a modest proposal for DWS seating

[FlabLoser]

Last year seats for $300 & above per ticket donation levels on the west side all sold out in season tickets. People in the $200/ticket levels got pushed north/south (away from the 50) a little bit also - mostly likely to make room for higher donors spilling over farther into sections C& E. Given last year's success, the situation will surely worsen this year.

Now looking at the seating chart, I see some prime real estate being occupied by students. Students are certainly important to the program. But are they important enough to be given a large share of the best seats in the stadium? In our cash-strapped era, I think R& Q would be better allocated to $300/seat level donors especially since there is apparently a surplus of such donors on the other side of the stadium.

This about this - we've got a waiting list for club level and a SURPLUS of high money fans elsewhere in the stadium. Just MAYBE we should make some room for them???? And I'm going out on a limb here but just maybe there might be even more high money ticket holders if we had supply to meet the demand. Ya think?

Greg should make the following changes:

Assign sections R & Q (including that $100 donor section...WTF) to section D status, ie: $300/seat donor level.

Student seats displaced by the R & Q change should be moved to the lower level visitor seating on the west side. Those visitor seats won't be moved. They'll simply replaced by students. If there's some kind of rule that the visiting band has to be on the lower level, stick them in section W.

Any maroon plan seats displaced by the visitor band in section W could just be moved into section 108 next to pre-existing maroon plan seats.

Who's with me?

 

[FlabLoser]

Last year seats for $300 & above per ticket donation levels on the west side all sold out in season tickets. People in the $200/ticket levels got pushed north/south (away from the 50) a little bit also - mostly likely to make room for higher donors spilling over farther into sections C& E. Given last year's success, the situation will surely worsen this year.

Now looking at the seating chart, I see some prime real estate being occupied by students. Students are certainly important to the program. But are they important enough to be given a large share of the best seats in the stadium? In our cash-strapped era, I think R& Q would be better allocated to $300/seat level donors especially since there is apparently a surplus of such donors on the other side of the stadium.

This about this - we've got a waiting list for club level and a SURPLUS of high money fans elsewhere in the stadium. Just MAYBE we should make some room for them???? And I'm going out on a limb here but just maybe there might be even more high money ticket holders if we had supply to meet the demand. Ya think?

Greg should make the following changes:

Assign sections R & Q (including that $100 donor section...WTF) to section D status, ie: $300/seat donor level.

Student seats displaced by the R & Q change should be moved to the lower level visitor seating on the west side. Those visitor seats won't be moved. They'll simply replaced by students. If there's some kind of rule that the visiting band has to be on the lower level, stick them in section W.

Any maroon plan seats displaced by the visitor band in section W could just be moved into section 108 next to pre-existing maroon plan seats.

Who's with me?

 

[FlabLoser]

Last year seats for $300 & above per ticket donation levels on the west side all sold out in season tickets. People in the $200/ticket levels got pushed north/south (away from the 50) a little bit also - mostly likely to make room for higher donors spilling over farther into sections C& E. Given last year's success, the situation will surely worsen this year.

Now looking at the seating chart, I see some prime real estate being occupied by students. Students are certainly important to the program. But are they important enough to be given a large share of the best seats in the stadium? In our cash-strapped era, I think R& Q would be better allocated to $300/seat level donors especially since there is apparently a surplus of such donors on the other side of the stadium.

This about this - we've got a waiting list for club level and a SURPLUS of high money fans elsewhere in the stadium. Just MAYBE we should make some room for them???? And I'm going out on a limb here but just maybe there might be even more high money ticket holders if we had supply to meet the demand. Ya think?

Greg should make the following changes:

Assign sections R & Q (including that $100 donor section...WTF) to section D status, ie: $300/seat donor level.

Student seats displaced by the R & Q change should be moved to the lower level visitor seating on the west side. Those visitor seats won't be moved. They'll simply replaced by students. If there's some kind of rule that the visiting band has to be on the lower level, stick them in section W.

Any maroon plan seats displaced by the visitor band in section W could just be moved into section 108 next to pre-existing maroon plan seats.

Who's with me?

 

[8dog]

but I will never get over how dumb our last expansion was. Had we bowled in instead of putting that stupid skydeck up, we could put all students in the end zone and have more prime general seating.

 

[cowbellpresident]

I am talking about everything - upper deck all the way around - 100k seats baby

 

[FlabLoser]

An even smarter idea might be to put all the students in the upper deck. But that might be too much politically.

 

[8dog]

but you can built sky boxes with the stupid skydeck. we should've bowled in and then we could've put more skyboxes over the endzone. we just don't have a damn lick of sense sometimes. No other school would've done what we did but that's nothing new.

