This is a message board not a 17'n magazine column.One word Brother:
Learn to use paragraphs effectively so there is a chance someone will read this.
He don't have to learn s^$* to post here!!*
This is a message board not a 17'n magazine column.One word Brother:
Learn to use paragraphs effectively so there is a chance someone will read this.
Telling people they have to buy a 30+ game season ticket package to be able to get a seat is NOT the right answer. We should be encouraging fans to come to games, not making it difficult for them.Let me ask...are you a season ticket holder? If not, why not?
Telling people they have to buy a 30+ game season ticket package to be able to get a seat is NOT the right answer. We should be encouraging fans to come to games, not making it difficult for them.
Telling people they have to buy a 30+ game season ticket package to be able to get a seat is NOT the right answer. We should be encouraging fans to come to games, not making it difficult for them.
What do you propose? Bigger grandstand or more tiered berm areas?This is exactly right and well stated. It's something I wish people could experience without their "MSU fan" blinders on at OM to see the difference in how it's handled and where we've went wrong in our approach to it. At least it was different several years ago when I still had buddies playing there. I haven't been back in awhile to confirm it still is. It's why they have grown into a comparable monster fan-wise in baseball and continue spending $10-20mil every 5 years on expansions. It's a scary thought but they are going to eventually surpass us if we aren't very careful about continuing to alienate fans. There's already been a generation of fans left out at Dudy Noble basically.
Up there a nobody from Mississippi State could get there early, walk into the outfield there with a chair, cooler, grill, tent, and friends -- without tickets or anyone going thru coolers or checking their sizes -- and setup a tailgate basically to watch the game if you got there early enough. We even cooked crawfish out there a few times. Students with $0 invested and without having to do extensive planning on smuggling in enough beer for a buzz in a tiny cooler hidden under stuff were able to grill out, drink unimpeded, and fraternize with all the women in one common space. Those people had great experiences, graduated, and now still come back to do the same thing -- only now they pay good $$ to do it in left field instead of in right. Where they look straight down the hill at a huge playground with their kids running rampant prettymuch right next to the field. So even the kids are having great experiences there and it is going to snowball over time.
I've had great experiences at State in the lounges, chairbacks, skyboxes. Even a few great experiences on the hill behind the lounges. I've never had a very good experience when I was walking in without planning in advance calling in favors, etc. This stadium will make that experience much better no doubt. But it's still lacking in a couple of areas that we need to figure out...
BINGOThe problem is, even if they had extended chairbacks all the way into the berm areas (and adding another $5-10 million to the cost), guess what? Those seats would have sold out, too, and we’d have the same problem as now. Only it would be worse, because there would be literally no designated areas where fans could even congregate (much less sit) without knowing someone with a lounge spot. The university is going to sell every ticket they can sell. They aren’t going to turn away anyone who wants to make a multi-year season ticket commitment just to hold GA seating for the walk-ups. That would be beyond stupid.
Price of admission has gone up. This isn't Mayberry anymore.
But the additional seats that should have been built won't be generating revenue. And fans are becoming more and more accustomed to not going to the games and sitting at home. Some will watch at home, many will simply do something else. And the fanbase will not grow like it should because we make it difficult to come to games instead of easy.Yes, people will watch at home. And that seat you didn't get to sit in is still paid for.
Exactly. It sounds ridiculous to hear people insinuating the university shouldn't put a contract on every seat in the house. If the charbacks weren't sold out, I'd listen to the conversation. But as is, the university is doing what's financially responsible.
Yes, for SBW, you should be happy to even get into DNF. Talk about entitledSo I am happy with standing around for the entire game. But my folks are coming for Super Bulldawg weekend and want to go to a game but we most likely won't because they cannot stand for the entire game. They love baseball but they HAVE to sit for the game, its just not good for their health to stand all night long. So tell me, what are my options for them to experience MSU baseball? I'll tell you what it is, watching at Dave's Darkhorse from a booth. That's it. So worth the trip.
Do you realize that this isn't true?The problem isn't needing more GA seating, it's the fact that there is zero GA seating, none, nada, zilch unless you sit on the ground on one of the berms.
