Student Section going GA

Submitted by hailtothevictors08 on

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

I am sure this makes many of you happy but as a kid whose tickets were going to have excellent senior standing next year and who always makes it before kickoff, I am really angry.

GA is just chaos 

(Edit: As a poster pointed out below, tickets are also way more expensive)

(Second Edit: To those thinking you will get good seats just for showing up before kick, you are wrong. Now that there is a reason to go early, we will have our own mini-Paternoville. For good games, you will have to be there 2 hours early. I love Michigan football, but as a grad student who also remembers pregames as the best part of being an undergrad, I really think this could kill some of the Saturday fun.)

 

snarling wolverine

April 22nd, 2013 at 8:41 PM ^

I'm in the class of 2003 and I have the same recollection.  It's been shocking to me to see how empty the student section has been the last couple of years.  I don't understand it at all.  It's seemed like it's actually gotten worse since the coaching change, even though we've gone 14-0 at home under Hoke.  

gwkrlghl

April 22nd, 2013 at 8:57 PM ^

And I feel like I remember it starting in 09 and 10. I remember it being pretty full during the 06-07 and 07-08 seasons and then it's hazy in the middle but I definitely remember being to a few conference games my senior year (09-10) being pretty sparse at kickoff. Maybe something to do with the Richrod era started it?

taistreetsmyhero

April 22nd, 2013 at 8:40 PM ^

they get best of both worlds in that they can keep the same routine that they would have otherwise had (their seats are the worst as it is) but now they even have the possibility to have better seats.

so i guess moving forward it all works out...just sucks for rising upperclassmen. but on the flip, flip side, they get to watch a good football team whereas I had to watch a trainwreck, so i feel not sorry at all, almost as not sorry as i feel for this trainwreck of a sentence.

LS And Play

April 22nd, 2013 at 8:53 PM ^

As a freshman who likes getting to games early, I'm really happy they switched to GA. Those who are most committed should get the best seats, plain and simple. 

bo_lives

April 22nd, 2013 at 8:57 PM ^

and kicking people out of their seats, we will have drunk greeks showing up 10 minutes before they open the gates and cutting to the front of the line. Like at all the basketball games this year.

The Captain

April 22nd, 2013 at 9:00 PM ^

I have always shown up to games early, even if it meant ditching my friends at a pregame and heading down there by myself.  It's cool that this will reward me with better seats, but now I'll end up having to watch entire games by myself instead of just for a little bit until my friends show up after kickoff.

Hopefully this will put a spark in their butts and make them walk down earlier with me.  Or maybe I just need to find some other friends who take the games as importantly as I do.  

eamus_caeruli (not verified)

April 22nd, 2013 at 9:15 PM ^

As a grumpy 33 year old who is an alum, who also had student season tickets that were never that great, I missed two kickoffs. What has happened in the SS over the last few years is a shameful and disheartening occurrence. I am of the mind that we all will see the SS decrease. the AD owes the students nothing more than a chance to buy discounted tickets, and that might go away as well. So many of this generation doesn't get how special it is to have tickets, and don't care about the team. Just like most things in life, it is the few that ruin it for everyone.



I have been to a lot of games, and the last two years I have heard more alumni and fans look at the empty seats and not just bitch, but express complete and utter outrage much like many of us have here. It is pathetic.



I mean, I drank until 4am, and was up and doing it all over again by 8-9am; and then making a 12pm kickoff. Get over it. Shit, you get a disco nap and can go out again Saturday night if you are so inclined.



What's the big deal when we kickoff?

ChiCityWolverine

April 22nd, 2013 at 9:26 PM ^

Don't act like no one values the tickets. I've cried in Michigan Stadium out of joy and sorrow. I've been a Wolverine my whole life. I know a ton of students who feel the same. You can complain about the few and lament on the dip in attendence, these are not invalid grievances. But DO NOT question that many of the current students feel the same about the school and the program that you and other alumni do.

