Member for

14 years 6 months
Points
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Recent Comments

Date Title Body
The numbers always match, but

The numbers always match, but what confuses people is that the number is engraved on the far edge of the step (so you can see it while going down the steps) but that puts it in line with the benches for the next row down. So people think they need to step down one more row even though the most logical thing to do would be to stop with your feet on the number you want.

The lack of a waitlist also

The lack of a waitlist also has something to do with it. When there were 18,000 people waiting to get your seats, there was no way you'd give them up if you had any possible interest in going again in the future. Now, you can cancel knowing that they'll practically beg you to sign up again. Brandon has already dropped the waitlist "donation" from $500 to $150 (of course, before Brandon arrived it only cost $10 to get on the waitlist), which is less than the PSD for most season ticket holders. So you can cancel now, wait a few years while buying cheap tickets on the secondary market, and then request season tickets again without having to go to the back of the line because there's no line anymore.

Having season tickets used to feel like you had something unique that not just anyone off the street could get. Now they're literally offering season tickets for next year to anyone who bought single-game tickets this year. I kept my 2 seats this year (stupid me) and got an email a few months ago asking if I'd please order 2 more.

They DID make part of the

They DID make part of the area above the student section into a "Kids Zone" this year, with $40 tickets all season except Penn State, and it still hasn't worked. (Of course, this year $40 is still more than tickets to most of the games are worth.)

Introducing The Michigan Stadium Kids Zone: As a Kids Go Blue Club member, you can take advantage of specially $40 priced tickets for all games (excluding Penn State) to sit with fellow KidsGo Blue Club members inside Michigan Stadium this season.  Please note Kids Zone seating will be located in section 30 and tickets are limited.  To purchase, click here and enter promotional code KIDSZONE.  Offer available online only, while supplies last.

My were so excited to be

My were so excited to be there and had a great time, but I spent over a half hour in line for food because the concessions people were totally unprepared for what was really a very small crowd. I waited in line with my son for 20 minutes before the movie started only to find that they had already run out of hot dogs, brats and pretzels (everything besides candy and drinks). They wouldn't go get anything from another line for me, and they weren't warning anyone behind me not to waste their time. So then I had to take my son back to the field and run all the way back up the stairs again and go back to the end of another line to get actual food. If you're going to ban outside food, you'd better be able to handle the demand you create, especially with so many kids who don't understand being told there's no food for them. On the plus side, the fact that the tickets (which were never checked by anyone) were free and the food was half the normal price was nice, especially given the feeling during football games that they're squeezing us for every penny they can. I know this was the first time for this, so hopefully they will be more prepared next time, though I assume the crowd will be larger next time, too, because more people will know about it and they'll probably give more than a week's notice.

I called and asked what would

I called and asked what would happen if I didn't pay the PSD but wanted to get tickets in the future. I was told I'd have to pay the $500 they now charge to join the "season ticket interest list" again and would basically start from the beginning again. I didn't ask about my points, but I don't see any reason I'd lose any beyond possibly the ones for consecutive season ticket purchases. I finally decided to just keep paying Brandon's ransom fee and try not to think about it any more until my tickets for Appalachian State arrive and I get angry again.

I had finally decided to suck

I had finally decided to suck it up and renew this week, though I went back and forth for a long time and it was a really tough decision. The Gibbons thing didn't really factor in for me, but it did make me feel dirty sending hundreds of dollars to the athletic department after knowing what happened. I kind of feel like I need to donate to SAPAC just to balance it out a little.

And tthe fact that when you pay the PSD online, a window pops up asking if you'd like to donate EVEN MORE to the scholarship fund just added to my hatred for Brandon.

Actually, water is $4.50 this

Actually, water is $4.50 this year. The Absopure people just added some duct tape with ".50" handwritten next to the 4 on all of their banners before the CMU game.

