The seating fiasco

Student football seating remains a hot-button issue for thousands of fans throughout campus. After the athletic department moved student seats behind regular season ticket holders in the south end zone of Memorial Stadium last spring, students were outraged. When students with south stadium seats either didn’t go to the game or left early in Nebraska’s home victory against Kansas, the athletic department was outraged.

But as Emily Zimmer, UNL student body president, said, “Everyone just needs to take a deep breath.”

As someone who was in the student section for that game, I carry a perspective similar to a number of students and different than that of Athletic Director Tom Osborne’s.

The Kansas game was cold. Plain and simple. It was really one of the coldest days we’ve had this fall, and students weren’t entirely ready. The corner seats in south stadium aren’t what any fan would really call ideal. They are so far away from the game, the excitement and the atmosphere that it is easy to feel a little disengaged. When it’s cold and students feel disengaged, it’s easy to understand why they would want to leave. I’m not saying it’s right. But it is easy to understand.

Another factor during Saturday’s game was that students crowded toward the bottom. In a number of places, students were standing on the seats themselves and in the aisles between the seats. Had some of those students spread out, seats near the top would not have appeared so empty.

That the student section wasn’t completely full is no reason to panic. However, from the student perspective, that Osborne says he needs to look into student seating and maybe sell fewer student seats next year is cause for concern.

Osborne told student leaders during the week that he planned to evaluate student turnout during the Colorado game. That’s a perfect idea. Why not evaluate student seating the day after Thanksgiving when every dorm student is forced to leave campus because the dorms shut done? I wonder if we might see a reduced turnout from students.

The truth is, students will remain the No. 1 fans of Husker football. Sure, the athletic department could make far more money by selling tickets at the full price instead of at $21 to students. And maybe that’s what the department will do.  But everyone will lose if that happens. The student section is and always will be the leader in providing the game atmosphere that makes Memorial Stadium a great place to watch football.

Reducing student seating based on attendance at one game would be a gross overreaction.