17 students ejected from quickly emptying stadium
South Carolina's football home-opener Saturday served as a trial of USC's new student ticketing system, and for hundreds of students, entrance meant agitation.
Director of Student Services Anna Edwards said she worked with about 250 students on gameday whose IDs didn't scan properly at the gate to get them into the stadium. She attributed the problems, not to a glitch in the system, but to about 260 students who set up their own Ticketmaster accounts instead of using the information USC provided to students.
"It made them think they had tickets when they didn't," Edwards said.
To help correct this, Student Ticketing sent an email to students reiterating their correct login information Monday evening.
Otherwise, Edwards said she was pleased with the CarolinaCard-based system's first trial; she said it "worked very well."
She reiterated that the system only works if you follow the directions.
"If they have a ticket in their account they need to confirm it by Thursday at 5 [p.m.]," she said.
While she acknowledged that guidelines could have been more clearly explained to students, Edwards pointed to the majority who had no problems maneuvering the system.
"We communicated the process to over 12,000 students, so to have 250 who didn't get it right..." she said. "We could have done one-on-one tutorials in the Russell House, but I think that's pretty good."
She added that ECU, albeit the home-opener, was a fairly low-profile game and a good opportunity to test the system to prepare for highly anticipated Georgia and Arkansas matchups down the road.
Fewer violations reported: Of the more than 9,600 students who attended the game, only 17 were ejected and 55 were referred to the Office of Student Conduct for various charges, according to Edwards. A quickly evaporating crowd at a sizzling noon game against the nonconference opponent may well have contributed to both figures being much lower than in years past.
All told, 82 violations occurred throughout the stadium, according to Capt. Eric Grabski of the USC Division of Law Enforcement and Safety.
"A handful of people were probably ejected for more than one reason," Grabski said. "For example, somebody could have been caught with a fake ID while in possession of alcohol, so they would be ejected on both counts."
The most common offense was attempting to conceal alcohol while entering the stadium, which saw 23 people — students and nonstudents — ejected.
More than half of violations were alcohol-related, with 14 people cited for alcohol possession inside of the stadium and nine cited for intoxication, though that number does not include those who necessitated medical attention and transportation to a hospital.
"For those, it was people where it wasn't to the point that they needed medical attention, or, if they did, it was not severe enough for them to be transported and they were released back to us," Grabski said.
In total, alcohol-related charges numbered 46.
Thirteen people were ejected from Williams-Brice Stadium for being in the student section without a wristband, while seven were ejected for having a tampered wristband.
Less common violations included disorderly conduct, possession of a fake or altered ID and smoking.
"We had one situation where a student ID was given to a nonstudent and when that nonstudent was ejected, he had a student ID on him, so the student lost his season tickets," Edwards said.
Fans leave early: Edwards echoed head football coach Steve Spurrier's criticism of fans who ditched the heat and the game to head back to their tailgates at halftime, and added that it was frustrating to watch, especially after repeated calls for a more efficient ticketing system.
"I'm a big proponent of staying the whole time after all we've been through in the last six months educating students on this process," Edwards said. "I've got a great picture from one of the security cameras. [The seats are] just empty. If we're going to put this much energy into distributing tickets getting feedback, we need students to stay. The students make the environment — and not just at the Georgia game or SEC games. So I guess it's a plea to the student body — stay for the game. I understand the heat was bad. But you got a ticket, cheer for the team. They need you. I think the student section makes the game."
Edwards said the same conversation will need to take place in the winter when basketball season rolls around.
"A decision needs to be made on what kind of student section we're going to be," she said.
Edwards mentioned Spurrier's disappointed comments to the media this weekend regarding fans leaving early. She encouraged students who receive tickets to both low- and high-profile games "from ECU, Wofford, all the way to Georgia," to take advantage of the process, claim their tickets and pack Williams-Brice Stadium — for the whole time.
"Do we scan tickets on the way out?" she mused. "Provide some type of incentive?"