Monday, April 7, 2008
SAN ANTONIO — Many student fans were disappointed with the location of their seats for the Final Four in the Alamodome in San Antonio. The angriest fans were those seated in the upper deck.
“This is bull,” said Pace McKee, Memphis, Tenn., freshman. “The Athletics Department said we’d have lower-level seats, now we have upper-level seats.”
Students in the first six rows of Kansas’ upper-level seats grumbled about their seating as they walked in.
“We’re students, and I thought we’d be closer,” McKee said. “I thought we could make more noise, and the team would hear us.”
Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony said that about 140 students were seated in lower-level seats, and the rest were sent to the upper-level.
Last week, Marchiony told The University Daily Kansan that students with lottery tickets would be seated in the downstairs portion of the Alamodome.
“We were determined to put as many students as we could downstairs,” Marchiony said. “We started planning around that.”
Marchiony said that students were given the second-closest seats that Kansas Athletics gave away, behind only the friends and family of basketball players and coaches.
“The students were seated in front of $10,000 donors,” Marchiony said.
Marchiony also noted that only 50 UCLA students were given seats in the lower level. He also pointed out that all students, even those in lower-level seats, paid upper-level prices, which was $170.
Scott Perlmutter, Fresno, Calif., senior, was one of the students who was seated in the lower level. He said that the lower-level seats went to people who camped out for a few hours before the will-call booth opened at 9:30 Saturday morning.
“A friend told us to get in line early, so we got here at 8:30 a.m.,” Perlmutter said.
Perlmutter estimated that about only 30 students received tickets to lower-level seats.
“We feel lucky, but it sucks that we can’t have everyone together to make it louder, especially closer to the court so we can be heard,” he said.
Perlmutter and the rest of the students who received lower-level seating were seated toward the back of the arena.
Students may be happier with their seats at future Final Fours thanks to NCAA legislation that plans to put student sections directly behind the baskets.
“That’ll be nice,” Perlmutter said. “Then the team will hear us for sure.”
Marchiony said that the legislation would also put student tickets into a voucher system, which would prevent them from selling them to other people.
— Edited by Jessica Sain-Baird
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