Where this happens just as you say it will? I've never heard of 10,000 people waiting for a game before...
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Student Section going GA
it WILL happen eventually. Like I've mentioned before, what if we're 11-0 going into the Ohio game? I'd put the over under at how early people start camping out at 2 weeks.
but it doesn't change the fact that there will 100% without a doubt be 10,000 students standing outside Michigan Stadium at 10:00am on November 30, 2013.
So, those pledges who will wait 6 days will damage themselves academically for a frat? If they are that dumb, they deserve to fail out.
Shit dude, calm down a little. At the end of the day, it's just seating for a football game, what's gonna matter is that you were actually there, not that some people waited longer than you for seats.
For UTL, I paid 300 bucks and sat in the SE corner, I had 5 inches of butt space and knees in my back the whole game. For OSU my friends and I were literally in all 4 corners of the stadium. For this past year I got Student Seats, showed up an hour before every game, I was seated right above the section entrances, and watched people roll in as the team was running onto the field or even later
In 20 years am I going to mention any of that? No. What I'm going to talk about is watching the games.
There's no such thing as a bad seat in the Big House.
You want a seating horror story? In 2010 I drove down to the Horseshoe, had upper level seats, got to my seat, and I was literally behind a fucking pillar. The pillar wasn't near me, it was literally right in front of my seat. Be thankful we don't have to put up with anything like that
to the people who've been bitching and moaning for the past two years about students not showing up on time to games?
You could probably could.
But I'm addressing that in most of your posts, you're worried about people camping out and stealing all the "good seats". I'm saying that there's no bad seats in the Big House, and that being there is a whole lot more memorable than whatever row you end up in
I had friends who didn't want to head over early. But even they would admit they remember almost nothing from tailgates before the game, or any particular study session. They're pretty generic. But a Michigan Football game...! Some of those memories last forever. And even the snoozers often stick with you more than beer games. What if you came late and missed Denard's first run of the ball for a TD? Heck, things like Delaware State's band make that game more memorable than 99% of pregame partying.
Dunno if you meant to reply to me or not, but I agree with you. I think just being there (no matter where your seats are) is just great
Not every reply is a post of disagreement. This was more a "And furthermore...!"
You're absolutely right about no really bad seats. Talk to someone in the ticket office, and they will tell you that among season ticket holders seeking to improve their seat location, the most requested area outside of the 50 yard line is... the top row! The vast majority of requests are to move to higher rows; not lower rows. It's amazing to me to read so many posts in this thread by current students who act as if sitting above row 30 is akin to being exiled to Siberia.
here's the new "official" petition because the other one could easily have problems with people signing multiple times
But I'm wondering if raising student ticket costs is another measure to help with attendance (in addition to being a cash grab). Will students be less likely to buy and waste season tickets if they're more expensive? Not sure if I actually think this, I'm just throwing it put there. And PS: I was there from 94-98 and I was at kickoff for every game most cases when the band took the field. And I was in a sorority. Greek fans do exist.
I strongly disagree with this move. I think people are STRONGLY underestimating what many of the current students have been posting in reference to basketball season. The OSU game was complete chaos before tipoff. People literally almost got trampled and I am not joking in the slightest. This was with only a few thousands students. There are going to be thousands of students rushing all at once to get in right before kickoff. Anybody who's been in a line like this knows full well that there is going to be a push right before people are about to get in. There is also going to be a ton of confusion and anger with the lines and people cutting. Add in a ton of alcohol (which students will get) and this crowd is not going to be calm.
On top of this, I think a lot of people are being safe with their 2 AM assumptions. I've talked to several people at schools with general admission already and they've told me they wait overnight for games not even close to the size Michigan will have in the future. The lines are going to end up going for well over 24 hours in the future. Maybe not next year, but within a few seasons it's going to happen.
I don't care whether you think people are bad fans or not, students are at school for school first and other things second. I don't understand why we need a policy that's going to create chaos before kickoff and waste a ton of time for the students just to look better on TV. We can't create anything more intelligent than general admission? Come on. Why can't they institute a "hail" like system with an MCard swipe when you walk in? What's so tough about this? This is a poorly thought out plan that's going to hurt students.
the OSU game was a mess. i was there 5 and a half hours before tip-off and didn't get bleacher seats because of everyone pushing past me during the rush.
