The University of Mississippi, in collaboration with the Associated Student Body, implemented various changes to the Ole Miss Football game day experience — changes which went into effect during the home opener versus Georgia State.
New game day changes include additional free water stations located throughout the stadium, rentable $5 portable chargers, select items from concessions being discounted 50% and the inclusion of non-alcoholic beer to the drink menu. Ole Miss Athletics also announced a new policy surrounding field rushing.
Concession changes
Ole Miss Athletics has added the sale of non-alcoholic beer from Athletic Brewing Company during the football games. This provides more beverage options for fans.
Calen Crowson, a freshman biology major, approves of the drink menu change.
“Not everyone drinks (alcohol), and (non-alcoholic beer) makes (the game) more enjoyable for those who don’t drink, so they don’t feel left out,” Crowson said.
Three new concession stands are now full grab-and-go locations. These stands, located on the east and west sides of the stadium, are meant to decrease wait times.
“I don’t think the goal should be to keep students in their seats, but when they do leave to go get food, that’s quick and good quality (it’s nice),” sophomore accountancy major Adam Nichols said. “I think grab-and-go is a good idea that helps reduce crowding and paired with the lower prices of food is a benefit overall to students.”
Field rushes
Ole Miss Athletics released a statement indicating there will now be consequences — including arrest and loss of ticket privileges — for those who enter the field of play.
“In order to further avoid safety issues and increased SEC fines, stronger measures are being put in place to ensure field rushes no longer occur at Vaught-Hemingway. … All available stadium cameras will be used to assist in identifying violators,” Ole Miss Athletics said in an Aug. 20 press release.
Field rushes have always been an electric experience after big, meaningful wins. Last season, following a 28-10 win over AP No. 3 Georgia, fans stormed the field twice: once with 16 seconds remaining in the game and again after the game was officially over.
Following the game, the SEC fined the UM Athletic Department $350,000 for this field rush.
Some fans are disappointed by this new policy.
“It takes away energy, and I think people are still going to rush the field anyway,” Kyle LaFleur, a freshman entrepreneurship major, said.
Ticket troubles
Ole Miss students were met with new challenges as they attempted to purchase season football tickets this year.
In July, students received an email about the process for purchasing student football tickets. Beginning on Aug. 2 with seniors, each class level was assigned a day to access the portal. A certain amount of tickets would be allotted for each class proportional to their respective size.
William Morril, a senior financing major, logged in prior to 8 a.m. on Aug. 2. The process, he said, was far from smooth.
“Some people got in immediately and got tickets,” Morril said. “Some got in and had the tickets in their cart, but couldn’t complete the transaction and the other 50% of us were stuck in the queue until around 11.”
Owen Offutt, a senior international studies major, also had to jump through hoops to purchase tickets.
“(It took) almost three-and-a-half hours for (the Athletics Department) to turn the queue back on,” Offutt said.
The next day, juniors encountered the same problems as seniors. The athletic department sought to fix the problem as quickly as possible.
“As soon as (Athletics) found that there was an issue, we contacted our ticketing software company,” Senior Athletic Associate Director Wesley Owen said in an interview with The Daily Mississippian.
The Athletics Department postponed sophomore ticket sales until Friday, Aug. 5. By then, the athletic department had addressed the problems.
“Friday’s sale went smoothly, since the issues had been resolved,” Owen said.
In an email sent to students, the athletics department said, due to high demand, they sold out of student season tickets. Only 13,000 students were able to get tickets.
“(There are) not enough tickets for every student enrolled at Ole Miss,” Owen said.