It's been a problem almost

It's been a problem almost every single game since the new boards went up in 2011. Even when they have worked, the person inputting the data has often been wrong -- there were a few games last year when the boards kept saying it was 1st and 6, for example, from the team's own 6 yard line (as in 94 yards away from a touchdown, not 1st and goal). There's no excuse, with as much as tickets cost and as much as those boards cost, to have them operated so poorly during games. I like having big video boards, but as scoreboards they are complete failures so far. I had seats low in the south endzone on Saturday, so for most of the game I had no idea what yardline the ball was on because the scoreboards never showed it correctly until the 4th quarter. For a long stretch of the first quarter (after the boards showed the score as 100-100 at one point) they just turned the scoreboard/stats part of the screen off completely.

So it was a "gameday

So it was a "gameday destination" despite no intention of having it there on an actual, you know, gameday.

Sounds to me like, as with the seat-cushion ban, they got inundated by complaints and were so caught off guard that they had to back off to avoid a revolt. Two miscalculations as Dave Brandon tries anything to make a buck, and the season hasn't even started yet.

I have season tickets in the

I have season tickets in the Blue section, which cost $980 this year ($790 for the tickets and $250 for the PSD, ignoring tax deductions). Partly because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to go to the UMass game, and partly because I knew I'd be able to find cheap tickets if I did go, I sold my tickets to Saturday's game in July. Thanks to the U-M partnership with Stubhub, I was able to sell them even before my physical tickets arrived, and before U-M began selling individual UMass tickets to the public. I got face value ($75 each, or $123 for the pair after the fees they take out). Then when I found that I would be able to go, I bought a new pair on Stubhub the night before the game for $25 each, plus $10 in fees. Seeing how well that worked, I may do it again for the various UMass/Akron/etc. games.

As weak as this year's home schedule is, the MSU game is what makes it hard to come out ahead buying individual seats vs. season tickets in the endzone ($50/seat PSD). MSU tickets have a face value of $95 and are going for $200+ on Stubhub but cost season ticketholders only $65. each, Assuming you pay $200 on Stubhub for MSU, you'd have to buy the other 5 games for an average of $49 or less (including the 10% buyers fee and ridiculous $4.95 "electronic delivery fee"). It would be all but impossible to do better individually in 2013 and other odd-numbered years when there are at least 3 big home games. Plus there's no way I'd ever give up my lifetime renewable season-ticket rights just because I might pay slightly more than market value in a particular year.

posted from iPhone

The reason you can't hear the "C" when everyone spells Michigan is because of where you sit, not how loud they say it. Having sat in all four corners at various times, I have noticed that it is always impossible to hear whichever letter is on the same sideline on the other side of the 50. Students can't hear the C. My season tickets are in the opposite corner, so I can't hear the A. The people in the NE corner can't hear the G. Etc. So before you call out the "alumni" for being unable to say one letter, try sitting somewhere else and you'll realize that's simply wrong.
<br>
<br>I know this is a minor point, but I have heard that complaint a surprising number of times.

The text is way too small for

The text is way too small for everything except the score. The board should have been designed so that the quarter is shown next to the game clock (instead of wasting that space with a fourth block M). That would free up a little more space on the board to make everything else bigger -- maybe put down and distance on one line and "ball on" on a second line, rather than cramming all three onto one line.

Also, they should put "TOL" in the center with the number of time outs on either side in each team's column so that the numbers could be bigger, just like they did for the words between the yardage stats. And don't waste space putting borders around the yardage numbers. Just make the numbers fill that space. The boards themselves are plenty big, it's just still a very inefficient use of the space they have.

Get on I-94 westbound from

Get on I-94 westbound from either AA-Saline or Jackson Rd (which is Huron St downtown). Take that to US-127 north to Lansing and then get on I-96 to GR.

Avoid Main St and US-23 northbound at all costs.

