| auakl |
08-02-2002 01:28 PM |
Quote:
Originally posted by Ginger
Aw, now I wish this were the thing to do at my alma mater. I love the idea of all the greeks being (well, A- at the game) dressed up, with their dates, etc.
What do you all mean about block seating? Do you have to buy tickets to the game that have specific seats? At Whitewater the games were free, and you just went and sat down wherever.
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At Auburn block seating worked in the late 1990s as follows: The Student Government Association assigns “spirit points” to various campus activities, from recycling shakers to participating in blood drives to hanging spirit banners (“XYZ says Roast the Razorbacks!”) on campus, etc. The groups that have the most spirit points at the end of the school year receive “block seating” in the student section for the following football season. The seats are not really numbered but are in Sections and rows (bench seating, there were seat numbers but they didn’t matter), i.e. Section 25, Row R. Based on the number of members in an organization, a certain number of rows would be assigned. Then in the Spring, a “draft” is held for which rows you get in the Student section. The block seats are in several sections below the walkway that roughly divides the lower level of Jordan-Hare Stadium into a upper and lower half. In 1998 you had to have a paper ticket in order to get into the block seating area and it was STRICTLY enforced by campus security. We actually had police officers stationed at the entrances to the sections to make sure nobody got in that didn’t belong to an organization with seats or a guest of such a member. This worked very well in keeping GDIs and randoms out. Later the guards were dropped and the individual organizations were responsible for keeping their rows secured. A LOT of ugly conversations resulted from that decision as GDIs and random fans tried to get in and argue that they could sit there. Grrrrrr.... Any recognized campus student group, from the American Society of Civil Engineers to Air Force ROTC to Habitat for Humanity can participate in spirit points, however, with the exception of Navy(?) ROTC starting in the very late 90s, the only groups organized and dedicated enough were the IFC fraternities. The sororities participated in the sprit point competition, but for some reason I cannot remember a sorority having block seating??? Maybe I’m just forgetting; Blueyes or any other Auburn folks please correct me if I’m wrong. It is great b/c block seating generally isn’t as crowded as the general student section, you get guaranteed seats w/ your brothers and friends in other houses that sit adjacent to your rows and again, the Greeks dressed up and sitting together really makes an impression. And before anyone argues that this isn’t fair (though I would be glad to hear your opinion/arguement as well!), let me say that the advantage to the University community was MUCH greater participation in events for the good of the school or community such as those mentioned at the beginning of my post (blood drives, food drives, recycling, raising money for cancer research, etc...). Again, any student group could participate, some even made half-hearted attempts but they almost always fell flat due to lack of organization and participation. Many of the folks in those organizations who would have participated were already members of socials, and you can probably guess where their loyalty really lies when it comes to getting Spirit Points! BTW, we pay for our student tickets ($5/game?), not all freshmen even get season tickets because there is such demand, usually a package is offered for them that includes the less popular games where attendance will likely be lower (83,000 instead of 85,000+), but not the major SEC games (i.e. Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama and LSU). Hope this helps! |
