New system for tickets, stadium access

Students will have a new experience on Sept. 8 when they buy their Griz student tickets: Tickets are no longer paper.
Tickets for the University of Montana football team’s home opener against Southern Utah on Sept. 13 become available at the Adams Center and The Source at 8 a.m. on Sept. 8. However, instead of waiting for paper tickets to be printed, students will simply present their Griz card to be loaded with an electronic ticket, something like a reloadable VISA card.
This new process should speed up the process of ticket sales, said Celine Fisher, Adams Center box office manager
“There will be no waiting for us to print another batch of paper tickets because we got low,” Fisher said.

Students will have a new experience on Sept. 8 when they buy their Griz student tickets: Tickets are no longer paper.
Tickets for the University of Montana football team’s home opener against Southern Utah on Sept. 13 become available at the Adams Center and The Source at 8 a.m. on Sept. 8. However, instead of waiting for paper tickets to be printed, students will simply present their Griz card to be loaded with an electronic ticket, something like a reloadable VISA card.
This new process should speed up the process of ticket sales, said Celine Fisher, Adams Center box office manager
“There will be no waiting for us to print another batch of paper tickets because we got low,” Fisher said.
Buying student tickets is one thing. Getting into the stadium is another.
All students with student tickets will have to enter the new entrance on the southeast side of the stadium, where Griz cards will be swiped and their tickets will be “unloaded” from their cards, said Chuck Maes, associate athletic director. Immediately after admission, students get wristbands.
Without wristbands, students will not be permitted in the student section, or allowed to re-enter the stadium. Maes said the requirement should keep non-students out of the student section.
The five machines that swipe the Griz cards cost $10,000 to $15,000 total, money that was taken out of an equipment budget, Maes said.
The new electronic process is long overdue, he said. Many universities already have electronic ticketing and student entrances.
However, the new process was implemented partially because of past ticket scalping. “There were some issues that needed to be addressed,” Maes said.
In the past, student scalpers profited by selling their free tickets, he said.
The possibility of scalping will not be entirely eliminated since guest passes will still be on paper. They cost $10 and will only be available at The Source.
Because of the new stadium expansion, there will be a total of 4,000 student seats, 700 more than last year, Maes said. Of those seats, 400 are available for guests.
“I think it’s a good thing,” said Steve Cleveland, a junior who said he attends every game.
In the past, he said, other people, sometimes fans of opposing teams, sat in the student section.
“At a Bobcat game last year things got a little wild,” he said. “This will keep opponents out and keeps everybody safer.”
deborah.tanner@umontana.edu