Seating Suggestion

[DFW HOYA]

I wanted to bounce this topic around for some off-season consumption--instead of leaving all those so-called "visitors" seats on the Harbin side of the field empty, why can't that become all student seating?

It's an easy entrance for students off the SW Quad to Leavey walkway (whatever that's called), you put the band over there, everyone sits general admission, and creat a student-friendly environment.

What few road fans that do travel from PL schools could sit in one of the corners on the west side as they do for lacrosse. It certainly couldn't hurt to have some Hoya support on that side of the field, either, especially with cameras pointing to that side of the field.

With the promise of the MSF around the corner, students have to get into better attendance for games. This might be a start.

[LBPop]

This sounds like a smart idea, but who makes this call? Is it the football coach, the athletic department...? It would be worth suggesting to the proper authority.

[TrueHoyaBlue]

I would guess it would be some combination of football coach and sports promotions. So if anyone knows Coach Benson or Brian McGuire, let 'em know you think it's a good idea.

[FLHoya]

Couple thoughts:

1. I'm on board with any idea with the design of getting better student attendance at football games. Or lacrosse. Or anything sport besides basketball. Basketball too of course, but I think on the whole Hoya Blue and the Athletic Department could be doing a better job promoting the non-basketball sports. I'm also of the opinion (which I hope to articulate in a more formal fashion over the summer) that the #1 way to build a strong basketball student fan base is to build a strong football student fan base in September.

2. That being said, attendance at football wasn't SO bad last year. For a couple games you had pretty much a full home side (I am thinking specifically of Colgate). I will agree with DFW though that for smaller opponents (like a Monmouth, for example), the west (home) end isn't full and the visitor's end is almost empty. So on the whole, you could probably shift the students over to the "blue" side w/o a problem for most games, though for some bigger teams I don't think an ALL student blue side would work b/c the corresponding shift of visitor's fans to the "wood" side would create overcapacity. Plus, I doubt the GU student FB fan base is ever gonna fill up the entire blue side of the field.

You kinda have to go with a hybrid approach I guess: either make it the "official" GU student section over there, but keep it the "visitor's" side and just move them to one side of the stands. Or shift the "visitor's" entrance to the current home side of the field and put them in the north (Leavey Center/parking lot) end of those stands, like it is at lacrosse games, and make the other side GU students + whomever else wants to come over (rowdier GU fans, visitor's fans who wanna get daring, etc).

3. I was curious as to what the current "rules" were on students traveling over to the current visitor's side of the field for games. I can't remember for sure, but I believe there are ticket prices up on the fence that you enter through, and a will call sign, plus maybe a visitor's entrance sign. Kinda confusing. So I asked my good friend and roommate who worked selling tickets during the football and lacrosse seasons, about 1/2 of the time on the visitor's side of the field.

Basically, he told me that he'd been told a few times that the people in charge preferred all of the GU fans sit on the same side of the field. I assume this is so the crowd is more cohesive and looks larger on the side of the field they are on. (DFW is right though, the cameras filming the game are on the top of the press box and only show the visitor's fans). If GU fans came over through the visitor's entrance and asked to buy tickets (or if student's flashed their ID's to get in free), he was supposed to tell them to go to the other side. However, he said if someone told him they really wanted to sit over there, he usually let them b/c it wasn't a huge deal and there's usually plenty of room.

So, to get the student's in on the visitor's side, you WOULD probably have to run it past the AD, Sports Promotions, or whomever's in charge of that. Get it to be a formal thing. Then you could make that narrow gate entrance the student entrance, have someone their checking ID's, and you're good.

Now, the next step and another worthy topic of discussion would be how to get the student fan base to grow enough so that having them all over on the same side wouldn't look sad. Somebody get Hoya Blue on the phone!!

--FLHoya--

[LBPop]

Wow, you sure put some thought into that post. As a new Hoya fan, I can only state the obvious--a few early victories will make a world of difference in attendance. The team will have to give everyone a reason to watch. The schedule seems to give the team a chance to make some noise early and show off in front of the home crowd. With Coach Benson taking a more hands-on approach to defense and with Coach Uzelac bringing his credentials to the offense, this team may be ready to climb up the Patriot League ladder. (How's that for a worn out cliche'). I can tell you that the entire staff is excited about the recruiting class this year, so the future appears bright. A couple of home victories and maybe one in Pittsburgh before the trip to Colgate would be a nice way to start. If most of that happens and fan interest grows, look out for an arranged bus trip to Hamilton.

[concerned]

how does the team look. going into the summer are we making progress like we would like to see? seating is fine , team is more important.

[LBPop]

You are, of course, quite correct. If the team plays well, nobody will worry too much about where they are sitting. Hard to really know much about the team--there are some comments (one by me) in the "Spring Game" thread. I can tell you this, I believe in this coaching staff. Coach Benson is 100% class. Even while enduring unimaginable heartbreak during the prime recruiting period, he was on the job and his staff supported him well. If the new facility gets built in time, these guys will be a consistent force in the Patriot League.

[HOYALICIOUS]

I agree LBPop. But that is a big IF on the multi purpose facility. Haven't heard of any updates in a while, anyone have any news on the progress?