There are good game days and there are bad game days. A lot of what makes a game day good has little to do with Williams-Brice. Good friends, good times and a great tailgate can do wonders to any Saturday afternoon. The Gamecocks playing well (and winning) helps, but are the people around you too drunk or too angry? All of these things are critical to enjoying the weekend. However, whether you’re drunk or sober, there is one thing that everyone at some point finds difficult on Saturdays: standing in the student section.
It’s common knowledge that everyone is supposed to stand in the student section. We stand to cheer on the Gamecocks and during Sandstorm, but we sit to listen to the Mighty Sound of the Southeast. But let me ask you something: How many times have you fallen over during a game? Or, even better: How many times has someone fallen into or onto you?
Asking thousands of college students, who may even be intoxicated to varying degrees, to balance on a small metal bleacher is just asking for injuries. I know that every game I go to, I fall off the bleacher multiple times, and I’ve even stopped jumping during Sandstorm because I know I would instantly fall off.
So the question is: Why does Williams-Brice still have bleachers in the student section? Obviously, people want to have somewhere they can sit when it goes to halftime or in between quarters. But is it worth it to have 30 minutes of comfort, if for the other three plus hours you are putting yourself and everyone around you at risk of injury?
Some European soccer stadiums have instituted safe standing sections for fans who also spend most of the game on their feet. This makes it easier and safer for people to celebrate, hold themselves up and move from the center of a row to the aisle. With safe standing, there would be a nice corridor along every row where people could move past each other to get to the staircase. I, for one, approve of any measure that makes it so I don’t have to walk through a corridor of people’s stuff to get some nachos.