Illinois student section apologizes for actions following Iowa ticket office situation

It appears the Illinois student section vs. Iowa ticket office situation could be coming to an end. The Orange Krush released a statement Friday apologizing for its comments and saying it was another organization.

This all got started Wednesday when the Orange Krush put out a statement calling out the Iowa ticket office for canceling its 200 tickets for Saturday’s game between the Hawkeyes and Fighting Illini, which the group said it purchased legally. However, Iowa released a statement saying the Orange Krush said it was the Illinois chapter of the Boys & Girls Club, which is why it voided the tickets.

That led to a response from the Orange Krush’s vice president Thursday defending the group. Friday afternoon, the organization tweeted a new statement apologizing.

“The students of the Orange Krush are among the most passionate fans in the country,” the statement read. “But in planning the Orange Krush road trip, we misrepresented ourselves as another active charitable organization, which exercised poor judgement. This was our mistake and for that we are truly sorry. We also should have never placed blame on the Iowa ticket office and Director of Athletics Gary Barta or called them out for cancelling the tickets. Protection of their home court is, and should be, their priority.

“As a non-profit organization ourselves trying to better the Champaign-Urbana community, we have the greatest respect for organizations who are doing this life-changing work every day. It was never our intention to disparage or lessen their importance. This event has been a valuable learning experience that will help form best practices for Orange Krush classes for years to come. The Orange Krush road trip prank has become a tradition that students and Illini fans look forward to every year. It is our goal to continue the annual road trip in a manner that stays true to the spirit of fun competitions Illinois fans expect.”

As it turns out, the Orange Krush typically uses a different name when buying group tickets because it’s an opposing student section, according to vice president Kilton Rauman. It did so to get a group rate — not to get a discount.

“We always use some type of different organization name because in the past, Iowa was the Big Ten school that wouldn’t sell [to] the Orange Krush, which is understandable,” Rauman told News Channel 20’s Dante Furco. “Why would they want to? But we just said we were a Boys & Girls Club when asked what type of group we were. Hadn’t had any follow-up then until yesterday, when they’d already been invalidated.

“There was no malice towards the Boys & Girls Club at all. We weren’t even trying to use that organization name, really. Just trying to give vague details. It’s really unfortunate that it’s gotten spun this way, but we absolutely were not looking for a discount. We simply got a group rate. Didn’t ask for a discount, didn’t even realize we got one. Groups are just charged differently. But we’re just hoping to spin this back into philanthropy.”