(10-03-2014 03:53 PM)Brookes Owl Wrote:  I can see the billboard message now:

"Rice Owls Football - we've always got plenty of good seats!"

*SIGH*

Rice is actually using outdoor advertising? That IS a positive!

Any publicity is good publicity!

Halftime competition, MOB v. Kinkaid v. Chavez HS band, an emerging sport, judged by the new National Athletic Band and Theater Governing body, Hambone is first commish. Gets the kids and their parents into the stadium. Same theory he uses with the Ipad and game streaming for the casual couch potato ESU fan. Hook the kids and you have the "next gen!"

(10-03-2014 03:44 PM)JIBA 08 Wrote:  

(10-03-2014 03:26 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Are any of you HONESTLY suggesting that a 'free-for-all' in seating is a 'value-added' of Rice athletics?

Most definitely. The freedom to hang out at the 30 yard line in the 10th row (typically wide open) for $15-20 attracts students, young alumni, and casual fans every single game.

I don't think that is a terrible idea either. Especially given that you can ask people in your seats to leave. In a vacuum, this policy seems fine. Given how poor our attendance is and how we seem to drive people away with asinine rules and rigid policing, IMO, this will do more harm than good.

Think of it as a variation of the Southwest method.

(10-03-2014 05:16 PM)Antarius Wrote:  

(10-03-2014 03:44 PM)JIBA 08 Wrote:  

(10-03-2014 03:26 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Are any of you HONESTLY suggesting that a 'free-for-all' in seating is a 'value-added' of Rice athletics?

Most definitely. The freedom to hang out at the 30 yard line in the 10th row (typically wide open) for $15-20 attracts students, young alumni, and casual fans every single game.

I don't think that is a terrible idea either. Especially given that you can ask people in your seats to leave. In a vacuum, this policy seems fine. Given how poor our attendance is and how we seem to drive people away with asinine rules and rigid policing, IMO, this will do more harm than good.

Think of it as a variation of the Southwest method.

They're going to regularly mail me drink coupons? I like it!

If I am not there, I am not worried about someone in my seat. Often, I am visiting people in the Owl Club or the concourse.

(10-03-2014 09:48 PM)75src Wrote:  If I am not there, I am not worried about someone in my seat. Often, I am visiting people in the Owl Club or the concourse.

Do you mean the R Room, or perhaps the Stadium Club?

The Owl Club is a philanthropic group, not a place.

Here's the rub...

If I have seats that I paid up for and someone is in them, I feel like a jerk asking them to move when there are other empty seats right nearby... but if I take those other seats, now perhaps somebody has to ask me to to move. Why are we making our 'premium' customers feel like jerks, especially when they, and not the guys who pay $15 for tickets and then sneak into the $25 seats are the ones who are going to lead to more revenue. We certainly don't want to be advertising for more $15 ticket buyers to come and expect to sit on the 50. All that does is lead to disappointment ESPECIALLY if you are successful and attract more fans. They stop coming because they can't pay $15 and sit on the 50 anymore.


Bottom line is that I think you guys are blowing the inconvenience way out of proportion. If you want to buy cheap tickets and sit in expensive seats, then all you have to do is walk across the rows rather than down the aisles. The major effect is therefore at the top of the sections where the boxes are.... and the effect is potentially very positive.

(10-04-2014 12:36 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Here's the rub...

If I have seats that I paid up for and someone is in them, I feel like a jerk asking them to move when there are other empty seats right nearby... but if I take those other seats, now perhaps somebody has to ask me to to move. Why are we making our 'premium' customers feel like jerks, especially when they, and not the guys who pay $15 for tickets and then sneak into the $25 seats are the ones who are going to lead to more revenue. We certainly don't want to be advertising for more $15 ticket buyers to come and expect to sit on the 50. All that does is lead to disappointment ESPECIALLY if you are successful and attract more fans. They stop coming because they can't pay $15 and sit on the 50 anymore.


Bottom line is that I think you guys are blowing the inconvenience way out of proportion. If you want to buy cheap tickets and sit in expensive seats, then all you have to do is walk across the rows rather than down the aisles. The major effect is therefore at the top of the sections where the boxes are.... and the effect is potentially very positive.

My thoughts exactly.

Where do I get these $15 tickets? They charged me $30 for GA against SoMiss.