They're going to need to significantly up security outside the gates to prevent potential crush situations when they start taking tickets and at the tunnel entrances, which will be the other dangerous location.
The first 20 rows require a seat, then the rest GA (or similar)?
When did sitting in the first 10 rows get to be a thing? It's one of the worst ways to watch a game in Michigan Stadium. Especially in Sections 29-33; the better view is from about row 40 to about row 70.
Who seriously thinks that there is a better view of the game from the first ten rows?
well no obviously. but then you get to hang with Devin Gardner after he does his Big House Leap at the end of the game.
Which is nice.
YouTube started.
+1. Insightful.
Nope. Section 23. Block M shall not be upside down.
I hate these threads. It just turns into alumni bitching about "back in my day we didn't have this problem" and then blaming the students.
Guess what, if a student is reading this blog then they probably aren't part of the problem. I haven't missed kickoff in 3 years so it gets old seeing everyone say how today's students don't care and whatnot.
I'm not too upset about having to get there a little earlier. Now I just can't sleep in as long, which is how I spend my Saturday mornings. I'm just upset that I waited my time to get good seats and now I'm getting the shaft.
line is bull shit, too. Because back in their day, it was much easier to sneak booze into the stadium plus you could leave at half, go to the liqour store across the street (it's now a wireless toyz) then re-enter the stadium. They got to the game on time, because they didn't have to do all the drinking before hand.
You're talking about like the 1970s. None of the things you describe were true a decade ago. 9/11 happened when I was a student, so no, you couldn't easily smuggle things in after that. You know what? People still made it to the games on time.
This whole business of huge numbers of students not showing up before kickoff is a very recent phenomenon. Stop making excuses for it. Get to the damn games on time. It's not that hard.
We've now had multiple football players record PSAs urging students to come to the games on time. Do it for them at least.
People are talking about long, long ago...2005, 2006. And of course, the 30 years before that.
Stay up till 3 or 4 am drinking. Still get up at 8 or 9 am to start again. And somehow we found a way to get to the Stadium by NOON! (Didn't have enough time to drink LAST season where we had the most late start games in history??) And manage our wine without all the whine.
I am talking about 2008-2011...
It's still not too terribly hard to sneak a bit of refreshment into the game.
But yeah, the days of bringing a quarter-barrel into the game, and watching Michigan down Navy 70 to 14 were good times.
is that the students were fine with the old policy. The people who cared the most about studnet behavior seemed to be those who had limited access to tickets and didn't like to see the students come late because they wish they were at the game. This is an understandable viewpoint but also a negligable one because hey, you don't go here, you didn't go here, etc. The great majority of students got the fun of partying from the break of dawn until game time and still made it for toe to meet leather. Now, they don't, and that sucks.
Those of us in the Drumline showed up 11 minutes before kickoff, and we got seats on the FIELD, fergodsakes!
I for one find this news AMAZING! I am a grad student at UM-Flint and did my undergrad at UM-Ann Arbor. I did my time huddled with drunk students who are turn around and talk to each other more than watch the game. I made my way down to row 18 my senior year only to get put back up at row 80 my first year of grad school amongst more obnoxious people. They try to keep us Flint folk as far away from the camera as possible. I show up AT LEAST 30 minutes early, so now we all can finally be rewarded.
can't believe this thread is never ending. This isn't that huge of a deal. I have a real hard time believing that without the guaruntee of good seats that students are going to get there even EARLIER.
the jackass drunken frat girls and sororiety whores who couldn't be bothered to get there 5mins before the band begins won't suddenly be willing to get here hours before.
it sucks that upperclassmen lose out and can't get grandfathered in, but students now have a choice to make, rather than being entitled to have the cake and drink it too. that's all this is
I think this move is absolutely fantastic. I also think the reason the current students are so upset by it (at least in this thread) is because the students are being held ACCOUNTABLE for their actions. You no show up for games.....you no get assaigned seats. And like it's been said by a lot of people before me this is a relatively new occurance (students not showing up) and I'm so glad the Athletic Department did something about it.
