In this webinar recap, see how SDSU used Offstreet Payments to simplify event parking, improve the guest experience, and unlock new revenue opportunities.
Download NowMost campuses don’t look at event parking and immediately see a revenue opportunity.
More often, it’s viewed as an operational challenge:
San Diego State University took a different approach.
By rethinking how they handled event parking, SDSU created a smoother guest experience, reduced operational friction, and generated more than $581,000 in net revenue through Offstreet Payments in just 1 year. Here’s how they did it.
Before Offstreet Payments, SDSU relied heavily on staffed payment collection for events.
That meant:
None of these issues were necessarily dealbreakers on their own.
Together, they were creating more work and more cost every year.
Chris Sumner, Associate Director of Transportation Services at SDSU, explained that the team wanted something that would integrate with their campus permit system, improve traffic flow, and give them more control over their own data.
SDSU wasn’t simply looking for a way to charge people for parking.
They wanted to:
Revenue became one of the outcomes of creating a better process.
One of the strongest parts of SDSU’s rollout was how intentional it was.
Instead of changing every event at once, the team built an internal model that considered:
That helped determine which events could be fully digital, which still needed staffing, and which should use a hybrid approach. This gave SDSU flexibility without forcing every event into the same workflow.
One of the biggest concerns campuses have with paid parking is whether guests will actually use it. At SDSU, adoption increased quickly.
After moving pre-sales from their previous vendor to Offstreet:
A big part of that success came down to communication and ease of use. SDSU used QR code signage, event organizer emails, and simple digital registration links so guests knew exactly what to do.
The lesson was simple:
People are far more likely to adopt a payment process when it’s clear and convenient.
Commencement became one of the strongest examples of what the new model could do. Two years earlier, SDSU generated $0 in commencement parking revenue.
After introducing Offstreet Payments:
And they achieved that growth without increasing the parking rate.
SDSU also used Offstreet exclusively for commencement, with guests either purchasing in advance or scanning QR codes after parking. That helped reduce congestion at garage entrances and made the process easier for both guests and staff.
Commencement wasn’t the end of the story.
Once the infrastructure was in place, SDSU began expanding Payments into more use cases across campus, including:
The biggest shift was that Payments stopped being viewed as a solution for one event. It became a flexible tool that could support a wide range of parking needs.
One of the strongest themes from the webinar was that campuses often focus on the risk of making a change.
Will guests accept it?
Will departments push back?
Will implementation be difficult?
But there’s another risk worth considering:
The cost of doing nothing.
If staffing costs, hardware expenses, and processing fees continue to rise while the process stays the same, events that once worked financially can become increasingly difficult to sustain. SDSU’s experience shows that improving the payment process can create operational value well beyond the transaction itself.
For campuses considering Payments, a few lessons stand out:
SDSU didn’t simply replace one payment system with another. They changed how they thought about event parking.
What started as a way to improve a few event workflows became a broader Payments program supporting multiple departments, event types, and revenue opportunities across campus. The result was a better guest experience, more operational flexibility, and a significantly stronger financial outcome.
For parking teams evaluating their current payment model, the question may not be:
“Do we need another payment system?”
It may be:
“What opportunities are we leaving on the table with the one we have today?”
Watch Unlock Revenue with Payments: How SDSU Transformed Event Parking to hear the full conversation with Chris Sumner from San Diego State University and Imogen Rennie from Offstreet.
