More gameday police fallout

[LawSchoolPony]

THANK YOU DAILY CAMPUS FOR THIS!!! Now, if the administration would only listen...

The Daily Campus Ed Board
Posted: 9/21/06
At Saturday's home opener against Sam Houston, the game started with a packed student section. Before halftime, the crowd had been reduced to nearly half.

While the Mustangs were up 35-0 at halftime, and many students didn't want to stick around to watch the blowout, many more students left because they were kicked out of the student section.

Contemporary Services Corporation employees and SMU Police Department officers refused to let students return to the student section if they left to go buy concessions or use the restroom.

Student tickets to football games are general admission, but a section number is written on each ticket. In previous years, these section numbers have been used as a guideline for the student section, but never enforced as a seat assignment.

At Saturday's game, students who attempted to sit in the student section were turned away unless their ticket had the right section number on it. They were told they could sit in other sections away from the student body. The problem is, the CSC officials began this practice after the game started, not before, and many students who attended the game with friends separated from their groups.

Instead of sticking around and sitting separated from their group, many students understandably decided to leave.

CSC and SMU Police would like you to believe that there are safety concerns about the number of people in the student section. But let's get real. While Saturday's game had a sizeable crowd by SMU standards, it was nowhere near full, and there was plenty of room for students who wanted to sit in those sections. There was more congestion in the walkways from Police and CSC personnel stopping students from going back to their seats than there were in the stands.

They would also like you to believe that the seats on the second tier of the stadium above the student section is for students as well. To Ed Board, that doesn't cut it.

The real student section is the one closest to the field. Those are the seats where students can feel they are part of the game and make or break a home field advantage for a team.

It's not the best view to begin with, and you can't see anything if you aren't standing, not to mention it's so loud you can barely hear yourself think. But at a college football game, that's where students belong. It's a college tradition, a rite of passage and being in that environment with your friends is something you can never get back once your time as a student is over.

The athletic department is cutting off its nose in spite of its face. Officials want students to come to the game, stay until its over, and support the team, not to mention purchase concessions, but are making it difficult to do so by limiting access to the student section.

There are additional factors that led to this situation last weekend. The Mustang Band moved over one section, closer to the middle of the field, leaving one section to the right of the band and two sections to the left of the band for students.

This was done because the band wants to be flanked by students to improve its performance and to encourage school spirit. In reality, the section the band previously occupied was sparsely populated because it was separated from the rest of the students.

Another problem with the move is it limits students' access to the stairs leading to the field. Last season, the athletic department invited students to join the football team on the field at the end of games for the singing of "Varsity" and to hopefully celebrate wins with the team.

In the band's old location, they had the same amount of access to the stairs as they do in its new location, but because the band's old seats aren't being filled, and students can't walk through the band's section to get to the stairs, very few students were able to safely get to the field at the end of the game.

Ed Board understands the Mustang Band's desire to be closer to the action and sandwiched between rows of students. It's a great idea that can potentially help unite students and encourage school spirit. The Mustang Band attends every game, performs at halftime and deserves to be accommodated as much as possible.

Unfortunately, the implementing of this move has been horrible. Ed Board has some suggestions for maximizing prime student seating, keeping the band happy and keeping students at the game:

-The band needs to move over one section, either back to its previous position it was in last year, or one more section to the left so that two sections of students are on either side of the band.

-Designate more sections in the lower tier of the stadium for student seating. Instead of making students sit in the second tier of the stadium, make more sections on the first tier, behind the visitor's bench, available to students.

-Increase student access to the field at the end of games by providing a clear path to the steps and use the CSC staff to direct students in a safe and timely manner to join classmates and the team on the field.

Ed Board enjoys going to games. We want our classmates to enjoy it too. We highly encourage the athletic department to take the necessary steps to improve the quality of the experience in the student section before students get fed up and attendance continues to drop.

[Eddie P]

I'm surprised nobody has pointed out this DC article earlier.

They tried this crap 3-4 years ago and it did not go well. They then switched back to having the student in one contiguous block. I see some genius has changed it again. I see the results are the same as before.

The students need to be in one contiguous block. Period. End of story.