When I was in school (and a frat btw) from 1978-81 we somehow managed to balance the rigors of academic life, partying AND we made it to the games. On time.
Imagine that.
for all three years I've had student tickets. What am I being held accountable for exactly?
Individually nothing. Obviously you weren't part of the problem but speaking as someone who has attended almost all home games from 1978 on I can tell you that the empty seats in the student section is a VERY new occurance. And it's not like the academic standards at Michigan has changed a lot in the past 35 years so if students could somehow manage to attend classes AND hook up with girls AND party AND attend the games why couldnt this group? So the accountability was spread over an entire student body and you were collateral damage to the sollution.
If your fellow students had followed your lead and headed the warnings from the athletic department over the past year or so you'd be enjoying seats on the 40 yard line like I did. And I'm sorry you arent given your attendance and support.
But if you're upset over the change look in the classroom and the other students if you want to see the problem. Be mad at them.
Now I am doubly mad at them. And come football season, when those same people who didn't show up to games on time are cutting in front of me as I stand outside for six hours in the freezing cold, just standing there and waiting, unable to tailgate or socialize with my non-student friends and relatives, I will be triply and quadruply mad at them. That doesn't mean I still can't be mad at Dave Brandon for instituting this asinine policy.
Well you probably wouldn't think it was absolutely fantastic if you had spent 7 years at Michigan and now have to wait 3 hours in line to get comparable seats.
Is the cross you're bearing too heavy little buddy? You're kinda spazzing
Huh? I'm not spazzing at all. I'm a little pissed because after 7 years of slowly moving up, it all counts for nothing. But it's not that big of a deal, and I'm not that upset by it.
No, students are mad becuase us rising seniors have had shit seats for 3 seasons, spent hundreds of dollars on tickets, thousands of dollars on tuition, and waited patiently for our turn to have good seats. And now its all for naught as any freshman now has equal opportunity to have the seats that we have waited for.
That's why we're mad.
I get why you're mad. I don't think you guys understand why we alumns are NOT mad.
This is why....
Wow the alums make more noise about this than they did all last season in the stands...
Seriously. The alums are what make Michigan Stadium the pathetically quiet venue that it is despite having the largest crowd in the country.
Sadly you are right. Last season, my first as a general season ticket holder, I got complaints for both standing and cheering too loud when we were on defense. section 40 sucks balls.
And us students understand that too. Its just that we can't really do anything about it since the students in this thread are the students in that picture. We can't be responsible for getting everyone there on time. This is like the teacher getting mad at the A student for the other students doing poorly. The A student might be able to help a couple other kids out, but there is no way he can save the whole class.
They should learn from the basketball experience. They need to have a process to address some of the key issues. For basketball line cutting, seat saving, and drinking in line are major problems. The AD has done little to stop it. The seating saving problem will be worse in Michigan Stadium. In fact I assume it will become standard protocal for greek life.
I hang out with probably some of the most intense Michigan basketball fans. We manage to get front row bleechers every game. We probably will be some of the first people in the Big House under this policy. We are the type of people that will benefit from this policy. Yet almost all my friends hate the policy (including the freshmen). Why? It isn't just about drinking and tailgating. Most of us are upset because now football will basically be a massive time drain. We already spend insane amounts of time waiting for basketball games. It just isn't fun to wait 7+ hours in a line.
I'm fairly certain that nobody here in favor of this policy, which includes virtually all the mods, had to go through the harrowing experience that was the Ohio basketball game. I haven't missed or been late to a basketball game the past three years but I didn't get in the Maize Rage for that one because I had class until 4:00pm and by the time I got there at 4:20 there were already over 1500 people ahead of me. And then we had to wait for 4 hours inside a disgusting smelly tent with a bunch of drunk idiots, while watching numerous people cut in line claiming that they were seriously, totally there ahead of time, but just had to leave to go to the bathroom. try getting some studying done when you're so crammed you can't even move your arms... then we were nearly trampled when the DJ thought it'd be a good idea to yell "the gates... are... open!!!" and everyone surged forward, knocked down the barriers, and countless people from the back beat their way to the front as bodies flew everywhere
Under the old policy i probably would have had sideline seats in the first 30 rows for the Ohio game. And I would have showed up an hour early just like I have for every game the past three years. Under general seating, who knows? Maybe I'll still be able to show up an hour early before games and get those same seats but who knows? At the beginning of this year I wouldn't have thought 1,000+ students would show up before noon on a Tuesday for the Ohio basketball game. Excuse me if I'm a little upset at Dave Brandon's decision.
