<p>Two days ago, a letter was sent to students from the SGA President, explaining a change to Student Organization Seating, this Saturday at the 1st home football game. What does this mean exactly, logistically, for non-Greek students attending (I know what it means philosophically): </p>
<p>“I feel it is my duty as SGA president to foster togetherness and represent all students. With this in mind, I feel it is appropriate to suspend Student Organization Seating for this Saturdays football game against Colorado State. As a university, we have seen significant growth in recent years; however, as we continue to grow bigger, we must also grow better. This Saturday is an opportunity for all students to come together with a common goal, and we can begin by cheering on the Alabama football team together as one University.
Jimmy Taylor”</p>
<p>mostly fraternities have block seating. some other groups do, too, but i think the majority is fraternities. they get pretty good seats in the student section … every game. they also leave in droves before the game is over.</p>
<p>everyone else has to get there early (like 2 hours) to be able to get a “good” seat if they want a good seat. ends up making game day an all day affair, which is not handy if you have work you need to do.</p>
<p>might be better if they went to a ticket pulling system where students pull tickets for the game during the week and each student has an assigned seat instead of just general admission seating. that is another set of hassles, but overall would be less of a time suck than the current (non) system.</p>
<p><em>That</em> was what I was wondering: the logistics of this…
Is this going to be like the lunch-room, where certain cliques get certain tables, and once those are established on day 1, those students always “get” those tables, regardless of the school’s open-seating policy? How is this going to work going forward in the stadium?</p>
<p>I did not know that droves of students leave before the game is over. You never get that impression on TV. I hope that all students can just get along and enjoy themselves respectfully, and would provide respect for the game itself by staying until the end.</p>
<p>Any student organization can participate in “block seating” if it pays the $250 fee and files the application (which is quite extensive). So it is not just the fraternities/sororities. And yes, that would include the Honors College.</p>
<p>Got a feeling that people still will find a way to be saving seats, regardless of the situation.</p>
<p>That’s my perception of how it’s going to happen. I think students that know that a certain area is group seating is going to be uncomfortable sitting there even though it’s an open seating weekend. Although I did read somewhere, CW? FB? that the Mallet group members may disperse themselves throughout the student area. I can envision that causing some disputes. Hopefully not!</p>
<p>Although I don’t think the group seating is the best method, I don’t think just randomly pulling an assigned seat is the best idea either. When you go to a game, you go in part to watch the game, but also to socialize with the small group you came with. You want to sit near friends. But you generally only talk to a small group and not the entire block of people in a reserved section.</p>
<p>Yes, many students leave early during most games. There was just an article on that in the CW ([The</a> Crimson White | Full stadium newest aim for SGA](<a href=“Announcements for 7/22/2010 - The Crimson White”>Announcements for 7/22/2010 - The Crimson White)) and said they were going to work on providing incentives to get people to stay for the whole game. The article also mentioned that last year less than 70% of student tickets were used. Why buy tickets if you aren’t going to use them? I hate to say this, but they may want to raise the prices to get the students who actually want to be there in the seats.</p>
<p>Well if less than 70% of tickets are being used they aren’t doing a very good job of selling them. At least if they sold them SOMEONE would be in the seat.</p>
<p>Maybe they’re just buying the whole season so that they can sell the 1-2 in demand tickets, but then they should be racking up enough in penalty points that they don’t get to renew their tickets.</p>
<p>Goes back to my thought of raising prices, perhaps if they raised the prices students just buying to resell wouldn’t be as tempted since the profit wouldn’t be worthwhile.</p>
<p>Quoting the CW article mentioned above: “Dykstra had a suggestion for how to get students to stay for the entire game. ‘Schedule better out-of-conference opponents. That would encourage me to stay,’ Dykstra said.” ;)</p>
<p>I am pretty sure block seating has been going on for MANY years… And I bet other state schools fraternities also sit together…as far as leaving the game early- I know alot of people that do that also…especially when it’s a wipe- out!!</p>
<p>Block seating has been around for at least thirty years – it existed when I was a student. One way to encourage students to stay for the whole game would be to limit the size of each organization’s seating block to the lowest number of seats in that organization’s block that were occupied during the fourth quarter of any game during the prior season.</p>
<p>Does this also mean the 1st year students (ie., freshmen) will have the same area seating as upperclassman? My understanding was that, beginning this year, first year student tickets were in different sections than the rest of the student body.</p>
<p>in the ticket pulling situation, you are allowed to pull tickets in groups of 8 (or whatever number they specify), so you can still go and sit with your friends, just not 300 of them.</p>
<p>I disagree with the idea of raising prices. The new points system will eliminate tickets going to students who dont use them. No student who wants to attend should have to forgo a game because of ticket price. I think the new ticket policy should be extended to all ticket holders…ticket re sale is entirely out of hand. If you arent going to a game…dont buy a ticket.</p>
<p>well, you have to buy tickets (in the summer) way before you know what your schedule/study load is. it is not unheard of for a student to have to skip a game to … study. </p>
<p>of course, that is not the only reason students skip games, but it is one reason.</p>
<p>I am not in favor of block seating but with the upperclassmen located in a different deck than the freshmen, the possibility of freshmen being sent in to hold seats has been negated anyway.</p>
<p>I like the current ticket purchase policies. It gives students a chance to see games at a reasonable price, while allowing them flexibility for their schedules. It’s not perfect but even freshman can usually pick up tickets for all the games through donations.</p>