TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Leon County Schools could move future Godby-Rickards football games to a larger venue after an unusually large crowd at Gene Cox Stadium left some ticket holders unable to enter and exposed problems with electronic ticket verification.
School board members discussed the issue during their Aug. 24 agenda review meeting, with officials saying the crowd for the Godby-Rickards matchup was significantly larger than in recent years.
Board Chairman Marcus Nicolas raised the issue after saying some fans who had purchased tickets were unable to get into the stadium because of capacity limits.
Nicolas questioned whether the district’s electronic ticketing system is capable of limiting ticket sales based on the number of seats available at a venue.
Superintendent Rocky Hanna said the system does have that capability.
If a stadium has 5,000 available seats, for example, the system can be configured to stop sales once 5,000 tickets have been sold.
But Hanna said officials believe another problem contributed to what happened at the Godby-Rickards game: screenshots of electronic tickets were apparently being shared with other people.
“People were screen-shotting somehow their ticket and sending it outside to somebody who was in using the ticket to get in,” Hanna told the board.
Hanna described the situation as a ticket-verification problem, saying people apparently entered the stadium who should not have been admitted.
District considers moving rivalry to Bragg Stadium
The size of the crowd has district leaders considering a major change for future Godby-Rickards games.
Hanna said the matchup may simply have outgrown Gene Cox Stadium.
“We are going to have a conversation with A&M,” Hanna said. “That game needs to go to Bragg.”
Officials plan to speak with Florida A&M University about the possibility of holding the game at Bragg Memorial Stadium.
The superintendent compared the situation to major Tallahassee high school rivalries of previous decades that were moved to larger college stadiums because of intense community interest.
District officials said the Godby-Rickards crowd was much larger this year than in previous seasons.
Officials: Capacity is also a safety issue
School officials stressed that the decision to stop admitting fans wasn’t simply about whether there appeared to be additional open space around the stadium.
District officials said security practices have changed significantly in recent years.
Fans are now screened as they enter district stadiums, and officials said spectators are expected to sit in the bleachers rather than congregate in open areas around the field.
While allowing people to stand in open areas may have been common years ago, officials said experience and security practices have shown that is no longer considered a good approach.
That becomes especially important during emergencies.
Officials noted that weather was being closely monitored during the game because of nearby lightning. The district had canceled games the previous week because of severe weather.
If conditions had required an evacuation, officials said controlling the number and location of people inside the stadium would have been critical.
Despite the capacity problems, district leaders praised law enforcement and school personnel for handling the packed stadium.
Officials said fans — including many who were ultimately turned away — remained cooperative.
“There were a lot of them,” one district official said of fans who could not enter. “And it was heartbreaking.”
Ticket-sharing problem under review
The district is now working on ways to prevent screenshots or duplicated electronic tickets from being used to gain entry to future games.
When Nicolas asked how officials could prevent the same problem from happening again, he was told the district was already working on it.
For future Godby-Rickards matchups, however, officials indicated the bigger solution could be a bigger stadium.
District officials said they plan to explore the possibility of using Bragg Stadium, arguing the rivalry has generated enough community interest to justify a venue capable of accommodating more fans.