The Zona Zoo has implemented a new system to better control crowd flow after overcapacity issues affected the Southern California football game.

Hundreds of students were denied entrance Oct. 25, resulting in disruptive behavior and students being turned away from the Zona Zoo entrance once the 10,000-person section was filled.

Effective for the remainder of the season, physical and security changes will be placed in order to better manage the expected full-capacity Zona Zoo crowd for the next two home football games against Oregon State on Nov. 22 and Arizona State University on Dec. 6.

“”All in all, you still enter at the same location that you already did,”” said Zona Zoo director David Roost, who got together with Associated Students of the University of Arizona president Tommy Bruce and UA athletic director Jim Livengood to come up with the new plan. “”But what we’ve done is better accommodate a flow of 10,000 students going through one entrance.””

Rather than a large crowd piled up at the gate, a barricade system will keep the line moving like a longer funnel, Roost said, which should eliminate idle time created by the old method: a single line of security, followed by a second line of CatCard scanning conducted by 16 people.

Roost said a new clicker system will also keep better track of the number of students admitted into the Zona Zoo section, which eliminates the abrupt closure that occurred before the USC game. This new system, combined with better tracking of CatCard scans and a view from the skybox, will allow security to better evaluate how much open space remains in the section.

As always, the section will remain on a first-come, first-serve basis, and fans are encouraged to show up at least 30 minutes before game time.

“”Between those three methods, we’re going to have a better way to determine how full we are,”” Roost said. “”When the section is filling up, we can let students know, and there won’t be much of a shock like normally.””