Over the past few years, there has been a huge discussion centering on student attendance and involvement with the University’s athletic teams – most notably surrounding the support of Crimson Tide football in Bryant-Denny Stadium.
With Bryant-Denny student section ticket usage dropping in 2012 to “merely” 69.4 percent (still around 12,000 students per game), several repercussive actions have been put into effect to appease the numbers.
The most obvious and publicized action that will go into effect this year – the herding of freshman students to the upper deck of the stadium – could be one of the most excessive and over-corrective actions that could have been taken.
Of course, I am sure that considerable research went into this decision and that it was not taken lightly. I’m sure that this decision was made with the students in mind. Still, part of me can’t help but be skeptical about the rationale of this decision.
After all, a university is a business, and for Alabama, football is a major account. Interestingly enough, when broadcasting on national television, a full Bryant-Denny Stadium happens to be a significant sight. One that’s worth a pretty penny.
However, when the upper deck looks empty, the glory fades a bit, as does the luster of that pretty penny.
The University’s million-dollar solution? Just throw the freshmen up top.
Listen, all I know is that freshmen are often times the most loyal of the student fan base. As a first-year student, football is enchanting, and the excitement of Bryant-Denny never ceases to call them back Saturday after Saturday. They are often the ones left till the bitter end, while some elder students turn to the bars or greek houses.
In fact, in some ways, freshmen have acted as a buffer for the lower bowl student section for years. As older students leave by the third quarter, and block seating looks almost entirely empty, there remains at least a contingency of formidable freshmen determined to bellow “Rammer Jammer.”
Subtract that from the equation, and you’ve got an even emptier lower bowl.
It’s odd to me that we haven’t just updated our system that rewards loyal fans for their dedication by capping entrance into the lower student section sooner and redirecting flow to the above sections afterward, rather than immediately running to the extreme of removing freshmen.
After all, working side by side with the faulty and political block seating system, all this new format will do is continue to enable the poorly sustained attendance of the lower bowl by entitled organizations. I’m sorry to say it, but students will just continue to leave in the third quarter.
Furthermore, some of my fondest memories of last year consist of learning cheers from my upperclassmen friends and screaming myself hoarse right along side them, mere feet from the field – day or night, rain or shine. Removing that from the freshman experience is a shame. It removes the sense of community that Bryant-Denny can create.
Being an out-of-state student myself, this sense of community seemed to have an even larger influence. Those experiences made Alabama home.
Hopefully, for the class of 2017, home is just as sweet in spite of these changes.
Maxton Thoman is a sophomore majoring in biology. His column runs weekly on Wednesdays.
