ASU will begin using the technology on a trial basis for student ticketing as early as an Oct. 25 game against Houston. Mike Meitin, senior associate athletic director and head of ticketing and business analytics at ASU, believes the system will be welcomed by students – and eventually all fans.
“We feel really confident about it,” Meitin said. “As a student, if you enroll in this program, you walk through the gate and walk by the scanner, and it will turn green without ever having to take out your ticket or your phone.”
He said students will have to opt into the system, “where you scan into the game just with your facial profile – just like how some of the airport stuff is now.”
ASU would be among the first college programs to use facial recognition technology as part of its ticketing system. Florida implemented a similar system in August for its 2025-26 football season.
Arizona State will start with fast lanes for students, who opt into the program, and gradually open the system up to all fans.
The facial recognition ticketing is just one step Meitin and his team at ASU are taking to make entrance to games more efficient. With mobile ticketing, online student claims and now a trial facial recognition system in the future, getting into games could be quicker than ever.
In the early part of the season, Arizona State and the ticketing department have faced challenges because of the turnout. ASU’s season-opener against NAU was the first opener to sellout since 1998, and a record 14,280 students piled into the stadium, surprising Meitin and his staff.
“We learned a lot from the first game, which we were able to implement in game two,” Meitin said. “That’s the thing we’re most proud of … we managed the lines better, we managed the spaces better, we managed the process better.”
Brayden Igoe, a senior studying sports business at the W.P. Carey School of Business, agreed.
Igoe hasn’t missed an ASU home football game in his four years at the school, and he attended the first two home games this season.
“The NAU game, I showed up around 6:30 p.m. and it was a disaster,” Igoe said. “There were so many students that when they let us in, people stormed in from all over. I’ve never missed a game and this was insane.”
However, he said the environment was different for the second game, Sept. 13 against Texas State.
“There was really no issues,” Igoe said of the Texas State game. “I showed up earlier, and it was much easier to see how to get in. Whatever they changed, it worked.”
In his second year leading the Sun Devils, Arizona State football coach Kenny Dillingham led them to the College Football Playoff.
Chris Coduto/Getty Images
Keeping up with fan interest
ASU’s performance on the field last season, when the team won the Big 12 title and advanced to the College Football Playoff, along with affordable student tickets and concessions, motivated fans to pack Mountain America Stadium this season.Meitin is determined to keep the fans coming back.
“The challenge this year is coming off the College Football Playoff, we had a lot of interest,” Meitin said. “You’ve got all these students, for a lot of them it’s their first game, so one of the challenges is, if we want to get as many students as possible in here, where are we going to put them?”
The record turnout for the NAU game forced Meitin to figure that out from the start.
“We had some ability to get some overflow sections for the students so that we could go above and beyond the student section and try to capitalize on the interest around the football team and set a student record,” Meitin said.
If ASU remains in the the Big 12 Conference championship race, Mountain America Stadium will be prime real estate for fans from Arizona as well as visitors, creating yet another challenge.
“When we start getting into October and November, a lot of visiting fans are going to come because the weather is awesome,” Meitin said. “That’s a challenge that we have, making sure we are welcoming to the visitors but also that we protect our home-field advantage.”
ASU coach Kenny Dillingham’s mantra since he took the job has been “Activate the Valley.” He will take all the home fans the Sun Devils can get.
“It’s been unbelievable playing at home … we’ve got to push all the eggs in the middle,” Dillingham said ahead of Friday’s game against nationally ranked TCU.
“We don’t just need you there, we need you loud.”