[Peruna2001]

I didn't realize that the band had moved over a section. But, I agree that they should open up more seats on the first level for students. Put the visitor section on the second tier. Every other stadium gives the visiting team bad seats. Why don't we? The seating chart says that visitors only get to section 126, but it always seems like we give them more than that.

Either way, this just further proves that the yellow shirts aren't in the best interest of SMU football. If they're driving fans away at halftime, that's not a good thing. I don't mind if they enforce the rule of sitting where you're supposed to sit as long as they enforce it the entire game.

[abezontar]

I do, if they start enforcing the sit where your tickets say you are supposed to sit rule, then I have to go sit in the student section. Nobody wants that.

[ALEX LIFESON]

Orsini needs to hear about the current security crew, they are like the frikin' GESTAPO!

[PlanoStang]

Sounds like a leftover problem from the Copeland era.

Hopefully, the Copeland II era will never come to pass.

[Peruna2001]

I already wrote a letter at the beginning of the week asking him to take a look at hiring a better security and gameday staff crew...pointing out the fact that we probably have the worst in the entire metroplex and that it is driving fans and visitors away (as pointed out in this article).

[davidsmu94]

I really don't feel good about having the mall security team from Town east mall at our games. They do nothing to make us safer. Looking for terrorist in the gamma phi sorority is doing nothing for our well being. Hearing that these keystone cops are screwing with our student sections (my GOD we actually had one last week) is the last draw!

[LawSchoolPony]

12,000 fans in a stadium for 32,000....no backups on the flow of people anywhere EXCEPT in the freakin' student section where they were backed up through the first half of the 1st quarter trying to get into their seats...thank you unnecessary security guards...

[DiamondM]

All fine points except the stairs thing. They are there for the BAND to have access to the field, not for students to have access after the game. Also I would note that for a student body who has not traditionally showed up, they sure are spoiled. Not great seat? Don't want to sit up higher? Don't want to be split by the band?

Frankly, while I think there is plenty of room to have all of the student who do show up in one section, the location complaints are a bit whiny. Take a look at student sections around the country. I'll just take Tech's for example. Uh, endzone or corner seating, check. Goes up more than one level (in a bigger stadium that is farther away from the action), check. Students split up on both sides of the band, check. Doesn't seem to bother them.

[abezontar]

I like the idea of having the student section split. The kids that come to the game on time and stay longer get the better seats while all the kids that are just there to be seen, prefer to wear a tie or a nice dress to an SMU shirt, arrive in the second quarter and leave at half time get the crap seats. I personally don't see the problem.

[smu diamond m]

We were going to be another section over, in 122, but it violated CUSA rules for "spirit groups" being too close to the visiting benches. So, my solution is this: leave us be, and move the whole student body to our left. Closer to the benches, because it isn't as much of a problem as the Ed Board seems to think to get on the field "safely". Screw the visiting fans section, we need better student section seating (i.e. more central) and the visitors can sit in the rafters.

[RGV Pony]

I think we should lobby Orsini to go with the Notre Dame approach to the band. Put 'em on folding chairs in the corner, at field level.

Then again, that would make the section look awfully empty, especially after the students clear out.

[Peruna2001]

While I still have a lot of problems with the yellow shirts, they did seem a little bit better on Saturday. Other than having to sit for about 5 minutes in line for parking while they were arguing with somebody about where the guy could go instead of giving him a viable solution, I noticed some differences here and there.

My friend got me access to the Stadium Club again which was great. I stayed on the lower level before the game started to watch pregame. When I went to go upstairs to go inside and get some food, I had to argue with the lady at the door. She said that she couldn't let me BACK in once I left the Stadium Club. I asked why they put a door there then and explained that I hadn't even been there yet considering the game had just started. By the end of the first quarter, she saw my girlfriend and told her that her manager had explained that she was to allow people access in and out of that door. I asked to make sure before halftime and got back in after halftime with no problem. Apparently somebody got one of the messages.

They did get better, but they still were not great.

[Spaz]

The problem with moving the band farther away from the stairs is that they will have a harder time getting down to the field for Halftime.
Seriously, though, why is the administration so strict on these rules? Once we start getting full stadiums, THEN let's start worrying about seating