Student tickets

Snowy · November 17, 2017

Hi! I'm working on a project w/ the Athletic Department to measure the effectiveness of the electronic tickets and to predict student attendance for future home games. I understand that in years past, students were able to swipe their ID to enter Fouts field and did not need the pick up a paper ticket. Can anyone confirm this? Can anyone confirm when we started using paper tickets for students? 2011? I know this year is the first year of electronic tickets. Thanks!

-Snowy

greeneagle1 · November 17, 2017

Yes that is correct. 2011 at the new stadium was when you had to start swiping to get a ticket on main campus or at the ticket window and bring it to the game. Fear was that there weren’t going to be enough seats for all students who wanted to go to the game. That has never been the case.

Withers940 · November 17, 2017

Confirm

meaniegreenie · November 17, 2017

This might blow the minds of some of the youngsters...but back in the 80s you could literally walk up to the gate at any time and show a Student ID (which didn't have a picture) and nothing else and just walk right into the game.

MeanMag · November 17, 2017

24 minutes ago, meaniegreenie said:

This might blow the minds of some of the youngsters...but back in the 80s you could literally walk up to the gate at any time and show a Student ID (which didn't have a picture) and nothing else and just walk right into the game.

Hah, that was happening up until early 2000's. Then, they used bar code scanners on ids to make sure you were at least enrolled in a class.

ShiftyFive · November 17, 2017

42 minutes ago, meaniegreenie said:

This might blow the minds of some of the youngsters...but back in the 80s you could literally walk up to the gate at any time and show a Student ID (which didn't have a picture) and nothing else and just walk right into the game.

This continued at least through the mid to late 90's.

Ryan Munthe · November 17, 2017

7 hours ago, meaniegreenie said:

This might blow the minds of some of the youngsters...but back in the 80s you could literally walk up to the gate at any time and show a Student ID (which didn't have a picture) and nothing else and just walk right into the game.

I mean we did this in 2010 at Fouts, even.

oldguystudent · November 17, 2017

50 minutes ago, Ryan Munthe said:

I mean we did this in 2010 at Fouts, even.

On the few occasions that I used my student ID at Fouts in 2008, they definitely scanned it. By 2010, they probably didn't bother because Dodge.

NM Green · November 17, 2017

Just load my season tickets onto a snazzy Mean Green Lanyard and print the tickets out at the gate. It is so incredibly sweet at the FC Dallas games and when I can't make a game I just give my lanyard to my friend and whalaaa they get my two season tickets.

It could be so much easier.

GMG

MeanGreenDan · November 17, 2017

10 hours ago, meaniegreenie said:

This might blow the minds of some of the youngsters...but back in the 80s you could literally walk up to the gate at any time and show a Student ID (which didn't have a picture) and nothing else and just walk right into the game.

No minds blown, this happened until we moved over from Fouts! So easy!

RBP79 · November 17, 2017

Student ID's were used as tickets in the 70's also with no picture. Walk up to gate ..flash ID....go find a seat.

UNT Five&Dime · November 17, 2017

@Snowy This doesn't help you with what you are working on, but just throwing this out there.

There should be a hybrid approach. Students can reserve their tickets like they do now prior to the game. This would come with a wristband allowing entry into the lower 100-level seats. Any student can show up day of game and be scanned in and sit in the upper 200-level seats.

DentonLurker · November 17, 2017

I agree with @UNT Five&Dime .Allow students who care enough to reserve tickets early an opportunity to get better seats and switch to scanning ID's on game day to fill any seats that are left. If they run out of student seats, you are just out of luck and should have reserved your seats sooner. I feel like UNT has done their very best to make something so simple complicated. You're bound to be able to run some analytics to see that based on X student tickets reserved early, we expect Y students to walk up on game day. Once you start building that data, you should be able to make an educated guess each week on how many students will be there.

Ben Gooding · November 17, 2017

I emailed WB about this a month or so ago. He said...

Ben,

Thanks for your note and support of the Mean Green. We made the move to new platform for a variety of reasons, many beyond just admittance into the game although we had received feedback that some students didn't like the in-person ticket pick up. One of the areas identified as a huge concern during my first year was awareness of games. The new platform allows us to capture key data and contact information for students and follow up with reminder messages and alerts. We are also hopeful as graduates transition away from the University it will provide a platform for us to stay connected and continue with reminders and appeals. Without good contact information, marketing to recent alums and current students proves to be challenging. This platform provides the data needed to get direct impact on that key demographic. In theory, it should also be easier for students because it doesn't require the extra step of presenting an ID to get a paper ticket or having to do the ticket pickup during the week. All that being said, it has to function correctly. I was aware of issues during the 48 hours prior to the first game. I didn't hear of issues at the UAB game. That doesn't mean there weren't some isolated issues, just none that made it to me. If you are aware of friends with issues, please direct them to Jamie Adams who oversees marketing at Jamie.Adams@unt.edu. We definitely need to rectify those so that the process is seamless.

I get what he is saying, but "At the end of the day", is this really the easiest method to get students into the games? As I've said before, students can be some of the most laziest beings on the planet. Is giving them a step by step process to attend an event that some of them really don't want to attend anyways and are only there to be with friends or to socialize a good idea? Student ID's have barcodes that store quite a bit of data. Being an active and enrolled student is, I would hope, a part of the data. By simply scanning bar codes of these student ID's can make this about as streamlined as it can be. No loopholes, no on-campus lines, no apps, nada. I would imagine a simple algorithm placed into these bar codes would work, so that a scan of the ID would flag X student as an attendee and there are your metrics and data for keeping engaged with students who are actively attending games.

