Athletics implements loyalty points program

The UTRGV Department of Intercollegiate Athletics introduced the Vaqueros Loyalty Points Program in an April 15 news release.

The department launched the program to honor and reward supporters of athletics, as well as make the process of selecting suites and seats more transparent and fair.

There are several ways to earn points, including purchasing season tickets for different sports, donating to athletics or being a graduate of UTRGV or its legacy institutions.

Chasse Conque, vice president and director of Athletics, said the points program correlates with how much support the department receives.

Derek Schramm, senior associate athletic director for Advancement and Administration, said the points program has been thought about since the deposits for football season tickets started in December 2022.

Schramm said there were discussions about a fair way to seat deposit holders, ultimately deciding on the points program.

Eduardo Galvan, associate athletic director for Development and Premium Seating, said working on the loyalty points program was “truly a team effort.” 

“It takes everyone right?” Galvan said. “We all work on it, we all get our eyes and hands on it at some point. … We kind of took it around and stress tested it internally with key leadership at the university level and also our athletic department. … We wanted to make sure it was truly fair and transparent.”

Tickets will go through the suite selection process in December for those interested and who have placed deposits for the UTRGV football season. The points accumulated up to Nov. 15 will be considered for their ranking or priority in selection. 

“Very similarly, in January, we’ll take that snapshot of the current rank of the points, and we will assign dates or times for all the people who have placed their deposit to pick seats,” Galvan said.

Schramm notes the points program is planned to be used in the future for other programs.

“We will be implementing this across the board as well,” he said. “So it will be used for any kind of post-season tournament tickets. We’ll use this for our parking and tailgating, priority in allocation. We’ll use it for any kind of new season tickets and seat upgrades, not just for football but for basketball, baseball, volleyball, so it won’t just be for football.”

Conque encourages those interested in football tickets to buy them before they are unavailable.

“We’ve been promoting our deposit program,” he said. “We really want to encourage as many people that think they want tickets, now is the time. … There will come a point where … our season ticket allotment will be sold out.”

Conque said the threshold has not been decided yet, but there might be a limit for season tickets.

“We want to make sure that we have good accommodations for our students, make sure we have good availability for student tickets, good availability for bands and visiting bands, visiting teams,” he said.