Cheering on the Longhorns at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium is a tradition that UT students often look forward to from the moment they receive their “Gone to Texas” poster. 

But for many this fall, the experience turns sour when some students with tickets for the game are turned away at the gate — and others without tickets are let in.

Mechanical engineering sophomore Jared Holt said he and his friends showed up right before the UTSA vs. UT game Sep. 17 and saw that the student section line wrapped around about half of the stadium. 

“We’re like, ‘There’s no way we’re gonna get in, we have to find another way in,’” Holt said. “We went to one of the random gates, which didn’t have a line. All of my friends just walked around (the security guards) straight into the stadium and had no trouble with it.” 

Holt said a security guard stopped him after his friends snuck in without scanning their tickets. However, when Holt told the guard that his friends were already in the stadium, the guard let him in.

DKR has a capacity of 100,119 people, according to Texas Sports — the overall stadium attendance at the UTSA game passed capacity, reaching 102,520 people.

The student section accounts for only 13,000 of those seats, but the section’s headcount for the UTSA vs. UT game remains unavailable. 

While some students like Holt are able to find their way to a seat in DKR, others stick out the long lines outside the student section gate only to be told that they will not be let into the game. 

This experience has led to frustration for students like radio-television-film junior Emma Williams, who said she was denied entrance to the UTSA game after security said the stadium was at full capacity — even though she had bought a ticket for the game. 

“We asked for refunds and (the security guard) literally laughed in our face,” Williams said. “I feel like if they’re gonna sell tickets to students, they need to be better about how many they’re selling and how they go about telling people that they can’t let them in because it was highly unprofessional.”

Holt said students can’t blame ticket fiascos solely on DKR security.

“I think there should be either more entrances where the line can be divided up more so that there isn’t just a stall of people getting in, or a super long line,” Holt said. 

While UT Athletics declined to comment on the story, security guard Kerry Fontenette, who works UT home games, said that at packed football games, there are circumstances that are out of his control. Sometimes there are more students trying to get in than seats at the stadium, he said.

“To be honest, I believe we’re doing the best we can under the circumstances we are presented with,” Fontenette said.