More info released on student GA seating

Submitted by GoBlueinEugene on

http://www.mgoblue.com/tickets/students-seating.html

Michigan Stadium Guide

Looked through it real quick, here are some highlights:

  • Student section is now sections 26-34 
  • Students enter through Gate 10 only (opens 3 hours prior to kickoff)
  • The lower 22 rows within the student section have been assigned letter designations: H, O, K, and E (yes really), students in front of the lines (chutes?) get wristbands that allow them to sit in one of these lettered sections 
  • The rest of the students get a GA ticket for their designated section (row 23 and up)
  • All of this applies to validated student tickets used by non-students

BlueReign

July 31st, 2013 at 12:23 PM ^

Upperclassmen who waited to get the front row seats no longer have the front row seats. They have to show up just like everyone else which isnt "fair" because when they were underclassmen they had to sit in the back.

 

Wolverines Dominate

July 31st, 2013 at 4:03 PM ^

Why would anyone want to be in the front row anyway? The lower you are, the worse view you have. The first twenty or thirty rows is a terrible spot to sit. I was in row fifteen or something like that for the 2010 M/MSU game and I hated my viewpoint.

BlueReign

July 31st, 2013 at 12:22 PM ^

Having just graduated, I wish this had been implimented while i was still in school. Move the frat/sorority drunkards to the back where they can not pay attention to the game in seats equivalent to their football passion. Give the true fans the good seats.

DDSWolverine

July 31st, 2013 at 12:35 PM ^

and I got really drunk. got there in time for the whole game with all my buddies and my passion for michigan and michigan football is still pretty high. way to judge bro. I'm sure its just the frat/sorority students (that make up 15-20% of the student body) who are the only ones that show up late and don't actually care about michigan football as much as you do

BlueReign

July 31st, 2013 at 12:43 PM ^

No, but they are the ones who puked on my shoes 3 times a season, cried like self entitled brats when they showed up 2 hours late to the game and demanded their front row seats, and in general made a mockery of Michigan football.

Are frats/sororities 100% of the problem? no, 50%? probably not. Are they among the most offensive of the offenders? in my experience yes. If you disagree with that, ok. No skin off my back, just 1 fake point on a message board because i offended a frat boy.

DDSWolverine

July 31st, 2013 at 1:11 PM ^

they sound intriguing and very useful. are they like credit card points? because the current card I have doesn't reward me for shit. I mean, 15,000 points for a $100 gift card, come on man

I was just getting a point across: stay classy, judge less.

I'd make a meme or something but I've already exhausted my yearly 'log-in and write something on mgoblog' time

Doc Brown

July 31st, 2013 at 1:04 PM ^

A'freakin men dude. Every year i was in graduate school I showed up to all of the home games right as the gates opened. The best seats I got were in row 22. It pissed me off to no end when some frat guy douche or sorority douchette showed up at the end of the first quarter. They then paid absolutely zero attention to the game. 

tbeindit

July 31st, 2013 at 3:52 PM ^

That's definitely true because a system with no designated seating areas that doesn't have separate seats will definitely not lead to any disputes.  What is there to stop people from showing up late and walking down to their front seats anyway?  The first 22 rows are protected, but not the rest.  The same exact problem exists, but now you don't have actual tickets if there is a dispute.

Huma

July 31st, 2013 at 12:29 PM ^

I like the wristband idea - keeps people from sending a few people in their group ahead of time to reserve seats in the first 22 rows.

bdsisme

July 31st, 2013 at 12:29 PM ^

Students may begin lining up in the designated queuing area located inside the
parking lot on the north side of East Keech Avenue across from Gate 10 beginning
at 7:00 a.m. for games with start times of Noon or 3:30 p.m. The queuing area will
open at 11:00 a.m. for any games beginning later than 3:30 p.m. CAMPING OUT
OVERNIGHT IS NOT PERMITTED.

LOL, yeah right.

RP

July 31st, 2013 at 1:35 PM ^

Haha. Fortunately drunk students tend to be more lazy than smart. Most still use Gate 10. Anyways, GA is supposed to make all the students wait in line before games so there won't be such a crowd at Gate 10 about 20 mins before kickoff. Psh.. like that will ever happen.

tbeindit

July 31st, 2013 at 3:55 PM ^

We'll see if that's still a factor if students are forced to wait in these "queing" areas for 2 hours then in the stadium for 3 hours.  The bball lines are terribly policed, but not sure how they're going to police the football lines.  If these areas are set up anything like the Final Four waiting area, drinking is going to be nearly impossible.

yoyo

July 31st, 2013 at 12:59 PM ^

I wonder if all the alumni on this thread saying, "screw you lazy students!" would mind if the rest of stadium became GA.  Then 100,000 people can wait in line for hours.  It would only be fair.

