Officials in Penn State's athletic ticket office are considering several changes to how Beaver Stadium student section tickets are issued and how students enter the stadium, an associate athletic director said.
Greg Myford, associate athletic director of marketing and communications, said last week that no changes have been set in stone; however, he did mention several amendments to the process that his office may consider as next year's student ticket sale approaches.
Technology now exists that would allow students to swipe their student ID card to gain access to the stadium, and Penn State is evaluating that possibility, Myford said. This could allow the athletic ticket office to track how many games a student attends each season, and give the students who attend the most home games first priority in purchasing tickets to bowl games, he said.
The ticket office has also considered what Myford called a "Web-based ticket management program" that would allow students to manage their tickets online.
"You purchase the ticket, and then, throughout the year, on a game-by-game basis, you go in and register whether or not you're going to attend that game," Myford said, describing the system.
If a student elected not to attend a game, his or her ticket could be made available to another student who didn't get season tickets, he added. This system would alleviate the problem of students who buy season tickets with the sole intention of selling them at inflated prices, Myford said.
To implement these changes, Myford said the university could work with Ticketmaster, though he's also looked over a proposal from Ticket-Return, a company based in North Carolina that provides ticketing services.
The University of Maryland uses TicketReturn technology to administer its student tickets for all football and men's basketball games and some women's basketball games, said Preston Robinson, the university's director of ticket operations.
Students' names are printed on the ticket and built into the ticket's barcode, Robinson said. When they arrive at the game, an attendant swipes the student's ticket through a machine, and their name appears on a computer screen. The student must also show their student ID to get into the game, Robinson said.
This system has foiled a few students' attempts at trying to change the name printed on the ticket, Robinson said. Some students have tried to replace the name printed on the ticket with a different name, not realizing that it will also have to be scanned at the stadium, he added.
"Obviously, you're gonna have students who think they're gonna outsmart the system," Robinson said.
Students could be barred from attending future games if they're caught trying to alter tickets, according to the University of Maryland's student ticket policy.
Myford said Penn State has not had conversations with TicketReturn about its proposal and reiterated his office has not firmly decided on any changes it may make to how student tickets are managed.
"We're gonna continue to evaluate ways to improve the ways we put student season tickets in the hands of our student body," Myford said. "I think technology will play a role in that."