This is all going to boil down to how the ushers perform their job. I have chairback box seats in the shade, and I have occasionally had to ask people to move out of my seats. No problem, no big deal. I do like to roam around some during the game, stopping by to chat with friends who may or may not also have chairback box seats, but in sections other than my own. I hope I don't get hassled there.

There is always this week's "how are we doing" email if the ushers go crazy.

Is this an example of careful what you ask for, you may get it?

I really hated when RG had the HRS renumbered several years ago...the system had worked for almost 50 years so why the change? The Box Seat thing always confused folks and changing just that would have been a positive.

After the second game last year the removed the bars between the boxes in the short rows which were designated by the section number containing an A such as our Section 156A. Now people lost wander from one long row to the next through the Boxes. More importantly those rails had protected other fans from our group.

(10-03-2014 03:26 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  ...Do any of you attend ANY other event where your tickets aren't checked?

Yes, but even if they aren't checked at the entrance to the section, there are alternative ways into the section.

(10-03-2014 03:26 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Are any of you HONESTLY suggesting that a 'free-for-all' in seating is a 'value-added' of Rice athletics?

I'm not, but being too strict about seat assignments can have a significant negative impact on a fan's game experience. If ushers had shooed people out of the chairbacks at the Tulsa "douchebag" game a couple of years ago--when it was cold and rainy and miserable and nearly everybody was in the chairbacks or on the concourse--I would have said that Rice treated HRS visitors poorly.

To be clear, I do NOT approve of people sitting in others' seats if they do not move immediately and graciously if the purchasers of those seats arrive to claim them.

Some stadiums allow attendees to discreetly text stadium security if they are having problems with other fans. Perhaps a person might text that they are hesitant to ask strangers to move out of their seats, which might trigger "random" seat assignment checks in the section, row, etc.

(10-03-2014 03:26 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Guys... These ushers are already on staff and have been for years. Nobody said anything about hiring more... and nobody said anything about not spending resources to get more butts in the seats... you are merely being reminded not to be surprised if they start asking for your stub on occasion. I sat in the same seats for more than a decade with the same usher and every now and then, he'd verify me anyway. It is an unfair assumption to think that doing this means they aren't doing something else.

HAMMY ... The old guard is gone. All of them were "run off" several years ago. The first subcontractor was the outfit that works MM and Reliant. I saw quite a few of them working games at both venues. They were professional in their duties, but I heard one of them said the wrong thing to the wrong person and the company was fired.

The new outfit appears to staff our games with folks picked up at temporary employment office, given a shirt and a quick list of no-nos. That is not to disparage the folks as persons, but to point out they appear to have no training or much interest in the job.

(10-03-2014 05:16 PM)Antarius Wrote:  

(10-03-2014 03:44 PM)JIBA 08 Wrote:  

(10-03-2014 03:26 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Are any of you HONESTLY suggesting that a 'free-for-all' in seating is a 'value-added' of Rice athletics?

Most definitely. The freedom to hang out at the 30 yard line in the 10th row (typically wide open) for $15-20 attracts students, young alumni, and casual fans every single game.

I don't think that is a terrible idea either. Especially given that you can ask people in your seats to leave. In a vacuum, this policy seems fine. Given how poor our attendance is and how we seem to drive people away with asinine rules and rigid policing, IMO, this will do more harm than good.

I'm a student, so I get in the gate for free, but student section seating is terrible relative to the abundance of available seats at HRS, so I generally move over to home side chairbacks. I'm one of the people this policy is aimed at. Now of course I move politely and immediately if anyone asks, because I'm a decent person. But I'd like to live in a world where adults can handle things like adults and not require new/extra policing of basic courtesy.

That people in these seats would complain about this is the most predictable thing ever. I don't know what the overlap is between box seaters and The Parliament, but I've got no issue saying most of the time, most of the box seaters strike me more as people prepared to watch a yacht race and who spend their time shaking hands and making small talk while their football team sucks wind in their peripheral vision than they do as fans really watching a game. At a game late last year I was moving across a box row on my way to a lower seat. This had me pass in front of a box seater. I was going to interrupt his view for perhaps 3-5 seconds until he literally attempted to stop me from passing in front of him, arguing i should go out of the row the other way, up the aisle, across on the concourse and down. He made this into an angry 20 second confrontation because he felt so damn entitled to the view from his seat at every literal second. Me and my friends have also definitely received plenty of dirty looks in these sections, I suspect because we've never worn our Ralph Lauren polos nor Sperry top-sider's to the game. What I want to make clear is that it's the people who care about other people in their open seats and/or who don't want to have riff-raff like PhD students around their box seats that complained about this that are the jerks here, not the seat sitters who politely move and enjoy supporting their team from a good seat.

