As the Ole Miss Rebels prepare to face the LSU Tigers in the last home football game of the season, hundreds of students are transferring their student tickets. Not all of these transfers will get fans into the gates on Saturday, however.
Students who choose to loan their UM ID card to another person to scan into the football game risk losing their ID to the University Police Department and the buyer not being granted entrance into the game.
UPD reported 30 to 35 student IDs were confiscated at the last home game against Arkansas on Nov. 7.
New student ID exchange regulations have game day officials watching for fraud (Photo by: Royce Swayze)
Matt Cook, manager of ticket operations, said 8,000 student section season tickets were available this year. All revenue from those ticket sales went directly into the operating budget of the athletics department.
“The success of the football team, combined with demand for tickets, is causing the frequency (of sharing and selling student IDs) to rise,” Cook said. “Demand is at an all-time high.”
Cook said student tickets are sold at a heavily discounted rate of $120, when compared to the public price of $385 per season ticket.
“Having student tickets delivered to your student ID is designed to simplify the ticketing process for the student, as you are required to have your university ID on your person at all times when on campus,” Cook said. “We only allow students to transfer tickets to other students to maintain the integrity of the student section.”
Ole Miss Athletics has delivered student tickets to student IDs since 2010, but the ability to transfer tickets between valid student IDs is new this season. The new online website allows students to transfer their ticket to another valid student ID. Each ID can only hold one ticket per game.
University Police Chief Tim Potts said confiscating the IDs at the gates usually happens when the ID obviously doesn’t match the user.
“It became an issue when they would have a white male carrying a different person’s ID or a female carrying a male’s ID,” Potts said. “Come on.”
The University has a policy prohibiting students from sharing their IDs and threatens disciplinary action if caught.
Potts said for UPD, the safety aspect of sharing IDs is the most concerning because student IDs also give students access to their flex dollars, residence halls and more.
“You can count on the fact that IDs will be scrutinized at the gate,” Potts said. “We’re not trying to rain on somebody’s parade, but there’s a proper way of transferring that ticket to somebody else.”
In light of recent attack in Paris and a crowded game venue, security will be heightened this weekend.
“With our Emergency Operating Center, we’re able to monitor a lot of the gates in high-traffic areas with cameras,” Potts said. “We’ll have everyone from Oxford Police to the highway patrol to FBI all up in our EOC helping us with eyes and ears on what’s taking place with the game.”
Potts said check-in at the gates is going to take longer than usual with the additional security measures in place and encouraged fans to arrive earlier to the games than normal.
-Lana Ferguson