I hope that students who are lining up for Maize Rage seats realize that, like Second-quarter arrivals in football, theirs is a relatively new phenomenon.
Our Athletic Department is losing a lot of money, on Maize Rage seats. At market rates (on the opposite sideline), those seats would command something like $1000 per seat PSD's. Available mostly to super-elite-level Victors Club Points earners, who got that way by even larger donations. That is, before additionally paying ticket prices roughly three times what students pay.
So yeah. Line up for the Maize Rage section. Knock yourselves out. Yell and scream. Jump around. That's what you're supposed to do. It's what the rest are paying for you to do. You are standing on some rather expensive real estate.
The more prominent the student section and the more it contributes to the atmosphere, the more they can charge for other tickets since the experience is greater. Not enough to make up the difference, but some.
Or we could save about a half a million dollars and hire the Lords of Gravity to do their trampoline slam-dunk halftime show.
More students need to be like Lloyd Brady.
The dumbest thing about this idea is that it won't do a damn thing for getting people to show up early. The drunk sophomore sorority girl who comes 20 mnutes late the game isn't suddenty going to suddenly discover a new love for Michigan football and be super concerned about getting a seat close to the field. The people show up late are the people who don't care much about football. Having GA seating isn't going to make them care more about football. I guarantee you we will see the exact same problems.
I agree that the some of the same problems aren't going to be rectified, but we also don't know to what end DB is working towards here.
If it's to fill the student section to capacity quicker, yes GA helps that. More people who care about the game but may not feel inclined to get to the game early in previous years are more inclined to get the game earlier to get seats. No more 40% filled student sections at kickoff.
If it's to completely fill the student section, no GA won't necessarily help that. Like you said, not everyone is going to automatically make it to the game on time. Some people may not even show up because they're so late. Some student ticketholders who were "eh" about the games before are still going to be "eh" now.
Part of me thinks that DB wants to see the student section fill up quickly with those students who actually show up for the games, just as every other seat does, and then see if the remaining students actually fill the entire section. If not, make the student section smaller. There are students who don't really care about football, you say? Great. Give their tickets to alumni and friends that do.
I'd be fine with cutting the student section. It's been about 3k too big for years.
I like this for a couple of reasons that benefit me personally.
1. Ticketholders driving in from Flint and Dearborn who probably weren't going to get totally hammered can be rewarded for already driving in early to find a parking spot.
2. Isolated single tickets like mine are more useful as GA than they were previously, as it's easier to hook up with friends already down there or plan something on the fly. It's also theoretically easier to sell off a ticket for a game I can't get to.
As much as I thought I'd hate the GA tickets for Hockey last year, it didn't affect me simply because I was getting there an hour before puck drop anyway. The tickets tied to our m-card was the more irritating part of that change.
What an arrogant, bitter old asshole with an enormous Napoleon complex.
You have no idea who I am or what I do, but sure, I'm entitled. Your hiring process must be hilarious.
I show plenty of deference to people with experience, but usually, their pearls of wisdom are a little more sophisticated than labeling an entire group of people "whiny little bitches."
You sound like a prick in, like, all of your posts.
Yup, only the current generation has jerks and idiots. Can't think of any in the past...
Eatingpopcorn.gif
I realize it's become quite popular among middle-aged men to bag on younger generations in an effort to assert fake superiority, but if you're going to be a douchebag, at least bring some facts to the table.
You graduated in 2000, a year that saw a 31-year low for unemployment, and your generation responded by leaving us the biggest pile of economic shit in about 80 years. But hey, that's nothing compared to the revolution of anti-anxiety drugs, right!? Oh wait, Xanax has been around since the 1970s. You couldn't even get that one right.
