It’s been 640 days since No. 25 Arizona State rallied from a first-half deficit to defeat Arizona 24-14 to close out the 2019 regular season. In front of a raucous crowd of 54,074 fans, recent ASU greats such as Eno Benjamin and Brandon Aiyuk paraded around Frank Kush Field parading the Sun Devils’ third straight Territorial Cup victory for all to see while fans and media alike stormed the game-worn green grass.
However, as the fans donning maroon and gold happily paraded out of the stadium, no one knew they would be unable to enter the stadium’s gates for an unprecedented 21-month period that saw attendance slashed to limited friends and family, as well as media and staff for one football game and a plethora of women’s soccer games with COVID-19 rampant.
On Thursday, that seemingly endless waiting period finally comes to an end, as Sun Devil Stadium welcomes back the masses for ASU’s home opener against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds. According to Sun Devil Athletics Senior Associate Athletic Director and Head of Ticketing for Sun Devil Stadium Michael Meitin, stadium officials are “selling to full capacity” and are expecting “around 45,000 fans” to attend and watch the Sun Devils for the first time in a long time.
With the lengthened period of mandatory fan absence, Meitin and his team surveyed fans across the duration of the offseason and the 2020 shortened season to gauge needs for stadium improvements for the day Sun Devil supporters would finally return.
With Thursday’s opener imminent, Meitin outlined three key areas of the fan experience that have been overhauled on Monday afternoon: speed of entry, more pregame tailgate options, and a wider array of concession selections.
Sun Devil Athletics will debut new metal detectors at the southwest entrance of the stadium, trialing the new technology at the “highest traffic area,” according to Meitin. These detectors contain a greater number of magnets than their predecessors, decreasing the likelihood of annoying false positives that require fans to repeat the process of passing through the metal detector, which increases entry time and decreases efficiency. Another added benefit is fans will not have to remove items from their pockets when passing through.
“(Speed of entry) is one of the biggest areas (of issue) we noticed on gameday,” Meitin explained to reporters on Monday. “Someone goes through the metal detector; it generates a false positive, they have to check their pockets again and go through once more. That takes a lot of time.”
“(With the new detectors) you don’t have to take anything out of your pockets, and it won’t give the false positives.”
Adding to the expedited entry process, Arizona State football tickets will be entirely digital this fall for a variety of reasons. First, ticket exchanges amongst fans are much easier, as they can be shared via email. Digital tickets are also recognized much quicker with ASU’s new ticket scanning pedestals, which also improve the speed of entry. These pedestals are quick and easy to use as fans who have their digital tickets in their Wallet App on their phones can simply tap their phones to the scanner or scan the barcode for a contactless process of entry. Speaking of the barcodes in tickets, the barcodes are constantly rotating and updating, so instances of fraud are virtually eliminated. These barcodes are unable to be screenshotted, and each ticket is unique to the phone which contains it.
For Sun Devil diehards who are interested in adding physical tickets to their collections, Sun Devil Athletics is offering commemorative-style tickets for the season as a form of memorabilia. Meitin also mentioned potential one-off tickets for bigger games across the season. These commemorative tickets can be obtained online in the near future.
These new ticket scanners are placed around the stadium’s access points to speed up the entry process for all fans, including students, who are recommended to enter at the southeast gate closest to Desert Financial Arena.
On the topic of Desert Financial Arena, Meitin mentioned Sun Devil Athletics’ improvements regarding pregame tailgating options, which are becoming increasingly limited due to a lack of parking lot space in which pregame tailgates can occur. To counteract this, the Sun Devil Oasis, a new tailgate area and experience is taking over the space south of the basketball arena, previously occupied by The Sol Devils tailgate, which has been moved to the southwest area of the stadium.
The new Sun Devil Oasis will be a fan fest experience with a beer garden, as well as games and family-friendly accommodations for kids, separate from the beer garden.
“(The Sun Devil Oasis) will be a place that you can actually come right outside on game day and enjoy all of those things right there in the footprint of the stadium,” Meitin mentioned.
Meitin and Sun Devil Athletics also sought to improve fan experience once inside the stadium, diversifying the options of concessions beyond the offerings from years past. The Coca-Cola Sun Deck on the north end of the stadium saw significant overhaul over the previous months, now including a food-court style feel to the area with added food and drink options.
Among the new additions are Fork ‘Em Barbeque, offering slow-smoked pork, turkey, and other meats. Venezia’s Pizza has added a coal-fired brick-oven pizza area to the Sun Deck, where fans will be able to get their hands on a selection of 12-inch pizzas to grub on during the game. Finally, a draft beer station has been added to the area, which will contain local favorites as well as popular options on draft to supplement the normal canned options distributed previously.
Meitin recommends fans arrive two to three hours before the game to park and soak in the new amenities, as construction of the new multi-purpose arena for hockey, gymnastics, and wrestling has halved Packard Drive, which is inevitably going to create traffic and congestion.
For safety protocols, fans are encouraged to wear masks, but because it is an outdoor space, they are not required. Masks are required in select areas close to the student-athletes and in the ticket office.
Kickoff at Sun Devil Stadium is set for 7:30 p.m. on Thursday night.
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