September 1st, 2013 at 2:33 AM ^
Of all the students, this cat Doug Krusell wins "Dorm friend of the year" for this stunt:
"'I picked up my friends at about 5:45 a.m. to be here,” he said. “This is the first game back and it’s awesome. It’s been a long seven months without football.'
Waiting in line with Krusell were three foreign students who were excited for their first football experience, but they felt slightly hoodwinked.
“We thought the game was going to start at 8 a.m.” Qi Jun, a transfer student from China, said.
'Doug is a good friend, but he never told us when the game started, just when to wake up. I woke up at 5 a.m. I’m very sleepy now, but also very excited. I’ve never been to a football game, it’s going to be amazing.'"
September 1st, 2013 at 2:35 AM ^
September 1st, 2013 at 3:40 AM ^
September 1st, 2013 at 9:13 AM ^
Yeah, but remember, we can only criticize the students for showing up late, even though the rest of the stadium pretty much makes as much noise as 1/4 of the student section...
September 1st, 2013 at 9:28 AM ^
My $0.02: (I'm a grad student starting my 5th overall year at UM)
I walked over after the step show (probably got to the gate ~2:45?) and ended up in the Block M. I agree that the lower bowl was not as packed as in recent years, but I think this is more due to the fact that people don't have to cram in to somone else's assigned seats to sit with their friends if they didn't buy tickets in a seating group in the spring. I enjoyed not having to stand sideways.
The only issue I saw is that like some others have pointed out, the cheers weren't right today. The lower sections looked nearly entirely full of freshman, and the student section completely blew it on the "Let's Go Blue" cheer during pregame, and I have never heard so few people singing along to "Varsity." And obviously there were some issues with the wave.
But on the other hand, the student section was surprisingly loud and full for a MAC opponent, so I suppose that mission was accomplished. Maybe the AD asked the team to hop into the student section at the end of the game but I thought that was a nice touch (along with the videos emphasizing students/fans being part of the "team")
I am not looking forward to how early I'll need to show up to get decent seats for UTL II, but I think the real improvement will be seen for the B1G noon games, so hopefully the attendance remains high.
PS - The new "video" ("Let's go!" "Blue!") cheer is the dumbest thing and needs to go away now.
September 1st, 2013 at 9:42 AM ^
IMO this will increase the resale value of student tickets, for two reasons:
1) I am bringing an out-of-state friend along for the Akron game. Previously, I would have had to sneak him in to my section somehow. Now, I can buy any student ticket and we sit together wherever we want.
2) Students trying to scalp tickets to older fans benefit because they will tend to arrive earlier to the game, and will probably have better seats on average than the assigned seating would have given them in previous years. For most games, an excellent seat can probably be assured by arriving 1:30 to 1:00 prior to kickoff.