New entry procedure caters to
students
Justin Hite / Assistant Sports
Editor
Students and fans have flowed easily into Rhodes Stadium
every Saturday thanks to a change in the ticketing process.
Last year students lined and piled up around the box office
outside of Rhodes Stadium. Athletic Department officials
concluded that they need to make a change in order to keep
the students' patience from erupting. Ticketing Manager
Jeff Blythe and the rest of his staff decided to cut a step
out for the students.
The new system involves just a card swipe and takes the
actual ticket out of the process. By most accounts, this has
made things much easier on the students.
"I never remembered my ticket, ever," sophomore
Amanda Maiorano said.
With this change, the students enter football games the same
way they enter dining halls.
"It's so much easier. I don't have to worry
about a ticket," sophomore Katie Radcliffe said.
Blythe has been trying to emphasize to students that they
can still come to the Koury Center during the week to pick up
tickets instead of swiping cards at the gate. This would
alleviate some of the crowding in front of the stadium.
"We continue to stress students to come to the ticket
office if they don't want to wait in line," Blythe
said.
He has not seen an increase in students at the ticket office
before games, but it has not had an effect on the waiting
time.
According to Blythe, this change was made to keep students
from "hanging out" in front of the gate before
games. Blythe sent out emails last year and the result of
those was the current card swipe system.
However, during the first game of the season this change
seemed to be worse. About 15 minutes prior to kickoff, a long
line extended from the gate. Students were forced to wait in
this line for 10 minutes.
"The line was so long the first week because students
who were tailgating were cleared all at once," Blythe
said. "An Elon police officer cleared out the parking
lot and sent all the students to the stadium at the same
time."
This caused for the long line, a line that has not been
present in the two home games following opening week.
"It was done to alleviate the bottle necking of people
picking up and/or buying tickets," said Jean Chandler,
one of the card swipers. "Now students can swipe cards
instead of having tickets. But I can swipe cards as fast as I
tear tickets."
Chandler and Jim Peacock have been in charge of swiping
Phoenix cards at the students' entrance and can see the
change in how the students view the new system.
"It makes it easy for students to come in. They
don't have to go somewhere else for a ticket,"
Peacock said.
Blythe agrees that a change is already visible, whether for
better or worse.
"Half the student body comes to the games, and two
[card] readers are working fine. In the future we may open up
a few more lines with more readers," Blythe said.
Contact Justin Hite at pendulum@elon.edu or
278-7247.
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Justin Hite /
Photographer