Seating Changes

[gostangs]

Its been this way all year but tonight was the first time I noticed how bad an idea it is - (due to the students finally showing up) - but what is with the chairs behind the visitor bench instead of our student bleachers!! Are we trying to find new ways to drive our students away from the games?

[ponyboy]

Guess we're trying to make it friendlier for the opposing team. Perhaps we should pass out bathrobes and fuzzy slippers too.

[Hoop Fan]

I wanna say the conference made us do that. At least I hope so.

[gostangs]

Then we should tell our conference to blow it out their shorts.

[SMUPhil]

That corner always look ridiculous, there's like 20 feet of open floor in any direction. Is it that hard to push the bleachers out? Also behind that basket, the closest thing is the band (and sometimes the cheerleaders are there) and they are like a good 20 feet away. No Div1 arena looks so spacious around the basket.

You can argue whether Moody needs renovation or it's "classic" but either way, they can at least set it up to look like a freaking game is actually being played. ARGH

[DiamondM]

I personally like the chairs rather than bleachers behind the opposing bench (it's been happening since at least a while now). It forces the few students that are there to sit together rather than spread out so that it actually looks like a student section all gathered in one spot. I wish we would have everyone move down and fill in rather than have everything appear so scattered.

Good crowd tonight, even some students. But if there were really 10-15 sororities and fraternities in attendance as announced there should have been more. I guess you if you had 2 people show up you could get credit for coming.

Crowd even go into it in overtime. Students were standing. Crowd was making noise. Bamba is really becoming a crowd favorite.

[Higher Authority]

I thought the current arrangement -- WHICH IS A COMPLETE JOKE -- was fallout from Bobby Knight whining about the mean ol' SMU fans who hurt his feelings. Didn't he say that SMU fans were the most harsh he'd ever experienced in his career, or something? WAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH.

It's called a home-court advantage. You're supposed to have fans behind the opposing bench. Can you imagine them taking bleachers out in Cameron Indoor Arena so Gary Williams and the rest of the ACC coaches don't have to have those mean ol' Dookies barking at them? Puh-leeze -- put the bleachers back behind the opposing bench, and for god's sake, do not save those seats for opposing fans. Moody was jumping tonight. What say we actually make it a hard place for opponents to come in to try to get a win?

[PonyCat]

I know one of the interns that works in facilities and he says it's a C-USA rule that no students can sit in the first six rows behind the visitor bench for men's games. Sounds strange, but I'm sure they wouldn't do it if it wasn't required.

[DiamondM]

Actually, in Cameron, there is an official unofficial buffer zone behind the opposing bench. It is filled primarily by non-students, families, administrators, etc. so that the Cameron Crazies are not right on top of the opposing bench.

I'll say it again, I like a seating arrangement that forces fans to congregate together more. We're too used to cushy emptiness between us and the next person. I wish they'd close half of the band bleachers and rope of the top 20 rows.

[gostangs]

But the way it is now discourages the students from coming - our student section was full, there were people in the corner looking for a spot - no student wants to sit off the floor seats, or behind the baskets in fixed seats (non bench).

We need to :

1. cram the band in tighter and move them to the side closer to the visitor bench - make some more room next to them.

2. Tell the season ticket holders in the blue seats that we are taking attendence - if you dont go to at least __ games you give up your rights to the seats - then reduce the reserved seats to half what they are now and give the rest to general admission student seats. (I sit in the blue fyi)

3. appeal the CUSA rule because we have no room to give up those rows. If they deny it just defy them - let em fine us - it will make a big stink and get us some pub. Tell em we dont run our home court for Bobby Knights pleasure and the old windbag can stuff it if he does not like it.

4. Replace the end zone seats opposite the band with huge bleacher section - behind two -three rows of high priced season tickets. Those would end up being the best seats in the house - on the floor with a big student section behind you.

5. Tell the students if they come to the game we will make room for them and make it a good experinece for them and figure out what they want to see (short of wet tshirt contests). These games should be for them first, and if it is a livly scene others will come. Old farts will tolerate it.

Come on SMU - shake it up - blatently copy whatever the best ACC progarms do and don't listen to the entrenched fossils. The goal should be nothing short of being the hardest place to visit in the country. Copeland do you have the g-nads for that?

[RE Tycoon]

They've used that conference rule b.s for years, but it amazes me that whenever I watch a game on TV NO other arena has it. I'm not denying that Duke has a buffer, but why in the hell do we give those seats to the opposing school. Make those SMU faculty seats or leave them empty. SMU is so f-ing concerend about how other schools feel at OUR place. When I was a student I would get kicked out of games for anything directed at the other school. I wasn't an angel by any means, but I never used racial slurs or other things that SHOULD get you kicked out. It's the same things you'd hear at a pro game. This is college, SMU needs to lighten up. It all comes back to Copeland, on more than one occasion when the students were really into it, i.e. the 2000 season, we'd get a lecture at halftime saying that Copeland himslef did not like our behavior and to tone it down or they would clear out the section.

[Pony_Fan]

Is this section new? email your problems/issues here

http://smumustangs.collegesports.com/sc ... rvice.html

[DickerJames]

No offense to the band because you are one of the consistent bright spots at Moody, but would it be feasable to move the band into the first three rows of seats above the bleachers they occupy now and pull those bleachers all the way out and put students there. I remember when I went to the WAC Tournament in Fresno the Fresno band was up in one of the corners. It would be nice to get some rowdy fans closer to the court on the east side. I also hate the bleachers being folded up behind the visitor bench and think there has got to be a better solution.

[PonyPride]

If the band filled up the south side of those bleachers they sit in (the right end, if you're looking over at the band), they'd be closer to the opposing bench. Having sat at the end tables before when covering some games, I can tell you that a seat close to the band can completely scramble your brain. If we slide the band over, even just 20-25 feet closer to the opposing bench, wouldn't that make it just that much harder for the opposing players to hear and understand their coach?

[White Helmet]

If the section behind the opposing team cant be students can some Pony Fans sit there, I know there are more than a few among us who can do some yelling...Diamond M...? I think we should try and make that the Ponyfans.com section.