 

[KDawg12]

There should be some talk about bowling in the endzone in the near future anyway. We saw the LSU, Tennessee, Alabama, and im pretty sure Ole Miss games all reach over 50,000 attendance and the Bama game surpassed the capacity.

 

[Porkchop.sixpack]

that the cost of adding endzone seats would be a LOT more expensive than adding a skydeck on top of the luxury seating. The incremental cost probably so minimal, it would have been stupid NOT to put them up there.

 

[bigkdawg]

If you are going to start eliminating student seating, you might as well take away the faculty seating too.

 

[8dog]

an engineer/architect, so Im probably wrong. But you also have to remember that you would've sold about 30-50 more skyboxes to help pay.

The MSU Building Motto: Don't worry about doing it right, just do it now.

 

[Porkchop.sixpack]

Faculty Senate would have a porkchop BBQ, but the faculty seating is far more problematic to me than the student seating. I mean, hell, it's the students' school. But, I don't see why the faculty should have preference to alumni -- at all.

The faculty seating situation at the hump is a HUGE problem in my eyes.

 

[gtowndawg]

claiming that Croom was telling recruits the stadium would be bowled in on the locker room end (so players would have a tunnel to run out of)?

 

[Porkchop.sixpack]

demand is nearly as high as the club level. I think they have had unsold boxes before --- probably not this year. But, I believe that has happened.

 

[FlabLoser]

Seating is one perk we can offer that others schools usually do not.

 

[8dog]

told me that they called this year and that the waiting list is significant. could be untrue.

 

[8dog]

we need to give the faculty any reason to be at MSU.

Plus, when are they really taking seating in football? I can't imagine they are costing us too much in football sitting in the hot *** sun. I imagine people don't buy season tickets b/c we have sucked, not b/c the faculty is taking the good seats.

 

[topdawg.sixpack]

is about 10-15 deep.... Supposidly the AD did a study and they could build as many as 20 more boxes and sell them....those would pay for bowling in the expansion...The only reason this hasnt been done is because the seats wouldnt be filled.

 

[8dog]

"The only reason this hasnt been done is because the seats wouldnt be filled"

If our athl dept would just look at what clemson did, they could bowl in, add luxury seating and the general seating added wouldn't be that much b/c we already have those stupid looking metal bleachers in there.

I realize I post on this every 6 mos or so when it comes up.

 

[topdawg.sixpack]

I agree 8Dog....However, the rumor is that they want to bowl in the south endzone (Junction side), because the sun is not as brutal on that end. I still think this could be done like Clemson, between adding boxes and combining the M-Club....

 

[bulldogbaja]

At least about moving the students. If the students were in the upper deck, you would be able to hear a pin hit the grass on the 50-yard line of Scott Field. If it weren't for cowbells, our stadium would be silent anyway because most of our fans don't yell, except to ***** about something. Some other schools, in football and basketball, have made seating so preferrential to alums and donors that students can barely get in, and those have mostly been failed experiments.
Now the endzone would be a perfect place for students. But you can't just throw them in the upper deck, they are the only ones that consistently come to games. Why create more alumni seats that will remain empty most of the year? I know your answer is $$$ but I dont think the gains would offset the sacrifices.

 

[Dawg in a pile]

I have an idea on how to solve the sun issue. Quit having games at the hottest freaking time of the day. If it's hot as hell outside, have the damn game at night. If it's October or before, have the games at night. After October, have them during the day. This isn't rocket science. I understand there can be TV issues. The schools need to get together and tell Lincoln Financial or whoever is running that huge mess right now to stop with the 11:30 AM crap. The only time pre-October that the game should be during the day is if we are on CBS, and I don't think that's going to be a big problem for us right now.

 

[graddawg]

from folks in the Ath Dept. The idea being thrown around now is to bowl in the Junction side of the stadium, move most of the students, if not all, to those seats, remove the high school bleachers and used the existing student section for season tickets. This would allow us to add previously mentioned sky boxes, limit the amount of "new" seats to a number we could realistically fill and put the jumbotron in a position that EVERYONE in the stadium could see.</p>

 

[Porkchop.sixpack]

If they are underpaid, then pay them. Giving them preferential seating is essentially letting the athletic program make up for the bad pay. And our athletic program is far more underpaid than our faculty.

 

[MasterDawg]

and start from scratch on that end. The worst part of the whole stadium is that it is a patch work quilt. Like has been said before, instead of building things right we do it right now. If we started after the last home game this year, we could tear down the M-Club, which is actually a shell around an older building, and build one big building complete with skyboxes. I would even want to build field boxes if we did that (ie. skyboxes from the turf up to however high we want them.) They did this in Seattle with great success. This would also increase the noise level by having a hard surface to bounce it off of. I would like the other end bowled in like at Auburn with a huge hd scoreboard in the middle. Granted none of this will ever happen cause we are MSU.

