The Utes will not start their home football schedule for almost five more months, but U students are already gearing up for the season by purchasing MUSS tickets this week.
U students are guaranteed a reserved seat in the MUSS at all home football games for $40. Other perks of membership in the MUSS include free food, prizes at tailgate activities and a discounted price for away games. Only U students can register for the MUSS, but each student is eligible to purchase up to two non-student guest passes for $150 per person.
“As long as you like football, it’s a good value,” said Connor Lersch, a sophomore in chemistry.
Students are assigned a specific date for priority registration according to last name. Priority registration for students with names at the beginning of the alphabet opens today. The rest of the alphabet will be able to register on Thursday and Friday. For students who do not join MUSS during the priority window, registration re-opens to all students at noon on April 14.
Assigned tickets for priority seating are based on how early each member signs up for the MUSS. Even though students registered for priority seating over the course of three days, tickets will be awarded according to how close the student signs up to noon, regardless of which day of the week they are assigned to register.
Meeting the demands of 6,000 students who join the MUSS football program each year is not a simple task. Over the past few years, students who have joined have been frustrated by website crashes on the server.
In the early years of the MUSS, registration was open to all students on the same day, but the current three-day schedule is designed to help reduce the load on the servers. The Alumni Association, which oversees the MUSS, has made an effort to correct any past issues as it tries to keep the registration running as smoothly as possible.
“We switched to a new company prior to last year’s registration in order to prevent a crash. It is the same company that Utah Athletics and many other universities currently use. Overload did not lead to last year’s delay, technical issues caused a delay,” said John Fackler, director of alumni relations for the Alumni Association.
He said the Alumni Association has worked with the company throughout the year to test the system.
“They have assured us that with a year of experience, we have no reason to anticipate technical difficulties,” Fackler said.
Students who have registered for the MUSS online in past years should expect a similar but improved registration experience, Fackler said.
“The process has been refined from last year to facilitate group seating, guest registration and t-shirt size selection (student and guest). We’ve tried to keep other items consistent to make the process as smooth as possible,” he said.
Students with additional questions about group seating, registration issues or guest passes can learn more on The Muss Blog.
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