USU creates new football ticketing system
Utah State University has updated its ticketing process this year to accommodate as many fans as possible for the fall 2020 football season.
Maverik Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 25,513, will be operating at approximately 20% for this season’s football games, or between 5,000-6,000 available seats.
“Once we found out we could have fans, myself, the Campus and Athletics VP and the ticketing office started looking at technology we could use,” USU program coordinator Tim Olsen said.
USU athletics uses a program called Paciolan for its ticketing purposes, but Olsen said it was going to cost $3 extra per student per game.
“We didn’t want to put the extra cost on students,” he said.
Olsen worked with Steve Funk, USU’s information technology manager, to create a system that would work for the students and give them a better chance of attending a football game this season.
Funk came up with a system similar to Paciolan, which students can access through ServiceNow.
USU students are allotted approximately 1,300 tickets, said Olsen. The remaining tickets will go to fans from the community.
USU student body president Sami Ahmed said the method of allocating tickets was selected to be fair to each class and provide seniors with extra seats because it’s their last opportunity to attend Aggie football.
According to Olsen, the tickets will be allotted as follows: 300 for seniors, 200 for juniors, 200 for sophomores, 200 for freshman and 300 for the Hurd Premium members.
For all Saturday games, tickets will open at 8 a.m. on the Monday prior to the game. Once a certain time hits, about 48 hours before the game, any unclaimed tickets will become available to all students on a first come first served basis.
For Thursday games, tickets will become available on Thursday at 8 a.m. one week before the game. Once a certain time hits, about 48 hours before the game, any unclaimed tickets will become available to all students on a first come first served basis.
Groups in the student section will sit in “pods” between two to six people. Every other row will be closed off for social distancing.
Students who reserve a seat for the game will receive a QR code through ServiceNow. At the game, they will be required to scan the code located on the sticker on their seat.
Students will also have to fill out a form with their name, A-number and seat location.
“When students reserve a ticket, it’s exported into a file with a list of other students who have reserved a ticket. We give that list to folks who operate event services, and they can operate card scanners and upload A-numbers into the scanner,” Olsen said.
This process will ensure that students who have already been to a football game cannot reserve another ticket unless one becomes available 48 hours before the game.
The deadline to claim student tickets is Friday at 5 p.m. for Saturday games and Wednesday at 5 p.m. for Thursday games.
According to USU’s information website, any students who claims a ticket but does not fill out the information form with their name, A-number and seat location will have their A-number blocked from all tickets for the 2020-2021 season.
“Having the students fill out the appropriate information helps us with contact tracing,” Olsen said. “This way we can know where a student was seated, so, if they test positive for COVID, we can know exactly where they were and who they were sitting next to.”
USU’s site also said any failure to wear a mask during the game, or comply with social distancing, will result in a student being asked to leave and barred from future games.
Ahmed said he hasn’t received any complaints about the process so far.
He also said they haven’t discussed ticketing for other sporting events but assumes the process will be the same.
taylor.cripe1@aggiemail.usu.edu
@cripe_taylor