"The millenial generation is the first to use it as a crutch when the slightest stress occurs." Any source for this claim, or is this just another one of your own brilliant insights? Hey, while your searching, you can also look up what generation you're a part of.
Yes, this article is about the overdiagnoses of GAD. It doesn't say anything about Xanax, and it doesn't say anything about younger generations.
I'm not even trying to be a dick, but are you actually reading the articles that you're posting? The above article is about how children and adolescents are becoming more anxious and depressed despite unchanged diagnostic criteria. It in no way supports your argument that young Americans are increasingly "taking the easy way out" or using xanax as "a crutch when the slightest stress occurs." If anything, the article directly contradicts your claim by asserting that young people are legitimately enduring more anxiety and depression and that there may be socially explainable reasons.
It seems like you just have a problem with the diagnostic criteria. I'm not sure how that can be blamed on the people being diagnosed. Finally, this article isn't even a comparative analysis. It says nothing about the rates of diagnosis in people of your generation.
As a Syracuse student (yeah, the Final Four was hell for me) I have to say general admission is the way to go, shitty fans get shitty seats for the most part and people who actually want to get great seats earn them by getting there early.
Man, some of the doomsday scenarios being suggested are quite hysterical. Nobody's going to be camping out for a fortnight for anything. Come on.
However, I don't think the AD has thought this through entirely, as no details were given on how gameday is going to work. I suppose they have some time to figure this out, but just letting it be anarchy outside the gates until 10 AM while the stadium staff looks on through the fence is going to backfire too. I would personally prefer "blocks" of GA sections assigned by seniority to give people a slightly better chance of going where they want to go rather than just letting every student in at once.
The people who want to be in the 5th row in 2013 are the exact same people who wanted it in 2012. They were already there at 10 AM.
Also, to complete a thought I had started about Hockey, the worst offense to the "premium" section at Yost was not GA tickets (we were all there early anyway) or the M-Card (which was silly and just made transferring tickets more cumbersome), but rather the elimination of about 4 rows worth of space in the section to be given to... nobody. It would have been moderately less annoying had they put wheelchair seating or even super rich jerks there, but they carved out a huge chunk of the section and stuck 3 folding chairs in it for the American Red Cross volunteers. No offense to those guys, but what the hell?
They actually did this for the Final Four games this year. Student seating was general admission, but it had blocks of seating. There were plenty of problems with how it worked, but those were more administrative. I think this system would work much better than the currently proposed one. Most people still get there early and they can move around within their area
Was AWFUL. Had my front row seat become 4th row after a bunch of guys jumped in front of it cause there was space. Intoxicated and all, they refused to move and security wouldn't kick them out.
Entitled students is the problem here, and a GA policy isn't going to fix that.
They were students in Group E who went to no more than 7 basketball games, so they should've been in the way back. What's keeping that from happening again?
Going to happen whether you have full general admission or sectioned general admission, but at least you would be guaranteed to be in the front portion. It's going to be complete chaos
They should make it all GA so the stodgy old grandpas who contribute nothing to the game atmosphere can't just waltz in from their RVs 10 mins before kickoff.
Actually, this demographic might just be MGoBlog seeing these comments.
Are we going from "Some students are showing up late" to "Many students aren't even coming because fuck these prices and general admission". Face it. It's still college. Not everyone is a football fan. Many just go for the tailgates and wander on to the game.
...and your description of the problem suggests the solution. The solution is not General Admission.
The solution is to cut down sharply on the number of student tickets, until we see the student sections filling up entirely and on time with hard-core supporters. Make tickets expensive enough that no student would let one go unused. Keep assigned seating, and enforce that assigned seating.
And (I'd like to think that this is technologically possible) award student-seating priority based upon how early each ticket is processed into the Stadium. So if you want the best seats (Section 25; lower rows if that is what you want; etc.) you earn that priority by showing up early for all of the home games in the previous season.
this thread has desolved into a convo b/t Drunk Uncle and The Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With at a party.
Which one do I get to be?
You know, it's ridiculous that people are paying just to be on the WAITING LIST for season tickets. And students aren't even showing up.....when they have season tix at a discount price....
