Big Changes Coming to Game Day at Ross-Ade ***Update on Paper Tickets***

***Update***

After this article was posted the John Purdue Club replied to a fan’s question on their Facebook page by indicating that paper tickets would be available for an additional $10 fee. They also noted that phone charging stations would be available.

The original article as written is below

***End update***

Often times when you see a headline mentioning big changes on the internet it’s clickbait. This one isn’t. This is something that will change how things work at Ross-Ade and are things you will need to know if you plan to attend a game there this season. First, here’s a link to the full release from Purdue. Now, let’s get into it.

Purdue will only be offering digital tickets and digital parking passes. I know that Purdue has been moving in this direction over the years but the language in this release is pretty definitive. Take a look:

All tickets and parking passes to games at Ross-Ade this season will be issued to fans digitally. Patrons are encouraged to download both items to their smart devices prior to heading to the game to help ensure ease of entry into parking lots and stadium gates. Fans can use the Purdue Athletics smart phone app to manage season tickets and parking passes. Additionally, PurdueSports.com/MyAccount can be accessed from all Internet-capable devices. The most important phrases for Boilermaker fans to remember are the “Add to Wallet” option on Apple devices and “Save to Phone” feature on Android devices to store all digital items needed for game day.

I am sure like a lot of you I always looked forward to getting the physical tickets and just seeing which player was on them and how they looked. That apparently will be no more. The language used by Purdue makes it seem as if there will be no paper tickets of any kind issued. That leads me to a couple thoughts. What is this going to do for the secondary ticket market? Will people be able to send links to scalpers and then just promise they won’t scan them before the scalpers can sell them? Seems like this could result in some folks scamming the scalpers. Second, is this going to be the method by which single game day of tickets are sold? So if I go up to the ticket office and want to buy a ticket will I simply receive a link to the ticket? This seems like it could cause chaos and long lines for the first couple games.

My third question was answered further down in the release so let’s jump to that now. Wifi and internet connectivity at Ross-Ade has been spotty at best, so how will the additional usage for these digital tickets impact that? Well fans, we’ve been assured that over the pandemic the team at Purdue has upgraded the cell system within Ross-Ade to have better service for all major phone carriers. Let’s hope that’s the case or this could be a real cluster ya know on day one.

Now, possibly the biggest change is that the concessions in Ross-Ade are going cashless. That’s right, they are pulling a reverse Triple XXX. This is probably something Purdue has wanted to do for a long time, it will help with data collection and ensure that the money is going where it needs to go. There is however one loophole in this proposal and that is a money changing station where you can buy a concession gift card. I imagine it will go something like this:

These changes could lead to a more streamlined system at both the concessions and the gates but I wouldn’t expect that to happen right away. There will be people that don’t know the policy, there will be technology failures, and there will be hiccups we don’t anticipate. Overall though I expect this to make for a better experience in the long run.