How closely do they check student ID's at football games?
I'm planning on buying student season tickets this year on craigslist or where ever I can get them but don't have a UM student ID. I have a UM ID from when I was a temp at the hospital, but was wondering if this will be good enough. Do they really look at the ID's or do they usually just make you flash the id to them? I know I could get all of the tickets validated, but would rather not pay the $25-40 extra per game.
Really depends on ticket taker at the gate, but I think you could probably get away with it.
They usually just make you flash the ID.
You shouldn't have any problem.
That said, I know people who've been caught trying to get in with a temp ID, although that may have to do with the fact that they had consumed rather a lot of alcohol and were clearly underage, which may have led to them being checked with more scrutiny.
All depends on the checker. If you get there when it is really crowded and everybody is pushing to get in you have a better chance of going un-noticed.
I'm white, and a black guy got in with my ID once. The person taking the ticket just said "Have a nice game Ben" laughing as he walked into the stadium.
I've also had friends go in with ids, just hold them together and cover the picture with the ticket.
This girl in my hall had a boyfriend who didn't go to UM but attended the games so they'd always use my Mcard. He was pretty white and I'm pretty asian, but he got in with no problem multiple times.
"Pretty Asian"......
me love you long time
Beaucoup!!!
MCards are yellow, and I believe employee IDs are blue, so that yould be a pretty clear giveaway that your not a student. If it is yellow though, just make sure your entering when the line is big and the ticket people are just trying to get people through as quickly as possible.
I'm an employee and mine looks exactly the same as a student ID. I've used mine for years with student tickets. Like most people have said, go when they're crowded and you'll be fine.
but that doesn't mean they care. I knew a guy who borrowed a girl's student ID to get in and the ticket-taker looked at the girl's ID, then looked up at the guy and said "you should try harder next time" and let him in.
If you really want to be legit, 'shoop your face onto the sample MCard image, print it out and put it in your wallet.
I did this for a friend before. Worked like a charm.
The gate I always go to had this woman who was a really stickler for checking ID's. Needless to say when I snuck friends in I took them to different gates.
As everyone has said, usually they don't check that closely. Just to be safe, though, whenever a friend comes to a game I just photoshop their picture over mine in a scan of my ID. If you print it off and put it in a plastic card holder, it looks exactly like a real ID. Never even been close to getting stopped for it.
As long as you follow the advice above and scan/shop your face onto a replica and stash it behind some plastic (wallet window or card holder) you're good. I had a friend who had a small cottage industry whipping up MCard shops. He didn't charge, he just paid himself in silly names. As in, you'd ask for a MCard and you'd get your face plus a name like "Mercedes McFancypants Squigglesbottom III".
McLovin!
Some of these were pre-Superbad. I think post-Superbad, McLovin made several trips to the Big House.
I volunteered at the hospital and I thought they had a red outline around them?
Girlfriend had a red-outlined one while a student, she volunteered at the hospital too, didnt matter at the gate
Mine is outlined in red too and its never been a problem
Since ticket takers screen the mgoblog board, IDs will be checked extensively from now on.
There is more truth to this than you might think....
I know I still won't check them extensively. :P
Man, back in the day they didn't even check the tickets. Now of course, they have scanners to make sure tickets are legit. I went to the '03 OSU game, after selling my real ticket, with a ticket for the Houston game that had the word VOID stamped all over it.
I went to the '03 OSU game, after selling my real ticket, with a ticket for the Houston game that had the word VOID stamped all over it.
This is one reason they started scanning the tickets. Counterfeits being another.
Yeah you were probably one of those people that made it impossible to have shoulder room in a row, too. Shame on you.
Shame on you.
Based on experience, my advice would be to have an ID that at least sort of looks like you (same race and hair color, preferably) and to hold your ID facing you when you show it. People aren't particularly good at looking at pictures upside-down and it's really unlikely that they're going to ask you to turn it around so that they can look at it.
also if you go into the Mcard office and your card isnt expired yet, you can have them make you a new one that last like 4 more years. IDK if yours is expired but if not this is fool proof
patol8, would you be interested in my two season tickets? Not student tickets.
Thanks for the offer, but I am pretty set on wanting to be in the student section.
About 8-10 inches from their face for optimal visual clarity.
If you are observant and the ticket taker for your line is checking closely, just go to a different one. I've found that most the students enter on the north side of the stadium. If you enter on the south side, they didn't really care... just in my limited experience on that side.