The University of Florida began their use of biometrics as part of a student section pilot program at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at the end of the 2024 football season. After seeing the benefits for fans entering the stadium and staff operating these “express lanes”, the university decided to roll out the same technology to all football fans and for other sporting events on campus.
As part of their expansion, the university increased the total number of Wicket entry devices and tasked select staff with managing the devices across their various sporting events. Florida planned new deployments at Exactech Arena, Condron Family Ballpark, and Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium for 2025.
Devices can adapt to the unique needs of each venue, are easily movable, and can operate indoors and outdoors
Building off the success they saw with email campaigns and a dedicated web page that spoke to the benefits of the program, Florida expanded fan communications with targeted outreach to different segments and used custom ticket modules that display just below digital tickets for all fans to see.
Florida deployed weekly marketing tactics over the course of a month to drive new enrollments prior to first game of the season
Prior to the first football game of the season and subsequent sporting events, Florida put their plan into action by training staff on how to use the technology and deploying on-site signage. This enabled staff to be educated on the entry workflow, enrolled fans to easily find the express lanes, and new fans to scan a QR code to quickly enroll on the day of the event.
The results proved that all of the planning and execution efforts were worth it. Football events saw an average of nearly 4,500 ticket scans through express entry and gymnastics and basketball events at Exactech Arena saw hundreds of fans per event with usage steadily increasing through the end of 2025.
Mike Castle
Associate Athletic Director, Ticketing, University of Florida Athletics
