I am completely displeased with the availability of seats in Bryant-Denny Stadium. I paid for a student ticket package over the summer in order to gain access to all of the home Alabama football games. I was under the impression that if I bought a ticket to a game, I would be guaranteed a seat in the stadium.

Every Saturday, I go into the game over an hour early to begin the search for seats. Almost every time, my date and I have to argue with people in order to get a seat. Two weeks ago, at the Alabama vs. Florida game, we went into the stadium an hour early, just as we always do. The lower deck of the student section was already full so we were sent to the upper deck.

After walking all of the way up to the top of the stadium, we walked around for about 15 minutes searching for seats that did not exist. I asked an usher if he could find us two seats and he replied that every seat was already full and we would just have to try to squeeze ourselves in somewhere.

He did not help us try to find seats; he only reported that the ticket office sold more tickets than there were available seats. He said that the University does not expect everyone to come to all of the games so they sell more tickets than the amount of seats in the student section.

My date and I continued to look for seats and finally found one open seat available, which was supposedly saved. I ended up sitting on my boyfriend’s lap for the duration of the game because it was the only available seat in the student section of the stadium.

My friends who unfortunately came into the game after I did had to stand in the aisles until the ushers forced them to move because they were blocking the stairs. They ended up having to leave because there were no seats for them to sit in and nowhere for them to even stand.

I also have a friend who didn’t get a seat in the upper deck despite having paid ten extra dollars at the beginning of the year to be a part of the High Tide Club. This is completely and utterly ridiculous. Students who attend the University of Alabama and buy a ticket should be guaranteed a seat in the stadium. I don’t know what can be done to fix this problem, but something must change.

The new addition to the stadium cannot even hold the amount of people who allegedly have a seat. If the student section was extended even more instead of selling general admission tickets to make more money, that could alleviate the problem.

If the number of tickets sold equaled the number of seats available, that would also help the problem. All I want is a guaranteed seat at the game without having to go in three hours before kickoff or get into a fight. Is that too much to ask?

I know I am not the only person who has had this problem — I think I am speaking for the majority of our student body.

Rachel Ruckdeschel is a junior majoring in kinesiology-human performance and exercise science.