I also contacted Brandon

I also contacted Brandon because I stood in line at the concession stand near Section 6 to ask for water before the game started, and the woman looked at me like I asked for magical unicorn stew. She informed me that they certainly did not offer free cups of water, but I could buy a bottle for $4, though eventually I was offered an extremely small cup with several ice cubes so that I could wait for them to melt and become water.

In addition, I discovered that it's impossible to hear the PA announcements from just outside Section 6, because I missed the restart of play after the 1st delay and then later on had no idea that the stadium was actually being evacuated (as opposed to just another delay) until an usher came up and started yelling that we needed to leave.

Take 127 south from Lansing

I'd suggest taking US-127 south from Lansing down to I-94 and then east to Ann Arbor. It's 7 miles longer than I-96/US-23, but mostly likely faster because US-23 southbound from Brighton to Ann Arbor is usually miserable on game days. Then you can get into and out of AA via Ann Arbor-Saline Rd like you have in the past and park where you usually do. In my experience, coming and going from the west is so much easier than from the north or northeast.

Sure, but I wouldn't consider

Sure, but I wouldn't consider the usual group of scalpers -- not real ticketholders selling 1 or 2 extras, but the people there every week who spend the day buying and reselling -- to be part of our "fanbase." Just saying it's probably a good idea to be even more careful than in the past about who you buy from, especially if they seem to be offering a particularly good deal.

These aren't tickets given

These aren't tickets given back by WMU. They've been for sale ever since single games went on sale. This is the one game that the AD has never claimed to be sold out or down to "single seats only."

On a related topic, I'm wondering if the new partnership with StubHub is going to create issues with people getting screwed by shady ticket scalpers this year, especially for big games like Notre Dame. Now that you can deliver tickets electronically, it's possible to sell a ticket via StubHub and then turn around and sell the physical ticket as well, even though the barcode on it will no longer scan at the gate. It would make me nervous about buying tickets from someone on the street now, because there's no way to be sure that someone else didn't already buy the "working" tickets for those seats off of StubHub until you try to go in the stadium.

I'm not concerned about

I'm not concerned about getting pushed off of my specific seat number so much as getting squeezed from both sides so that my 18 inches of space ends up being about 8-10 inches. The permanent cushions make for an easy way to maintain the full seat, especially later in the season when people have heavy coats and and also so your seat doesn't disappear when you leave for a few minutes to get food.

That said, I didn't get them because I'm only using my season tickets for half of the season and didn't think it was worth the cost.

corner row 20-40

I'm a fan of seats in the corners, probably 20-40 rows up.

I've seen dozens of games from my parents' seats, in the NE corner in row 26 (hence my screenname), and think that's about the right height to be close to the action but high enough to actually see the whole field.

I've sat on the 50 a number of times, and while the view is great, I feel like I might as well be home watching the same view on TV for free. The crowd in those sections is so quiet that it really loses the excitement of being there in the stadium. I've also sat in both endzones, including in row A for the MSU game last year, and while that provides a very different perspective it's also hard to know whether a play has gone for 2 yards or 12 yards especially when it's on the opposite side of the 50.

I now have season tickets in the SW corner in row 86. I love the corner view and I don't mind being high up (except for the game last year when someone in the front row of the club seats above me knocked a full cup of pop off the ledge and it hit me in the back) but think being lower just makes you feel like a part of the action more.

Let's go one step further

Now your computer screen is showing an image of a screen on one end of the stadium showing an image of the screen on the other end of the stadium showing a test pattern.

June 27 for Victors Club members

 

As of this morning, mgoblue.com says this:

 

Ticket packages will be offered as follows:

June 27 - Victors Club members 

July 5 - Football public/faculty season ticket holders 

July 11 - General public

If available, remaining individual game tickets will go on sale July 18.

 

I assume that means you won't be able to buy tickets to any of the good games without picking up equal numbers to EMU etc.

