Absolutely not Unverified Voracity Tidbits

I'm a newish usher, and we had our football training meeting awhile ago, and I thought I'd share some info that might help your game day experience and some general tidbits.

The biggest concern, as you might imagine, is going to be mobile ticketing. The head of ticketing estimated about 40,000 (someone later said 50,000) QR codes are going to be scanned per game .This includes 100% of the 18,000 student tickets. The key to getting in quickly for most guests is to have their tickets downloaded to their Google or Apple wallet before they get anywhere near the stadium. He assured us that connectivity at the Stadium has been improved, but we've been told that every year with (in my opinion) only incremental gains. He said transferring tickets should be no problem. Also,  instead of one person having all the tickets on one phone, it would be better to transfer the tickets so each person has his or her ticket on their own phone. Again, do all this at home or at least before leaving the tailgate and not backing up the lines at the gates. My own advice is don't try to use Gate 10 at ten minutes before kickoff due to drunk students having issues with their phones. or just getting the brain finger interface to work. Better yet, everybody leave the tailgates a few minutes early and avoid the ticket scanning crunch that might happen for the first few games, and enjoy the band taking the field.

The masking policy was hashed over yesterday on the board, so I will leave that alone. As far as the Event Team goes, we all have to be vaccinated and show proof of this before we will be scheduled for any game. We are part time UM employees and therefore must be jabbed. We have been given the option of taking this year off with no penalties. So your dearest usher friend for the last 25 years might be absent for 2021 (No Politics!). 

What will look different from the stands is no visiting bands on the field. The B1G increased the player/coach boundaries on the sidelines from the 20 to the 20 yd.lines last year and they will keep it so (social distancing). Therefore, bands will be in the bottom of secs. 8 and 9. This year WMU, OSU and a small contingent from Washington will be visiting. A question was raised weather the OSU band would get their own SWAT unit.

Lastly, an open practice just appeared on our schedule on Sat. 8/28. No time and no particulars. Now before anyone gets all geeked and buys plane tickets, and resererves the corner booth at Knights....open practice could, and has meant many different things over the years. We've had a student only practice where we first saw Jake Rudddock (Wow! He throws good!). We've had VIP open practice with players family and select football alumni (no press and no phones out PLEASE!). Hoke's last year had a friday night practice (UTLP?). Yes it was well attended and Adidas yellow pops under the Big House Glow and yes, Jabrill looks cute in the orange beanie.