No I didn't and apparently neither did the Event Staff. Where can I sit with a single game GA ticket?Do you realize that this isn't true?
We would have huge tiered berm spaces in the outfield if it was not for the lounges. That's simply something that cannot be changed since most of that room is taken up in the outfield by the lounges.
I do think the area in right field (between the end of the lounges and the big circle entrance) can be better utilized than it is now. That's about the only space that can be changed into a tiered berm where people can just walk up and start partying with a grill and crawfish. We've sacrificed the ability to have a large area like that for the sake of the lounges. They should have extended the lounges all the way to the foulpole in right field, and used that entire area behind that (bathrooms to circle entrance) for some type of tiered GA seating. But they didn't ask for my opinion.
Upper deck. I hope you realize I am talking about next year and beyond. I would think that even someone as entitled as you could put up with a minor one year inconvenienceNo I didn't and apparently neither did the Event Staff. Where can I sit with a single game GA ticket?
What you just described, is sooooo Ole Miss. But yes, if you can make this work in the future, do it, sure. But it should not be a priority of ours on the front end. MSU prides itself in having knowledgeable baseball fans, I would think the ticket exchange is a much bigger priorityYou are right. But a little creativity allows almost anything to happen. Nothing saying the berms have to only go up to ground level. OM's actually is pretty tall in right now and are forever far behind the fence or at least used to be. Alot of people that desire the berms at OM go for the experience and the game itself is consequential to that. You don't have to give those people great seats -- just a common area to party where they can see the field if they want to. You can create that section anywhere you want -- and it frees up the other sections for people that go for the game itself. I'd think you still need a tiered berm section in right also however.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm not talking about seats, I'm talking about flat tiered berms. Somewhere someone has the ability to sit down in a lawn chair and watch the game if they want to. A lot of berms with a lot of space. I don't expect too many people to be able to walk into the stadium and GA their way into chairbacks.
I do expect to be able to walk into the stadium with a lawn chair and a basic 20qt soft side with at least a 12 pack in it and post up somewhere I can see the game and get the experience of being at the game even if it's far from home plate. And on days I plan in advance -- to be able to add a grill to that equation from approximately the same vantage point(I'm fine with the guy manning the grill not being able to see the game personally -- I could see why you wouldn't want hot coals on a berm itself -- just give me the ability to have it). That is the seat I and almost everyone I know actually wants rather than the chairback with limitations that will for all intents and purposes cost you $2k up front for a single seat.
We underbuilt the chairbacks which makes the berms we did build that much more important and demanded. Then we underbuilt those berms for that demand -- and had to place a bunch of restrictions(ridiculous restrictions for all but maybe 10 games a years) to be sure they could accommodate as many people as possible. And thus took a large piece of the novelty/advantage of the berms out of the equation.
My actual solution - 1 or 2 big sets of tiered berms in the outfield. They don't have to be OM big because most of our people are already taken care of. But we need triple or quadruple the tiered berm space that we currently have -- and lax restrictions on said berm space. Make them big enough people can come 45 minutes before the game and find somewhere to put their lawn chair. And don't send them home because they have an rtic20 and a Weber.
I agree with the OP, they made a mistake not giving the GA tickets a viable option for seating. I stood talking to one of the ramp attendants for an inning and multiple people came up and asked where they could sit and the answer was, GA tickets are standing room only. I finally gave my two chair back GA tickets to a couple and told them to enjoy them because I wasn't using the seats. By saying that you either buy season chair backs, which you can't at this time, or you have access to an outfield rig, in order to sit and watch the game, they are alienating a lot of people.
I just don't get the obsession over it. That's all. I understand they aren't mutually exclusive, but I don't get all the wringing of hands over seating capacity when it comes into play about 6 times a year, if that. Based on recent attendance, we way over built.
eta: Just to be clear my point is the ideal situation is the current stadium being filled or semi-filled on a regular basis instead of sporadically huge crowds at the old stadium (and let's face it that's all we have had since the double header SEC weekends ended). I am not sure our population distribution will ever make this feasible regardless of our success, but if I had the choice I'd go with "A."
So tell the Ath Dept to turn away money? That's not going to happen.