Capstonians, not all seats in Bryant-Denny Stadium were created equal. If that were true, block seating – I’m sorry, I mean “student organization seating” – would not be located in prime south end zone real estate with its significant price tag.
Thanks to the superb minds and wherewithal of our SGA Senate, another area with an adjoining club for students packs such a audiovisual punch that it costs $10 to join. It’s location: the new upper deck.
Perhaps that punch is one to the nose, because those seats are nose-bleeds.
That is, unless you talk to a member of the SGA or athletic department. He or she will hyperbolically hail it as “an exciting new Game Day opportunity” or even “the new way to experience Alabama football.”
This new student seating area will only be unique because the SGA Senate acquired the funding to provide T-shirts for all members, the opening of a new express gate for the area, book scholarships, free concession coupons and supposedly even more.
Please stop fooling around by padding your legislative box scores, senators. This club had no grounds to be created in the first place. You know it too; your half-hearted effort makes it abundantly clear.
The new student section area should be last resort seating for students. If they arrive late and cannot find a seat in the lower deck, they should move to the upper deck. No need for a silly club, T-shirt and giveaways.
The seats themselves have built-in incentives: they can be used as seats, and the game can be seen from them. Simple enough. Students will end up filling them; stadium science has proven it.
The tacit fear of losing the tradition of block seating drove the creation of this club and its wasteful spending. Two recent changes generated such angst.
With the new stadium expansion, more students are allowed access to home games, and they will need seats. The club’s stated purpose is to draw the newly created overflow from the bottom deck to the top one.
It is especially important in keeping students away from wandering into the greek student section – which never fills up at the same rate as the rest of the student section.
Adding that to the farcical name change to “student organization seating” and the possibility of non-greek organizations actually reserving room in the hallowed lower bowl could make a fraternity brother croak-ie.
If the SGA senators who sponsored this legislation knew how to promote, they would agree to sit in their revolutionary section for the first home game this weekend at least. They won’t, though.
Students never clamored for a High Tide Club. The Senate enacted it before students even stepped foot in the newly expanded Bryant-Denny Stadium. I find it impossible that the Senate could have accurately predicted a problem weeks before game day.
I do find it all too possible that the Senate’s stultifying solution to a supposed problem has the traction of bowling shoes on a bowling lane.
The Facebook fan page for the club has less than 250 members with an estimated majority of those joining for the sake of accepting an invite from a friend. Beyond that, the one Crimson White news article on the club accounts for all publicity involved.
Even the inept nutjobs in Washington, D.C. know how to aggrandize their projects, whether or not they actually work. The senators here will learn soon enough.
An alternate solution to the High Tide Club that works better financially and effectively involves hiring stadium monitors who would kindly suggest students fill the upper deck once the lower student section becomes full.
Done. My plan steers clear of unnecessarily further segmenting the student section at football games and blindly throwing money at an issue that may not even exist.
You can thank me later, Senate.
Actually, if you could write up one of your famously overused resolutions for me, I would greatly appreciate it. You never miss the opportunity to crank one of those out anyway.
Wesley Vaughn is a junior majoring in public relations and political science. His column runs on Wednesday.