I got a pair of renewable

I got a pair of renewable season tickets in the Blue section starting last year with just 1 priority point. I actually should have had 12 points, from my degree and my wife's degree and a past donation not to the athletic department, but I found out later that they weren't entered into my account properly. I don't know if there was more availability last year as the suites opened up and some ticketholders moved up there, but I would guess that it still wouldn't take more than a few hundred dollars -- or for alumni, maybe even just $100 which would activate the account and give you 6 points -- to get offered season tickets somewhere.

Once you're on the waiting

Once you're on the waiting list, the only way you actually get offered season tickets is if you donate at least $100 to join the Victors Club. Then, depending on how many "priority points" you have, you may get the chance to buy tickets. I was offered a pair of renewable tickets in the Blue section -- one category better than endzone, basically in the corner -- last year with just 1 priority point (I should have had 12, but they screwed up my account). Unless a lot more people are trying to get tickets for next year, the threshold may still be low enough that a $100 donation will be enough.

A writer for the Champaign

A writer for the Champaign News-Gazette actually had the gall to congratulate Illinois' defense for knocking Denard out of the game because it preserved Juice Williams' yardage record from the '08 game.

The Illinois defense did one good thing Saturday: It made sure Juice Williams' name stayed atop the Michigan Stadium record book for the most total yards in a game. Robinson was on his way to shattering Juice's mark of 431 yards set in 2008 but he left with a head injury after the third quarter, stopping at 367 yards (career-high 305 passing, 67 rushing).

Later in the same column, he says the hit on Robinson shouldn't have even been a penalty.

http://www.illinihq.com/news/football/2010/11/06/upon_further_review_this_one_hurts

Anyone here care to set him straight?

I've only used it during the

I've only used it during the UConn game so far, but I thought it was great to have access to replays even when the scoreboard doesn't show one. I'm also excited to have video feeds from other games, though none of the games available that day were even remotely of interest. My biggest complaint is that when you watch a replay, the live audio from the game cuts off, even though there's no audio with the replay. So you have to choose whether you want to watch the replay or else hear what Beckmann and Brandstatter had to say about the play but not both.

UPS delivered a box this

UPS delivered a box this afternoon that said "Enclosed is your new FanVision compliments of the University of Michigan Wolverines," and then about 20 minutes later I got the email explaining what it is. I'm excited to try it out at the game, but their planning seems pretty haphazard. Getting a strange box at the door, with no instructions inside, then a cryptic email, and having it all be 2 days before the first game seems amateurish. They even had to send out a follow-up email 15 minutes later explaining that these things would be delivered to your home. And no explanation of whether this is for season-ticket holders, Victors Club members or what.

No, Maynard is public. All

No, Maynard is public. All public garages around campus are accessible on game days, and cost about $5 to park for the length of time you'll be there. It's a longer walk, but worth the savings, I think, if you're not planning to tailgate. Some do fill up though (particularly the one at Main and William, which is closest to the stadium) and they can take forever to get out of after the game.

University garages are closed during the day unless you have a Blue Lot pass.

I'm 6'1" and on our 2nd Mini

I'm 6'1" and on our 2nd Mini Cooper. Minis have a ton of front head and leg room, more than most bigger cars do. The back seat, not so much.

Unfortunately neither of the ones I've owned look like this.

Counterclockwise. When you

Counterclockwise. When you sit facing the field, 1 is on the left of every section. So If you are in Section 1, Seat 1, you are on the border between sections 1 and 2.

I got two renewable Blue

I got two renewable Blue season tickets this year for the first time, after donating just $100 to activate my points. As best I can tell, I have 12 points: 5 for my degree, 5 for my wife's, 1 point for the $100 this year and 1 point for $1,000 in past giving to U-M (non-athletics). I also got the All-In pack last year and my wife and I each had student tickets for 4 years, but I don't know if those count. Before last year, I had never even been offered the chance to buy any tickets outside of the regular public sale. I'm planning to sell probably half of my tickets this year (Massachusetts and Bowling Green, anyone?) because I can't go to all of them, but it's worth losing a little money on those for the chance to have them every year from here on out.

