Student Section going GA
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.)
Just look at the IU game. Half the bleachers were filled with people who had seemingly never been to a game before. Lining up early doesn't mean you're getting the best fans.
It was the same thing with the OSU game. GA might help you get a few of the superfans the best seats, but it'll also give them the people who simply have nothing better to do than spend their entire days waiting in some line
I can bet at the first few non-conference games of this coming season, that a ton of the people up front will be freshmen who are psyched for their first Michigan game and don't have much else to do
So, teach them. We need quality upperclassmen leadership in the student sections.
If you don't know who Zack Novak is, you should not be considered one of the better Michigan basketball fans.
April 22nd, 2013 at 10:46 PM ^
April 23rd, 2013 at 10:50 AM ^
lies in the eyes of the beholder.
'bones heal, pain is temporary, [and] chicks dig scars...'
is a quote from Evel Knievel...published in his book in 1999.
Googling the "chicks dig scars" portion doesn't present mgo within the first 7-8 links, so it's not an obscure mgo meme, specifically.
Also seen on The Simpsons, for those who enjoyed that reference/advice from their "Evel" to Bart. Second season, aired in 1990.
How it references Zack Novak is pretty much solely an MGoBlog meme though. Unless they were promoting it on MGoBlue or something and I missed it.
Go back to South Bend. If you went to any of the bball games this yr, you would see that the students who showed up early never came to any of the other bball games, and didn't know the chants, how to act, or like the guy below said about Novak's reference. U are ignornant and have never experienced GA at Michigan.
I hate our athletic department. Of all the years why did you have to wait for my last to do this? GA chaos has and always will be the worst part of basketball games for me and now football is ruined too. I was supposed to get good seats this year too. I just don't understand how they couldn't do some sort of rolling start-up so that seniors aren't screwed over as they currently are.
It will be a lot easier to get good seats for football than basketball - there's a lot more of them. Even if you can't get into your desired section, you're at a Michigan football game - that's pretty damn awesome regardless.
I suspect that for most games, it'll pretty much be a non-issue. It will only really come up for the marquee games.
You're right, it probably won't be a MAJOR issue outside of Ohio and ND, I just can't imagine it will be a smooth transition. I guess I'll have to take solace in the fact that I got four years of Mary Sue, and none of those underclassmen can say that.
There are a lot more students interested in football than basketball...I don't think it'll be easier to get good spots at all.
In basketball, there are only 500-some seats in the Maize Rage, and there's a huge difference between being seated there and being in the upper deck.
In football, there are 20,000 student seats, and the difference from a "good" to a "bad" seat is pretty marginal.
people will blow off irrelevant games ie CMU because they won't want to show up and sit in the upper bowl.
As someone who held season tickets two years ago in both sports its pretty fair to say people care a lot more about one than the other. I don't think enough students held basketball tickets a few years ago to fill in the student section and now they are lined up hours early. If bandwagon fans are all of a sudden willing to stand out in the cold for hours for a basketball ame, I bet you will see people lined up for UTL 2 by about 2 AM (it'll be a convenient place to pass out after Ricks)
If they win people will come no matter what. any recent problems are directly realated to having 3 bad years. I don't remember there being a student attendence problem until the three year debacle.
Believe me, this problem absolutely predates the RR era. As a student for the last 4 years of Carr, the top part of the student section was *never* full by kickoff, unlike the rest of the stadium. It seems to have gotten worse since then, but it's been an issue for at least a decade now.
Additionally, going GA will substantially improve the crowd's intensity level. One of the major issues we've always had is that juniors & seniors who don't really care about the team buy tickets just because they can get good ones, then some of them no-show, some sell their tickets (including to opposing fans), and when they do come, they don't get crazy. I'd love to hear an explanation of why someone like that should get to sit up close while a kid who has been dreaming of coming to Michigan his whole life and loves UM football has to sit up in row 90 just because he's a freshman.
As a student, I longed for GA, and if I were a student now, I'd be celebrating. Imagine, a system that rewards fans based on their intensity level! This is really good news.
those lower bowl front row seats went to grad students a lot. That is the only pro I see to this system. First year grad students always got tix in the first 5 rows to sell tix. It also was supposed to curb ppl storming the field. There were some seniors, but as a senior and grad student, I sat in those front rows a lot and know there are way more grad students than seniors. I don't think grad students with zero michigan credits deserve that priviledge, and that is the only positive i see from the GA crap
April 22nd, 2013 at 10:57 PM ^
When I was a beginning grad student, the number of years you'd bought season tickets mattered but your graduate standing absolutely did not help.
Um no. My first year of grad school was 2005 with the weird separate grad student section at the south endzone. That was the only year I had first row tickets. We ended up getting too many complaints from the general population for standing. When we rejoined the student section in 2006 grad students were relegated to the top of the student section. Then in 2007 grad credits started to count for 1.5x (grad students typically take no more than 8 credits) to give us the same movement towards the lower bowl as undergrads. The closest ticket I received was row 18 my 2nd to last year. My last season I was in row 30 with over 100+ credits.
I agree with your premise though.
This was never really an issue, I held upper bowl tickets one year and the solution is pretty easy, you just show up a half hour early. Once you are there a little early the ushers won't check your ticket, cause they understand why you are there early, and you go find a seat in the 30s. The 30s were always best cause people would fight for the front row and the next 20 rows were packed to the gills with drunks puking and falling against you the whole game screamin for Denard when the defense was on the field
April 22nd, 2013 at 10:30 PM ^
I did this all year long when I had upper bowl tickets.
I say ticket prices should be lower to reward our fans.A nice thought, but as long as football is the cash cow that drives the whole operation financially, it ain't gonna happen.