Doc Brown

April 22nd, 2013 at 9:50 PM ^

I am around your age as well. The decline of the student section and rise of entitlement is pathetic to say the least. 

The sense of entitlement is not just with college students, but a large portion of this current generation. I teach and witnessed this unfortunate trait. I have students that complain when they earned a 56% on a test that I warned them about 3 weeks ago each day and figuratively gave them the answers two days beforehand. 

Kudos to you. 

State Street

April 22nd, 2013 at 9:16 PM ^

What happens if you have to take a piss in the middle of the game?  Then what?  Who will enforce what section/row/area you'll be allowed back into?

This sounds like a giant clusterfuck.

Don't give me the "it works at other places" meme.  Michigan Stadium is the largest stadium in the United States of America.

jmblue

April 22nd, 2013 at 9:29 PM ^

I don't think people will be madly moving from seat to seat during the game, to the point where individual seats are being snapped up.  If it really is like that, then you tell the people next to you to save your seat while you're going.

We may have the largest stadium, but do we have the largest student section?  That's the relevant comparison.  I imagine PSU's is about our size.

 

 

RealMerican

April 22nd, 2013 at 9:28 PM ^

As a graduating senior, Saturday mornings were one of the highlights of my time here. Glad I don't have to tell my kids I spent my Saturday mornings waiting in line for 3 hours.

snarling wolverine

April 22nd, 2013 at 9:35 PM ^

This is way over the top.  

First, there won't be long lines for every game, just the really big ones.  There won't be gigantic lines to see an average opponent. 

Second, if you want to party all morning and stagger into the stadium at 12:15, you'll still be able to - you just won't have great seats.  

At the end of the day, it's the football that should be important.  You can party any day of the year.  You can't go to a Michigan home football game more than 7-8 times a year.  If this spurs more students to take full advantage and be there for entire games, that's good.

 

k.o.k.Law

April 22nd, 2013 at 9:26 PM ^

I have sat near the top of the stadium for years and like that view.

If arriving earlier for the game is a problem for you because it cuts into your drinking time, your issue is not  your view of the game.

STW P. Brabbs

April 23rd, 2013 at 12:21 PM ^

Every time this argument comes up, some current student exasperatedly explains that s/he might have work to do before the game, and you probably don't understand, and don't you care about academics?

For some reason, the current cohort is the first to have 'course-work' as something that might eat up valuable Saturday pre-gaming time.  I'm just sure glad no one came up with that shit in 2000-04.

bo_lives

April 22nd, 2013 at 9:29 PM ^

and half of the greek community skips all their classes for two weeks to camp out in front of the stadium, and the other half cuts to the front of the line 15 minutes before the gates open... then what?

Bill the Butcher

April 22nd, 2013 at 9:43 PM ^

Then you watch a fantastic game from wherever the fuck you end up and you get to tell your kids that you were in the stadium for it.  

You're making this a way bigger issue than it needs to be.  There will not be anarchy.  If drinking is that important to you, then drink, have fun, show up 15 minutes before kickoff and you will get great seats.  If you decide that being in the front is more important, then camp out.  It really isn't rocket science.

Additionally, most students pregame in the same general vicinity, don't you think you will notice when 20,000 people leave and head to the game?  Won't that be an indication that it is time to go so you can get your preferred seats?

The clowns who show up in the second quarter will be the only ones affected by this by any measure, because they can no longer hold their tickets as a trump card over the fans who showed up on time and took their seats.  Those empty rows at the top will be filled with leggings, uggs, and northface jackets.  Anyone who shows up on time will be in the first 65 rows without a doubt.  

bo_lives

April 22nd, 2013 at 9:50 PM ^

Doing well in school is. And watching Michigan football. Unfortunately it seems the athletic department doesn't want me to be able to do well in classes and also be able to watch those games from great seats. I, unlike most the people who will be camping out 2 weeks before, cannot miss multiple days of classes without dooming myself. But there are people out there who can (*cough* psych majors *cough*).