Cerebus · November 17, 2017

Getting contact info for possible future customers is the real reason, and it's a great reason to do so.

Not saying there aren't wrinkles that need to get ironed out, but it's worth the growing pains to grow that contact list.

cdizzle86 · November 17, 2017

I've also discussed this with Wren and as of a few months ago it sounded like the AD wanted to ultimately have a dedicated mobile app for North Texas sports. This app would allow you to reserve tickets if a student, purchase tickets for fan/alumni, buy merch, augmented reality, news, updates, etc. If done right, the app can provide nearly any type of data/metrics the AD could desire and also make it a seamless, interactive experience for students, alumni, and fans.

greenjoe · November 17, 2017

The old student ID card changed graphics each year but was otherwise the same. Along the bottom front or maybe on the back were 4 boxes. Fall, Spring, summer 1, summer 2. Upon finishing with registration (yellow top card) the registration clerk would burn some cryptic brand into the correct box. No picture. Just your name and social security number (why steal someone's SSN ?). The ticket taker would rarely look at the date stamp. Good times.

GO MEAN GREEN

oldguystudent · November 17, 2017

22 minutes ago, Cerebus said:

Getting contact info for possible future customers is the real reason, and it's a great reason to do so.

Not saying there aren't wrinkles that need to get ironed out, but it's worth the growing pains to grow that contact list.

Did scanning IDs not get that information? I can see with UNT's silo mentality on databases back then that it might not have.

Salsa_Verde · November 17, 2017

28 minutes ago, cdizzle86 said:

I've also discussed this with Wren and as of a few months ago it sounded like the AD wanted to ultimately have a dedicated mobile app for North Texas sports. This app would allow you to reserve tickets if a student, purchase tickets for fan/alumni, buy merch, augmented reality, news, updates, etc. If done right, the app can provide nearly any type of data/metrics the AD could desire and also make it a seamless, interactive experience for students, alumni, and fans.

That would be awesome! How soon would that happen?

cdizzle86 · November 17, 2017

12 minutes ago, Salsa_Verde said:

That would be awesome! How soon would that happen?

Not exactly sure on the timeline or if their initiative has even changed.

3 minutes ago, Prettylittleeagle said:

The app and students login with their blackboard information? or an app where students have to create an account and somehow link it to their school account(blackboard) which is an even larger pain in the ass? Apps are cool and hip though, so why not.

My guess is it would be an app specifically for North Texas athletics. It would be much easier to implement if it came from the ADs budget and not the overall school budget.

The interesting piece that I've tried to tie Wren into is that the mobile company I used to work for did the AT&T Stadium app for the Dallas Cowboys, so considering we're partnered with them we may be able to find a way to work together to reduce overall cost.

Christopher Walker · November 17, 2017

36 minutes ago, oldguystudent said:

Did scanning IDs not get that information? I can see with UNT's silo mentality on databases back then that it might not have.

With my own experience scanning IDs, I think they only store the student's ID#. It's then reliant on whoever is scanning to have the appropriate EIS security access to run whatever is scanned against the master academic listings.

Aldo · November 17, 2017

2 hours ago, Ben Gooding said:

I get what he is saying, but "At the end of the day", is this really the easiest method to get students into the games?

The ticketmaster format is great and pretty easy. Once forgot my printed season tix, and opened up my phone and transferred them to my phone. Used my Passbook to get in no problem.

It's a new product. Everyone needs to get used to the technology. There's only so much info to glean off the ID card, as simple and efficient as that may seem. The AD needs to get them to come back after they graduate, and a stored ID number gives them nothing.

Cerebus · November 17, 2017

2 hours ago, oldguystudent said:

Did scanning IDs not get that information? I can see with UNT's silo mentality on databases back then that it might not have.

No, and even if you tied it to their university email address it doesn't do you any good after they graduate. Even though students who graduate can keep their UNT email addresses, 99.999% of them never log into it after they graduate.

What you want is their personal email address, and I am sure that is what they are trying to capture with this process and a future app. Or at least I hope it is.

oldguystudent · November 17, 2017

1 minute ago, Cerebus said:

No, and even if you tied it to their university email address it doesn't do you any good after they graduate. Even though students who graduate can keep their UNT email addresses, 99.999% of them never log into it after they graduate.

What you want is their personal email address, and I am sure that is what they are trying to capture with this process and a future app. Or at least I hope it is.

Hell, I lost access to my UNT email account while I was still a student. Set it to forward to my gmail account, and completely forgot my login information. Then after graduation, I turned it off from Gmail. So I get that part then.

Ben Gooding · November 17, 2017

1 hour ago, Aldo said:

The ticketmaster format is great and pretty easy. Once forgot my printed season tix, and opened up my phone and transferred them to my phone. Used my Passbook to get in no problem.

It's a new product. Everyone needs to get used to the technology. There's only so much info to glean off the ID card, as simple and efficient as that may seem. The AD needs to get them to come back after they graduate, and a stored ID number gives them nothing.

The ID number will be associated with their cell number and address. The change of address at date of graduation that people are supposed to fill out (and many do) will take them to that. It's all tied into their ID number.