Sidenote: Ole Miss is making the same mistake with their new baseball stadium. The rebs could have a top notch park but they are using the MSU building blue print and are going to end up with a patch work million dollar piece of crap.

 

[Stormrider81]

"we could tear down the M-Club, which is actually a shell around an older building, and build one big building complete with skyboxes. I would even want to build field boxes if we did that (ie. skyboxes from the turf up to however high we want them."3

Or, if they wanted the South Endzone bowled in, you could tear down the M-Club, build a complex like you were talking about on the other end with the jumbotron on top of it, and then bowl in the South end with just locker rooms under it. This would make everyone happy - you'd bowl in the end that apparently the department wants, you'd add skyboxes which are reportedly in demand, you'd keep an M-Club and maybe even expand and improve on it, and you'd do so in a way that doesn't look completely patchwork and crappy. Bowling in around the current Fieldhouse/M-Club would be really ugly. Also, if you did the field boxes idea you could sell those for way more money than the existing skyboxes.

 

[FlabLoser]

</p>

If they are underpaid, then pay them.

"Standing by while you tell us where to get the money." - Doc Fogelsong</p>

Giving them preferential seating is essentially letting the athletic program make up for the bad pay. And our athletic program is far more underpaid than our faculty.

Not sure about that. How many professors do we have? All of them could probably get 75-100% more money somewhere else

 

[Porkchop.sixpack]

on any part of this statement. Ever:

All of them could probably get 75-100% more money somewhere else

Suffice it to say that I think it is ridiculous that our underfunded AD should be asked to participate in the faculty pay, essentially. However, my guess is that this is just a perk that has been around a long time that nobody has ever taken a hard look at -- I don't think anyone (beyond perhaps select faculty members) looks at as an offset to substandard pay.

 

[TDAWG.sixpack]

The only change should be making the top student section a visitor section. This should cause more students to cram into the lower level(which already happens anyway). That upper level should then be visitor by taking a visitor secition off the lower level. These changes could ultimately; open up about 1500 to 2000 more seats on the lower level, give a better homefield advantage and put the arkansas fans with thier "Run Dmac" (Yes they will probably wear them until they completely fade)
End Result:
-More State fans
-More income
-Donors will still have to pony up the dough to get good seats
-Students will have to use their tickets smarter ( trading tickets and giving away unused ones)</p>

 

[TDAWG.sixpack]

Shirts as far away as possible. Sorry</p>

 

[futaba.79]

are more than likely the same ones that are friendly to the athletic dept. Aleinating this group would be a terrible mistake.

 

[Porkchop.sixpack]

How bad is it to piss someone off that gives a bunch of money and can't get decent seating?

I just don't see that faculty should be treated differently than almuni. Students? Yes. Faculty -- I'm not saying that they shouldn't have some seperate section or something maybe. But, they are sitting in really prime seats. It is a lot of money -- particularly in the case of the Hump where people litterally cannot purchase season tickets.

 

[futaba.79]

it doesnt seem that faculty are given a disproportinate number of seats.
http://admin.xosn.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=16800&ATCLID=925433

 

[graddawg]

certain faculty you just don't piss of at Mississippi State no matter the cost. Take the people who sit on the committee that approves the applications for acceptance into the Interdisciplinary Studies program, for instance. You can just imagine how important that group is to the Ath Dept.

 

[oem]

That left a mark.

Speaking of disproportinate, is it just me or do we have a disproportinate number of fans who are obsessively jealous of faculty and staff?

 

[FlabLoser]

He said it was next to impossible for a Nebraska student to attend a Nebraska football game. Same probably goes for faculty.

We aren't Nebraska. But our program is bigger now than it was 5, 10, 15, or 20 years ago. Time to drop the past and join reality.

 

[topdawg.sixpack]

The only change should be making the top student section a visitor section. This should cause more students to cram into the lower level(which already happens anyway). That upper level should then be visitor by taking a visitor secition off the lower level.</p>

If the University keeps using the wristband system for the student section, this cant happen. Also, I think there is some SEC rule that there has to be a portion of visitor seats on the first level....maybe I dreamed that, but I want to say ive heard it before.</p>

 

[seshomoru]

oh well

 

[bulldogbaja]

anybody was afraid to go play at Nebraska?

 

[DovaDawg]

"Supposidly the AD did a study and they could build as many as 20 more boxes and sell them....those would pay for bowling in the expansion...The only reason this hasnt been done is because the seats wouldnt be filled."

BS ... move the students further into the new endzones, eliminate about 5-8 seats per row making it so that you can actually fit in the seat space, reallocate the removed seats to the section where the students were before they were pushed further into the new endzone and TA-DA seats filled.