Mizzou Athletics considering tweaks to ticket claim process, as student struggles persist
Nia Hinson
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
One of the most historic rivalries in the country will return to Memorial Stadium on Saturday.
Mizzou will host Kansas on Saturday at 2:30 p.m, a game that is expected to draw in fans from both Columbia and Kansas. The anticipation of being apart of the large crowd had some students eager to join the digital queue on Monday morning in hopes of scoring a ticket, after Mizzou Athletics rolled out a new claim process for the 2025-26 season.
Mizzou Athletics announced the new claims process in May. It allows current and incoming MU students to pay $200 for Zou passes, allowing them the opportunity to land tickets to all Mizzou regular-season events, including football and basketball.
After the first time using the new process for Mizzou’s home opener against Central Arkansas, students complained of long wait times and issues with getting kicked out of line while using the queue.
Mizzou Associate Athletics Director David Matter told ABC 17 News via email on Monday afternoon that the university met with its ticketing partner to address the issues.
“We are also listening to feedback and worked with our ticketing partner between week one and week two to speed up the length of time students are waiting in the “queue” before claiming, and these changes worked well in week two,” Matter said. “We are considering additional tweaks to the claim process and will communicate those as implemented.”
Matter said the university is considering possibly changing the time students can join the queue each Monday but did not give a specific alternate time. Matter also said the university is dealing with an increased demand, and doesn’t have the option of student overflow this season, due to stadium construction.
Mizzou Athletics told ABC 17 News previously that season tickets for this year sold out two weeks earlier than last year. That marks the second straight season that full-year tickets sold out.
The university is anticipating an overhaul of the student ticketing process once the stadium construction is finished in 2026, Matter said.
Millie Farris is a freshman at the University of Missouri who said she struggled with trying to log into her account both weeks after the new system was rolled out. Farris said she feels like the university has had poor communication with students about the process and tried to put the issue off.
Farris said she’s now considering taking further action.
“I’m going to call tomorrow and see if there’s a chance for me to be refunded because I shouldn’t have to wait hours to try and get tickets and then not be able to get into my account,” Farris said.
Matter said refunds are possible, but students who were to receive one would not be able to purchase tickets to other sporting events without a Zou pass. The university also uses the claim process for students to land a ticket to its basketball games.
Jackson Martucci and his friend Luke Cristobal are both juniors at the university, experiencing the new system for the first time of their college experience. The two both ran into issues claiming their ticket on Monday, including dealing with the website crashing.
“I feel like the process is just really unfair just because it really requires you to wake up early in the morning and just stress about having to get the ticket that early,” Cristobal said. “You’re in like a long waiting period where you’re not guaranteed a ticket.”
For Martucci, he said he’d like to see more transparency from the university moving forward. claiming he doesn’t believe as many people would have purchased the Zou pass, had they known they would not be guaranteed a ticket.
Martucci said the process had made him regret ever purchasing a pass.
“If there was a little bit more transparency for what goes behind the whole capacity of the stadium that would maybe allow people to understand why it’s a waiting list but at the same time, you should never oversell,” Martucci said.
Matter said it was explained to students from the start in May that Zou passes only guarantee students the chance to land a ticket to football games, but that it is not guaranteed.
Freshman Kayla Winn is one of the students who said she experienced a noticeable difference when trying to claim her ticket for the Kansas game, compared to the week prior. Winn said she also believes an email sent by the university telling students to join the queue at 9:45 a.m. this week was helpful.
“Honestly, it’s an SEC school, football’s such a big thing here and I feel like at other schools this is how they do it as well,” Winn said. “I have a brother who goes to Texas A&M and in the past, they would have to line up outside to get their ticket so it feels a little silly to complain about it but of course, I wish that I would just get my ticket.”
The SEC Nation also announced on Sunday that it would be traveling to Columbia ahead of kickoff.