Since there's so much opposition to either have all assigned seats or having all GA
Isn't the best solution is look at what other schools did?
As mentioned earlier in this thread, there are examples of Wisconsin, Alabama and Penn State, where seniority/credits/contribution to the University (e.g. glee club/ other athletic teams, volunteers, student organizations) determine the section, or the ability to choose the section, for the student.
On the other hand, within that block (say 20-30 rows), then you have GA within that section.
There are multiple downsides with a full GA, and a few posters of this thread act like going full GA will solve everything and "punish those entitled students".
Isn't it better if we can combine a point system (e.g. MCard swipe to track attendance/time), with other factors (credits, class standing, being a member of glee club/solar car team/swimming team etc) to let students choose which block they want to apply for when they buy tickets.
Then go GA for those sections when they arrive?
(In addition, this rewards the students by their contribution, in that they might prefer a seat more towards end zone/midfield, where full GA have no control of that. Some might prefer to get a seat in the first few rows at the corner to interact with players after a victory, others might prefer a good view from rows 30-50 closer to midfield. A full GA, or assigned seats, does not offer that flexibility)
Then say 15 minutes before/after kickoff, if a certain block is not full, maybe an usher can hold up a sign to indicate to other students ppl are free to move to that block?
I know there are flaws to everything and 'm just throwing ideas out there, and it does take more resources to get a system in place. But at least this can eliminate the early lining up problem stated by some here, for a full GA, and also preserving some sort of seniority and recognizing student contributions on campus. But it also ensures people have to get there early to get a good seat within their block, or risk losing their assigned block if they are like 15 minutes late (or whatever cutoff time is for ppl to move freely between blocks). This makes sure within say 10 minutes of kickoff, all the “good seats” should be filled up, and people who do care, will show up early, avoiding the disastrous scenarios that we saw in the pictures with 30-50% empty.
i still think this is much better than the current debate of having all assigned seats, or acting like Full GA is the solution (if it is, try doing it for the entire stadium, like the spring game - o right, even that the recruits/parents and other VIP get a better section)
Its funny how time changes us. When I was younger I would have probably been upset by this, but now that I'm 30 I'm completely in support of it. It's embarrassing to have the student section that empty at the beginning of the game.
prices have jumped nearly 50%, but I think I understand their reasoning. Raising the prices should reduce the number of students purchasing tickets. Assuming students place more importance on things they enjoy, the more dedicated student fans will purchase tickets at a higher percentage than the lesser student fans. A smaller student section that is packed is better than a large one with empty seats. Then the seats freed up by lack of student demand can be sold at full price in those four game packs. I don't have a problem with this.
the majority of whom are spending their waking hours partying on their parents' dime while driving the Escalade their daddy bought them will still be able to buy tickets... whereas the "pulled themselves up by their bootstraps working their way through college" cohort will be left to pay for the jacked up tab by themselves
The student section has been de facto GA going back as far as I can remember. Making it de jure GA doesn't seem to be all that big a deal.
What happens to them?
Honestly, we're going to see the upper portions of each section empty, with the few last row fanatics sitting up in Row 92 (or whatever it is), and a whole lotta space in between.
The problem I see is that a certain percentage of students miss a game. If it's 15% or 20%, how does the AD determine that student can't buy tickets the following year?
As stated, this may fill the first few rows (10-15) by kick-off, with mostly full up to the portals at the same time, but virtually empty above them.
To my mind, football Saturdays are a significant part of the college student experience, and every student should/will get the opportunity to buy tickets. Maybe the raised prices will cull the fence sitter from ordering tickets. Who knows...
Finally, it'll be interesting to see what comes into the email from the AD in late July, when they finally know how many non-renewals took place. I'm expecting there will be season ticket packages avaialable at that time.
1. people who are completely unaffected by it (i.e. most of the people on this blog)
2. students who didn't try to get in line early for the Ohio bball game this year
But see I think you're wrong when you say that alumns are "unaffected by it". Seeing the student section half full is goddamn embarrasing and it bothers the hell out of me to shell out big bucks for my annual "donation" so I can then shell out bigh bucks for tickets, drive three hours one way from Cleveland and back again only to realize that the people who only have to drag their ass in from West Quad and practically get the seats for free cant seem to make it on time. And if bothers me more that those same students, because they ARE young and loud and enthusiastic dont realize what a tremendous positve influence they can have on the team and when they blow games off. It still gives me chills when I think about Kovacs last year during the coin flip at the Northwestern game when he pointed down at the student section and said "we want to play down there".
