbury encourages those who still want to buy tickets directly from the box office to do so online. The Mullins Center is anticipating a large crowd and while tickets are being sold to those in line, people in the comfort of their homes will be buying tickets at a much quicker pace.

In 2007, tickets to see the Dave Matthews Band at the Mullins Center sold out in 7 minutes.

If you got tickets to the show already, go on and brush ya shoulders off. You’ve got 99 problems, but gettin’ in ain’t one.