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Fear Not, Spartans
Your athletic department did learn something from the movie 300
Michael Caples
Here are how some other Big Ten schools run their student section:
 Wisconsin – “For the Badgers, what they do is you are mailed vouchers that are good for any section at all, any age, anyone. Anyways, you can sell those vouchers, and you go to the gate of whichever section you want to sit in. Then there's a bunch of different sections set up as student sections, each of them has their own cheers and stuff, too.” – Allison Barnard
 Michigan – “Well we all have assigned seats which I like because you don't have to get there ridiculously early to get a seat. You always have the same seat, but people kind of move around the stadium anyway. The only bad thing this year was that we were supposed to move up and have better seats because we had bought tickets before, and since they oversold the student section we didn't get any better seats. I am more or less in the exact same spot, and the freshmen aren’t even in the student section. They are just dispersed throughout the stadium.” – Kirstyn Wade
 Purdue – “If you buy your season ticks early enough, you get assigned seats in the bottom half of the student section. If you buy them late, you get general admin tickets to the upper half of the student section. I think those are actually technically assigned seats too, but no one follows that. At some games (bigger ones) the guards just make sure you're in the right general section. We have actual tickets, they aren't on out student IDs but we need to have our IDs with us in order to get in.” – Beth Corrigan
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Centuries ago, the Spartans blocked the Persian army from entering their beloved Sparta through the Thermopylae passage. The Spartans were so successful with the blockade that they held out troops of thousands from entering their homeland.
The MSU Athletic Department achieved the same success this past weekend, blocking people from entering what we affectionately refer to as ‘Sparta’ today. Too bad it was the MSU student section, and not the Persian army.
The blockades on the entrances to Spartan Stadium this Saturday were so secure that even King Leonidas would have been proud. Masses of people clogged the gates, and clogged the ramps to get to their seats.
This comparison to the movie that defines our sports this year may seem farfetched, but as I stood, crammed in between people, the only thought that came to my head was ‘this is war.’ Students jostled for position as if they were running away from a volcano; authorities fought back the masses as if the students were rioting. If it wasn’t taking place inside a football stadium, news reports across the country would read ‘MSU student body riots; thousands trampled.’
My point, people, is that the organization of the student section needs more work. We’ve seen drastic changes already, with the abolishment of the ‘Corner Blitz’ and the new wristband coloring system, but it’s not working. Lines shouldn’t lead to fights, and it shouldn’t take you 45 minutes to get to your seats.
For this last home game, I got in line at 9 a.m. That’s 6 hours and 30 minutes before kick-off. There were about 20 people in line before I got there, which should translate to me seating in maybe the third or fourth row, correct? Not so. I sat in row 15, due to the lack of organization entering the stadium. My group got stuck in the entrance with the guy giving full body cavity searches to each student trying to watch some football, and I watched people who arrived about an hour early get my seat. And don’t even get me started about how many people were cutting, that would be an entire different piece in itself.
My proposal? Forget this stupid first come, first serve idea. Give the students assigned seats. It’s what the student section used to do, and I have no idea why they changed it. Seniors get pick of the litter, and then juniors, and so on. Gradual progression to better seats; reward the loyal fans who have stuck with the football team all for years with the best seats. Want to move down lower for a game? Trade with somebody. You still have to show your student ID to get into the stadium, but there wouldn’t be a hassle at the section gates, because people can’t sneak in to other seats if they don’t have the corresponding ticket. Want to sit with friends? Register with them, or when you get to the game, ask if you can trade tickets with them so you can stand somewhere else. Just because we’re standing on the bleachers instead of sitting doesn’t mean we can’t find a correct seat number.
I’m sick of getting to Spartan Stadium early, only to see people bully and run their way to better seats than me. If I had an assigned seat, like you have with pretty much any other sport on the planet, it wouldn’t matter anymore.
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