The changes to the student ticketing system designed to give loyal students better seats and make the game entrance process easier worked well in creating a better atmosphere for football season, Dick Christy, assistant athletic director, said.

The University implemented the new system for the beginning of football season, and it gave students loyalty points based on attendance and allowed students who did not receive tickets to enter the game through a standby line.

Christy said the changes came from increased discussion between Student Government and the Athletics Department during the summer.

“The dialogoue with Student Government was outstanding,” Christy said. “We really got ahead of the curve and got a lot of feedback from students.”

Christy said the feedback from students helped prevent problems before they came up.

“Once we sat down and tweaked some things with Student Government, the system was absolutely as good as we’ve seen,” Christy said.

Matt Garcia, chair of the Student Government Athletics Commission, said the ability for the system to change was key in its success.

“We kept making ends meet so to speak,” Garcia, a junior in sport management, said. “We kept adapting. It was pretty smooth after all was said and done. We wanted to make sure people don’t have complaints.”

Jamie Mills, a junior in English education, said she thought the system worked well.

“Every game that I ever signed up to go for, I signed up with a group and got a ticket,” Mills said. “I never looked at a loyalty point or anything. I never had any trouble at all.”

Mills said the experience of getting into the stadium on game day was also better.

“It actually seemed to go a lot smoother this year,” she said. “The lines this year were a lot better than they have been in the past.”

Christy said the standby line, which allowed students who did not receive tickets through the online ticketing system, succeeded in its goal of filling up the stands at Carter-Finley Stadium.

“The standby line was successful early in the season, but the numbers tapered off later in the year,” Christy said. “It did give that extra opportunity to get a ticket and get into the game.”

Mills said the standby line worked well from what she heard from friends.

“From what I’ve heard the standby line worked great,” she said. “It seems to have worked for getting people in the games earleir. Peple go in earlier because they know their ticket may get revoked.”

The main focus of the changes centered on making students more accountable for the seats they received. The more games attended added loyalty points to accounts and put students in better position to receive a better seating assignment for the next game.

“Now students can log on and control their account throughout the season,” Christy said. “Students seem more interested because they are more accountable for managing their loyalty points.”

Garcia said it may be too soon to tell if the similar changes made to the basketball ticketing system will be effective.

“Right now, it’s a little premature, but I think students are more aware they need to be involved,” he said. “That’s good all across the board. It’s important they keep track of where they stand loyalty point wise.”

Mills said she wasn’t concerned about not getting basketball tickets despite the fact that she has not attended a game yet.

“I never had problems getting tickets, so I’ve never even thought I wouldn’t get a ticket,” she said. “I’ve always signed up with large groups so its never been a problem going to games.”

Garcia said the goal moving forward will be to make sure the ticketing system is user friendly and allows students to manage loyalty points to positively impact seating assignments.

“We want to keep working to make the ticketing system the most student friendly in the nation,” he said. “So far, so good. All in all, we’re headed in the right direction.”