And you say it won't be anarchy? HA! You clearly weren't there for the OSU bball game this year.

DH16

April 22nd, 2013 at 10:06 PM ^

I waste way too much time to get good basketball seats, now I have to do this for football. I can't take 16 CSE credits and maintain my superfandom as easily now, and it sucks. I mean I guess I can take solace in that I'll have a better shot at a job that the clowns taking the blowoff majors who have all the time in the world, but it sucks.

STW P. Brabbs

April 23rd, 2013 at 12:28 PM ^

You'll still get into the damn game.  As many have pointed out, you might not get into the first 30 rows, but does that really justify this kind of embittered e-martyrdom?  

That said, I will wholeheartedly agree that something will need to be done re: the logistics of lining up for football.  It's one thing to let that shit happen for a basketball game, but it seems to me there would be a real public safety danger if they went all laissez-faire for football.  

Not sure if it will take gating, or handing out wristbands an hour or so before kickoff, or some combination thereof, but the mad dash to the gates is something that will have to be avoided.  Of course, we don't have any real indication that the AD isn't going to address this (other than the basketball precedent, which hopefully is recognized as so different in scale as to be altogether unlike the football situation.)

Note: I'm speaking here as someone who would almost certainly have gotten in a fight with line-cutters as an undergrad.  I fucking hate those self-centered mongoloid fucks who think the rules don't apply to them.   Fucking undermining the fabric of society, they are.   Seriously.  Not being sarcastic.  Fuck you if you cut lines. 

Doc Brown

April 22nd, 2013 at 10:19 PM ^

I feel your pain. My senior year at Purdue the only games I went to unfortunately was senior day and when college gameday came when we played Wisconsin. The problems of being a physics and bio major and working in a research lab. 

However, I was a good student and always sold my first row ticket at face. I felt it always needed a body in the seat for a fair price. 

Needs

April 22nd, 2013 at 10:45 PM ^

I agree with most of your points, but as someone who was not a psych major, your calling out of any particular major is horseshit. In every major at UM there are people who work really hard and people who coast. I've taught engineering students who didn't do a lick of work and were some of the most entitled students I've come across and communications majors who were in office hours every week after doing extra reading. 

MGoRossGrad

April 22nd, 2013 at 10:49 PM ^

But....This isn't Crisler.  This is a student section that seats 20,000.  About 100 of the seats are elite.  9,900 are awesome seats  5,000 are okay.  5,000 not so much.

Camping out two weeks before?  C'mon now.  You'll have to stand in line a little early to get the first 30-40 rows.  Everything else, just come before the game starts. 

WolverineHistorian

April 22nd, 2013 at 9:36 PM ^

I don't care what rules there are.  The main thing I want is a packed stadium BEFORE kickoff.  For many years, the student section was full for pregrame.  Pregame should be a part of the game day atmosphere.  And it used to be that way for the students regardless of who the opponent is. 

Today, when the band forms that beloved block M and marches across the field playing the greatest college fight song ever (according to John Phillip Sousa) this is what it looks like...



That's probably one of the saddest and most pathetic things I've ever seen.  This isn't just any stadium.  This is the SHRINE of college football. 

Feat of Clay

April 22nd, 2013 at 9:44 PM ^

I don't know what all the motivations are behind this, but I'm sure it helps the ticket office not have to deal with all the strum & drang of people wanting to sit together as a group, unhappy with where they are vs. where they should be, etc. I've overheard many a conversation at the ticket office along these lines.

DirkMcGurk

April 22nd, 2013 at 9:48 PM ^

Love the bitching and moaning. America at its best. Jack around a show up late to games. They change it to try and fill the stadium and the people who caused the problem want to blame everyone else. If you want to tailgate and drink do that then go home to watch the game. Typical colleges jerk offs.