Yes, the monitoring costs of watching a line will certainly far exceed the burden of monitoring individually ticketed spectators for each one of the several thousand student section seats.
/s
April 22nd, 2013 at 10:02 PM ^
Are you referring to ushers? I'm sure they will get rid of them because general admission requires no supervision.
/s
That's the thing. As a recent graduate, i hate the idea of turning it into Paternoville as I believe I had some of my greatest memories tailgating on Saturday mornings. However, as someone who was late to one game (missed about 2 plays, I'm sorry) in 4 years, it pissed me off that I was WAY behind people showing up in the 2nd Quarter or being told to move by people because I just happened to be in their seats.
Here would be my possible solution to make this work well, don't let a line start for the game until 1 hour beforehand. That was, there is no ridiculous lines that ruin your chance to enjoy college tailgates, butttttt if you want a good seat, get your ass there on time. Sorry to hate on Greek life but they were some of the biggest offenders.
I really don't see this being a problem except for marque games. Your 10 minute rule would get you dogshit seats for that game and I don't like that.
The people I do feel bad for are Seniors. If this happened to me I'd be furious, I paid my dues when i would have been able to get up close. At least all I had to do was get there 15 minutes early to get my guaranteed front row seats as a senior.
Does anyone think they could implement a system like this? Where the line isn't allowed to start until a certain time?
This is good all around and people freaking out are really overestimating how many people will wait in line.
It's only worth to wait in line if you get in the first 5-10 rows. Rows 10-20 are worse than rows 21-40.
I predict about 3,000 will get in line super early. If you want the front row that badly, then you now have a chance to get it other than winning a random lotto. That's good for hardcore fans.
For those of you spoiled (UTL, MBB this year) rising seniors, I say this: My tickets senior year were worse than my sophomore and junior tickets. Just because you're a senior doesn't mean you win the lotto, you just have a better chance.
As a student I drastically wanted this it will be one of the great regrets of my time as a student that I didn't get to enjoy GA for football.
Spoiled is a poor word to choose. This is not out of some false hope that I would be in the first row. I just think that this is not going to be something that works from the get-go and as a senior I will not be pleased by unforeseen things throw a wrench in my final season of football. My group of friends doesn't always pregame together, but we still got to sit next to each other, until now.
First world problems though, I just want a reasonable seat without having to waste a perfectly good morning in line.
I also can't imagine getting 15,000 students into the same entrance is going to be easy, if that's how they plan to do it.
Spoiled was said in jest because these seniors got to experience the best home game in possibly Michigan Stadium history (UTL) and the best basketball team in 20 years. You guys have had a good run - much better than mine.
No matter how long you do or don't wait in line (and I'd imagine it won't be nearly as long as anyone thinks) or how bad you think your seats will be (they'll be fine), you won't have to endure [REDACTED] like I and many on this board had to.
April 22nd, 2013 at 10:22 PM ^
This.
If you think that 15,000 students are going to wait in line before the game, you're crazy. Insane. Even for the big games. And on top of that, if you aren't in Row 10 or closer, you want to be a little further away because you can't see shit. Rows 30-45 are better than Rows 20-30.
I can't believe the number of students who are lighting up Facebook with "Let's boycott the games altogether! That'll show them!" Seriously? Their sense of entitlement ("I'm a senior so I deserve tickets") reeks of a fanbase who doesn't come to support the players and the team, but just comes after they're hammered to maintain social status.
Next year attendance will be significantly lower attendance in the Student Section, we'll talk about it some more, argue about it some more, and then DB will finally cut back the student section. It's worth allotting some of those tickets to the public who will show up on time rather than waste them on students who are passed out along State Street instead of at the game.
As a recent grad, I'm sorry. i can't believe they didn't give the seniors their front X rows or something.
Overall it's a good system but I'd be pissed since I had to get thrown out of "their seats" midway through the 2nd Quarter as a Freshman and Soph.
Funny that your "chance" at the first ten rows is probably better with GA. My senior tix were worse than my junior tix. Had tons of credits too.
is what I say. This is long overdue, IMO.
this is a terrible move. don't get me wrong, i'm as big a fan as the rest of you all, but half the fun of football saturdays is the pregame drinking. now, i'm always there before kick, because the main event is obviously the game, but now i'm going to have to get there even earlier before kick just to get a decent seat. i'm not pleased
I'd bet a lot of money that if you show up before the band takes the field, you will still get great seats.
though I do think the seniors should be entitled to the fisrt X number of rows, but last year was a total disgrace by the student section. I'm not sure who or what to attribute this to, but the entire section was never full for ANY game last year. I sit in the south endzone so I have a perfect view of the students. I also think they added more "seats" for the students last season ... yet again it was NOT full at any time for any game last year.
Really sad after an 11-2 year with a Sugar Bowl victory ....
Go Blue!
When we play Akron and Indiana next year, the top of the student section will be worse. People will still tailgate and when faced with the decision of whether to go the game or not, more people will skip it if they expect to be stuck at the top.
Disclaimer: I go to the games and get there 15-30 minutes before like a normal student who cares about the game, but also values the student gameday experience.
change that needed to be made at some point in time. i see it as better sooner than later. some folks were going to get screwed either way, but at least this is better for the overall gameday experience (i.e. for those at the game, those watching, the players, the university, etc).
sucks for those folks who've stuck with the system until now, expecting to be rewarded. to you, i say life sucks. i'd be pissed too. but think of it this way - at least you lucky fuckers get to go to every home game, unlike myself. i get maybe one game a year. maybe. maybe now, those of us watching on TV wont be as embarrassed to see gaping chunks of the student section empty at kickoff.