 "Photo: Sam Bennett/ The Daily Gamecock")
If you want to sit with your friends during Thursday night’s game, USC officials have a message for you: show up early.
Students who show up at least one hour prior to Thursday’s 7:45 kickoff against Ole Miss will be allowed to sit anywhere in the lower tier of the student section, provided their ticket doesn’t designate them to the upper deck. They will also be awarded two bonus loyalty points.
But if you don’t show up early, you won’t get the extra points, and you’ll be forced to sit in whatever section your ticket dictates.
“If you choose to wait until the end to come in, you just don’t get a choice of seats,” Jeremy Long, Student Government’s Secretary of Athletics, said.
It’s the way USC officials, who say they’re worried about safety and overcrowding in the student section, are trying to calm down hundreds of angry students after they were forced to sit without their friends during Saturday night’s game against Florida Atlantic.
Hundreds of students complained on Sunday, saying they were treated rudely by event staff. Dozens of conflicts broke out between security and shocked students who weren’t aware of the checks put in place.
Matt Rink, a first-year civil engineering graduate student, said he arrived at the game with his friends before 6 p.m.
“Never in all of my time of attending Carolina games have I ever felt disrespected, unwanted, and unwelcome inside Williams-Brice Stadium until last night,” Rink said. “The cops were extremely forceful with me and those with me, grabbing us and literally pushing us in opposite directions. We couldn’t sit together.”
Student Body Vice President Alex Stroman used his Twitter account to voice his displeasure during the game.
“This is the worst Carolina game I’ve ever been to,” Stroman tweeted. “Students getting screwed, upper decks empty ... I’m done. Calling Eric Hyman.”
USC officials said they immediately realized there was a problem. Stroman e-mailed back and forth with Jerry Brewer, USC’s Director of Student Life, during the game.
A special meeting was called Monday morning between USC’s Police Department, Student Life officials, athletics officials and the private company contracted to provide security for the stadium.
“The attention students brought to this issue gave it immediate precedent with us,” Anna Edwards, USC’s Director of Student Services, said. “We knew this was something that needed to be fixed.”
Edwards, who leads the office in charge of student ticketing, said the University didn’t ask for event staff to check tickets. But fearing overcapacity, event management staff checked each student’s ticket anyway.
“We didn’t know this was going to happen,” Edwards said. “We were as surprised as the students.”
An announcement will be made over the speakers in the student section to inform students when they’ll be forced to sit in the specified section on the ticket, Long said. There will still be judgment decisions from the event staff, police officers and event staff based on capacity
“Everyone I’ve talked to has listened and wanted to make this better,” Long said. “We’re doing everything possible to fix this, and it won’t happen again.”
28 comments
And secondly, do what my friends and I are doing ... print off your own ticket so it gets scanned. THEN make photocopies of one ticket for a section that y'all can sit in together. That way if you leave and come back, you can just show them your friend's ticket! They don't check IDs when you've already had your ticket scanned, so you and your friends can stay together.
Don't just twiddle your thumbs and complain, actually do something about it.