As the 2026 Minnesota Golden Gophers football season opens Thursday night, Huntington Bank Stadium is rolling out a handful of changes aimed squarely at the fan experience. Some of the upgrades are long overdue, and they touch three big parts of a game day: getting in, hearing the action, and adding a new way for fans to get involved.
The biggest shift comes at the gates. The University of Minnesota has installed Open Gate screening technology at every entry point inside Huntington Bank Stadium.
The setup is meant to work the same way fans have seen at Minnesota professional venues, allowing ticketholders to walk through without having to empty pockets of items like phones and keys. Instead of the usual medical detector routine, the goal is a faster, smoother entrance and fewer bottlenecks outside the stadium.
The Huntington Bank Stadium bag policy, though, remains in place.
Inside the building, the audio has also gotten a full reset. The university replaced the entire sound system over the summer after the original equipment, which dated back to the stadium’s 2009 opening, began to fail. Rather than keep patching it together, Minnesota opted for a full replacement designed to deliver better sound across the stadium.
There’s also a new fan-game element on the way. During select Gopher sporting events in the 2026/2027 season, fans will be able to take part in a Split the Pot Raffle, similar to what’s already offered at other professional sports events around town.
The winner will receive 50% of the pot, with the remaining 50% going to the Golden Gopher Fund. It’s expected to show up at most football games, along with select basketball and hockey games during the season.
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