Everyone in the fucking building knew why. Damn it....show up and help them!
Aaaaaand /thread
Good job mGrowOld.
Let's see, we have on the one hand, a mild psychological discomfort experienced by alums who have to look at a partly empty student section for the first half of the 1st quarter of the Purdue/Illinois games (note: the student section was packed well before kickoff for UTL, Ohio 2011, and MSU 2012). Oh dear, the horror!
In order to spare yourself the unspeakable tragedy of having to look such an abomination, you believe it's righteous and just to say "sucks to be you!" to all the rising seniors who showed up on time to every game over the past three years (and had lousy endzone seats for the first two) and force them to have to arrive to the stadium at the crack of down and wait 6+ hours to be able to get sideline seats, not to mention having to deal with assholes and line cutters.
Perhaps since you feel so strongly about the siutation you'd be willing to forego your tailgating traditions and join in line at 5:00am. We can stand and chat about how awful that 1/4 empty student section looked for the next six hours.
Yes, I realize alumns have to dish out cash to get tickets whereas students get them at a discount (actually our discount is much less than the one you got - we now pay over $42 per game). But this is how it has worked for decades. You got to take advantage of it during your four years here, and now you're saying that today's crop of students, even the ones who show up an hour early to every game, shouldn't be allowed to have the Michigan gameday experience without waiting in line for 6 hours?
For those of you scoffing at the possiblity that students will have to arrive 6+ hours early to get those row 30, section 26 seats for the big games... how can you possibly argue that that's not going to happen? Like I have mentioned dozens of times, at the Ohio bball game this year I arrived at Crisler at 4:20pm (for a 9:00pm game) in 30 degree weather (snowing), and yet there were still 1500-2000 people who were already there. I'd say it's a pretty good estimate to say that there are 5x as many student football ticket holders (probably more actually) than bball season ticket holders, so it's just math. There WILL be over 10,000 people in line for the Ohio game at 8:00am.
Please put yourself in my situation and ask yourself how you'd feel if suddenly your senior year you were put in this situation.
That's just not true....
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/dave-brandon-says-students-actually-arent-showing
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/student-section-needs-be-reduced
Apparently it's a problem at big, non-early games too.
For the 3:30 p.m. kickoff against Michigan State on Oct. 20, there were 3,500 no-shows, Brandon said. And, another 1,000 students came in and validated their tickets to re-sell, bringing the total to 4,500 no-shows.r
And it showed.
Without even getting into basketball, which had a lot of the same problems. There might have been a line for Ohio State, but for games like Arkansas there were multiple student sections empty at the top.
The question is- would you even have a problem with this if you WEREN'T a senior?
How can you use attendance numbers from last year's football season to tell us what it going to happen in an entirely different season and under an entirely different ticket system? The point he was trying to make was that a TON of people are going to have to spend a TON of their time waiting, when they would have shown up on time.
And just an fyi. The Arkansas bball game was not filled, but there were still a bunch of students that were there hours early. These are your loyal fans that are spending that time waiting and NOT the people who don't show up. So who gets hurt? I think you can make a strong case the people that suffer the most are those that wait all that time
That wasn't true. And that's why I can use last year's info.
And yes, there were students in the bottom section. There was also three sections in the upper deck for students that had a total of ten people in them. And I'd say the people who are really hurt are not the people who waited for good seats for Arkansas, but those who wanted to buy tickets and go to the game, but couldn't because it was sold out but littered with empty seats.
considering the average was purported to be somewhere around 5000. If that's the case then it seems the problem is mostly due to some cohort of ~3500 students who just don't show up to any games at all. i'd say there's a pretty simple solution to that. don't let them get tickets the next year.
as for the bball games...here is a picture i took about 10 minutes into the first half of the NC State (!!!) game