Allotting too many Vols seats
Tim O'Connor
senior
Last year, for whatever reason, a sizeable number of Notre Dame fans sold out and allowed Nebraska fans to invade our stadium, clothed in red, resulting in one of the more embarrassing sights in recent Notre Dame football history. Saturday afternoon a very similar event occurred, only this time it wasn't the alumni or the faculty or the students who sold out. I don't imply that I know who is in charge of ticket allotments to visiting fans in our stadium. However, after four years of home games, I have a pretty clear idea of how many seats are usually reserved for visiting fans. Saturday's game against Tennessee apparently doubled the typical allotment of visiting seats.
A visitor's section that usually occupies only the north east corner of the upper deck in the stadium, stretched the entire length of the end zone on Saturday. Since it is highly unlikely that three or four whole sections of Notre Dame fans decided to sell their tickets collectively to Tennessee fans (and only in that endzone, mind you), I have to conclude that these seats were intentionally allotted to visiting fans. If this is the case, then the ticket office or athletic department, or whoever is in charge of such a travesty owes the student body (and not to mention the alumni who were unable to procure tickets to this game) a heartfelt apology. The students showed up decked out in green to show our support, and we were almost out-voiced by an orange clad visitors section that was twice its usual size.
Notre Dame reserves far too many seats for opposing fans. I don't care what the arrangements are with other schools for tickets ... if it involves selling out our pride at home, then why should we play these teams? Those tickets are much better suited for Notre Dame fans. Why on earth the powers-that-be would feel that it is somehow acceptable to modify our homefield advantage, give all those Volunteer fans legitimate seats in our house and sell out the true fans who come to cheer and support our team, is beyond me.
I challenge someone from the athletic department to respond to this letter and offer a good explanation as to why that many seats would be filled with orange clad fans singing the other fight song Saturday afternoon. If there is a reason, let's hear it. In the mean time, go Irish!
Tim O'Connor
senior
Dillon Hall
November 4, 2001
All Viewpoint Stories for Monday, November 5, 2001
