With a record-breaking 14,280 students in attendance for ASU football's home opener against NAU, a student section wristband policy caused long lines, confusion and frustration for those outside Mountain America Stadium.
The single-gate entrance for students created a bottleneck as the line wrapped around itself multiple times, and students grew restless. Madeline Ellis, a sophomore studying aeronautical management technology, was attending the game with friends when she encountered the chaos.
“Even to walk 200 feet it took over 20 minutes,” Ellis said. “It was pretty ridiculous."
While not technically a new policy, the rollout of the wristband confused students. In recent years, students would simply show their "Student Pass" digital ticket. This time, however, on top of showing your pass and going through security, staff also required students to get a wristband for the student section.
Michael Meitin, ASU Senior Associate Athletic Director, who oversees student ticketing, said the wristbands are only used when student demand exceeds student section capacity.
"The wristbands are for the general admission student sections, so we only use the wristbands when we're going into what we call this overflow situation," Meitin said. "So the wristbands will run out because we're anticipating having more students in the building than fit in that student section."
Still, the policy delayed student entrance as they were forced into three separate lines: wristband pickup, security and ticket scanning. With gates opening 90 minutes before kickoff, students were stuck waiting in lines past the start of the game.
"We waited for probably 30 minutes, and there was no clear formation of the line," Devin Parker-Lind, a freshman studying community health, said. "It was just people piling in."
As kickoff approached, frustration boiled over. Students shoved their way toward the front and jumped the fences while stadium security attempted to control the crowd.
After wristbands ran out, remaining students were given physical tickets instead, and some were also redirected to "overflow seating" in other sections of the stadium.
Meitin said his staff reviews both analytics and student feedback after each game.
"We're always looking at what the percentage is that actually showed up to the game versus the percentage who downloaded a ticket prior to the game," Meitin said. "We use that to continuously try to improve and see the trends."
However, Ellis was among some of the students who were turned away completely.
"It was really disappointing, because I had gotten ready and was really excited to watch the game," Ellis said. "But they forced me to leave after they didn't give me a wristband, so it's pretty messed up."
For many students, the lack of communication and organization gave an unsavory taste to the start of the football season.
"We're not trying to turn anybody away, we're not trying to exclude anybody," Meitin said. "We're doing our best to get as many students in as possible and provide as many options as possible."
The wristbands could result in students rethinking whether they are going to attend the next home game. However, Meitin said more communication is planned.
"We will have more direct messaging to the students who downloaded a ticket for this next game with what to expect when you arrive," Meitin said.
Edited by Alan Deutschendorf, Jack McCarthy, Henry Smardo and Ellis Preston.
Reach the reporter at mssuarez@asu.edu and follow @melinasszmedia on X.
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Melina Suarez is a reporter at the sports department, telling the stories of ASU sports and related topics at The State Press. She is in her 1st semester with the State Press.
