When the Northwestern athletic department outlined its procedure for admitting students into football and basketball games free of charge, the scene last Saturday probably was not what they had in mind.
The NU-Kansas game drew a healthy crowd of 24,817, including about 3,000 students. But those who did not arrive early to Gate T — the student section entrance — had to wait in a long line that occassionally resembled amoebic clusters more than any organized queue.
By kickoff throngs of purple-clad, anxious and confused students wrapped around the stadium, often not moving for several minutes. The procession outside Ryan Field was still thick even when more than half of the first quarter was over.
“I was thinking, ‘How could this possibly take so long?'” said McCormick sophomore Jordan Kwok, who said he arrived about 15 minutes before the game and got in 20 minutes after kickoff. “I was excited about the game but frustrated because the lines were so long.”
The delay was mostly due to technological flaws in a new system called Access Management. Students at the gate had to swipe their WildCARDs and wait for a receipt to print, a process that took longer than expected.
Access Management was installed in response to last year’s Associated Student Government-initiated policy that added a $25 fee to all undergraduate tuition bills in exchange for free student admission to home football and basketball games.
The system passed with flying colors at NU’s first home game on Sept. 11 against Arizona State, but the Kansas game presented new challenges, as students recently back from summer break flocked to the game en masse.
“What we found through the process was that when we have an influx of students arriving simultaneously, the technology is not quite as efficient,” said Chris Boyer, the associate athletic director of external affairs. “The machine validation process and printing process just took a little longer than anticipated.”
According to Boyer, auditing concerns necessitate scanning WildCARDs and printing receipts . Also, if attendance exceeds the 5,000-person student section capacity, the athletic department reserves the right to assign seats in what normally is general admission seating.
Because of the complications with Access Management, Boyer said the athletic department will be talking with the technology company and considering all of its options for possible changes, especially since NU’s next home game, Oct. 2 against Ohio State, will be televised on ESPN2.
“Our director of ticket operations will be very reluctant to use the scanning system (Access Management) for Ohio State,” Boyer said. “We’re going to have near 5,000 students, if not more, and if there were so many problems with 3,000, then it’s not going to work.”
But even as some students complained, others who waited in line still believed the benefits of more fans in the stands outweigh the minor drawbacks.
“I was really glad to see how many students were there. It finally felt like I was at a Big Ten school,” Weinberg junior Scott Glazier said. “I would rather have everyone go and wait in line than have no one go and get in right away.”
Boyer also said he thought the new policy will help attendance at games throughout the year. He noted that the crowd Sept. 18 was the largest he had ever seen at NU for a non-conference game prior to the start of class.
“It’s fundamentally easier for students to make up their mind when they wake up on Saturday morning to come to a game if they know no money will come out of the wallet,” Boyer said.
Reach Anthony Tao at [email protected].
