• Slug: Sports–ASU BYU Logistics, 520 words.
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By Dane Palmer
Cronkite News

TEMPE – Arizona State hopes to have a strong wall of maroon and gold Saturday when the Sun Devils host BYU in a highly anticipated Big 12 showdown. ASU coaches have implored fans who can’t make the game to resell their tickets only to Sun Devil fans, and ASU removed students’ option to buy guest passes with their free student ticket.

“If you have tickets and you’re an ASU fan, make sure they go to ASU fans,” coach Kenny Dillingham said. “There’s a lot of BYU fans in the Valley. … Make sure they show you an ASU hat, an ASU shirt.”

The hype surrounding the Sun Devils’ first home game in two weeks has grown to astronomical levels. Tickets for the game at Mountain America Stadium were sold out by Tuesday, forcing the athletic department to work harder than ever to make the game as accessible as possible. 

“Usually when we sell a game out it’s the Friday before or the day of the game,” said Michael Meitin, senior associate athletic director for ticketing and business analytics at Arizona State. “To sell out on a Tuesday just shows how much enthusiasm there is around the game.”

Not only did general seating sell out but student tickets, all 10,000, sold out Monday night, forecasting one of the biggest student section crowds in years. 

“We haven’t had a student sell out since Michigan State in 2018,” Meitin said. “We even had to turn on a queueing system to make sure the system didn’t crash from all the demand from the students.”

As students waited in that queueing system, one of the first messages they saw before purchasing their ticket was that there would be no student guest passes available for this game. 

“We wanted to make sure we had as many actual ASU students as possible at the game, knowing if we sold it out we wouldn’t have a bunch of guests who aren’t actually students,” Meitin said.

The Sun Devils’ compelling play isn’t the only factor contributing to the crowded home games this year. 

”Everything is working together this season, the team is playing really exciting football this year which helps, but we made a lot of changes behind the scenes as well,” Meitin said.

Some of these changes include reduced parking prices, greater variation in concessions, more concession stands and value menus with cheaper food or snack options. 

“Even though those things are behind the scenes … a fan coming out and having a better experience as well as seeing a great game is going to make them come back,” Meitin said.

With so many fans expected to attend the game this Saturday, Meitin had some advice.

“Be early,” he said.

Pregame festivities like tailgates will look different with the 1:30 MST start. Fans who have a parking pass to tailgate can now arrive up to seven hours early. Public tailgates will start three hours early, and gates will open at noon, 90 minutes before kickoff.

With homecoming festivities and tailgate events, Meitin advised fans to use sundevils.com to understand all the specific road closures and events that will be happening. 

Meitin’s best advice to students is to “get here early and use the website,” to have the most enjoyable experience on game day.