Also, for anyone else who got the Blue offer and lives in Michigan, the $250/year PSD donation works out to only about $100 after state and federal tax deductions, since Michigan gives you a credit worth half of a donation to a public university (to a certain limit), and PSD donations are 80% tax deductible.

I got the same offer as

I got the same offer as mgoblue7 yesterday -- 2 renewable seats in the Blue tier -- but I only donated $100. That was the first time I had donated anything, but I figured this year given the down economy down, the team's record and the fact that a lot of longtime season-ticket holders would be giving up their seats to move up to the skyboxes, I would try it this year. My wife and I are both alumni, so I don't know if the points we get for those helped at all, too.

I got the All-In offer on Friday and was disappointed they weren't renewable, but fortunately I hadn't sent that back before the season-ticket offer arrived yesterday. I was so excited that I submitted my application online before I even realized they were offering me Blue seats -- I saw the description "10 yard line to back of endzone" and interpreted that to mean endzone seats. I'll take those this year, since they don't make you pay a PSD for the first year of tickets, but then depending on what seats they give me, I may switch to endzone for next year to save some money.

Except they break their own rules

As I learned last year, after sending my form by mail, my brother, who lived in Ann Arbor, took his form in person to the AAUM office, where there was a long line of people also turning in their forms on the first morning. He got his first choice -- the Ohio State package -- by explicitly NOT following the rules on the form, whereas I only got tickets to my 5th choice, the WMU game, by mailing it in as directed.

Being on the nytimes.com

Being on the nytimes.com homepage isn't really the same as being "front page" in the NY Times. As it says at the bottom of the story, it appeared on page B10 of the paper. The Times rotates stories through the spot at the top of its homepage throughout the day to encourage visitors to keep coming back every few hours to read fresh news. In fact, another story has already taken its place since I started writing this.

The weather.com spectator

The weather.com spectator index for the game is currently 0, on a scale in which 1="very poor"

I've discovered during the

I've discovered during the last few seasons that a few weeks before most games, even the big ones like MSU and OSU, the ticket office generally dumps a bunch of "leftovers" onto the site at seemingly random times. I'm guessing they're generally the result of situations like three seats together being available originally, but someone only buys two, leaving one by itself, but I have no idea if that's really the case. Usually it's been single seats like this available but occasionally they'll have pairs together.

Since 2006, I've gotten great seats (often Section 1 or 23) to a bunch of games, including MSU and Wisconsin, just by checking mgoblue.com/tickets occasionally throughout the season. Ironically, this is also how I've discovered that the crowd on the 50-yard line is so boring and quiet that I'd rather sit more toward the corners.

This year, I got the "All In" pack that they offered during the summer so I have all my tickets already but just wanted to make sure as many M fans get into The Game as possible (before OSU people discover the Internet and buy them instead).

I have a pair in Section 120

I have a pair in Section 120 Row 4. Looking to sell for $125 each, which is cheaper than anything on Stubhub. They're just outside one of the Michigan fan sections.

The new area is across Main

The new area is across Main from the Pioneer HS stadium. You get in through the driveway of this house: http://bit.ly/kwjGY. We tried it for the ND game and it was a nice spot (and relatively easy to get out afterward).

Of course, parking will be a nightmare if the golf courses are closed this week, which they probably will be unless the forecast changes.

We're #1 in the Big Ten for

We're #1 in the Big Ten for points scored. Not that that says a whole lot. OSU is #7.

No, that's the ND game

BTN is reairing the EMU game at noon Monday. They're showing the ND game tonight, according to their website and the listing on my cable guide.

