The University of Minnesota may be going the way of other Big Ten Schools and moving over to an electronic ticketing system linked to student ID cards for school sporting events. Iowa, Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska, and Northwestern all currently use electronic ticketing systems to control student access to games.

Currently Minnesota students pick up their football and basketball season tickets at the university arena using their student ID card. Students are given a season pass that has all of the home game tickets loaded onto a barcode with the student’s name and customer number on it. Alongside considering tying home game tickets to student ID cards, Minnesota is also looking at a separate athletics card option that would be used solely for sporting events. Students would load that card with tickets and use it to gain entrance to events. The university expects to make a formal decision this winter.

Having an electronic system in place at Minnesota would help track attendance and be convenient for students to use since they already show their school ID cards when entering the football stadium or basketball arena. Other schools in the Big Ten have seen the added benefit of reduced paper costs. Students have also been showing up earlier for the games with an electronic system in place.

Northwestern uses an electronic system for tickets for both football and basketball games, while other schools like Iowa, Ohio State, and Michigan, have started pilot electronic ticketing systems with select sports.

Learn more about the benefits of multifunctional student ID cards