Extra loyalty points, $1 drinks part of new plan
After the student section emptied early during South Carolina’s game against Vanderbilt, Student Government and the Athletics Department have developed new strategies to keep students in the stands.
Students who stay through the singing of the Alma Mater will receive a voucher for one additional loyalty point redeemable following Saturday’s game against Kentucky. The idea of additional loyalty points for students who stay all four quarters has been discussed many times in the past, but focused on scanning CarolinaCards on students’ way out of the stadium, which many dismissed as unreasonable logistically.
“It’s almost physically impossible to scan all students’ cards on the way out,” said Josh Waters, associate director of marketing for the Athletics Department. “We think this will really motivate students to stay so they can scan their cards on Monday and Tuesday to get extra loyalty points, especially with Florida and Clemson (games) coming up.”
Students can redeem the vouchers between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Davis Field Monday and Tuesday. The voucher idea came from discussions with students who wanted the additional points for staying, according to Student Government Secretary of Athletics Austin Solheim.
“The big thing for them was getting the point after the game,” Solheim said. “I came to them trying to find an alternative to the scanning idea, and they gave me the idea for the tickets.”
Students were also concerned about concessions at home games, Solheim said. Students said the lines were too long and costs too high.
A source of the long lines was a lack of CarolinaCard readers; the student section concessions stands only had two in the past. After consulting students, the athletics department has installed four additional CarolinaCard readers in the student section concessions stands. Water and bottled drinks will also be sold for $1 during the fourth quarter.
“At hot games, that will be really valuable,” Waters said.
Students also complained about long lines for the pre– and post–game shuttles to and from the stadium. Athletics plans to cut down on the pre–game lines by allowing students to put their shuttle wristbands on themselves and increase the shuttle line staff.
While no changes in line flow will be made for the post-game shuttle, signs will be put up indicating how long bus patrons must wait in line before boarding the shuttle, much like a roller coaster line at a theme park.
None of these measures will cost the athletics department anything extra, save for staffing costs, according to Senior Associate Athletics Director Charles Bloom.
While the spotlight has been on issues in the student section, Waters said there’s a much brighter story to be told about South Carolina’s athletics. More than 90 percent of the student tickets issued for the football game against Vanderbilt were scanned. Every fall sport has seen an increase in student attendance and support; even the equestrian team had 27 students drive to Blythewood to watch their home opener, Waters said.
Slightly more than half of students have already been to a sporting event this semester, while only 2,250 of USC’s nearly 30,000 students have not attended any type of game in their time at the university.