“A frustrating aspect of being a Gopher football season
ticket holder is the lack of consistent atmosphere during football games. The
student section is rowdy, but the rest of the stadium often sits on their hands
and reserves their energy and passion for big 3rd downs in a close game. That
is why this past Saturday during the MSU game I was pleasantly surprised to
find my section, 105 rows 1 through 15, on their feet, making noise throughout
the first quarter. Maybe it was the rain-soaked bleachers driving people to
their feet, but fans were great. Then, sometime early in the 2nd quarter, two
security officers came down to section 105 and started commanding people sit.
When security received pushback from fans the officers said, “People behind you
can’t see.” It immediately killed the vibe of the section. Some didn’t listen.
Some, including my buddy I was sitting with, left the game in disbelief.
Regardless, it killed the atmosphere. Now I understand the person who stands up
the entire game for no reason while everyone else is sitting can be annoying,
but this was a close game, a lot of people were cheering bringing needed energy
to the game and it was muzzled by some crusty fans who couldn’t see. Again,
unbelievable.”
I got this note from a reader (it’s always good to know
there’s at least one) earlier this week and, while it didn’t surprise me in the
least, it made me angry. I’ve written a bit on the game atmosphere,
particularly around the fan’s and university’s culpability in how much it
sucks. But experiences such as the above will kill any hope of ever
establishing the loud, intimidating conditions the team needs to achieve what
we all want it to.
My crew and I are courteous standers. We’re up every third
down and for five or six big plays in the game, but will otherwise sit if the
people behind us sit. Still, several times a year, including the game this past
weekend, someone behind us will ask/tell us to sit down because they can’t see.
We politely tell them it’s a football game and they should either also stand or
go piss up a rope. This usually resolves the matter. We’ve never had security
called on us to sit down.
There’s a few points to address here. First, unless you’re
physically impaired – and there is seating in the stadium specifically for people
who are – why are you asking people to sit down at a football game instead of
just standing up? Got a shorty who can’t see over people standing? Ask the
people in front of you to move a little to the side and I bet they’ll accommodate
the little shit (I mean that in the most endearing possible way). It’s a
college football game not the opera. People are allowed to get excited and show
enthusiasm for things. In a lot of cases that’s way easier to do while standing
up. Again, unless you’re physically impaired or have a health condition, if you’re
carping about people in front of you standing it’s because you’re too
lazy/unengaged to stand. It’s a free country, but I’m not diminishing my fervor
for the game to accommodate your laziness.
Second, why would someone call security to force fans to sit
down? What sort of expectations have we set as a program culture that this is
an appropriate time to call in people who are there to break up fights and
clean out the drunks who went sleepy time? People who do this have to be the
same folks who call the cops when kids are loitering on the street outside of
their house for too long or someone throws a cigarette out their car window. I
mean, why talk to or try to negotiate with the standers so everyone can have a
good time, when you can use the nuclear option immediately to have security
ruin someone else’s enjoyment? That’s pretty weak, man. We get enough people
doing this and we’ll have a milquetoast atmosphere until we’re all reduced to quarks
by the gamma ray burst when Betelgeuse goes supernova.
Finally, and most importantly, is there actually a rule set
by the university that security was enforcing or was security just trying to
accommodate the salty sitters? If the latter, the U needs to correct that with
the security firm immediately. If the former, then it’s hard to believe the U
is really dedicated to building a winning team. Investments in the stadium,
practice facilities and coaching are all fantastic and really indicative of a program
on the come. Despite those positive signs, if your policy is to antagonize your
most passionate fans during the actual you’re going to have a lifeless suckhole
of a stadium environment.
I’m going to give the U the benefit of the doubt and say
this was just some security staff that wanted to play Batman and dispense
justice on the evil standers. Nevertheless, it feels like the standing/sitting
issue is going to be one that continues to irritate people on both sides. I’m
of the belief that people should be able to sit down and enjoy the game if they
want; but not at the expense of vociferously supporting the team and others’ ability
to enjoy the game how they want to.
Many stadiums, especially in professional sports, have created
family-friendly sections that actively keep boozehounds like me from disrupting
Johnny and Jane’s day at the ball park. I wonder if we might do the same with
the sitters. Create a section or three for them where they can watch the game
while relaxing on the comfort of their ample bottoms, with unencumbered sight
lines and void of the menacing, passion-fueled standers. That leaves the rest
of us to stand, maximize the potential of our diaphragm and lungs for yelling,
free from the weighty anchor of the lazy sitters. All damn game if we want to.
Between this and the price hike, it became too much for me to keep the tickets. We had security called a couple times our last year and the people who called ended up leaving after we told security to show us the rule that says we can't stand. It was a constant fight and when you're in sec 111 row 12 it's not worth the fight for the dollar. Which sucks because my dad and I went together and generally had a good time up to the last year.
ReplyDeleteWhatever. Fuck those guys