The relatively open nature of seating is definitely a value added to Rice games. Of course it is. It may not be the ideal policy in an ideal world, but Rice football is a long way from ideal. I'm already on thin ice when it comes to spending my time to come watch Bailiff and staff be Bailiff and staff while we play a succession of Sun Belt 2.0 teams (like us). I can't get my friends to come to games any more (I still try), but they liked being able to have a chairback when they did come. If this policy is tightly policed and I can't sit in the shade in a chairback without a ton of hassle, I definitely won't be going to warm weather games.

(10-04-2014 01:25 PM)Philoso-Owl Wrote:  

(10-03-2014 05:16 PM)Antarius Wrote:  

(10-03-2014 03:44 PM)JIBA 08 Wrote:  

(10-03-2014 03:26 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Are any of you HONESTLY suggesting that a 'free-for-all' in seating is a 'value-added' of Rice athletics?

Most definitely. The freedom to hang out at the 30 yard line in the 10th row (typically wide open) for $15-20 attracts students, young alumni, and casual fans every single game.

I don't think that is a terrible idea either. Especially given that you can ask people in your seats to leave. In a vacuum, this policy seems fine. Given how poor our attendance is and how we seem to drive people away with asinine rules and rigid policing, IMO, this will do more harm than good.

I'm a student, so I get in the gate for free, but student section seating is terrible relative to the abundance of available seats at HRS, so I generally move over to home side chairbacks. I'm one of the people this policy is aimed at. Now of course I move politely and immediately if anyone asks, because I'm a decent person. But I'd like to live in a world where adults can handle things like adults and not require new/extra policing of basic courtesy.

That people in these seats would complain about this is the most predictable thing ever. I don't know what the overlap is between box seaters and The Parliament, but I've got no issue saying most of the time, most of the box seaters strike me more as people prepared to watch a yacht race and who spend their time shaking hands and making small talk while their football team sucks wind in their peripheral vision than they do as fans really watching a game. At a game late last year I was moving across a box row on my way to a lower seat. This had me pass in front of a box seater. I was going to interrupt his view for perhaps 3-5 seconds until he literally attempted to stop me from passing in front of him, arguing i should go out of the row the other way, up the aisle, across on the concourse and down. He made this into an angry 20 second confrontation because he felt so damn entitled to the view from his seat at every literal second. What I want to make clear is that it's the people who care about other people in their open seats and/or who don't want to have riff-raff like PhD students around their box seats that complained about this that are the jerks here, not the seat sitters who politely move and enjoy supporting their team from a good seat.

The relatively open nature of seating is definitely a value added to Rice games. Of course it is. It may not be the ideal policy in an ideal world, but Rice football is a long way from ideal. I'm already on thin ice when it comes to spending my time to come watch Bailiff and staff be Bailiff and staff while we play a succession of Sun Belt 2.0 teams (like us). I can't get my friends to come to games any more (I still try), but they liked being able to have a chairback when they did come. If this policy is tightly policed and I can't sit in the shade in a chairback without a ton of hassle, I definitely won't be going to warm weather games.

You are welcome to come join us in the Boxes. We tolerate austinowl73 and you can't be any worse. Sec 105 Row 34 somewhere around Seat 16 (since they renumbered the Seats I barely know what mine is much less which way the Row runs).

I should say what I said differently, because in typical Rice fashion, we're debating the immaterial when we probably don't really disagree.

I don't disagree that it is 'an advantage' for some fans that they can buy a cheap ticket and sit in a premium seat, but Rice Football is already a 'value' and it is NOT a virtue of our program that we can't even support our already relatively inexpensive ticket prices. It is extremely difficult to advance our revenue when we can't 'defend' your premium seats. You guys are describing an advantage for the fan... I am describing an advantage for the program.

I mean, if we made our tickets free and first-come first serve, that would certainly be a 'virtue' for the fans, no? But would it e a virtue for our program? Don't answer. Those are rhetorical questions. I submit that they are not.