Crash

July 31st, 2013 at 1:32 PM ^

Ohh they will.  They will say thank you as they are endorsing their enormous donation checks.  SIlly people think the athletic department cares about the passionate fan over the money, lol.  

I'm fine with it the way it is (seating outside of the student section).  Without those fat-cat donors, our program would never be what it is today.  Although I will admit there was a time when it really bothered me as a student to look over to my right and see a bunch of trench coats sitting on their butts the entire time.

RP

July 31st, 2013 at 1:37 PM ^

Oh, agreed! It is always more about the money. What irks me though is that most of these people are the ones always quick to comment on the students' passion. I could probably say that even a 75% full student section contributes more to the atmosphere and the overall quality of a game than most of the other sections combined.

MichiganG

July 31st, 2013 at 6:24 PM ^

 

I could probably say that even a 75% full student section contributes more to the atmosphere and the overall quality of a game than most of the other sections combined.

 

And this is exactly why us alumni would like to see the student section 100% full.

SotoWolverine

July 31st, 2013 at 2:13 PM ^

If tickets only cost me $25 and I was able to get season tickets at that price without any waitlist or donations, then I will be all for General Admissions. Until then, I think the most loyal and financially supportive Alumni will continue to get the best seats. 

 

 

HermosaBlue

July 31st, 2013 at 5:48 PM ^

I've already made tuition payments in 10 semesters undergrad (in-state, 2 majors) and 4 semesters for business school (out-of-state).

In addition, my family are all President's Circle donors to UM and I sit on the board of a family foundation that annually makes substantial charitable donations to UM, in addition to my own.

I'm gonna go ahead and argue that I've cleared that hurdle by pretty much every single relevant metric.

GRFS11

July 31st, 2013 at 1:18 PM ^

So how will this work when non-students want to come sit with a sibling or child in the student section (unless they have a validated ticket)? If they are above row 22, it's ok you can be "snuck" in, but not below?

Amused

July 31st, 2013 at 1:21 PM ^

Sending all of the students through Gate 10? Are you kidding me? Anyone who's ever been a student knows that this is going to be a disaster. Even with the old system, where a substantial amount of students got in through adjacent gates, lines at Gate 10 were always a problem. The bottleneck will probably lead to similar amounts of students getting into the stadium late, just like in previous years, not to mention being unpopular with the students. Awesome.

HouseThatYostBuilt

July 31st, 2013 at 1:36 PM ^

This is really counterintuitive. I thought the goal of GA was to get students into their seats earlier? Now there will just be a massive line of students at Gate 10 through at least the end of the first quarter. So dumb.

tdcarl

July 31st, 2013 at 1:48 PM ^

The whole Gate 10 only thing is a joke. I honestly think the student section will be MORE empty at kick off when all of the people that got there 15 minutes early are still waiting in line at gate 10.

Marshall Stack

July 31st, 2013 at 2:25 PM ^

This is essentially like the basketball seating process, but on a larger scale and with more choices in section.  The upside here is that if you want it badly enough you'll get to sit up front (which was cool in basketball) although at least for me I'd prefer to sit in the 35th row over the 15th.  The downside is that to avoid horrible seats you might have to get to the stadium really really early.  For basketball games last year you might've had to arrive at Chrysler Center 2.5-3 hours before tip off for the average B1G game to get bleacher seats.  I guess we'll see whether or not this fills up the student section earlier (or at all).

Needs

July 31st, 2013 at 3:41 PM ^

My guess is that for safety/fire code reasons, they needed to track how many people were going into each section. The only way to do that is to give everyone a section ticket as they enter the stadium and the only way to do that is to shuttle all student tickets through one gate.

I also imagine they're going to have ushers at the top of the H-O-K-E sections (and has UM now boxed themselves into hiring only coaches with four letter names), checking for wristbands and not allowing people without them in. Moving around will probably be more lenient toward the top of the bowl. 

Sitting in the stadium three hours before kick is going to suck, though, regardless of the "exclusive student oriented programming." The lines are going to be a total clusterfuck too, as people try to pound drinks while security tries to figure out whether they should control that too.