South Carolina is trying a new two-part fix for the traffic jam at Williams-Brice Stadium: get fans inside sooner, and make the wait a little more bearable once they do.
For Saturday’s game against Texas A&M, USC said all gates at Williams-Brice Stadium will open two hours before kickoff. The school had previously been opening only select gates that early, with the rest not opening until 30 minutes later.
“We recognize that several factors contributed to delays entering Williams-Brice Stadium during the Tennessee game and we are committed to improving the entry process and overall experience for our fans,” USC said in a statement. “To help accommodate the large crowd expected for Saturday’s game against Texas A&M, all gates at Williams-Brice Stadium will open two hours prior to kickoff.”
The move comes after repeated complaints this season about long lines outside the stadium, especially around the West stands. Some fans have said the delays kept them from getting to their seats before kickoff, and others said they were still outside when the first quarter was nearly over.
USC is also leaning on a food-and-drink incentive to push earlier arrivals. During that extra hour, Coors Light and Miller Lite 12-ounce servings will cost $5, down from the usual $13 for 16 ounces. The same window will also include 50 percent off concessions, including water and soft drinks.
The school has pointed to a few different causes for the bottlenecks. Construction and renovation at Williams-Brice has forced traffic reroutes and kept some gates closed, and fans are now being directed to specific entrances instead of choosing any gate they want.
Ticketing has been another part of the problem. USC moved to all-digital tickets this year and repeatedly told fans in preseason emails and other messages to download their tickets in advance and add them to their phone’s digital wallets so they wouldn’t be stuck trying to pull them up on gameday without a reliable wireless signal.
There’s no exact count of how many fans have run into trouble with that process, but the school clearly believes it has been an issue. Some longtime fans may not have followed the instructions, or may have preferred not to use the digital setup, and then ended up trying to sort it out at the gate.
USC has also heard the familiar complaints about not having enough people to scan tickets, run metal detectors or manage the flow of traffic. To address that, the school said it has added 22 additional ticket scanners and magnetometers at key gates.
There are only two home games left at Williams-Brice this season, Saturday against Texas A&M and Nov. 21 against No. 2 Georgia, and both are expected to draw huge crowds.
South Carolina gets one shot to make the process smoother before Georgia arrives. Saturday is it.
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