SATURDAY was a great day for Cavalier football. The humidity had cleared up. The sky was clear for the majority of the game. There was a perfect shut-out for the Wahoos. Minus an unfortunate injury to the University's Golden Child Matt Schaub, the team could not have asked for any better start to the season. Unfortunately, the fans could have.
With more and more emphasis being placed on student support and attendance to football games, the methods by which students gain admittance and are subsequently allowed to view the games must be changed.
The first problem lies inevitably with actual entrance to the game. With the first game of the season and a record crowd of 61,700 people, there is beyond a shadow of a doubt going to be crowds and commotion in entering a packed stadium. There are, however, more efficient methods of moving a pack of people than those shown on Saturday. To begin with, it should be crystal clear to anyone even remotely familiar with the University that the first game of the season following a summer whirlwind of hype and ratings will be overflowing with students. That being said, it should also be crystal clear that if you are going to require all students to enter only one way, that gate should be well-staffed.
On Saturday that was certainly not the case. Only about 60 percent of the possible swipe gates were open, leading to congestion. Even worse, in order to reach the anarchy of access, students were first bottle necked from a large group through a small useless gate and back into a wide-spread mass. What should have taken a mere 15 minutes ended up causing some sports fans upwards of 45 minutes -- including most of the first quarter.
These inconveniences, though, are minor, especially when compared to problems of seating and reconciled with apologies form the Athletics Facilities Department, who assure fans that a sufficient amount of card swipers will be on hand for the Sept. 27 game and pointless gates removed from the flow of pedestrian traffic.
While the Athletics Facilities Department is working hard to ensure it only takes students a maximum of five minutes to gain entry into the sacred stands of Scott Stadium, the main problem still remains: student seating. Kudos to the University for allowing students relatively good seats at no price. However, that is where the accolades stop.
A good student seat at Scott Stadium is nothing but a battle for undergrads. That's perfectly acceptable, especially in the competition-driven world that is the University. However, when just anyone is allowed into student sections -- driving out the actual students -- what should be a fun race for good seats among peers turns into a grudge match against anyone and everyone for even one inch of concrete to call your own.
Students are granted free admittance with the requirement that they are confined to a specific area of the stadium. Everyone else buys tickets for specific seats but with full reign to plop right down in the midst of the student spectators. Inevitably this -- and yes, there is a great enough number of non-student fans to warrant concern -- kicks students out of the only area that is in fact open to them. Or it means exile to the grass.
Ah, the grass. Another thorn in the side of Cavalier football. Meant to take the overflow of fans from the student section, it definitely is not a viable choice for the cement heaven of the stands. On dry days following an excess of rain, not uncommon at all in Charlottesville with this past Saturday presenting a perfect example, the grass is one giant, sloped mud bowl. The central focus of students on the grass is not the first down or line of scrimmage -- its keeping your balance and not falling into the dance team below.
So what's to be done? In an ideal world we would simply add extra rows of seating and provide ample room for fans. Now back to reality and the very real world of budget deficits, a new system of admittance to the student section must be devised. It could be as simple as placing an usher at the top of each row of stairs in the student sections checking for that priceless student ID.
That simple action would weed out those headed to more prestigious areas than the student section and clear up immediately most of the problems.
Granted, this may take a little more time, but at least when students get there, they will be granted a seat. Alas, it may mean mom and dad don't get to sit with their child or old alums are prevented from reliving their glory days in the middle of dressed up Cavaliers singing the Good Ol' Song. Well, tough luck. The few unpaid for seats are called the student section for a reason.
If family members wish to sit with their children, they should buy them a ticket, and old fans will have to be regulated to remember their own days as Wahoos from the comfort of the seats they did in fact really purchase.
The Athletics Facilities Department suggests students report large groups of people to the nearest stadium worker. That may sound good on paper, but it won't function well in practice. Its not easy to tell a group of 26-year-old alums decked out in their orange and blue from a group of fourth years cheering on the team. And while the alums may blend in, they are in fact just adding to the problem.
Prevention is the best medicine -- the student section should be open to students and students only.
These problems may sound trivial and in the long run of life inconsequential. But one thing is clear -- fan participation is going to play a major part in the rankings and bowl games given to the University, both of which mean more prestige for a hard working team and money for a cash-strapped school. Treat the fans badly enough, though, and they are going to end up like our ill-fated Pep Band -- a legend of the past.
(Maggie Bowden is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. She can be reached at mbowden@cavalierdaily.com.)
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