Gannett does not own The

Gannett does not own The Detroit News. MediaNews does. They are two completely separate papers, although a separate entity called Detroit Media Partnership prints both papers and sells the ads for both, which is why their ads are mostly the same. Having worked for The Detroit News in the past, I can promise you that the reporting staffs are entirely separate from each other (the building they are in even has two separate computer networks that never connect.) I encourage anyone who doesn't want to read the Free Press anymore to instead read the News, which I am sure would like to upstage the Free Press by proving Rosenberg wrong on this story just as much as everyone here wants to prove him wrong.

There's a 15% off coupon for

There's a 15% off coupon for M-Den on page 3 of the newest issue of Michigan Alumnus magazine. Says to show the ad at any of the stores or enter promo code AAUM online through the end of September.

You're right, doesn't apply

You're right, doesn't apply to night games. I forget those even exist since we aren't allowed to acknowledge them at Michigan. I suppose that means you could get Florida@LSU instead of this year's game @Iowa in some parts, but it would be available on Gameplan. For WMU though, anyone with cable/satellite can see it.

Every televised Michigan game

Every televised Michigan game is available nationally, thanks to the Big Ten's contract with ABC/ESPN. If it's not on your local ABC station, it will be on ESPN2 (or less commonly, ESPN) instead. Same goes for any other Big Ten team on ABC.

From another journalist

I am also a newspaper reporter, and know Snyder and Rosenberg personally (I don't work at the Freep). I'm also a longtime MGoBlog reader, though I haven't contributed until now because the reporter in me tends to avoid publicly stating opinions about things. I agree with shorts' comments and that my first reaction to this was frustration. As a Michigan fan, I was disappointed to see the story, of course. But as a journalist, I tried to read it from the perspective of how well-sourced it was and how well the conclusions were supported. I can't fault the Freep for looking into this, as any reporters would do in the same situation. But my reading of it left me feeling like the Freep was really putting its credibility out on a limb by trying to make far more of this than the information they have supports.

I do want U-M to follow the rules, just as I would expect any of the teams that it plays to follow the rules. If they broke the rules and that can be proven, then they have to face the consequences. But the unfortunate effect of this story is that right now everyone just assumes that RichRod has broken the rules, because a giant headline in the Freep accompanied by a story with some flimsy reporting said he did.

More than anything, three things really have made me angry about this. 1) The lack of any effort to include or seek out any information that contradicts the accounts of some obviously disgruntled players/ex-players/Justin Boren; 2) the accompanying "MSU plays by the rules" sidebar; and 3) Rosenberg's comments on ESPN that I heard last night. In a few hours, Angelique Chengelis managed to get a player and the parent of a player on the record disputing the allegations. (Disclosure: I used to work for the News, and I encourage anyone to subscribe to the News instead of the Freep, even though you still get the Sunday Freep.) Sure, she also talked to some players who corroborated the allegations (which tells me that it was pretty easy to figure out which players had talked to the Freep). But her story, put together on the fly to match her competitors, was far more balanced and less sensational. The MSU sidebar was, at best, a bare-minimum attempt to look like they weren't picking on Michigan. There's a joke in journalism that all you need to write a story about a new "trend" is 3 people to support it. Well, the Freep found 3 ex-players -- not even any current ones -- to say they followed the rules and that was that. Contacting 3 MSU ex-players at random is far from the same thing as specifically seeking out U-M players who have an ax to grind. Then yesterday afternoon I heard Rosenberg doing an interview by phone on ESPN. He seemed to be going out of his way to avoid answering any questions in a way that could suggest RichRod is anything but the worst coach in Division I history. He has made it clear in his columns that he doesn't like RichRod, and then to have him be the main reporter on this story really makes it less credible. There is a reason that newspapers separate columnists and reporters. For some reason, sports is seen as the one topic that one person can do both jobs. In this case, having someone who is on the record as not liking RichRod act as an investigative reporter really does the paper a disservice.

As a reporter, I have always immediately dismissed anyone who says "The media always..." or "They're just trying to sell papers." Reports like this just make it harder for the rest of us in this field to fight those opinions.