CASE STUDY
How Florida Quickly Deployed Wicket to Get Students into “The Swamp” Faster
- TICKETING
Florida Gators
EXPRESS ENTRY
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, widely known as “The Swamp”, has a long and storied history among the ranks of college football’s most notable venues. University of Florida Athletics had a desire to improve the entry process for students attending games, so they deployed an express entry pilot using Wicket at their last 2 home games of 2024.
Onboarding
HOW THEY GOT UP TO SPEED
Based on dozens of successful deployments at major sports venues, Wicket provides customers with a comprehensive onboarding program, spanning product education, deployment best practices, and example marketing programs to promote the service and drive enrollment for students and fans.
Top-Tier Customer Support
Wicket customers always have a friendly face to work with at Wicket that can assist them in their use of our technology.
Marketing
HOW THEY GOT THE WORD OUT
Florida put these best practices into action by creating a dedicated web page that spoke to the benefits of the program, built and sent out targeted email campaigns, and went to print with physical signage used to direct attention to the express lanes and promote enrollment.
Highlight the Benefits
Wicket solutions have many benefits, but Florida emphasized the one that resonates with ticketing users most: “skip the lines.”
Marketing
HOW THEY GOT THE WORD OUT
With new enrollments rolling in thanks to the website and emails, it was time to build out the express lanes. Wicket devices were customized to showcase the Gators brand, and signage was placed to direct enrolled users to the express lanes as well as to direct non-enrolled students to the website using easy-to-scan QR codes.
Dedicated Lane = No Lines
The express lane never saw a line, which helped to organically catch the attention of students and drive enrollment.
CUSTOMER PROFILE
- Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, which has a capacity of 88,548
- Roughly 15% of ticket holders for football games are students
- Wants to increase the speed of ticketing entry
The Results
2-game pilot
Although it was a limited pilot for the last 2 games of the season, the express entry program saw over 800 student enrollments and over 700 total ticket scans through express lanes—with 0 opt-outs. Those who participated not only got through 4x faster, they also loved the experience.
I saw a lot of people do it and go ‘wow, that was easy’—for me it’s a no-brainer to solve a problem that fans are most vocal about.
Mike Castle
Associate Athletic Director, Ticketing, University of Florida Athletics